Teaching and mentoring

I teach psychology as a way of asking good questions. Students engage most when the material connects to their own goals and experiences, so I build courses around questions they care about and give them real ownership over how they pursue them. In seminars and research practica that means students not only design, run, and report their own studies, but also engage first with the material in personal and self-reflective ways.

I also want students to expect learning to be challenging. I encourage questions that deepen understanding and questions that expose weak spots in what we think we know, because those are where discussion and new research begin. The broader aim is to help students become careful, independent thinkers who can evaluate evidence and contribute to the communities they are part of.

Much of my teaching is in motivation and personality, research methods and statistics, and scientific communication. I have taught in English at universities in the United States, Canada, Austria, and Germany, and I enjoy helping international students find their voice as scientific writers and speakers.