Undergrad and Grad Teaching and Research

It is a Privilege to Teach the Undergrads and Grads at William & Mary

The undergrad and grad students at William & Mary are smart, curious, polite, and goal-focused. It has been my privilege to work with these young adults and to mentor them as they develop academically, professionally, and personally. Every year during the grad-school application cycle I write many letters of recommendation and my former students go on to become researchers, physicians, lawyers, diplomats, Peace Corps volunteers, military officers, social workers, classroom teachers, and other professions of service.

Students Publish and Present at Local, Regional, and National Conventions.

Presenting one’s own original research is an important part of scholarly development. I do not require this of students, but I encourage it – especially for those who demonstrate the best work. Over the years, my students have presented their research at the annual conventions of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, the Eastern Psychological Association, at the William & Mary Undergraduate Research Symposium, and at other scientific and scholarly venues. Each of the photos shown on this page represents an early-career researcher taking their first step. Some of my students have published their research in academic journals – even as undergrads – and I co-autohored with two students and a faculty colleague the book on Resource-Allocation Behavior shown here.

The Courses I’ve  Taught the Most

The two courses I’ve taught most frequently  over the years have been Research Methods in Psychology, and the course I was primarily hired to teach, Decision Theory. My courses on Decision Theory at both the undergrad and grad level have been cross-listed in Psychology and Business.

The Research Methods course is designed to provide students with the skills needed to conceptualize and conduct their own original research. The course combines the standard approach of lectures, assigned readings, and exams, with individual projects that reinforce the development of research skills. Each student presents to the class twice – once informally as they discuss their own research (we call it “Let me tell you about my research” or LMTYAMR). And they also make a more formal presentation on an assigned research article that is an example of how research is conducted. Each student also conducts their own original research on a topic of their own selection. This includes conceptualization, operationalization, ethics proposals, running participants, collecting and analyzing data, and writing an APA-style paper where they report on their research.

 The course on Decision Theory is designed to cover three areas: Some of the basic optimal prescriptive models from Operations Research and Management Science; The descriptive models from Behavioral Science; and applications to real-world settings and questions. I recognize that these topics are often split into separate courses taught in separate departments, but by combining them, students see the relationships and synergies between the three areas. The course follows the book I wrote on Decision Theory and each chapter includes practice problems/questions with answers provided on the website I created to accompany the book.