For more than three decades, the cornerstone of PSYC 1F90 \u2014 Introduction to Psychology has been the dedicated partnership of two instructors: Professors Kathy Belicki (BA \u201976) and John Mitterer, who recently taught the class for the final time.<\/p>\n
Introduction to Psychology has been a constant in Belicki\u2019s academic life since her days as a Brock undergrad. When she graduated and then started teaching at York University, her first position was in a large intro class. She said at that time many institutions assigned heavy classes to their newest faculty members.<\/p>\n
Brock, however, was different. Coming back to teach at the University in 1986, she found that multiple instructors wanted the Introduction to Psychology course.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was basically like \u2018line up and wait\u2019,\u201d she says. Three years later, she got her turn, joining Mitterer,who would become her long-time teaching partner.<\/p>\n
\u201cJohn and I never took full-year sabbaticals because we were afraid that, if we stepped out, we would not get back in,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Within a few years, Belicki realized that teaching skills alone were not enough and signed up for courses on team management. Typical classes of up to 1,400 students are supported by a team that includes seminar leaders and senior tutors, as well as the two instructors.<\/p>\n
Belicki sees teaching Intro to Psychology \u2014 with \u201cthe sheer volume, variety and speed with which things happen,\u201d \u2014 as the academic equivalent to emergency medicine. \u201cIt\u2019s not for everyone,\u201d she admits.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s just say choreography becomes important,\u201d says Mitterer.<\/p>\n
He says successfully teaching a large class comes down to building a “pedagogical alliance.” He likens it to a\u00a0therapeutic alliance, the relationship between a psychologist and a client.<\/p>\n
\u201cLearning how to maintain the pedagogical alliance with a large class is more challenging, but it\u2019s definitely doable and was definitely my goal,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Contrary to popular opinion, he has not seen a decline in the quality of students since he started.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey might require more trust-building, more work to build that alliance, but I have no evidence that today\u2019s students won\u2019t work just as hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the years, Belicki says she relied on feedback from seminar leaders to help her keep up with her students and stay current.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo bring them to where we are, you have to start by meeting them where they are,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
She describes the lecture hall as the world\u2019s largest living room. “I\u2019m sitting with all these people and I get to talk about things I find very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitterer and Belicki agree that the advent of email caused one of their biggest challenges.<\/p>\n
Even before email, Mitterer says, persistent students would use the telephone to contact him at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI once got hauled out of the bath,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was the last time my phone number got published in the course notes.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe the way of contacting you has changed, but I don\u2019t think the desire of students for that contact, for that alliance, has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both professors see participating in a student\u2019s first experience of university as a tremendous responsibility and an honour. Whether your students move into their second year with an attitude of trust or not, depends on that first experience, says Mitterer.<\/p>\n
Belicki agrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of our role to get them up and running,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Chair of the Department of Psychology, Kimberly Cote, said the department gains many students every year when they decide to change their major to Psychology after taking PSYC 1F90.<\/p>\n
“This is a testament to the impact these two instructors have on students and the excitement that they generate about Psychology,” she says.<\/p>\n
Mitterer claims the record for teaching more students than any other faculty member in the history of Brock \u2014 believed to be somewhere more than 40,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t have done what I did in the course, which includes getting two national teaching awards, without Kathy\u2019s support,\u201d Mitterer says. \u201cShe anchored the course. As a clinician, she has great insight into our students. And I\u2019m just proud to have had the chance to share that experience with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ingrid Makus, Dean of Social Sciences, said \u201cin a Faculty of excellent teachers, Professors Mitterer and Belicki stand out.<\/p>\n
“Their collaborative style and sheer joy in connecting with students made them an extraordinary team. We are grateful to them for the many years they have dedicated to students and we will miss them in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong>Belicki and Mitterer are now enjoying a research year before their official retirement from Brock at the end of 2019-20.<\/p>\n Hoping to reach a more general public, Belicki is moving into speaking and writing about her interests, including trauma, nightmares, dreams, bereavement and forgiveness.<\/p>\n Since her final class in April, she has been enjoying the first tastes of her new life.<\/p>\n Mitterer continues to write text books for first-year psychology students. He is also working on a book for a general audience that identifies \u201cthe important things that I\u2019ve learned as a psychologist, not for getting a course credit or for being an academic, but just for being alive.\u201d<\/p>\n He looks forward to spending time with is new grandchild and indulging his love of birding, but says he will miss teaching.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll miss my students most of all,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing quite like dealing with 18-year-olds who are really, in a lot of ways, growing up for the first time, and are open to possibility in a way that they might not have been before, and they might not be after.\u201d<\/p>\n For Belicki, the reality of not teaching is only just sinking in.<\/p>\n \u201cI am ready to move on, but teaching was always the most favourite thing I did. I\u2019ve found former PSYC 1F90 students in every corner of this country,\u201d she says. \u201cIt has made the world full of friends.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For more than three decades, the cornerstone of PSYC 1F90 \u2014 Introduction to Psychology has been the dedicated partnership of two instructors: Professors Kathy Belicki (BA \u201976) and John Mitterer, who recently taught the class for the final time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":59232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7484,3319,4052,1,4,38],"tags":[8080,1393,8079,29,31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59231"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59233,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59231\/revisions\/59233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}