Teaching assistants honoured by national council of psychology educators

Three graduate students of psychology have received Awards of Excellence from the Canadian Council of Departments of Psychology for their contributions to teaching at the University of Windsor.

Kristin Schramer, Jann MacIsaac, and Joan Craig were recognized as outstanding teaching assistants. The council makes the awards based on nominations from its 60 member institutions across the country.

Schramer has made immense contributions to the introductory psychology courses, says professor Jill Singleton-Jackson.

“Kristin has shown dedication and passion for creating meaningful learning opportunities for the students,” she says. “She does an incredible job of managing the logistics of large lecture and multiple lab sections.”

Professor Kim Babb praised MacIsaac for taking on a difficult assignment — the honours thesis preparatory course Conducting Research in Psychology — in just the first year of graduate study.

“Jann handled the demands of this position with the skill and patience of a much more advanced graduate student,” says Dr. Babb. “Jann also gave extensive and thoughtful written feedback on students’ assignments that contributed to great improvements in the quality of their work on the final research proposal.”

And Kathryn Lafreniere said that in her absence, Craig took over course duties and led classes.

“She single-handedly organized the final poster session for the students, and she went to the Ontario Psychology Undergraduate Thesis Conference as our representative, since I was unable to attend,” Dr. Lafreniere says. “The students absolutely love her, and each year a number of them have let me know how valuable Joan’s assistance was to them in conducting their thesis.”

Formed in 1999, the Canadian Council of Departments of Psychology promotes psychology as a scientific discipline inside and outside university settings, providing leadership in the areas of undergraduate and graduate education, program accreditation, and research.