Deuling Teaching

An aspect of being a university professor I greatly enjoy is the opportunity to mentor and help develop students. Throughout my own education and training, I have had the good fortune to learn from enthusiastic and inspiring teachers, mentors, and advisors. Collectively, these mentors have instilled in me not only enthusiasm for learning, but also a respect and commitment to research and the research process. I strive to approach teaching and mentoring with the same enthusiasm and dedication I experienced. In fact, my graduate student advisees tend to propose their Masters’ theses within their first 3 semesters on campus which has earned me a “Mentor of the Year” award in the Psychology Department at Auburn University and I was the advisor and chair for the first PhD student to ever graduate from Roosevelt University, Dr. Ben Sher as well as the second PhD, Dr. Ayesha Jamaspi.

When I teach a course, my primary goal is to establish a learning environment that is both motivating and challenging to students. To this end, my objectives when teaching a course are to (1) generate enthusiasm for the topic, (2) demonstrate the link between theory and practice, and (3) create an environment of respect and fairness.

v  Generate enthusiasm for the topic. I am excited about the courses I teach and one goal is to communicate this excitement to my students. I truly believe the topics I have had the opportunity to teach are exciting, interesting, and essential to a well-rounded college education. I consider the courses I have taught – social psychology, groups and teams, organizational psychology, leadership and motivation, diversity in organizations – to be broadly applicable to many future careers and real life experiences. By conveying this attitude, my goal is to leave the students with a sense of having learned a topic that is important and will be useful in their real-life. I believe it is easier to generate enthusiasm amongst the students for the course topic when I am excited and interested in the topic as well.

v  Demonstrate the link between theory and practice. I take every opportunity to demonstrate the link between theory and practice. I take great pleasure in tying the theoretical structures presented in lecture and discussion to examples the students may relate to. This presents an interesting challenge to me to both know my material well enough to confidently apply the theories and to know my students well enough to present a relevant example that will illustrate a theory and resonate with them. My aim in presenting information in this way is to provide a stimulating environment that encourages a deeper level of comprehension. In my courses, I offer projects, papers, and assignments that link theory and practice as much as possible. For example, students have created a book of activities, assessments and interventions for groups and teams, conducted interviews on the experiences of prejudice and stigma at work, taken in-depth assessments to better understand themselves and their future career goals, and I have invited practitioners to speak on topics whenever relevant.

v  Create an environment of respect and fairness. While creating a classroom environment of respect and fairness is vital in all universities, teaching at an urban University with a diverse student body demands a considerable amount of emphasis on respect and fairness. With students from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds, it becomes important to facilitate understanding and respect in the classroom. This includes encouraging student participation and questions, ensuring the grading process is fair by applying the same standards to everyone consistently, and creating a respectful classroom environment so that all students feel free to discuss topics of interest. This is an important goal I strive to meet with each course I teach.

My development of graduate students extends beyond the traditional classroom experience as well. As the President of the Chicago Industrial/Organizational Psychologists (CIOP), I have created the now International CIOP Consulting Challenge for 2^nd year MA and PhD students in I/O Psychology. Students from Canada to Florida to California have flown in to Chicago to be randomly assigned to 3-5 person groups and have 3 days to create a solution to a real organizational issue. The sponsoring organization is a surprise until the day of the competition and has so far included the Chicago Transit Authority, Walgreens, United Airlines, and Sears Holdings. This event provides students an opportunity to practice applying the knowledge, skills, and abilities they have cultivated in graduate school to a real organization in a supportive environment. This event also allows me the unique opportunity to expose graduate students across the country to the practice of I/O psychology and helps bridge the gap between science and practice in the discipline for years to come. With many graduate students in I/O Psychology going into the applied realm, having an opportunity to practice their skills is rare but invaluable for students’ development. The winning team gets the opportunity to interview for an internship at the sponsoring organization or a cash prize, depending on internship availability. Many Roosevelt PhD and MA students in I/O Psychology have benefitted from this International program by being on the winning team and securing internships.

In addition to the CIOP Consulting Challenge, the CIOP board and I have created the Veteran’s Resume Workshop as a way for students and professionals to help prepare Veteran’s for private sector jobs. We have also created a job shadowing mentoring program that matches students with professionals for a job shadowing experience as well as a follow-up panel discussion on what was learned during the job shadowing. I am proud of the contributions I have made to create these opportunities for students and even professionals to continue to develop and grow. I look forward to continuing this merging of theory and practice in any way I can.

Teaching Assignments

My specific teaching and advising responsibilities since the last RTP review are detailed in the tables below.

Semester & Year	Course Number	Course Title
Spring 2018	Psyc 757	Leadership & Motivation
Spring 2018	Psyc 462	Advanced Organizational Psychology
Fall 2017	Psyc 756	Advanced Organizational Psychology
Fall 2017	Psyc 774	Group Dynamics & Team Processes
Summer 2017	Psyc 344	I/O Psychology
Summer 2017	Psyc 787	Professional & Ethical Issues
Spring 2017	Psyc 756	Advanced Organizational Psychology
Spring 2017	Psyc 462	Advanced Organizational Psychology
Spring 2017	Psyc 220	Social Psychology Online
Fall 2016	Psyc 753	Training & Development Seminar
Fall 2016	Psyc 530	Advanced Research Methods
Summer 2016	Psyc 671	Diversity in Organizations
Spring 2016	Psyc 220	Social Psychology Online
Spring 2016	Psyc 462	Advanced Organizational Psychology
Fall 2015	Psyc 756	Advanced Organizational Psychology
Fall 2015	Psyc 633	Social Psychology & Group Dynamics
Summer 2015	Psyc 220	Social Psychology Online
Spring 2015	Psyc 756	Advanced Organizational Psychology
Fall 2014	Psyc 753	Training & Development Seminar
Fall 2014	Psyc 530	Advanced Research Methods
Summer 2014	Psyc 671	Diversity in Organizations
Spring 2014	Psyc 757	Leadership & Motivation
Fall 2013	Psyc 663	Group Dynamics & Team Processes
Fall 2013	Psyc 756	Advanced Organizational Psychology

Advising Responsibilities

Mentoring and advising students through their thesis and dissertations is a large part of my teaching responsibilities. I have a structured approach for helping my students reach these research milestones. For a thesis research project, I meet with the student weekly to ensure forward movement and give them manageable weekly assignments. Together, we conceptualize their ideas, they work on drafts of the proposal document, and we finalize the research methodology and analysis plan. After the student proposes their thesis, we collect data and together, screen their data and analyze the data. The student is then charged with writing the results and discussion section with my close supervision and timely feedback (I have a two week turnaround). This process is important to not only educate the students of the research process, but to also build self-esteem and confidence in their own research prowess and abilities. The success of this approach can be seen with the timeliness of my students’ reaching their milestones, the presentations and publications of my students’ work, and the resulting internships and jobs attained by my students. Further, by the time these students begin work on their dissertations, they require less supervision from me and have taken on large, complex, and meaningful projects. For example, Anjali Banerjee’s dissertation involved interviewing top-level leaders and talented surgeons to create a situational judgement test to be used in the selection of surgical residents at a large medical school in Texas.    

Graduate students in our terminal Master’s program complete an internship and an internship paper under the direction of a faculty member. These students meet with me weekly as well while they craft their papers and topical interests. Below is a list of students who I have the pleasure of working with as the chair of their educational milestone.

Student	Milestone	Status / Date Completed	Current Employment
Ashley Chung	Dissertation	In progress	Pepsico
Robert McMahon	Dissertation	In progress	Home Depot
Kyle Page	Dissertation	In progress	U of South Dakota
Shelomi Gomez	Dissertation	In progress	-
Colleen Gellar	Internship	In progress	Arlington Resources
Kennedy Lambert	Internship	In progress	Information Resources International
Katherine Karwowski	Internship	In progress	Human Capital Metrics & Analytics
Emily Ballesteros	Internship	In progress	Rotary International
Mariah Rosado	Internship	In progress	Chicago Transit Authority
Min Woo Lee	Thesis	In progress	-
Jessica Panzica	Thesis	In progress	-
Charles Fales	Thesis	In progress	RU OECC
Zuky Robles	Thesis	Proposal pending	Chicago Transit Authority
Mackenzie Crawford	Thesis	In progress	-
Daniel Riley	Thesis	In progress	Amrock
Caitlyn McLysaght	Thesis	In progress	RU OECC
Kacie Terranova	Thesis	In progress	IO Solutions
Anjali Banerjee	Dissertation	Proposed	Golub Capital
Julia Markus	Thesis	Proposed	UI Labs
Lauren Merwin	Thesis	Proposed	Information Resources International
Roni Kholomyansky, PsyD	Dissertation	August, 2018	Santa Clara U
Divya Jain, PsyD	Dissertation	August, 2018	St. Louis VA in Jefferson Barracks
Amy Motyka	Thesis	August, 2017	Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund
Karina Sanchez	Internship	May, 2017	Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Ayesha Jamaspi	Dissertation	May, 2017	Bitwise, Inc
Ashley Chung	Thesis	December, 2016	-
Shelomi Gomez	Thesis	December, 2016	-
Carla Scott	Internship	May, 2016	Tandem HR
Poonam Dhillon	Internship	May, 2016	Sears Holdings Corp.
Ben Sher	Dissertation	May, 2016	Ioatwork.com
Anjali Banerjee	Thesis	August, 2015	-
Brandon Hutton	Internship	May, 2015	Cuyahoga County
Alexandra Plesh-Anos	Internship	August, 2015	Villa Healthcare
Mandy Frolich	Internship	May, 2015	Davis Staffing
Nicholas Baldwin	Thesis	December, 2014	Roosevelt U
Lisa Yutalas	Thesis	May, 2014	Advocate Health Care
Jenna Littin	Internship	April, 2013	Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL)

Additional responsibilities include serving as a reader of dissertations, theses, and internship papers for graduate students I do not directly advise. I also work on research, conference presentations, and publications with students who work in different labs than my own. Finally, each semester the PhD faculty write and grade comprehensive exam questions. Because student milestones and development depend on these additional duties, I am committed to timely turnarounds for feedback to students. A week to two weeks is a common expectation from my students.

Student Evaluations

In the discipline of Industrial/Organizational Psychology, there are two very distinctive sub-disciplines. Industrial Psychology (I-side) focuses on more concrete steps required to legally and fairly select, hire, and evaluate employees. Teaching courses on the I-side is amenable to structure, practical steps, lecture, and the basic training of more static information. Organizational Psychology (O-side) is the opposite in nearly every way. The O-side is focused on abstract theory, why employees and leaders act and respond in certain ways, at certain times, and in certain environments. Teaching the O-side topics require acceptance of ambiguity and forcing students to think critically about when and under what circumstances theory will hold up and when it may fail. Faculty and students often have an affinity to one side or the other and the teaching style usually aligns rather well with their preference. Unfortunately, this means students get frustrated when they must take courses and be taught in a way that does not fit their preferences. I try to warn students about this when classes begin but at times, the frustration is still there. I’ve long accepted that most students will not appreciate thinking about the “it depends” and “what ifs” until long after they have left my classroom. But as a subject matter expert, I do my best to prepare the students for the experience, provide opportunities to practice skills in a real world and/or practical manner, and give the students a forum to question and stretch theories. This is all in the hopes that they will become effective organizational problem-solvers, which is the heart of I/O Psychology.