Effective teaching is a transformative process that establishes a supportive, challenging, and equitable environment where students are empowered to move beyond simple knowledge acquisition. My philosophy is anchored in three core principles: student-centered engagement and collaboration, inclusive design and equity of access, and the application of psychological research and real-world skills. I am dedicated to cultivating intellectual curiosity and equipping students with the transferable skills necessary for success in college and their subsequent lives and careers.

          My approach emphasizes student-centered activities to facilitate higher-order learning. I design courses where students are active participants, developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills through hands-on practice. In Introduction to Psychology, I utilize an activity where students work in pairs to “build a neuron”. Using materials like beads, pipe cleaners, and tokens representing Potassium and Sodium ions, students craft a neuron and write a script detailing the process of an action potential. This tactile, collaborative project serves as a powerful tool for mastering a notoriously complicated neurological topic. It encourages intellectual inquiry by requiring students to critically think about and work creatively to translate these abstract concepts into a physical scenario. This active approach is consistently validated by student feedback, such as one comment recommending the course: “Yes, because she kept the class as interactive and fun as she could! She did many hands-on activities and would put concepts into a perspective that were more understandable.” This broad strategy provides a space that focuses on building practical and transferable real-world skills, such as being active in their own learning, collaboration, and critical thinking.

            Another central tenet of my teaching philosophy is the belief that learning is for everyone, and I am committed to cultivating an equitable classroom where all students feel valued, respected, and encouraged to contribute their perspectives. As a first-generation student who has faced my own share of academic hurdles with learning disabilities, I understand that strict lecturing often fails to reach everyone equally. So, I utilize multimodal interactive elements to ensure all students feel valued. For instance, in all my courses, I incorporate in-class worksheets, discussions, learning journals, and exam review games to build out the material. I utilize learning journals to gather anonymous, continuous feedback and thoughts from students, encouraging them to engage in metacognition regarding their own learning and academic experiences, and providing a space to discuss concerns they may not have shared otherwise. Importantly, this feedback allows me to engage in responsive pedagogy by adjusting my strategies in real time to better meet the needs of my class. For instance, in my current Social Psychology class, I have worked to incorporate more explanation videos, as many people expressed how helpful they are in providing visual examples of complicated topics.

          This dedication is importantly demonstrated in my care for individualized support, as one student wrote in their evaluation: “I had met with Kaitlyn in the early part of the year as my first few exams went poorly and I could not figure out why – she spent an entire hour looking over how I studied and helped me get a plan for the upcoming exam. I was beyond impressed. She did not adapt the class to me but gave me tools to have me adapt to it– for a student with a learning disability this was huge and so amazing”. Beyond one-on-one interactions, I have been involved with broad institution accessibility programs, such as UNH-4U, which provides holistic mentorship and support to students with intellectual disabilities to achieve academic, social, and life goals. I worked with students and their peer mentors to provide accessible content, expectations, and accommodations to promote their academic success in my classes. I am eager to continue building an effective classroom that cultivates an equitable and supportive environment for students of all backgrounds.

          Lastly, I prioritize the application and availability of psychological concepts and research. In Behavior Analysis, I assign four homework assignments throughout the semester that directly tune into real-world scenarios. One project asks students to unobtrusively observe a person or animal for thirty minutes and track behavioral frequency, while another asks students to plan and conduct their own conditioning experiment. This practical focus is well-received, with one student noting in their evaluation: “I also thought that all the homework assignments were helpful. They took the material from the book and applied them to a more real-life example, being able to not only know the material but then actually apply it to get a much deeper understanding.” This and many other assignments value intellectual curiosity and provide students with a space to conceptualize the material in a context outside of the classroom to deepen their understanding.  

          This commitment extends to providing undergraduate research mentorship, expanding the learning environment into advanced scholarship, where students can gain experience and learn how to be productive contributors to psychological science. Over the past four years, I have mentored ten undergraduate research assistants, guiding them in both my research and their own independent projects. These mentorships have included supervising poster presentations at professional conferences, co-supervising an Honors Thesis, and two Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (a competitive fellowship from UNH that funds undergraduate students to complete independent research projects over the summer). These opportunities involved me helping students in all stages of a research project, resulting in three professional conference presentations and three additional accepted presentations in February. One previous project focused on developing a gender diverse stimulus set for emotion expressions, and I anticipate this work to result in a paper co-authored by an undergraduate collaborator in the near future. By providing students with the opportunity to participate in empirical research as research assistants or during a research methods course, I hope to expand their skill set to better prepare them for graduate school as well as other career paths that require independent thinking and team collaboration efforts.

            To maintain an effective and continually improving learning environment, I prioritize my own professional development and reflective teaching techniques with practices built on a strong pedagogical foundation. I completed a yearlong teaching practicum mentored by two psychology faculty members at UNH, which provided individualized mentorship on course content, pedagogy, and navigating the difficulties of being an educator. In tandem, I completed the Cognate in College Teaching, a series of courses that focused on advanced pedagogy, course building, and the use of current technology in the classroom. These opportunities allowed me to deeply consider my teaching philosophy and develop advanced skills as an educator. I am dedicated to continuing this cycle of reflection and professional development to ensure I provide students with the best support and guidance in reaching their academic goals.

            My experiences and commitment to undergraduate education leave me well-prepared to serve as an educator to students who will become productive members of a culturally diverse society. I am prepared to bring these values into a range of courses, including introductory psychology, social psychology, and behavior analysis, with a strong desire to expand into teaching statistics, research methods, and advanced emotion seminars. I am dedicated to continuing to provide a hands-on, transformative experience that fosters intellectual curiosity, teaches valuable transferable skills, and cultivates an equitable space where all students can thrive.