The handbook titled, “How We Teach Now: GSTA Guide to Transformative Teaching” was written by the GSTA Editorial Team (Teresa M. Ober, Elizabeth S. Che, Jessica E. Brodsky, Charles Raffaele, and Patricia J. Brooks). The following post was written by the editorial team and provides a snapshot of the handbook. 

The Graduate Student Teaching Association (GSTA), led for six years by graduate students in Psychology and Educational Psychology at the Graduate Center, CUNY, recently compiled and edited a *free* electronic handbook (eBook) for new college teachers. How We Teach Now: The GSTA Guide to Transformative Teaching which is now available for download on the Society for the Teaching of Psychology website. For a quick glance of the eBook’s content, check out its Table of Contents below! 

In editing the eBook, we were frequently asked what is transformative teaching? In our view, it involves teaching with the ultimate goal of changing students’ lives for the better. Transformative teachers make a difference by seeing the potential in their students, setting up appropriate challenges, and providing encouragement and support for their students to push boundaries and adapt quickly to shifting environments. We have come to view transformative teaching as instruction and course design that promotes student engagement, fosters personal growth and agency, and connects psychological science in relevant ways to issues of global and local concern.

As graduate students and early career college teachers, we recognize it can be challenging to figure out where to start in becoming more transformative teachers. How We Teach Now: The GSTA Guide to Transformative Teaching provides practical guidance for teachers at all levels of experience and is particularly written specifically for current and future graduate students. Our hope is that the volume will serve as a valuable resource for new instructors as they embark on careers as teachers of psychology.

In editing the eBook, we have had the unique privilege of interfacing with experienced and novice instructors of psychology, and have observed the development of our own professional identities in the process. Many of the contributors, in addition to so many others who only for lack of space are not included here, have been instrumental in helping to shape not just our perspectives, but also broader discussions around the teaching of psychology. We are deeply grateful to the contributing authors for taking the time to share their insights and experiences here. 

Acknowledging the remarkable work that has been done to promote better college teaching in the field of psychology, we also recognize that the institutions and general context in which our students are taught is far from perfect. Indeed, at no point in recent history does there appear as desperate a need to transform students’ lives for the better, both now and in the foreseeable future. College classes throughout the U.S. are increasingly taught by adjunct and graduate student instructors with limited experience and who work burdened with the expectation of efficient time management in order to balance other demanding professional and scholarly obligations, including research and coursework. On top of this, educators and students alike are now simultaneously coping with, adjusting to, and further preparing for the repercussions of a global pandemic that within a matter of a few months swiftly upended routines taken for granted. In our daily lives, the ability to simply leave our homes and venture into the world has become less of a viable option. In our lives as teachers, replacing in-class instruction with online learning has become a necessity or a likely future possibility. The current situation would seem to be rife for instructional, professional, and personal chaos, yet many teachers have acted as silent heroes, handling the situation with earnest concern for students and others. 

Though it is too soon to know the long-term consequences that the COVID-19 pandemic will have on K-16 education throughout the world, we are confident that there will remain a need for transformative teachers who are capable of providing opportunities for students to learn new knowledge and skills while also educating them to become more compassionate and justice-oriented. To that end, we hope this eBook may provide a foundation for new, experienced, and future instructors to develop transformative practices and further instill a sense of these values through transformative teaching.

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How We Teach Now (Volume 2): The GSTA Guide to Transformative Teaching

Table of Contents 

Introduction: Jessica E. Brodsky (College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center, CUNY), Teresa M. Ober (University of Notre Dame), Elizabeth S. Che (College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center, CUNY), Charles Raffaele (Graduate Center, CUNY), and Patricia J. Brooks (College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center, CUNY)

1. A First Timer’s Guide to Being a High Impact Undergraduate Professor: Jane Halonen and Gage Moyer (University of West Florida)

2. The Other Side of the Podium: Supporting Graduate Student Teaching Development: Missy Beers, Kristin Dell’Armo, and Andre Plate (Ohio State University)

3. Start Strong, Stay Strong: Aspiring to Model Teaching Across the Career Span: Regan Gurung (Oregon State University), Aaron Richmond (Metropolitan State University of Denver), Guy A. Boysen (McKendree University), and Raechel N. Soicher (Oregon State University)

4. Teaching in the 21st Century: How Blogs and Other Alternative Outlets Can Transform our Teaching: Jennifer M. Blush (William Peace University), Karly M. Schleicher (Heritage University), and Ciara K. Kidder (Marian University)

5. When They Should, But They Don’t: Scaffolding our Students into Transformational Learning: Lindsay C. Masland, Jessica M. Chambers, Faith Latimer, and Lakin Wingfield (Appalachian State University)

6. Deciding What to Cover in Intro Psych: The Neighbor Test: Sue Frantz (Highline College)

7. Improving Learner Metacognition and Self-Regulation: Carole Yue (Covenant College)

8. Psychology Courses as Paradigm Changers: Faulty Frames of Reference and Assignments That Challenge Them: Sarai Blincoe, Maxwell Hennings, and Timothy Rizert (Longwood University)

9. “So, You’re New to This?” Teaching Counseling Psychology for the First Time: Hallie Jordan and Christopher Perez (The University of Southern Mississippi)

10. Creating Professional Identities: Graduate Student and Professor Perspectives on Teaching Ethics: Mitchell M. Handelsman, Kaitlyn M. Vagnini, Kassie D. Flewelling, and Keegan S. Walker (University of Colorado Denver)

11. Teaching in a Flipped Classroom: Jillian Grose-Fifer (John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center, CUNY)

12. Being Mindful of Diversity and Discrimination: Eight Lessons that Can Improve Your Teaching: Abby Corrington, Christine L. Nittrouer, Linnea Ng, Rachel Trump-Steele, Ivy Watson, Carlos Moreno, and Mikki Hebl (Rice University)

13. The Case for LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Undergraduate Psychology Courses: Sarah Frantz (Graduate Center, CUNY)

14. From Awareness to Acceptance: Transformative Approaches to Teaching Neurodiversity: Jennifer L. Stevenson and Nicole L. Dalasio (Ursinus College)

15. Culture and Teaching: A Psychology of All People: Kenneth Keith (University of San Diego)

16. Revolutionizing the Classroom: Transformative Teaching as an International Instructor: Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi, Soohyun (Ashley) Lee, and Stefanie Gisler (Baruch College and the Graduate Center, CUNY)

17. Transforming Educational Alienation into Collective Agency in Community Colleges: Jeremy E. Sawyer (Kingsborough Community College, CUNY) and Mike Rifino (Graduate Center, CUNY)

18. Communities Twice Over: Fostering Research Skills and Civic Engagement among Community College Students: Tanzina Ahmed (Kingsborough Community College, CUNY)

19. Interteaching: What It Is and How to Use It: Raechel N. Soicher (Oregon State University)

20. An Introduction to Designing Game-Based Learning Experiences: Robert O. Duncan (York College and the Graduate Center, CUNY) and Carolyn J. Stallard (Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, CUNY)

21. Psychology for the Workforce: Using the Classroom to Help Students Develop and Market Their Employable Skills: Natalie J. Ciarocco (Monmouth University) and David B. Strohmetz (University of West Florida)

22. Developing Employment-Related Skills for Psychology Majors: Daniel A. Hrubes (College of Mount Saint Vincent), Paige H. Fisher (Seton Hall University), Amy S. Joh (Seton Hall University), Katherine E. Alexander (College of Mount Saint Vincent), Patricia J. Brooks (College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center, CUNY), and Ethlyn S. Saltzman (Graduate Center, CUNY)

23. Transformative Teaching: Infusing Quantitative Reasoning Across the Curriculum: Kelly M. Goedert, Susan A. Nolan, and Sean Bogart (Seton Hall University

24. Using Open-Source Data from OSF, ICPSR, and CHILDES to Scaffold Quantitative Reasoning in Psychology Coursework: Patricia J. Brooks (College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center, CUNY), Jessica E. Brodsky (Graduate Center, CUNY), and Elizabeth S. Che (Graduate Center, CUNY)

25. Developing Scientific Literacy Skills: Melissa Birkett (Southern Oregon University) and Amy Hughes (Northern Arizona University)

26. Transforming Writing Instruction in the Teaching of Psychology: Charles Raffaele (Graduate Center, CUNY) and Patricia J. Brooks (College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center, CUNY)

27. Transforming Students’ Thinking Through Innovative Writing: Suzanne C. Baker (James Madison University) and Dana S. Dunn (Moravian College)

28. Enhancing Academic Writing Skills using a Peer Review Process: Teresa Ober (University of Notre Dame) and Roseanne L. Flores (Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY)

29. How Undergraduate Research Can Be Transformative: Richard Miller (Texas A&M University – Kingsville) and Tyler Collette (University of Texas – San Antonio)

30. In Defense of Labs: Maximizing Academic, Cognitive, and Interpersonal Skills through the Teaching of Psychology Labs: Jennifer Parada (Bellevue College) and Melissa Birkett (Southern Oregon University)

31. The CURE for Broadening Participation in Undergraduate Research: Viji Sathy, Mahfuz Nasiri, Chris Strauss, and Bryant Hutson (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

32. Turning the Undergraduate Classroom into a Research Conference: Using Poster Presentations to Target the APA Guidelines 2.0: Anna Schwartz (Boston College), Rita Obeid (Case Western Reserve University), Christina Shane-Simpson (University of Wisconsin – Stout), Kasey Powers (Mercy College), and Lee A. Thompson (Case Western Reserve University)

33. Why Your Students Should Publish in Undergraduate Journals: Benefits of Engaging Students in the Research Process: Danielle DeNigris, Krista Sheets, and Shirantha Stanislaus (Fairleigh Dickinson University)</span

34. Teaching Research Transparency in Psychological Science: How and Why: Morton Ann Gernsbacher (University of Wisconsin – Madison)

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