Lauren C. Howe © All rights reserved.

 Prof. Dr. Lauren C. Howe 

University of ZURICH

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

TEACHING

My enthusiasm for teaching began during my undergraduate studies and developed through a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Reutlingen, Germany prior to beginning my PhD.

During my PhD, I taught as an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco. I also worked as a teaching consultant and the psychology department liaison at the Stanford Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning, promoting teaching-related resources, offering feedback to graduate student teachers across departments, and leading workshops on teaching.

FEATURED COURSE

In Fall 2021, I launched a new course on "Building a Human-Centered Innovation Ecosystem," where teams of Masters and PhD students from the University of Zurich rapidly developed ideas for how to make Zurich the go-to city for people innovation - the "Silicon Valley for People." Learn more about the course here, read an article in the University of Zurich News about this innovative teaching project, and check out a video about the experience: https://vimeo.com/643416676 

SAMPLE SYLLABI

Below are example syllabi for some of the courses that I've taught:​

• Leadership Research, University of Zurich, Spring 2020
  
• General Psychology (PSYC 101), University of San Francisco, Fall 2016
  
• Introduction to Social Psychology (PSYC 310/SOC 321), University of San Francisco, Spring 2016

WRITING ABOUT TEACHING

I enjoy thinking, writing, and giving presentations about effective teaching practices. Here are links to some of the writing I've done about teaching:

• Reflections on Teaching at Stanford
  
• How to Get Students Involved During Class (Even If It's a Large Lecture!)
  
• Nice Work! Giving Effective Written Feedback

Teaching Activities

I love creating new activities to try out in the classroom. Here are some I've used before. Feel free to use them in your own classes!

• Icebreaker Activity: Using Arthur Aron's "Fast Friends" paradigm to foster student connection in class and discuss being critical about media coverage of research (used in Social Psychology and General Psychology courses). Download the PowerPoint for the activity here.

• Testing Conformity: An in-class "Color Perception Task" that can be used to re-create Solomon Asch's famous "line study" using a different paradigm (I created this in case students may already know the line paradigm, used in Social Psychology courses). Download the PowerPoint and Word doc for the activity here.