Teaching

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Classes Dr. Gervais Teaches

Psyc 288: Social Behavior

Psyc 299/499: Independent Study

Psyc 929: Social Cognition

Psyc 929: Applied Social Psychology

My approach to teaching:

I believe my role as a teacher, is to:

a) share knowledge through my classroom interactions with students

b) create knowledge through mentoring students in research. 

I take my role as a teacher very seriously because of the courses and mentoring that I offer to serve to shape career aspirations of my undergraduate students and give them the tools that they will use to critically examine the world around them – from the latest psychological research to their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.  As well, the training that I offer my graduate students serves to prepare the next generation of academic scholars.

As a result, I try to create an educational and engaging classroom and laboratory with the material I present and the methods that I use. My teaching philosophy is informed by the transformative learning theory and practice (Mezirow, 1991, 1997). 

Simply stated, transformative learning involves

1) Becoming aware of one’s limited perspective

2) Critically questioning and considering alternatives to this perspective

3) Changing the way one sees and makes meaning out of the world 

With this in mind, I encourage my students to identify and question their assumptions and integrate the knowledge from the course and the scientific literature as they consider alternatives.  This approach not only helps my students to become better scholars and psychological researchers, but it also helps me to fulfill my own goals of increasing the positive impact of psychology in society.