School name: University of Toronto St. George
Type of school: 4-year public university
School locale: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Is your role mostly in-person, hybrid, online (synchronous or asynchronous)? In-person, synchronous
For how many years have you taught psychology? 6 years
Classes you teach: Statistics I, Social Cognition, Psychology and the Law, Intergroup Relations
Specialization: Psychology and law; social psychology; teaching of psychology
What size classes do you teach? Typically 50 students (except for Statistics I, which is 200)
What's the best advice about teaching you’ve ever received? Be clear about the intention behind every policy, every assignment, and every piece of information you hope to teach. Students should know why they are learning something and the rationale behind how they are being assessed. Also, If there’s 10 minutes left in class, spend that time clarifying things that were already covered. Don’t try to cram in new content.
What do you know now about teaching that you wish you knew when you were starting? Setting boundaries is key. I used to think I needed to be available to students whenever they needed me, and this caused burnout very quickly. I am best at teaching and being there for students when boundaries are clear and respected.
Briefly tell us about your favorite lecture topic or course to teach. I love teaching Psychology and Law. It’s an applied topic so it always feels timely and important. Specifically, I love teaching about eyewitness memory and false confessions. Although these are often heavy and serious topics, it feels like I am doing a public service by giving students real-world examples of the psychological research discussed in class. Specifically, I focus on how one’s innocence may counterintuitively put someone more at risk for harm in legal settings. Know your rights! Speak to a lawyer!
Briefly describe a favorite assignment or in-class activity. I love doing in-class discussion groups, especially in Social Cognition. It gives students a space to talk about what they’ve learned and read in a semiformal and comfortable environment. It’s also reliably a way to see the students smile. (My jokes don’t always land)
What’s your dream course if you had the time and resources to teach it? I was fortunate to teach one of my dream courses when I taught a Social Psychology seminar in Winter 2025. The topic was Social Psychology and the Media. Media is a pervasive influence on us, and it was virtually impossible to delve as deeply as I would have liked in 13 weeks. However, I loved sitting down to discuss research findings in this area along with the philosophical questions that psychology research has been limited in answering. One of the key takeaways is that our interactions with media are so deeply complex that classic methods in psychology research may usually fall short to truly understand how and why media affects our lives.
What is your teaching philosophy in 8 words or fewer? Effective science communication to various audiences is key.
What’s your workspace like? A place for all my doodads and knickknacks that don’t have a place in my home anymore.
What is something you are currently focused on improving or changing in your teaching? Figuring out how to give students the feedback on their writing that they need to excel on their exam essay questions (and essays in general). I don’t have the capacity to sit down with each student to go over their writing. I’ve always recommended students go to the writing center, or meet with their TAs. I also usually have a scaffolded structure to major writing assignments (including draft and peer review steps). But even so, I’m always trying out new strategies to give students more reliable and timely feedback on their smaller writing assignments.
What are you currently reading for pleasure? The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
What tech tool could you not live without? PowerPoint… I use it for everything!
