Teaching Statement

Teaching philosophy

A central tenet of my teaching philosophy is my commitment to promoting long-term,

meaningful learning. Therefore, it is important to me that my students learn the fundamental
content of the courses I teach in depth and that they can apply the knowledge outside of the
classroom. Beyond teaching the fundamental content of the course, it is essential to
simultaneously foster students’ critical thinking, and facilitate the acquisition of life-long
learning skills. For this reason, I emphasize the importance of engaging students in classroom
lecture and activities by presenting information enthusiastically and relating information to
students’ everyday experiences. By relating course content information to students’ everyday
experiences, prior knowledge is activated, which is a critical component of successful encoding,
which in turn results in more successful retrieval of information later on.

Another tenet of my approach to teaching is edifying students’ motivation to meet and exceed
their initial expectations. I find that students are motivated to learn when they are appropriately
challenged. Therefore, I strive to demonstrate I have high expectations from my students in the
way I present course content, engage students and in how I formulate assessments.

I am prepared to teach a diversity of courses. I would be particularly interested in teaching

courses on cognition, memory, psycholinguistics, bilingualism and learning.

Mentoring Experience

One of the most gratifying aspects of teaching is the opportunity to mentor students beyond the
classroom. I enjoy introducing students to the scientific process: discussing their research
interests and guiding them through the design, implementation and interpretation of their study. I
find it particularly rewarding when I see students generate their own ideas based on findings
from my own research program. I clearly recall at least one instance in which one of the
undergraduate students I was mentoring came up with a great idea based on findings I was just
presenting to the laboratory. I was explaining the larger cost I found when bilinguals had to
reject dominant meanings of English ambiguous words that were also cognates with Spanish
than simple English ambiguous words. She immediately suggested we investigate the effect in
the bilinguals’ first language (Spanish) to see whether we would replicate the results in their
native language. In other words, whether we would find the effect of cross-language activation in
the other direction.

One of the reasons I enjoy working closely and mentoring students on individual research
projects is it allows me to have a more direct and long-lasting impact on the students’ academic
careers. I feel that a close work relationship enables me to teach much more than I could
otherwise. I believe that students who have the opportunity to engage in an in depth inquiry and
hand s-on experience get a true sense of their interests and are better positioned to make
appropriate and fulfilling careers choices. I believe mentoring students during these experiences
allows me to make a difference in their academic achievement as well as life-long learning.