Faculty Development Plan
Psychology [Example 2]
2008

TEACHING

Philosophy & Self-Assessment
As a teacher, my goals are to instill in students an interest in the course content, build their critical thinking skills, help them gain an understanding of basic course material, and help them become competent applying course concepts to scientific and real-world settings. I love teaching because when I accomplish these goals, students’ lives change. My teaching goals are achieved by focusing on the following three objectives:

First, I establish an atmosphere conducive to student learning. I do this by responding positively and respectfully to student comments, using humor, and making students feel like colleagues in the learning experience. This not only makes learning more enjoyable for students, it significantly increases student involvement in class. Learning is more effective when it is interactive; thus, greater student participation leads to greater learning.

Second, I help students realize the scientific and real-world application of course content, particularly the importance it has to them personally. This way the course content will be useful to them wherever they go in life. I accomplish this objective by carefully selecting compelling and often humorous examples that straightforwardly convey the course concepts. Often they are practical examples that build on students’ prior knowledge and experiences, which greatly facilitates their understanding of even difficult course concepts. Additionally, students are more motivated to learn material when they see why it is important.

Third, I provide students opportunities to develop the ability to apply course concepts to new situations. I find that this leads to deeper understanding, increased retention, and expanded ability to independently apply course concepts outside of class. These opportunities come in the form of in-class exercises as well as homework assignments, quizzes, and extra-credit.

Fourth, I work to foster in students the ability to think critically about information and issues they encounter in their own lives that are relevant to course material. To help them acquire these skills, I first demonstrate critical thinking to them during class lectures and discussions. In addition to demonstrating these skills, I allow students to practice critical thinking independently and in groups. I am continually experimenting with different ways to promote critical thinking skills through discussions, in-class activities, and assignments. Critical thinking abilities, when developed, have broad application, and can significantly impact individuals’ lives.

I feel that as a teacher I have several strengths that have helped me succeed thus far. First, I think I relate well with students. I avoid interacting with them in a condescending manner, but rather try to come across as personable and approachable. This seems to make the class more enjoyable and help them interact and participate more in class. Second, I think I have a reasonable ability to engage students in discussion – even in larger classes. This seems to not only make the class more interesting, but to build understanding of course concepts and foster critical thinking skills. Third, I make an effort to experiment with a variety of teaching materials. This keeps class interesting, caters to a variety of learning styles, and allows me to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

There are several areas I hope to improve in my teaching. First, I hope to become more systematic in establishing course objectives and bringing my teaching activities and my assessments in line with those objectives. Second, I hope to continue to find my style as a teacher and find techniques that work well for me. Third, I hope to continue to experiment with different approaches that go beyond traditional lecture formats.

Short-Term Goals (5-year)
Goal 1: Successfully integrate spirituality into each course I create. One of the great benefits of working at BYU is the freedom to integrate spirituality into courses, even psychology courses. I currently teach Psychology Statistics, but will soon also teach Adolescent Psychology, Psychology and Development of Morality, and maybe Personality. I will seek to find new ways each semester to increase the amount of spiritual content integrated. My faculty advisor, XXXX, is an expert at this, and will guide me in the process. I am currently creating the Adolescent Psychology class I will teach this fall. XXXX will work with me to find ways to integrate spirituality into the course curriculum. Then, I will use the skills I develop to do the same for my other courses.

Goal 2: Develop learning objectives for each course I create, and have these objectives guide the rest of the course design. I would like to be more systematic in my course design, and take advantage of research on course design and teaching pedagogy. Thus, I will work with the Center for Teaching and Learning to develop effective teaching objectives and use those as scaffolding for the other aspects of the course: lecture materials, class activities, homework, quizzes, exams, etc.

Goal 3: Design a new course in Developmental Psychology: Adolescence, and a new course in the Psychology and Development of Morality. First, the adolescence class at present is primarily taught in the evening school because there has not been a developmental psychologist in the department specializing in adolescence. Now with me here, I have assumed that role, and will create a course on adolescence that will be regularly offered. Second, a class on morality does not exist in the department, even though this is a salient topic for our students. I will create such a class and it will be offered probably on a yearly basis.

Long-Term Goals
First, I hope to find my style as a teacher and use my strengths to my advantage. Second, rather than allowing my courses to solidify, I hope to continue to experiment with innovating approaches, keep my course content current and relevant, and keep my teaching materials and approaches congruent with a changing student body. Third, I hope to have developed my courses to the point where the class activities and assessments are in line with well-developed learning outcomes.

RESEARCH

Research Interests & Self-Assessment
There are several dimensions of human psychology that are of central interest to me. First, I am interested in understanding morality. In terms of moral personality, I am interested in understanding what the essence of moral personhood is, what motivates moral action, how people know what is moral, and why some people who know what is moral do not do what is moral. In terms of moral development, I am interested in what individual and contextual factors contribute to the development of morality. At the individual level, I am interested in the role of identity in the emergence of moral motivation. In terms of contexts, I am interested in the ways in which family, youth involvement, and religious involvement facilitate moral development. Second, I am interested in religiosity and its role in life. For example, I am interested in the role of religious involvement in moral development, the motivation of moral action, and identity formation, particular in adolescence and young adulthood. Third, I am interested in personality functioning, particularly issues of identity and motivation, as well as the role of cognition and emotion, and explicit and implicit processes. I am actively involved in empirical and theoretical research at the various intersections of these three overarching research interests. Additionally, I am interested in exploring various conventional and alternative theoretical and philosophical approaches to these issues. For example, I am trying to formulate a theistic moral psychology.

I have several strengths that have helped me succeed as a scholar thus far. First, I am good at networking. I already know most of the key people doing research in my area, many of them I know personally. I regularly attend professional conferences, correspond with scholars throughout the field, and seek feedback and collaborative opportunities. Second, I am fairly skilled at certain aspects of writing – particularly clarity and organization. Thus, I have been successful at publishing in a number of peer-reviewed outlets. Third, I have both empirical and theoretical interests, and thus I work to ensure my research is conceptual and methodologically sound. Fourth, I am courageous enough to tackle big questions, as intimidating as it can be some times.

There are several areas I feel I most need to improve in order to reach my goals. First, I need to broaden my skills and expertise. My formal training has all been within empirical psychology, with extensive quantitative training. However, my research interests cover deeply meaningful areas of human experience, and thus might in some cases be more effectively studies using qualitative research methods. Additionally, I have great interest in furthering theory in my research area, but have little training in theoretical and philosophical psychology. Second, although I have a fairly good publication record, I do not have any publications in top journals in the field. I see this as largely due to methodological limitations of the studies I have been involved with thus far. Therefore, I need to work towards involvement in research with potential for publication in more reputable outlets. Third, I have limited funding experience, I so need to continue efforts to secure external funding so that I can build towards larger scale research programs.

Short-Term Goals (5-year)
Goal 1: Publish at least one empirical article in a top tier journal in my field as lead author (e.g., Developmental Psychology, Child Development, or Journal of Personality and Social Psychology). I am currently working on several projects that I think have potential for publication in such outlets. I have three growth modeling papers that will be submitted soon. I have another project using structural equation modeling of cross-sectional data. I am collaborating to plan a 2-year large-scale longitudinal study of adolescent moral identity that will yield some great quantitative data. Lastly, I am leading a project now looking at adolescent conceptions of morality. This project is in collaboration with XXXX who has extensive experience publishing in top tier journals – so he will help ensure we can get published in these sorts of outlets.

Goal 2: Publish at least one theoretical paper as lead author. I am presently involved in building my skills in theoretical and philosophical psychology. I am sitting in on relevant undergraduate and graduate classes, participating in the Theory Group, and receiving mentorship from Dr. XXXX. As a part of my relationship with XXXX, we are beginning a series of theory papers which I will lead. The first will review moral psychology and try to identify underlying philosophical assumptions of the major approaches and research programs. Additionally, we will point to several potential directions for moral psychology that may be promising in terms of addressing some of the problems we identify with present approaches. Additional papers will more fully develop these alternatives (such as proposing a theistic approach to morality that allows for an active role for God).

Goal 3: Receive at least one external research grant as principal investigator. I am presently working on grant applications for external funding. I will particularly target private foundations, as they tend to be more interested in my research areas. For example, one major funding agency relevant to my work is the John Templeton Foundation. I have submitted to them in the past but have been unsuccessful. I will continue to seek to break into their funding network. I will also look for other agencies with interest in my research.

Long-Term Goals
My long term goal is to conduct research that I am passionate about, that expresses my identity, that capitalizes on my unique skills and expertise, which is respected by my colleagues in the field, and that has some applied value. I feel that much of the work I have done thus far has been interesting and worthy of publication. However, I do not feel that it has fully met these criteria I have just outlined. So, my hope is that over time I can better find my niche, more effectively pursue the questions of most interest to me, better articulate my ideas and figure out how to effectively study them, and find ways to apply my ideas to real world problems.

CITIZENSHIP  

In the area of citizenship, I hope to accomplish the following goals over the next 5 years:

Goal 1: Serve on the editorial board of at least one top tier developmental journal. So far I have reviewed papers for over 10 scientific journals. My goal is that by continuing to build my visibility through publishing, conference attendance, and reviewing, that I will be asked to serve on editorial boards.

Goal 2: Collaborate with leading scholars in the field on each new project I start. My goal is that each time I develop a new research project on which I am taking the lead, I will align with at least one leading scholar who will serve as a mentor and collaborator.

Goal 3: Present my own research at two conferences per year. The goal is that I will attend two scientific conferences per year, and at each I will present my own research (research that I have taken lead on).

WHAT WILL HELP ME SUCCEED