Teaching Program

Core Information

Program Overview

The Teaching Program is a home for teaching-focused faculty. We have a supportive community dedicated to developing high-quality pedagogy for all faculty and graduate students. We regularly host talks for instructors to share their best teaching practices and their teaching innovations. In addition to a graduate seminar and the development of the Teaching Handbook, the Teaching faculty offer teaching mentorship via the Advanced Achievement in the Teaching of Psychology (AATOP) for interested graduate students.  

Advanced Achievement in the Teaching of Psychology (AATOP)

Advanced Achievement in the Teaching of Psychology (AATOP) provides graduate students with additional training and mentorship in teaching. AATOP supplements the existing Dietrich School’s Achievement in Pedagogy Badge with Psychology-focused content to help graduate students develop their pedagogy, receive mentorship on their teaching, and develop and communicate pedagogical innovations. This program provides: 

  • Additional training in best practices of undergraduate teaching in Psychology.
  • Mentoring through evaluation and feedback from faculty mentors, peers, and the University Center for Teaching and Learning (UCTL).
  • Opportunities to develop innovations in undergraduate teaching and disseminate these approaches to the community.

AATOP student spotlight 

Meet some of our AATOP students and learn about their experiences in the program!

Meet Dani Hunter-Rue

Bio: Dani Hunter-Rue is a graduate student in Developmental Psychology (advisors: James Huguley and Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal) at the University of Pittsburgh and a fellow at the Center for Race and Social Problems in the Race and Youth Development Lab. Her research studies how youth experiences, perceptions, and contexts (e.g. school, and home) relate to academic and psychosocial functioning. She has been the instructor of record in Research Methods Lab six times and has adapted the Lab for both in-person and online classes, with classes ranging for 10 to 26 students. For our AATOP innovation project (mentor: Jennifer Cousins), she incorporated activities and discussions to promote collaborative writing while writing a scientific paper. Through pre and post surveys which included qualitative responses, she found that undergraduate students increased their engagement in collaborative writing. 

 

What are the benefits of participating in AATOP? I appreciate the opportunity to participate in AATOP. The program is designed to help improve teaching abilities through additional training that is not already embedded in psychology requirements. The certificate is also very flexible regarding steps to meet the requirements so you can tailor the experiences to your goals and/or growth points. The other benefit is that it is also an opportunity to build a community with other students who are enthusiastic about teaching. This is helpful since students in different programs approach teaching psychology materials differently, so discussions are usually enlightening. 

 

How has the AATOP program fit in with your other graduate school requirements, duties, and milestones? As a developmental student, adding the additional requirements of the AATOP was a reasonable addition to my responsibilities. I have received my funding through fellowships, GSR, and TA/TF over the course of my time in the program. However, being a part of AATOP helped me improve my teaching ability as a TA/TF. It encouraged me to ask for feedback and find ways to improve my materials. It helped me be more efficient and effective in teaching, especially when I taught the same course more than once. Being effective and efficient in graduate school is the best thing you can do. One of the requirements is incorporating innovation into your teaching; this was particularly helpful because it was another opportunity to collect data, analyze, and present it. I used the teaching requirement to apply skills from my research training, albeit on a smaller scale. Participating in AATOP definitely enhanced my overall doctoral training experience. 

 

What do you enjoy most about teaching? My favorite thing about teaching is when you get to that point in the semester where students ask you deeper questions, including ones you haven’t thought about before! Seeing students engaged, thinking deeply, and leaving me stumped at the moment brings me pure joy. My second favorite part about teaching is the emails that come a semester or years later. Where a student shares how much they appreciated the course or how it changed their thinking in some way. Teaching is a privilege, and I’m delighted that I carve out space in my training to do work I enjoy and have access to resources that help me improve my skills in doing it! 

Meet Petra Rupert

Bio: Petra Rupert is a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology program (advisor: Michael Pogue-Geile). Her research focuses on how genetic risk for schizophrenia may impact neural functioning, and her clinical interests are in providing recovery-oriented care for individuals with psychosis. She has been the instructor of record for eight courses (including Psychopathology, Introduction to Psychology, Learning and Motivation Lab, and Research Methods Lab) and has been a teaching assistant for two graduate level courses. She has taught in-person classes ranging from 20 to 90 students and has taught both in-person and web-based courses. For her AATOP project (mentor: Jenny Ganger), she surveyed undergraduate students and their instructors to learn more about how they communicate around the topic of mental health. She is currently the TA/TF Graduate Student Mentor for the Psychology Department. 

What do you enjoy most about teaching? The most enjoyable part of teaching is being able to connect with students on topics in psychology that they find interesting and to then help them dive deeper into that topic. This typically takes the form of longer discussions, either during class or office hours. However, I’ll also have students research their topic of interest at home and come back to our next class to share what they’ve learned. I’ve found that this really helps students feel involved in the course and find meaningful connections – and I often learn new things as well! Even when I’ve taught the same course multiple times, each class finds different aspects of the course interesting or inspiring, which renews my interest in those topics as well. It’s also always enjoyable when students tell me they’ve decided to pursue more classes or further education in psychology because of what they have learned in class. 

How has the AATOP program fit in with your other graduate school requirements, duties, and milestones? As a student who has taught frequently during my time in the program, AATOP has been instrumental in helping me feel prepared and confident as an instructor. There never seems to be enough time to do everything I would like in my courses, so being involved in AATOP has given me a framework to view teaching as a developmental progress that I can work on throughout my career. I became a part of AATOP in my second year of graduate school, and I have been able to slowly work on the requirements. Depending on my time commitments with research and clinical work, time spent on AATOP requirements has ebbed and flowed over the years. Because of the flexibility of the program, I have never felt over-burdened with the requirements (and a lot of the requirements were things I was already doing as a TA/TF!). Additionally, program requirements can really be geared towards your interests and goals as an instructor, which makes completing them enjoyable. 

How can graduate students engage with the AATOP community without officially being in the program? Attending the Teaching Program Lunch & Learns is a great way to engage with the AATOP community even if you aren’t an AATOP student! I’ve learned an incredible amount from faculty and graduate students who present during these lunch talks. It’s also a great way to meet faculty who are affiliated with other programs. Our teaching assignments as graduate students may not always line up exactly with our areas of expertise, and so knowing faculty members who do have that experience can be a great resource when putting together your own materials.

Awards 

The Merle Moskowitz Teaching Award recognizes graduate student teaching excellence. This award was endowed by Dr. Moskowitz, former Professor and Associate Chair in the Pitt Psychology Department. The award is presented annually to a graduate student Teaching Fellow who has demonstrated outstanding teaching skills as an undergraduate student course instructor. The award includes a certificate and a monetary prize. Students who have taught at least one course as the primary or sole instructor (TF) are eligible to apply.

The Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award is given annually to one faculty member in the Department of Psychology. This award is student-driven and demonstrates the dedication of our faculty to teaching and creating a positive learning environment for their students. 

Teaching Resources 

We have developed an extensive set of information on inclusive and research-based teaching strategies as well information on evaluation of teaching. 

Accolades