Tracy Lambert

Teaching Philosophy

As both a psychologist and a teacher, my greatest professional desire has been to make a positive impact on the lives of others. Teaching helps me fulfill this goal because it allows me to positively influence the lives of students and to assess the effects of their learning and growth at a very critical point in their lives.

My philosophy of teaching is best described in terms of five goals: (1) To encourage active and engaged learning among my students (2) To stress reflection as a source of academic and personal development (3) To teach critical thinking and other transferable skill sets for life and career (4) To continually assess and monitor learning among my students (5) To maintain positive and respectful learning environment for my students.

I am a proponent of active learning and I challenge my students to think and study like active learners. I try to confront student's epistemological beliefs about learning, and to dispel the myths around learning and studying that many students enter college with. This has been particularly important while teaching Statistics to undergraduate psychology majors because many of them lack confidence with mathematics and consequently assume that they will perform poorly in the course. Instead of focusing on mathematics, I present the course as a "critical thinking" course in which mathematics is used only as a means to an end. In addition, I provide students with tips for learning and studying in each of the courses that I teach. Since every course is different, students should not expect to use the same skills and study habits to succeed and learn in each course. To this end, I also present a variety of learning and study methods, and I assign homework assignments that help students to process and study the material at content-appropriate levels. Finally, I encourage my students to understand knowledge as a series of interrelated concepts, rather than isolated facts, that can be tied together to create a larger picture. I begin and end almost every lecture with a summary of where we've been and where we're going and I emphasize the practical relevance of course topics so that students can understand the importance and relatedness of each topic to other topics covered in both the course and in the major.

I also believe that the cognitive processes in which students engage are very important for learning. I encourage reflection as a means of academic and personal development and I create some assignments that are process-focused rather than solely product-focused. This is particularly relevant to upper-level students in my Careers class who are making important decisions regarding their futures, but also to students in the I-O psychology course who are exploring organizational topics and issues that are sometimes sensitive, controversial, or have real ethical implications. In the former case, I ask students to complete a series of short reflection exercises requiring them to think and write about how their life experiences might play a part in their career choices and their career success. In the latter class, I engage students in thoughtful discussion and debate exercises in which they are forced to present a point of view that they might have originally opposed. In both classes, thoughtful exploration of these topics often reveal a new perspective or way of thinking to the student. Finally, in my Statistics course, I often ask students to think beyond the text, reflecting on examples from their own lives and experiences, rather than taking for granted what they learn from the teacher or the text. I like to believe that all of these things help my students to become critical consumers of what they read and hear.

While I believe in the importance of reflection, I also understand that my students will face the very real pressures of an "outcome-driven" environment when they graduate and begin working. As such, I demand very high standards from my students' work and I try to provide relevant and real-world learning experiences whenever possible. I believe that conducting applied experiences in the classroom provides students with an invaluable context and framework from which to integrate subsequent learning experiences. One way that I've encouraged real-world learning in my Statistics course is to have students conduct their own research studies on a topic of their choice. Students who conduct their own studies gain a true appreciation for the problems and issues that researchers face when trying to operationalize variables, gain IRB approval, and conduct experiments in uncontrolled settings, all things that they may have experienced only 'in theory' during their research methods or previous statistics courses. Similarly, students in the I-O psychology course can understand the tedious nature of job analysis and the importance of being able to summarize data and present one's findings from an organizational diagnosis project to managers in a meaningful way after they have conducted these projects with real employees and organizations.

I believe that assessment is a crucial aspect of any course experience, both for the students and for the teacher. As a teacher, I rely on both formal assessment (e.g. mid-point teacher evaluations, student homework & exam grades, 1-minute papers and "muddiest point" cards) as well as informal assessment (e.g. asking for feedback frequently during my lecture) to assess whether students truly understand the concepts that we're covering. Likewise, I feel that students rely on continuous assessment of their performance as an indicator of how well they are learning and performing in the course. For this reason, I try to provide many opportunities for feedback (e.g. homework, short quizzes) preceding each exam. I spend a great deal of time providing specific feedback to each student on their assignments and I spend some class time going over homework assignments and exams after they are handed back. Many students gain confidence with the material, rather than feeling frustrated or left behind, when their specific mistakes and concerns are addressed.

Finally, I strive to be enthusiastic, approachable, and responsive toward my students. I have seen first hand that an instructor's energy and excitement toward a subject can have a positive effect on the attitudes and interests of their students. Ultimately, I believe in continuously learning and improving as a teacher and part of that can only occur with the feedback I receive from my current students.

Tracy Lambert
Webpage: http://www.arches.uga.edu/~lamberta/ePortfolio.htm
Department of Psychology
The University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30606

Future Faculty Program
UGA Office of Instructional Support and Development