At the Society for the Teaching of Psychology’s Annual Conference on Teaching, held October 17-18, 2019 in Denver, CO, the Graduate Center, CUNY, received special recognition for serving two consecutive terms (2014-2016, 2017-2019) as the host institution of the Graduate Student Teaching Association (GSTA). Educational Psychology graduate student Elizabeth Che and alumnus Teresa Ober were honored as GSTA chairs and Professor Patricia Brooks for serving as the GSTA Faculty Advisor. GSTA blog editors, Charles Raffaele and Hallie Jordan, and GSTA treasurer, Olga Parshina, were on hand at the conference to bring home our plaque.  

GSTA Blog Editors Charles Raffaele and Hallie Jordan, with keynote speaker Pooja Agarwal and GSTA Treasurer Olga Parshina at the Annual Conference on Teaching.

Over the past six years, the GSTA has organized a variety of events to support graduate students embarking on their careers as instructors of undergraduate courses. Our 10th Annual Pedagogy conference, was held October 25, 2019 at The Graduate Center, with the theme Transformative Teaching.  The conference featured a variety of Professional Development Workshops and an Activity Blitz, during which graduate student instructors shared their favorite teaching activities. Workshop presentations are available for download HERE and Activity Blitz presentations HERE.

GSTA Blog Editor Sarah Frantz, Deputy Chair Jessica Brodsky, Chair Elizabeth Che, and Faculty Advisor Dr. Patricia Brooks sharing the STP Special Recognition Award at Pedagogy Day

We are especially proud of the GSTA Blog hosted on the Society for the Teaching of Psychology website, where we invite posts summarizing new research in the area of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, teaching tips and best practices for today’s classroom, public interest topics related to teaching and psychology, and occasional book reviews. For example Ed Psych alums and CUNY faculty members, Teresa Ober, Kalina Gjicali, Eduardo Vianna, and Patricia Brooks, shared ideas for teaching quantitative literacy across the curriculum HERE, and CUNY graduate student and Pedagogy Day presenter Carolyn Stallard presented ideas for infusing game-based learning in college classes HERE.  If you are interested in contributing to the Blog or becoming an editor, contact us at gsta.cuny@gmail.com.

The GSTA team edited our first e-book titled How We Teach Now: The GSTA Guide to Student-Centered Teaching in 2017, with many chapters authored by graduate student instructors.  We are excited to be wrapping up our second e-book titled How We Teach Now: The GSTA Guide to Transformative Teaching for release in 2020. Both e-books will be available free of charge through the Society for the Teaching of Psychology website.

Over the coming year, the GSTA will continue to sponsor professional development opportunities and meet-ups at regional and national conferences. For regular updates on GSTA activities, follow us on Twitter (@gradsteachpsych) and Facebook (groups/theGSTA).
You can also join our listserv (DIV2GSTA@LISTS.APA.ORG) to discuss issues relevant to the teaching of psychology and graduate students’ professional development as teachers of psychology. To join the listserv, visit http://lists.apa.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A0=DIV2GSTA and click on “Subscribe or Unsubscribe” in the Options box on the right side of the screen. You may want to add this URL to your bookmarks because it is where you can set up your subscriber options and view the list’s archived messages. After you have subscribed, you can send messages to the list: DIV2GSTA@lists.apa.org.

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