The Psychology Department’s outstanding teaching record contributes substantially to FIU’s goal of enhancing undergraduate teaching while broadening graduate and professional programs. The Psychology Department has historically been one of the major contributors to the pedagogical accomplishments of the College of Arts and Sciences. Indeed, Psychology is unique in the breath of its course offerings at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and in the strength of its impact on the teaching mission of the College and the University. The department has more than 1600 undergraduate majors and over 100 graduate students and offers courses across the full spectrum of lower division, upper division, masters, and doctoral courses.
In maintaining this level of effort, the Department has managed to achieve a successful balance between undergraduate and graduate course offerings, thereby sacrificing neither the quantity nor the quality undergraduate teaching in the service of graduate education and achievement of its status as a top research department. The Department, for example, not only teaches the highest number of upper division courses in College, but these upper division courses also include a diverse array of low enrollment advanced laboratory courses for seniors that offer direct “hands-on” experience in basic and applied areas of psychology. Moreover, the Department has managed to maintain a successful balance between undergraduate and graduate course offerings while playing a central role in contributing to the phenomenal growth that the University has undergone over the past decade. In fact, the Department’s contribution as a driving force in the growth of the College and of the University across all levels has indeed been unique. The Department was, for example, the only department to rank in the top three highest in three of the four teaching levels (Upper Division Undergraduate, Masters, and Doctoral). It also had the highest Upper Division Total Annual FTEs in the College by a wide margin, attesting to its substantial contribution to both undergraduate and graduate education.
These accomplishments, moreover, represent a continuation and expansion of the role that the Psychology Department has historically played as one of the College’s leading teaching departments. The Psychology Department has thus been (and continues to be) a top department with respect to teaching excellence and has continued to make significant efforts to further enhance its contribution in this area. Indeed, a substantial number of its full professors have won teaching awards.
