Learning to Teach Introductory Psychology: Philosophy and Practice

Perhaps for many of you, the circumstances surrounding your opportunity to teach introductory psychology for the first time were not ideal. Consider the experience of one of the authors (AH), when she was a graduate student. Three weeks before the start of the fall semester at Saint Louis University, a professor approached and asked her if she would like to teach a section of Psychology 101. She said yes immediately. It was not until a few hours later that reality hit hershe didn’t know how to teach! It had been almost a decade since she was last inside an introductory psychology classroom, and that was as a bewildered 18year-old freshman at Indiana University.