My name is Alicia Moulder, and I had the pleasure of serving as an undergraduate teaching assistant to Dr. Moore for Quantitative Methods (PSYC 317) for the Fall 2021 semester. I assisted students during scheduled weekly labs by guiding them through SPSS software. I also facilitated a weekly Friday afternoon drop-in office hour via Zoom. Finally, I was available to students for help with coursework via email, and I proofread various course materials for Dr. Moore, including lecture videos and handouts. Broadly, students should finish PSYC 317 with an understanding of when, why, and how to use various statistical analyses, including:

• One Sample t-Test
• Independent Samples t-Test
• Paired Samples t-Test
• One-Way ANOVA
• Repeated Measures ANOVA
• Factorial ANOVA
• Correlation
• Regression
• Chi Square Test

Students should be able to obtain analysis output in SPSS, as well as perform calculations by hand for the aforementioned statistical tests. The skills learned in PSYC 317 will help students in future psychology coursework, especially when reading scientific literature. Results sections of academic papers should feel a bit more approachable. Also, PSYC 317, in combination with PSYC 318W which follows the course, should help students approach all science journalism with a more critical eye. Although I hope to pursue a research career, I realize that many of my peers do not, and they will have to find their own “why” for learning quantitative methods. For example, if students intend to pursue a career in therapy, as is the trend with many psychology undergraduates, it is important to keep up to date with current research in their field, which requires a basic understanding of statistics used in behavioral research.

I hope that students benefited from my growth mindset approach to the course material. I stress that I’ve seen the practice they’ve put in and that they are indeed capable of success. Although this material may seem tedious at times, it is indeed learnable! Along with helping clarify areas of difficulty, I also like to point out ways that statistics might be able to answer research questions that are of interest to students. To me, this is the most exciting part of the 317 – seeing the applicability of what we are learning! I even had one student express interest in undergraduate research opportunities at ODU! After helping a student with a PSYC 317 question or concern, I hope they’re able to walk away a bit more confident in their ability to enjoy and be successful in the course. I also hope I have helped students learn resilience and the ability to face challenging work, as they will likely be challenged in other ways in their careers.

Although I know the students I’ve helped this semester are all capable of success, I still believe certain contextual factors contribute to a good learning environment. Reflecting on my own success and the successes of my peers, I’ve observed a few behaviors that seem to help students learn best…

• Practice – especially practicing areas of weakness! As good as it may feel to practice concepts you’re already confident in and get correct every time, the payoff for refining your skills in problem areas is far greater in the end. My Zoom office hour is a great example of time spent refining skills with students.
• Organization – I have a consistent system for organizing my materials and taking notes in every course. It would be great if all students came into college knowing what organizational system will serve their needs best, but this rarely seems to be the case. In introductory courses especially, professors should encourage their students to experiment with various methods of organization. For example, I tried pen/paper notetaking, but ultimately determined that I am most successful typing notes within a PDF version of a professor’s presentation. This helps contextualize the notes I took, while also allowing me to be fully attentive during lecture. Though I didn’t really get to encourage organizational skills in any way for students this semester, I hope to bring this approach to future teaching roles.
• Humor and/or Personal Connection – Being able to either find a personal connection or humor in the course material has helped me find purpose in my studies and build resiliency. I find that statistics gets particularly exciting when talking about how concepts might apply to one’s own research area of interest. This sense of purpose is what motivates me to continue even when I’m stuck on a difficult concept, and I always try to carry this undertone through personal and virtual interactions with students.

As statistics are the foundation of research in psychology, it’s been troubling to see professors, TAs, and my peers make comments taking an attitude that students are incapable of learning the material. Indeed, it is challenging, but I ended up finding a passion for the coursework and believe that many other people can as well, given the right circumstances. During my office hours and lab meetings, I always wanted to be approachable by showing my passion for statistics. I try to challenge the defeatest attitude that I’ve seen many people take, and the biggest payoff I’ve seen is that students are comfortable coming to me for help, which fits well with my growth mindset approach.