Dr. Stacie Craft DeFreitas teaches a variety of graduate psychology courses at Prairie View A & M University.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Department of Psychology, Prairie View A & M University-graduate level (all in person)

Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy

Dissertation

Ethics

Multicultural Psychology

Professional Issues in Psychology

Psychological Assessment I

Psychological Assessment II

Psychopathology

Thesis

Department of Social Sciences, University of Houston-Downtown

Abnormal Psychology, In-person, Hybrid & Online

African American Psychology, Online & Hybrid

Counseling and Psychotherapy, In-person & Online

Educational Psychology, Online

First-Year Seminar, In-person

Introduction to Clinical Psychology, In-person & Online,

Introduction to Psychology, In-person, Hybrid, & Online

Psychological Assessment, Online

Research Methods, In-person & Online

Special Projects in Psychology/Social Sciences (Independent Research), In-person & Online

Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Abnormal Psychology, In-person

Independent Research, In-person

Teaching Philosophy

Teaching Style

Through my teaching experiences and training, I have developed five goals for participants in my classes.  First, I desire that students learn the foundations of psychology so that they have a knowledge base from which they can grow.  This is generally done through lectures, classroom discussions, videos, and selected readings.  Next, I desire that students be able to apply what they are learning to the world that they interact with every day.  For example, in my Abnormal Psychology class students are assigned the task of watching a movie that portrays a mental health disorder and evaluating the validity of the portrayal as well as how the movie may influence the general population’s understanding of the disorder.  Third, I strive to foster students’ formulations of their own ideas and hypotheses about psychological issues.  To encourage this, I have students write low-stakes reflection papers about the topics discussed.  This provides them with an opportunity to recognize the remaining questions that they have and begin to develop a deeper understanding of the critical issues.  Furthermore, I ask students to evaluate theories, ideas, and research to demonstrate that they fully understand the concepts they have learned.  One assignment that I have used in my Psychological Assessment course is to have students review a psychological report and determine whether they agree with the conclusions, stating why or why not utilizing theory and knowledge of psychological assessment methods.   Finally, I believe that the two most important things that I can teach a student are critical thinking skills and writing skills; therefore, I focus on developing these in every course that I teach.  I believe that with these skills, students can be prepared for life outside of college. 

High Impact Activities

In order to move students toward my five teaching goals, I focus on the use of high impact activities.  I have noted the significant depth of learning that comes when students are more actively engaged in the course through the application of the content in real life settings or experiencing the material firsthand.  For this reason, I implement high impact activities in all of my classes through in class activities or discussions and homework assignments. In addition to smaller in class activities, I have also authored papers with students and involved students in the development of a green campaign on campus.  These more involved high impact practices are important, but are only possible for a few students per semester, therefore I make sure that I am focusing on including engaging activities within all of my classes that really challenge students to grapple with the material and produce lasting learning.

Inclusion of Ethnicity and Culture Another critical aspect of my teaching is the inclusion of ethnicity and culture in every course.  This is a fundamental that I teach all students, but it can have a very profound impact on students of color who may not be accustomed to seeing themselves in their coursework.  In order for them to truly embrace the material, they must see how it applies to their community. Further, when students learn about cultures different from their own, this increases their ability to empathize and improves interactions with people of different heritage. The way culture is incorporated into each course may differ from class to class.  For example, in Psychological Assessment, most of the discussion posts focus on an issue of culture to get students to focus specifically on that aspect of the course readings.  Students are asked to consider how culture impacts psychological assessment and determine the best way to include issues of culture in assessment.  It is clear that students are engaging with this content.  I have noticed that with the shift to a focus on culture in the Psychological Assessment discussion board, more students are choosing final paper topics that are focused on issues of culture.  Understanding and valuing the impact of culture on our lives is critical, particularly in the current social climate, therefore this element is helping students to prepare themselves for the world around them