PSYCO 104 - Basic Psychological Processes (Fall 2013)
PSYCO 302 - Special Topics: Biology of Stress and Coping (Winter 2014, Fall 2014, Winter 2015, Spring 2015)
- I conceived the idea for this course and then designed the content. This course had never before
been taught at the University of Alberta.
PSYCO 372 - Behaviour in Relation to Genetics (Winter 2014, Winter 2015, Spring 2015)
PSYCO 381 - Principles of Learning (Summer 2012; Fall 2013)
Teaching Assistant Duties:
PSYCO 104 - Basic Psychological Processes (Information Literacy marker)
PSYCO 267 - Perception (Virtual Lab marker)
PSYCO 303 - The History of Ideas in Psychology
PSYCO 339 - Abnormal Psychology
PSYCO 372 - Behaviour in Relation to Genetics
PSYCO 381 - Principles of Learning
PSYCO 459 - Human Aging: Cognitive Processes
Other Teaching Activities:
I have given invited guest lectures in the following courses:
PSYCO 303 (The History of Ideas in Psychology).
PSYCO 381 (Principles of Learning)
PSYCO 485 (Theory in Learning and Comparative Cognition)
I have taught two weeks of lectures while covering a medical leave for
PSYCO 339 (Abnormal Psychology).
Teaching Awards:
- On the Teaching Honour Roll with Distinction for the Psychology Department at the UofA
- Interdepartmental Science Students' Society Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award
- Winner of the "Pie-a-Prof" contest for PSYCO 104 in Fall 2013. My class donated the most money of all participating classes in the Psychology department, per capita, to the Edmonton Food Bank in order to receive the honour of watching me be pied in the face by a student on the last day of class.
Teaching Testimonials:
A couple of the students I taught recently were so enthusiastic about my teaching that they wrote testimonials specifically for sharing on this website. I am grateful they took the time to share their feedback and experiences. I endeavour to create this same atmosphere in all the classes I teach. It is humbling and inspiring to know a teacher can have this kind of impact on the learning experiences of her students.
I have worked in the same lab as Michele for about five years now, and recently had the privilege of completing her special topics course in the biology of stress and coping. Simply put, it was the best course of my undergraduate education - and I am saying that with about 150 credits' worth of experience guiding my judgment!
Michele
has a unique style of teaching: highly interactive, with a great emphasis on
group discussion, presentations, and a personal touch I have never seen before.
By introducing her students to her own research program, as well as clarifying
certain points with personal anecdotes (usually hilarious), she demonstrates
not only her knowledge of the course material, but how the material influences
her life, and therefore suggests how what students are expected to learn
actually matters.
While
some professors have an unfortunate tendency to tunnel into research and
perceive lecturing as a 'side quest' on the way to slaying their own personal
research dragon, Michele makes it clear that teaching is - for her - an end in
itself. She took the time to explain some of her research into pedagogy. And
her actions spoke as loudly as her words on this, as intelligent use of things
like 'iClicker' technology showed how these are more than gimmicks in a
strategically-planned class. For example, she might do an iClicker poll
(allowing students to submit electronic 'votes' on a presented question, with
the results shared but anonymous), talk about the distribution of people's
responses, then allow the class to talk among themselves about justifying their
selections. Then another vote would come up, and - surprise, surprise! -
results would often change, indicating that people really were convinced by
their peers' arguments.
Very cool
stuff. Another nice thing in the class was consistent feedback. In a lot of
classes I have done over the years, professors just give you a letter grade or
percentage, perhaps with more obvious errors circled, or a few handwritten
notes scrawled at the bottom of an assignment. Michele returns a comprehensive
marking guide, with almost a full page of typed commentary, talking about the
good, the bad, and the ugly, of your work. What was also nice, was even when I
got a really good mark, that didn't mean the comments were just vanilla
"this is great" - instead, even your better work would have
intelligent critique. After all, just because you did good work (and received
appropriate grading), it doesn't mean you don't want to improve!
Overall,
I highly recommend Michele as a professor. Judging from this lecture, she
offers a unique and interesting manner of teaching. And for those who care
about this sort of thing, I believe I ended up with a firmer long-term grasp of
the material. By demonstrating the relevance as well as the contents of course
material, Michele has designed a course that will stick with you after you
leave.
Final
comment: bonus marks! That's right, you actually get bonus marks for going
'above and beyond' at certain points.
-
Thomas Vaughan-Johnston, 2014
- Devan Tchir, 2015
I had the pleasure of meeting Michele through her teaching of PSYCO 302,
and I’d like to tell my story of my semester with Michele to convey what kind
of teacher, mentor, and most importantly, person Michele is.
Psychology 302 is a special
topics Psychology course where we learned about stress and coping. As a
university student (and I think I can speak on behalf of the entire population
of students across the globe), I was specifically drawn to a Psychology course
that was relevant to what we endure on a daily basis, and what we can do as
humans/students to cope with it at the biological and behavioral level. So
naturally, I enrolled.
Then came the release of
the syllabus. Hoping for a course where there were two midterms and a final,
where I wouldn’t have to worry about assignments and I could go to class, take
good notes, study and do fine, what came up on the syllabus terrified me. Tons
of assignments, an iClicker, and what seemed the worst of all at the time: an
oral presentation.
At about this time, I was
seriously considering dropping the course and two others that had oral
presentations. The thought of looking foolish in front of my peers was far from
appealing and dropping the courses for new ones seemed smart. Luckily, I had
read tons of reviews of Michele on “Rate my Prof” which consisted of nothing
but extremely positive reviews and decided to go to the first class, still very
adamant in dropping, but interested in what Dr. Moscicki was like nonetheless.
In the
first class, Michele had impressive lecturing skills, was extremely respectful
to students, and made it very clear she was open to any sort of academia-related questions students had regarding Graduate school and was also very
clear she was open to mentoring students. I should also include that at this
time, I was very naïve to how Graduate school worked and to the process of
getting there. This was a special moment for me, for I had never had an
instructor willing to discuss my future let alone course material. While
I was simultaneously impressed by how well she spoke to forty students she had
never met before, I decided this to be a unique moment in which I could kill
two birds with one stone by discussing my fear of public speaking and my
interest in pursuing Graduate studies. Before dropping the course, I decided
I’d go to one of her office hours.
Michele was extremely
understanding and patient through all of my questions and to this day still
helps with questions regarding academia. In response to my frantic
questions on public speaking which included “but what if I feel nervous?” or
“will I get better with practice?” I remember Michele calmly saying that
she did not like public speaking in her undergrad either, that she certainly
got better with practice, and that I shouldn’t be so concerned. What
seemed like such obvious answers completely calmed my nerves about public
speaking. If I could get better with practice, and if someone as good at
lecturing as Michele didn’t enjoy public speaking early on, I felt speaking was
no longer a barrier. After that conversation, I elected to stay in the class
and the two others which also had an oral presentation.
The amount of assignments
in the class improved my writing skills, critical thinking skills, and my work
ethic. Michele made already enjoyable course work even more enjoyable through
awesome, entertaining, and understandable analogies, and engaged the class
interactively (through the iClicker which turned out to be a really good idea).
It was one of those rare classes where losing attention was particularly
difficult and keeping attention was incredibly easy. I personally
attribute this quality to the instructor and not the course. Michele always
said she hoped we took more from the class than just a letter on our
transcript, and I think she accomplished this and then some, which is how
instructing should be. As for the oral presentation, I confidently and proudly
spoke to the whole class, embraced the moment, and ended up doing very well, and
did even better in the subsequent oral presentations I had in other classes.
What seemed like my biggest weakness now turned into one of my biggest
strengths and is something I don’t fear anymore. Importantly, I think this
extends far past school. I am now a more confident person in general and I
attribute this to Michele for being so understanding. Had I not sat down with
Michele to discuss public speaking, I would have certainly dropped three courses that I ended up succeeding in and I think this speaks volumes not only of her
instructing abilities but that she is plain and simple helpful and open as a
person and mentor, a quality which is hard to come by.
Thank you, Michele!
- Devan Tchir, 2015