Teaching Philosophy
From my perspective, teaching is not a performance before a captive audience; rather, a course is a learning opportunity that the teacher and the students create and experience together. I have three goals for teaching and learning, which are designed to create the optimal conditions for students to become enthusiastic learners and critical thinkers:
- Student engagement. Students should be active course participants, not passive consumers of facts.
- Individualized support. Students learn best when instructor support is readily available and feedback on their performance is prompt and individualized.
- Scientific thinking. Students of psychology should learn scientific ways of thinking about human behavior that transcend the subject matter of a single course.
Teaching Experience
Instructor, Social Psychology
University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, Fall 2011 - present
Instructor, Psychology of Women
University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, Spring 2012 - present
Instructor, Group Dynamics
University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, Fall 2011 - present
Co-Instructor, Social Psychology and the Law
University of Minnesota Psychology Department, Fall 2009
Instructor, Introduction to Social Psychology
University of Minnesota Psychology Department, Summer 2009
Instructor, Political Psychology Senior Seminar
Macalester College, Spring 2008
Section Leader, Introduction to Psychology
University of Minnesota, 2006-2011
University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, Fall 2011 - present
Instructor, Psychology of Women
University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, Spring 2012 - present
Instructor, Group Dynamics
University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, Fall 2011 - present
Co-Instructor, Social Psychology and the Law
University of Minnesota Psychology Department, Fall 2009
Instructor, Introduction to Social Psychology
University of Minnesota Psychology Department, Summer 2009
Instructor, Political Psychology Senior Seminar
Macalester College, Spring 2008
Section Leader, Introduction to Psychology
University of Minnesota, 2006-2011
Student Comments
Overall Evaluation
Grace was extremely well-prepared for class with great research examples, examples to the real world, thoughtful discussions and activities to help demonstrate course content and ideas/theories. She was also very engaged in the class and interested in our ideas, questions, and critiques.
I really enjoyed this course! I think Grace did a great job of keeping it interesting and providing many different kinds of learning tools. I really liked how she did a mixture of lecture and discussion, and the small group activities and readings always seemed worthwhile. I also really appreciated that the readings weren’t 50 pages long. Keep up the great work, Grace!!
This course should be a prerequisite for all students at the U of M. The topics were very adaptable and thought provoking about the current state of affairs of our society and how we can make easy changes and raise awareness of key issues and key social concerns. The instructor was very passionate about the course material, and this definitely was reflected in lecture, activities, and projects!
Encouraging Student Engagement
Very interesting course that I was initially very concerned about, but in the end sparked my interest in topics I didn’t think I had any interest in. [Grace] kept the lectures engaging and clearly activated key concepts, used the Moodle forum to answer lingering questions from class, and made the material engaging. Group discussion and live scenarios from class best helped in keeping me engaged and learn the material.
Made the course very interesting with activities.
Her incorporation of “live action” examples helped me to better get a grasp of what was going on.
She did a wonderful job tying in concepts with real world applications.
Providing Individualized Support
Provided good feedback in a timely fashion, communicated well with students, email, class announcements, etc. Showed respect for all.
The journaling at the end of class was very beneficial in coming to terms with what I had learned or didn’t understand.
Thank you for taking requests from us about things like adding an overhead for article main points. That extra stuff is usually ignored by instructors and I really appreciated it.
I really felt that Ms. Deason did an extraordinary job of being in touch with her students. She spent her weekends reading our journals and response papers and providing feedback that went above and beyond what I expected she would. I was damn impressed, honestly, and extremely grateful for it.
Promoting Scientific Thinking
Thank you for interesting class lecture. Loved the emphasis on scientific experiments and research!
Provided good experimental evidence and theories behind what we learned. Interesting lectures and examples.
The extra readings and additional readings (beyond the text) were well selected to be interesting, educational, and thought provoking.
Grace was extremely well-prepared for class with great research examples, examples to the real world, thoughtful discussions and activities to help demonstrate course content and ideas/theories. She was also very engaged in the class and interested in our ideas, questions, and critiques.
I really enjoyed this course! I think Grace did a great job of keeping it interesting and providing many different kinds of learning tools. I really liked how she did a mixture of lecture and discussion, and the small group activities and readings always seemed worthwhile. I also really appreciated that the readings weren’t 50 pages long. Keep up the great work, Grace!!
This course should be a prerequisite for all students at the U of M. The topics were very adaptable and thought provoking about the current state of affairs of our society and how we can make easy changes and raise awareness of key issues and key social concerns. The instructor was very passionate about the course material, and this definitely was reflected in lecture, activities, and projects!
Encouraging Student Engagement
Very interesting course that I was initially very concerned about, but in the end sparked my interest in topics I didn’t think I had any interest in. [Grace] kept the lectures engaging and clearly activated key concepts, used the Moodle forum to answer lingering questions from class, and made the material engaging. Group discussion and live scenarios from class best helped in keeping me engaged and learn the material.
Made the course very interesting with activities.
Her incorporation of “live action” examples helped me to better get a grasp of what was going on.
She did a wonderful job tying in concepts with real world applications.
Providing Individualized Support
Provided good feedback in a timely fashion, communicated well with students, email, class announcements, etc. Showed respect for all.
The journaling at the end of class was very beneficial in coming to terms with what I had learned or didn’t understand.
Thank you for taking requests from us about things like adding an overhead for article main points. That extra stuff is usually ignored by instructors and I really appreciated it.
I really felt that Ms. Deason did an extraordinary job of being in touch with her students. She spent her weekends reading our journals and response papers and providing feedback that went above and beyond what I expected she would. I was damn impressed, honestly, and extremely grateful for it.
Promoting Scientific Thinking
Thank you for interesting class lecture. Loved the emphasis on scientific experiments and research!
Provided good experimental evidence and theories behind what we learned. Interesting lectures and examples.
The extra readings and additional readings (beyond the text) were well selected to be interesting, educational, and thought provoking.
