Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio
Degrees earned: Ph.D. and M.S. in Cognitive Psychology, University of Memphis; B.A. in Psychology, University of Dayton
Arrived at NIU: 1996
Classes taught: Critical Thinking, Learning and Memory, the Psychology of Language and graduate-level Cognitive Psychology
What’s your mission in academia?
I consider myself both an educator and a researcher. As an educator, I want my students to learn the content that I teach, but more importantly I want my students to learn how to think critically about the material. I want them to learn how to question, explain and communicate complex ideas. If they learn these skills, then they have the tools to do anything. As a researcher, I spend most of my time learning how to help students develop these skills. Most of my research does focus on reading comprehension.
How did you become interested in your subject area?
Well, I’ve always been fascinated by understanding why some students succeed and others are less successful academically. It isn’t always the smartest students that do the best. It’s really important to have the right learning tools and the desire to use them.
What do students learn from you?
I hope that they learn about the process of learning and develop an appreciation for the material that I teach. I love this stuff.
What kinds of things do your graduates do?
Many of my undergraduate students go on to graduate school to pursue various careers in psychology. My graduate students are preparing for jobs as college professors.
What is your favorite aspect of your subject? Why?
I’m most fascinated with reading comprehension. When reading for pleasure, it seems so effortless. However, when you study what is really going on, it’s quite complex. When we read to learn, the processes that lead to comprehension are no more complex. However, readers must be more conscious of them. I like the challenge of trying to help readers be more conscious of the processes and strategies that lead to good comprehension.
What most concerns you about society today?
My biggest concern is that we are becoming passive consumers of information. A society that stops thinking critically about information presented in the media, for example, is doomed to become second rate. We need to teach our children the importance of critical thinking long before they come to college.
What’s your current research?
We’re developing computer tools to assess the use of reading strategies that lead to good comprehension and to train students how to use them. We’re also developing a computer tutoring system to promote critical thinking about science. It’s very cool stuff.
What’s a good book you recently read?
I just read the “Diamond Age” by Neal Stephenson. He’s a science fiction writer, but has a lot of knowledge about cognitive science. He has a decent understanding of how the mind and brain work and does a considerable amount of research to write his books. I like that.
Why should students come to NIU?
I’ve come to appreciate the quality of the faculty here at NIU. The professors are top notch, but what makes them special is their commitment to the students. I deeply care about the students in my classes, and I’m not alone in this sentiment.
What’s your best advice to students who want to succeed?
Take an active approach to the learning processes. The worst thing you can do is to spend your time passively taking notes and waiting until the night before your exams to study them. There’s a lot of psychological research on learning to support this claim – believe me! Every class is an opportunity to learn something new. Take advantage of it.
If you weren’t teaching, what would you be doing?
I really can’t imagine myself doing anything but this. I love my job and the environment at NIU.
Photos by Don Butler, NIU Media Services