UW-Green Bay
Director of CATL
Professor of Psychology
Wisconsin Teaching Fellow, 2007-08
I began my tenure-track teaching career as an Assistant Professor of Psychology at UW-Green Bay in 2002. Although I had taught full-time for two years prior to my arrival, I had never before heard the term “scholarship of teaching and learning” (SoTL). That all changed very quickly in my new teaching position. I found myself surrounded by discussions of evidence-based pedagogies and SoTL. Green Bay even had its own “local” version of the Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars program that was co-facilitated at the time by my department chair, Dr. Fergus Hughes. I joined a cohort of colleagues from across campus in 2003-04 as a UW-Green Bay Teaching Scholar. We read and discussed books about teaching and learning, engaged in reciprocal peer observation, and outlined our own potential SoTL projects. Like so many faculty members, I was a subject matter expert in my field, but I had no formal training in teaching. A whole new world was opened to me, and thereby to my students, as I began to consider the art and science of education. My first empirical SoTL study was an examination of the impact of a Tests and Measurements active learning intervention in which students in the course worked together to develop and then psychometrically evaluate a new test of a specific construct. I was fascinated by the notion of investigating what worked when it came to facilitating student learning. That led to my application to join the Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars (WTFS) program in 2006 and my selection as a member of the 2007-08 cohort.
My time as a Teaching Fellow was my first experience with significant participation in a System program. I learned a great deal about its benefits and about the amazing colleagues I had around the state. Of course, I also became a better SoTL practitioner and (I hope) a better teacher as I was exposed to the rich feedback provided by my peers and our facilitators. My own campus was also a sea of support in this area. We had alums both of WTFS and our local Teaching Scholars program who were role models and generous collaborators over the years, including Dr. Regan Gurung and former WTFS Co-Director Dr. David Voelker. The partial list of my multiple-author publications reflects the richness of the environment in which I worked and demonstrates the extent to which SoTL became prominent in my research endeavors during my career. Immersion in SoTL work also helped me when it came to consolidating my professional identity. I found myself conducting formal research on my multicultural and clinically-focused classes and writing new pieces on integrating my identities as a counseling psychologist and undergraduate educator. My work with students improved as I began to apply my therapeutic conviction that “change happens in the context of a relationship” to my teaching. Psychotherapy is simply a different form of learning after all, and after exploring existing evidence on the role of student-teacher relationships and belonging in education, I became much more intentional about the learning environments I co-created with students.
Just as my experiences with WTFS and SoTL impacted my teaching and formal research program, I was also drawn to related service opportunities. For example, I actively sought appointment to our university’s Instructional Development Council. In fact, I was a member of the group when UW-Green Bay’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL) was founded, and I was Chair in the initial year of the center’s operation. As such, I was privileged to work closely with our first Director, Dr. Heidi Fencl, on tasks such as our large January teaching conference. Over the years, my service expanded beyond the boundaries of the university to include my professional organization. I became very active in the national Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) in the American Psychological Association (APA). I was a delegate to APA’s national summit on assessment, and I coordinated STP programming for APA’s national convention for two years, organizing the peer review process and selecting the pieces that would be presented.
My interest in teaching and learning also broadened beyond SoTL given the rich conversations I was a part of at my own institution and through OPID. Early on in my career I wrote about a model of new faculty development, had the creation and evaluation of two new culturally-focused courses supported by grants from the UW System Institute on Race and Ethnicity, examined the literature on best practices in experiential learning, and blended my long-standing scholarly interest in career development with effective mentoring or curricular infusion practices faculty could use with undergraduates. I also continued to pursue professional roles consistent with these interests, eventually serving from 2018-2021 as the Director of the UW-Green Bay Teaching Scholars program mentioned previously.
Teaching Scholars was at that time a part of CATL on our campus, so I interfaced with their staff in my role, making it quite natural for me to be asked to step in as Interim Director for one semester when the permanent Director, Dr. Caroline Boswell, was scheduled to take sabbatical. When I started that job in January 2020, neither she nor I had any idea of what was about to happen. Needless to say, however, I was thrown into the deep-end of educational development as I helped the university pivot to emergency remote instruction thanks to the simply heroic efforts of the front-line CATL team and our instructors. Dr. Boswell, herself a WTFS alum and member of OPID’s Executive Committee, also couldn’t fully stay away from the Center and team she had built in the crisis. Some of our efforts during this time are documented in the book chapter we co-authored about pandemic response in higher education. Dr. Boswell left UW-Green Bay after another year in her position, and I again found myself in the Interim, and then the permanent, CATL Director role.
It feels in many ways that I have come full circle. The young professional who couldn’t wait for her opportunity in the WTFS program became a person who teaches others about distinctions between SoTL and scholarly teaching, who conducts new faculty orientation, who leads delegations to Faculty College, and who has integrated “educational developer” into the core of her professional identity. Writing this reflection has primarily, though, reinforced one major theme: gratitude. I am grateful for being part of a System, institution, and department that values teaching, as well as for being surrounded by students, colleagues, and mentors who have been consistently generous with their time, opportunities, and wisdom. My professional path would not have been possible without these gifts from others, and I hope to have the opportunity to pass them on to others as I continue my own journey.
Biography:
Kristin Vespia, Ph.D. is Director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Psychology at UW-Green Bay. She was a 2007-08 Wisconsin Teaching Fellow.
Selected Teaching & Learning Publications:
Vespia, K.M., & Boswell, C. (2024). Centering access, equity, and pedagogy in pandemic response. In R.A.R Gurung, & D. Plaza (Eds.), Higher education beyond COVID (pp. 237-253). New York: Routledge.
Vespia, K.M., Naufel, K.Z., Rudmann, J., Van Kirk, J.F., Briihl, D., & Young, J. (2020). Yes, you can get a job with that major! Goal 5 strategies for facilitating, assessing, and demonstrating psychology students’ professional development. Teaching of Psychology, 47, 305-315.
Vespia, K.M. (2020). Psychology, careers, and workforce readiness: A curricular infusion approach. Scholarship of Teaching & Learning in Psychology, 6, 163-173.
Vespia, K.M., Freis, S., & Arrowood, R. (2018). Faculty and career advising: Challenges, opportunities, and outcome assessment. Teaching of Psychology, 45, 24-31.
Vespia, K. M., & Filz, T. E. (2013). Preventing and handling classroom disruptions. In Dunn et al. (Eds.), Controversy in the psychology classroom (pp. 23-34). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Vespia, K.M., Wilson-Doenges, G., Martin, R.C., & Radosevich, D.M. (2012). Experiential learning. In B. Schwartz, & R.A.R. Gurung (Eds.), The psychology of teaching: An empirically based guide to picking, choosing, and using pedagogy (pp. 77-97). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Bartell, D., & Vespia, K.M. (2009). Teaching and learning in the “interdisciplinary discipline” of human development. In R.A.R. Gurung, N. Chick, & A. Haynie (Eds.), Exploring signature pedagogies: Approaches to teaching disciplinary habits of mind (pp. 139-160). Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Gurung, R.A.R., & Vespia, K.M. (2007). Looking good, teaching well? Linking liking, looks, and learning. Teaching of Psychology, 34, 5-10.
Vespia, K.M. (2006). Integrating professional identities: Counselling psychologist, scientist-practitioner, and undergraduate educator. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 19, 265-280.
Vespia, K.M. (2005, September 21). Becoming a teacher: Conceptualizing and facilitating new faculty development. Teaching Forum, 1.
Selected Peer-Reviewed Presentations & Recent National Podcasts:
Stombaugh, A., Vespia, K.M., Kernahan, C., Koepke, K., Schmid, M., Speetzen, E., White-Farnham, J., & Wildermuth, S. (2024, November). Relationships matter: A CTL director community of practice. Presentation at the POD Network 49th Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
Vespia, K.M., & Christian, S. (2024, July). Addressing inclusion in student-faculty and student and academic affairs partnerships. Presentation at the Improving University Teaching international conference, Milwaukee, WI.
Riforgiati, S., Delgado, D., & Vespia, K.M. (2024, April). Sitting in the seat of students: Engaging in a World Café on generative artificial intelligence and learning. Presentation at the UW System Office of Professional and Instructional Development Conference. Madison, WI.
Vespia, K.M. (2023, December). Infusing career exploration and professional development throughout the curriculum. Season 1, Episode 12 interview for the PsychSessions Careers podcast.
Vespia, K.M. (2023, August). Pushing the boundaries of critical thinking: What’s next in the era of generative AI? One of seven panelists for the American Psychological Association web-based live and archived event.
Boswell, C., Kabrhel, A., Vespia, K.M., Fencl, H., & LaGrow, N. (2021, November 19). Inclusive teaching in natural and applied science courses: The experiences of one community of practice. Session presented at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College’s Growth, Understanding, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (G.U.I.D.E.) Virtual Conference.
Boysen, G.A., Vespia, K.M., Morgan, B. (2017, April). APA resources for national assessment in psychology. Symposium presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
Vespia, K.M., Lanter, J., Bansal, G., Cupit, I., Garcia, A., & Sherman, H. (2015, April). Contemplative online pedagogy: Developing an assessment of inclusivity and equity. Panel presentation at the UW System Office of Professional and Instructional Development Conference, Green Lake, WI.