Teaching is an exercise in learning.
"Dr. Orsten-Hooge’s style is laid-back, approachable, and authentic...a scholar who is skilled in the classroom. She is current in the field and was able to showcase cutting edge technology and research findings to her students in a way that was not intimidating or overwhelming for them. I appreciated her laid-back style and students appeared very comfortable in her classroom."
Cognitive
Science
An introduction to the study of the brain and behavior from the point of view of cognitive science, including approaches from psychology, philosophy, neuropsychology, and computational modeling. Phenomena involving sensory systems, perception, memory, decision- making, consciousness, and more are discussed.
Graduate Cognitive Psychology
A graduate-level overview of Cognitive Psychology. The focus is on foundational theories, models, and research underscoring the major concepts of cognition: perception, object and face recognition, memory, psycholinguistics, attention, consciousness, and decision-making. The relevance and contributions of neuroimaging, brain injury, and behavioral data are also be considered.
Introductory
Psychology
An overview of psychology as a science and its multiple subtopics: neuroscience, cognition (including sensation, perception, memory, and language), sociological constructs, development, personality and disorders, intelligence, and more.
Learning
Frameworks
Theoretical models of strategic learning, cognition, and motivation serve as the conceptual basis for the introduction of college-level student academic strategies.
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My students say…
“She was always respectful and humble about the material, and her use of humor and wit really added a comfortable and fun level to the classroom.”
“She made the class interesting and motivated me to learn about the subjects we discussed. Her personality made me want to come to class. I genuinely enjoyed taking this course.”
“Extraordinary professor; Delivers interesting lectures and goes out of her way to help students understand concepts through email or extra office hours. Makes the lectures interactive to help the students remember the concepts for a really long time.”
My philosophy
The teacher is not the only teacher in the classroom.
Teaching and learning are concentric. If a professor teaches for an entire school term without learning something from their students, the term has not been successful.
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Lectures need updating, reference papers need refreshing, and theories must constantly be scrutinized for relevance and reliability. It is crucially important to understand how students will best receive all of this new information, and to be flexible in the way information is presented. Class discussions and questions during lectures are essential to this dynamic, and students should feel comfortable doing both. Professors should encourage feedback and participation during lectures, and should never be too proud to say, “I don’t know the answer to your question – it’s a good one – let’s find out the answer together.”
Higher learning is achieved by integrating smaller topics into grander schemas.
I like to call it ‘Gestalt learning’. Contrary to memorizing concepts and regurgitating them for an assessment, students should be made to ‘interact’ with the material.
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Hands-on projects, integration essays (reading two or more pieces of literature and writing about their relationship), incorporation of multimedia into lectures, required discussion and critiquing of literature, etc… When students are able to see the common threads running through the general theories and methodologies of the cognitive sciences, they will become better equipped to think critically about their specific research interests, and how they can/will contribute to the field. For less advanced students or undergraduates that may not know what choices they will make for their careers, a demonstrable understanding of the fundamental concepts of cognition and/or neuroscience can only aid in their decision to become, or not to become, a member of the field.
Structure is essential.
There is no worse feeling as a student than not knowing what is required of you to be successful in a particular course.
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It is an important responsibility of professors to provide students with a coherent and comprehensive explanation of what is expected of them in the course. Rules should be adhered to, and exceptions (and there will be some) should be consistent in nature and reason. When students know what is expected of them, there is no concern that their final scores are confounded by any misunderstandings – on their part or the professor’s.