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Psych 101
Ron Peters made a career out of teaching introductory psychology couse to thousands of Iowa State students.
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Everyone knows where he or she was when the Challenger exploded in the
Florida sky.
And what they were doing when the planes hit the World Trade Center.
"Those are like flashbulb memories for me," said Ron Peters,
professor of psychology. "If it happened on a Tuesday or Thursday
morning, I knew exactly where I was."
Peters' location every Tuesday and Thursday morning for the last 15 years
has been Lush Auditorium on the Iowa State campus.
That's because for the last 15 years, Peters has been teaching Psychology
101, the Department of Psychology’s large-lecture introductory course,
to students in every undergraduate major offered on campus. He has team-taught
the course, teaching the first half of the offering.
Peters, who will retire at the end of May, has taught that same class
back to back to back to literally thousands of Iowa State undergrads.
In fact a conservative estimate places the number of Iowa State students
that Peters has taught in Psychology 101 at 65,000. Throw in another 10,000
to 12,000 more students that he has instructed since he first came to
Iowa State in 1963 and Peters could quite possibly have had more students
enrolled in his courses than any other faculty member in school history.
"I have thoroughly enjoyed interacting with large numbers of students,"
said Peters, who typically teaches up to 380 students in one section of
Psychology 101.
But the same course three times in one morning?
"I like to think of the Broadway performer who does the same performance
every night for one or even two years," Peters said. “"And
just like a performer I have to convey some excitement each time I get
in front of a class."
It's always been that way for Ron Peters even as a young psychology instructor
fresh from his Ph.D. studies.
"As a new Ph.D. student I wanted to teach everything to all my students
to the point where I overloaded them," he recalled. "Now I recognize
that more isn't necessarily better. I just try to make sure they understand
a fewer number of concepts."
Peters must have been doing something right in all these years. In his
Iowa State career, he has received six different teaching awards. He has
been honored by the ISU Alumni Association (Distinguished Service Award),
been a nominee for the CASE U.S. Professor of the Year honor, and received
a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) award for outstanding teaching
at the introductory level.
And in 1999, he was among the first LAS Master Teachers, selected for
his proficiency of instructing large lecture classrooms.
"I think I do an effective job of teaching," Peters said. "Students
tell me on my evaluation forms that I made a large class seem like a small
class to them.
"I constantly ask questions of them (his students)," he continued.
"Students tell me they like the course because they are psychology
majors and others tell me they liked the course despite the fact that
they hate psychology."
And although Peters will officially retire, there is the chance that he
will return to teach more Iowa State psychology students.
"It's hard for me to think I won't teach again," he said. "The
department may want me to come back and teach on a part-time basis, but
at the end of the semester I won't be a tenured faculty member any more.
"It's sort of anti-climactic to retire," Peters continued. "But
I think it's time to quit. There are lots of other things I want to be
doing."
So the next time there's a memorable event on a Tuesday or Thursday, Ron
Peters might actually have to think about where he was when it happened.
Around LAS
February 23 to March 7, 2004
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