Everyone seems to know a bit about psychology, from magazine dating tips to psychological thriller movies. Everyone tries to explain everyone else through some kind of psychology. No one comes into the classroom a blank slate, and my aim as a teacher is to debunk myths and introduce them to the formal science of psychology that prove useful in interpreting the world around them. I have three main objectives when teaching psychology to students: 1) to impart on them the tools and methods in developing, testing and understanding psychological theory, 2) to make psychology relevant and personal to them, and 3) to encourage the application of psychology to everyday life. I have embraced every teaching opportunity available to me during my education, and have developed a teaching style and philosophy that helps students achieve these goals.
This statement is divided into three sections. In the first, I outline my philosophy of teaching and learning. Then I discuss how I’ve been able to incorporate these ideas into my teaching. Finally, I outline my future teaching direction, and discuss the kind of classes and seminar I hope to incorporate into my long-term repertoire.

Philosophy of Teaching

Whether I am teaching a section or mentoring research assistants, I emphasize the theory behind basic phenomenon in order to expand their perspective, and also foster abstract thinking on multiple levels. However, teaching goes beyond lecturing to students; it is about presenting theories, concepts, and empirical material to students in a way that they can integrate into their own life experience. One reason there is a disconnect between the students and the material is because they are often not challenged to apply the theories to their lives. It is difficult to see how an experiment in the lab pertains to real life. Moreover, students rarely think that they themselves will act in a similar when placed in the same situation. For example, when watching videos of classic experiments, such as when a participant unwittingly gives electric shocks to a confederate, or of participants ignoring smoke pouring into the room, students laugh and dismiss these people as abnormal or stupid. One way I bridge this divide is by asking the student to experience what it is like in those situations. For example, in classes I’ve led, students were made to elicit simple help from strangers to observe the bystander effect. In others, they were asked to perform norm violating acts to experience firsthand the nerve-wracking power of defy conformity. From activities like this, I instill upon the students the power of the situation, and having them actually feel this invisible force. I also encourage them to share their experience with the class, creating an interactive, dynamic and open learning environment.

I try to challenge and facilitate the students to find how the material relates to them. Apart from activities and assignments that ask them to draw from their own lives, I also try to make the material as relevant to them as possible. First, I keep abreast on the most current research, and try to incorporate the latest findings in the discussion. Second, I try to integrate aspects of psychology that relate to current events. For example, I try to bring in peace psychology, political psychology and the research on terrorism to elucidate headlines in the news. Thirdly, I like using modern examples to illustrate theories. A good theory can better frame historical events, like race riots and genocide, and also recent ones, like national response to 9/11 or Obama’s election. By using a swath of demonstrations, this will help engage the students, with the overall purpose of helping find psychology a vibrant and contemporary science. Because of these and other approaches, the typical atmosphere of my classroom is animated, enthusiastic and dynamic. By sharing my enthusiasm in social psychology, I want to show students how easy yet important it is to see basic concepts at work in the real world, be it in the news, the movies or their relationship with their loved ones. Social psychology is a ubiquitous science, and as I teacher, I hope that students can and are willing to find the psychology of everyday things.

Across the many classes I have taught in, I have come to find that the three objectives I have set as an instructor apply not only to courses about Social Psychology, but really on any subject. My ultimate goal as an instructor is to essentially create a rippling effect in the lives of my students. Not only do I want them to gain concrete knowledge in psychology, more importantly, I want them to apply the knowledge they have gained from their participation in my course into their own personal and educational endeavors. I hope that the learning experience would motivate them to see themselves, their actions and the world around them with new perspective, and to equip them with an arsenal of tools and theories to make knowledgeable choices. At UCLA, I’ve had the opportunity to take classes about teaching, to learn from other great teachers, and to teach classes myself. The joy I have in interacting with students and seeing them connect the dots from their textbooks to themselves is what motivates me to be the most passionate educator that I can.

Teaching Experience

I began my teaching experience in college, when I was a TA for Social Psychology. At UCLA, when I had more responsibility in shaping the way students learned, I was not hesitant in applying my teaching philosophy. In the Fall of 2006, I taught an Introduction to Psychology course at Mount St. Mary’s College. For many students, this was their first contact with psychology, and I knew I had to make the material immediately relevant to them. I did this through several ways. The first was to keep bringing in illustrations of the concepts from outside the classroom – newspaper articles, magazines, websites, films, internet viral videos and television shows. The second was to create an assignment where students kept journal diaries where they would note real life situations for themselves and reflect on how their minds were working. Another assignment also asked them to put themselves in a situation where they violated a social norm, so that they can experience the power of conformity and the situation first hand. Combined, these efforts really brought a personal dimension to the students. I hope to continue to design and utilize out of the classroom assignments like these to help the students connect to the material.

In the winter of 2009, I was given the opportunity to teach my own undergraduate seminar based on my dissertation work on the psychology of interracial romance. The purpose of this class was to use interracial relationships, a much more familiar topic to students, to springboard into this larger literature on contemporary race relations. My hope was to introduce students to contemporary ways of thinking about race, and give them a forum to voice their opnions. This seminar was intended to fill a gap in the undergraduate curriculum. While the psychology department has a strong Intergroup Area, there are surprisingly no classes offered to undergraduates on the topics of race, prejudice and discrimination. As usual, students in this class had to reach outside of the classroom to complete their education. For examples, students had to interview interracial couples on the difficult topic of race. It was satisfying to see that for their final paper, students drew from a wide literature to support what they learned in this class, including from sociology, anthropology and even Jewish history. Asking students to understand the psychology of this topic is difficult enough, but to see them challenging themselves by integrating this material with other disciplines is even more satisfying.

One of the more unexpected avenues I had for teaching was through mentoring. In several cases, students approached me after class hoping to get involved with my research. I started my own undergraduate research lab my second year here, where research assistants got hands-on experience in designing, running and analyzing experiments. Later on, the most dedicated students from this group were accepted into the honors student program, and got to design their own studies. As a mentor, I found this process wholly satisfying, and guided these future grad students throughout the entire process of planning, running and presenting their research. Aston Tsui completed a study looking at perceived compatibility of interracial couples using a matchmaking task. Vicki Garafola completed her study on whether Asian-American men preferred to socially distance themselves from White men who were interracially dating an Asian women. Both these studies resulted in poster presentations at professional conferences, and data is being prepared for publication. Currently, Colin King is conducting a study on attitudes and stereotypes of Asian-American women who outdate from their own Asian-American peers. In all these cases, students were able to take aspects of my own research and spin them in new directions that they find personally relevant.

Future Direction

Given my research interests, I am prepared to develop courses that are related to the larger body of work in Social Psychology. For example, I hope to teach seminars in Intergroup Psychology which examines the nature of prejudice and discrimination broadly. Classes that directly look at the cause and effects of racism, sexism and homophobia are both highly relevant in today’s political climate, and also, in my experience, fascinating to students. Also of interest to me are classes in interpersonal psychology, such as examining close relationships and relationship maintenance. While my dissertation work looks at the impact of race on relationships, I had to look into a lot of normal processes of relationship maintenance. In addition, I hope to branch out and explore other areas, such as Political Psychology, Social Cognition, and Attitudes and Persuasion. In addition to expanding my teaching skillset, I hope to increase my role as a mentor and take on more undergraduate researchers. I think that CUHK will afford me these opportunities to continue to prove effectiveness as an educator, as well as give me the experience to continue learning to be a better teacher.