Introduction To Teaching In Psychology: Fill & Download for Free

I have 100 stories, some are shocking because they are disturbing tales of students trying to manipulate me to get a better grade and some are shockingly sad. I’d rather share a shockingly funny story from back when I first started teaching in higher education (a state university in California).It was my first time teaching Introduction to Psychology is a BIG lecture hall - the class held about 200 students. I remember being excited to teach in the room because it had just been renovated and had new tables with electrical outlets in them. This also made me nervous because it meant students would be bringing in their laptops and could get distracted easily, so I would have to up my game to keep their attention.On the first day of class and I was trying to give an inspiring first day run down of the course, which would convey how awesome psychology is and set the tone for the rest of the term, when an object popped up in my peripheral vision. It was so fast that I couldn’t tell what it was, it jumped up and then back down again, and then disappeared in an instant. As I continued speaking my mind started racing….what was that? My eyes started scanning the room for an object out of place, but before I could find the object I smelled something.Something delicious.Toasted bread? Why was I smelling bread? Am I having a stroke?And then I saw it, in the second row. A toaster! A freakin’ toaster.I kept talking, but I couldn’t stop smiling and soon other students were staring and giggling. The young man had gone through the trouble of bringing a toaster, bread, jam, and a knife to the first day of class. The object that I saw was this toasted toast popping up out of the toaster.I told him that next time he should bring enough to share and then carried on with class.This was definitely the most shocking thing I’ve ever seen a student do.

It wasn’t intentional.I took an Introduction to Education course and an Introduction to Psychology course in my first semester of college. Both were good classes, but I decided that teaching wasn’t the job for me and pursued a degree in psychology instead.Picking a major in psychology over one in education actually worked out pretty well.My friend Kim, also a psych major, and I were studying together constantly and earning solid grades at the top of our class. It was perfect because we had most had the same classes and could share textbooks and keep each other on track with assignments. We would talk about what we were learning all the time, and review by teaching each other the lessons.Other students started to ask if they could study with us. The informal study group of 2 quickly became 4, then 10, then 15… we outgrew our dorm room, the small library study rooms, and even the student lounge. The professors noticed and a few of them asked me and Kim to do study groups with more classes. One professor offered incentives for students to come study with us before exams. For the largest study group, I had to reserve one of the university lecture halls.Later, I started working as a teaching assistant. So did Kim. It wasn’t that much harder than the public speaking I’d already been doing with the study sessions. I had to give 1–3 full lectures per semester in addition to being available for class help and grading. Weirdly, I found that I liked planning and teaching classes. I liked grading student work and seeing them grow to understand. Kim liked it, too, but I don’t think it was in the same way.When we graduated, Kim was excited to begin her graduate career in mental health counseling. She had specialties she was interested in studying, plans for how she would become licensed, ideas on how to work with clients, etc.I was… ambivalent. I couldn’t really see myself becoming a counselor or psychologist. I didn’t see anything like that in my future. Without even consciously deciding to, I kept returning to the classroom. I volunteered as a tutor. I worked as a testing proctor and grader. I shadowed veteran teachers and collected their advice. And I applied for a day-to-day contracted substitute teaching job.And roughly 2 years and hundreds of temporary classes later, here I am.I will begin teaching high school English full-time in about a week. I have a teaching contract, the keys to my classroom, a stack of approved course curriculum, months of lesson plans, and an official school staff ID.And still, I don’t feel like I planned to do this. I’m just glad that I did.Maybe someday I won’t be teaching at a school anymore (possibly even after this year), but I don’t think I’ll ever lose the desire to help people learn. I never stop analyzing how knowledge is delivered— if I’m watching YouTube videos, I’m thinking about how they could be incorporated into a lesson. The more education I gain, the more I want others to learn, too.At the base level, I became a teacher because I couldn’t know things and not share them.

I would focus on inspiring young minds. In this specific order:Show them what's possibleExplain how it became realityTeach them the toolsToo many schools, colleges, and institutions do this the wrong way.ProgrammingWhat programming can doWhat is possible to solveMany people take CS courses because they heard its good money. We immediately teach them linked-lists, arrays, pointers, sorting, and trees. Not only have we bored them to death, they are sitting around with a loaded bag of tools, unsure how they fit into the big picture.Secondly, many administrations don't know the difference between "Computer Science" and "Programming". In fact, I bet more than 90% of the country think they are the same.Here's the study of Programming:"The study of how human instructions can be codified into machine executable instructions."Here's the study of Computer Science:"The study of using computational technology to solve or improve social-economical human problems."Programmers write code.Computer Scientists build solutions.Programmers implement.Computer Scientists design.More than 80% of the people I've interviewed for entry level engineering positions (past and present) hold a Computer Science degree but only know how to program. They have difficultly designing large systems, conveying ideas by diagram, and/or understanding the human component of why their work is valuable.It's similar to someone with an Automotive Design Degree but actually only knows how to fix cars as a mechanic. They aren't equipped to design the next generation cutting-edge wheel axel differential. However, the automotive industry already has this figured out, the software industry hasn't. Automotive designers are taught significantly more than how to fix a car.A good CS curriculum will focus on:Inspiring MindsExplaining InnovationsTeaching ToolsInspiring MindsI believe in the power of setting goals. If you have a set goal, it becomes this amazing beacon that drives you in a specific direction.Computer Science is a catalyst to all other fields. It's like a "super advanced tool" that can help:Compute chemical reactions by simulationCompute black hole rotations for astrophysicsAggregate health data to help find leading causesPredict market fluctuations in global economiesHandle mundane paper pushing for real estateDeliver letters faster than physical mail serviceDeliver entertainment content to the massesConnect families separated by an oceanI believe this goes without needing heavy explanation. If a person understands the value of what they are learning, they will pay more attention.Explaining InnovationsToday's computer technology is massively different than the technology that was used 15 years ago. Explaining RPM (rotations per minute) for an HDD (Hard disk drive) is going to get you some eye rolls. It's headed towards irrelevancy as SSD (solid state disk) becomes cheaper to manufacture.Yes, we should still teach moore's law and all the other fundamentals about computer science history. However, we should focus on the student mindset... They (most of them) aren't there to archive a snapshot of computer science history. They want to know how they will benefit from it. Besides, we have computers on the internet to help us archive historical stuff.We teach computer science history because it shows how "A" arrived at "B". We hope that the transition magic is an example of how our students might take "G" to "H" and then to "I". Our problem is that computer science is also a catalyst for itself, we're already at "BD" (went past Z and added a letter to our base-26 numerical system). We need to go about teaching this stuff backwards. "BD" came from "BC", where someone else moved it from "BB".By explaining today's innovations, we're focusing on what they can immediately apply. It's like explaining today's cutting-edge automotive technology. Yes, they need to know how the model-T was brought to market, but ultimately, they need to know more about today's industry than the industry from a decade (or more) ago.Teaching ToolsProgramming is just a tool within a larger picture that requires multiple tools. I would say that Math is another tool. There are lots of tools an engineer's going to need in the real world, also tools that are specific for the industry they are attempting to catalyze.Programming is usually broken down into different programming languages. I personally see them to be similar to natural languages. No matter what natural language I speak (English, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, etc...) all of them have a way to say "hello!", "how are you?", and "Where's the bathroom?". Programming languages are the same, no matter (C/C++, Java, Python, Lisp, etc...) they all have a way for doing If-conditions, for-loops, and string manipulation.Databases are another tool. I would argue that learning to manage a database is not similar to learning a programming language.Information technology infrastructure and networks are another tool. The list is huge!Tools are difficult to learn well. It takes time, practice, and exposure to boundary issues handled better in one tool than it is in another. Better engineers know what tools work better in which situation.My CurriculumInspireSocial-economical impact of the InternetTechnical innovations of today (smartphones, VR, health tech, dating sites, user driven content, etc...)How computer science has changed the world (covering industries: medical, research, civil, etc...)What we could not do 10-years agoWhat the future might look likeExplainingHow ______ works in today's world (the Internet, smartphones, wearable tech, etc...)Computer Architecture and computer science history (CPUs, Ram, disks, OS, etc....)Introduction to pseudo-code and flowchartsIntroduction to Statistics and how it's used todayIntroduction to Algorithms and how they're used today (from a non-programming perspective, math or symbolically is enough)Databases (from a non-programming perspective)Introduction to computer visionIntroduction to human input devicesHuman behavior: introduction to psychologyHuman cognition: introduction to cognitive scienceHuman social mechanics: introduction to social sciencesToolsIntroduction to C/C++Introduction to JavaIntroduction to Lisp/schemeIntroduction to web (html/JavaScript)... Then all the hard stuff.At this point, because the curriculum was structured to inspire them, hopefully they will have an idea about what industry they would like to join. If I had my way, I would force every Computer Science major at this point to pick an industry of focus (or pick up a minor).If the students know what they want to do next or which industry excites them, they can focus their education. There are definite pluses for knowing everything, but not all of it will be useful. These courses are hard:CompilersOperating systemsInformation managementNetworksArtificial IntelligenceComputer Graphics... Etc...I strongly believe that all educational systems should focus on inspiring young minds first. Once you get them to appreciate the value of future knowledge, that knowledge is going to be easier and much more meaningful to learn.