October/November 2015
Ed Psych Society
What is going on at EPS? In this Issue:
 Gearing up for our November Supply Drive
 Meet your EPS Members
 Meet the newest Ed Psych Faculty Member!
November Supply Drive!
During the month of November, the EPS will be holding its annual supply drive for the Greeley
Transitional House. This organization provides emergency shelter and comprehensive support to
families in crisis. Please help us help them!
You can place needed supplied in the decorated boxes located on each floor of McKee. Please
take a moment to review the most needed items from the list below. Please note: Clothes are not
a severe need for the Greeley Transitional House.



Baby Items
o Food
o Diapers
o Wipes
Personal Care Items
o Shampoo/Conditioner
o Soap
o Deodorant
o Toothpaste/Toothbrush
Household Cleaning Items
o Laundry Detergent
o Disinfectants
o General Cleaning Products






Housewares (Gently used is okay!)
o Linens
o Towels
o Pillows
o Lamps
Kitchenware & Small Appliances
o Dishes
o Glasses
o Pots and pans
Toys for children
Canned food
First-Aid Supplies
Office Supplies
Maha BenSalem
Maha is a member of the Educational Psychology Society
Hi! I am Maha. I am from
Tunisia. I am a graduate student in
Educational Psychology. I am in
my third semester in the
master/Ph.D en-route program. I
have been in the United States for
5 years. I first came to the States
as Fulbright Teacher assistant of
Arabic at Colorado State
University. Then, I joined the
University of Northern Colorado
and earned a master’s degree in
English Language and Literature.
Before I came to the States, I
was a college teacher of Translation
and Linguistics at the University
of Arts of Sousse. I have a
master’s in Theoretical linguistics
from University of LaManoubaTunisia. Also, I was an active
member of several cultural
organizations in Tunisia and
participated in many Euro-Med
peace projects around Europe.
Now I am an Intensive English
Instructor at the Center of
International Education at UNC.
Before that, I taught Arabic
language for two years at Colorado
various learning and teaching
experiences. So, I’ve developed an
interest in culturally diverse
learners, cultural psychology,
psychology of prejudice, learning
styles and culturally responsive
teaching. Currently, I am studying
the influence of learning styles on
academic adjustment and academic
achievement of international and
domestic students at UNC.
In Tunisia, I grew up in the east
coast city of Sousse, right by the
beautiful Mediterranean Sea. I do
miss the gentle sea breeze and the
smell of the beach. Here in
Colorado, I like to go hiking and
being around nature whenever I can.
I love UNC community and I
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Emily Moulton
Emily is a member of the Educational Psychology Society
I just started my first year in the
Educational Psychology Ph.D. program.
After completing an undergraduate degree
in psych at Brigham Young University, I
continued at BYU to earn an Ed.S. degree in
School Psychology. For the past five years,
I’ve been working as a school psychologist
in Colorado. In fact, I continue to work parttime for Poudre School District in Fort Collins.
My long-term goal is to eventually teach at
the university level and do research. My
current research interests include learning
disabilities, the assessment of cognitive skills,
and social-psychological interventions.
I grew up in New Hampshire and enjoy
visiting periodically, to see family and
Colorado Springs, so I often go down there to
hang out with my niece and two nephews. I
love sports, including playing, watching, and
coaching. Other hobbies include reading good
books and hanging out in the Colorado
sunshine, often simultaneously.
friends. My sister and her family recently
moved to
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M: For those who might not
have met you yet, can tell us
about yourself? Are you a
Colorado native? Did you
grow up here?
Dr. Molly
Jameson is
the most
recent
addition to
the
Educational
Psychology
Department
at UNC.
Let’s take a
moment and
get to know
her!
By Maha
BenSalem.
Dr. Jameson: I am from
Indiana and I lived in Indiana
for most of my life until I got
a job in Ohio. I moved to
Ohio in 2009 and I was there
until I moved here. I always
wanted to live in Colorado,
though.
M: Where did you go to
college?
Dr. Jameson: For my
undergraduate, I went to
Indiana State University,
which is in Southern Indiana
and for my masters and my
doctorate, I went to Ball State
University, which is in East
Central Indiana.
M: What was your major?
How did you decide on it?
Dr. Jameson: As an
undergraduate, I switched my
major nine times. Three of
those nine were psychology.
But, I actually started off as a
theater major and then
realized how political the
theater field was. I switched
to psychology and did not
have a good experience with
my Intro professor. It was not
very engaging and not very
interesting. So, I switched to
several liberal art areas. I was
a sociology major, an
anthropology major, and a
criminal justice major. Then,
I switched to business, then to
accounting. Then I switched
back to psychology.
I thought if I keep coming back to
it that means I liked it better than
anything else. I come from a home
of psychologists. My mom is a
clinical social worker; both of my
sisters have either social work or
psychology degrees. So I definitely
grew up hearing about Freud,
Jung, and that kind of stuff. I
minored in history because I liked
history. I just like reading about it
and talking about it. That was my
minor as an undergrad.
M: Do you like a specific historic
period?
Dr. Jameson: I like modern
history. My favorite period is from
Civil War up to the 1960’s. I liked
the 60’s a lot: the culture,
revolutionaries, and people not
being apathetic to social injustice.
M: What is your field of
expertise?
Dr. Jameson: I am an educational
psychologist. When I was in my
doctoral program, I got two
specializations: statistics/research
methods and human development.
In my research, I tried to combine
those two. I like to do scale
development. I created and
published my own scale. I like to
tweak it, modify it, and assess the
validity and reliability of it. My
main area is math anxiety. I look
at it from a developmental
perspective, elementary kids up
through adult non-traditional
learners.
M: Where did you teach before
UNC?
Dr. Jameson: Before I came to
UNC I was a tenured associate
professor at Youngstown State
University in Northeast Ohio. It
was scary to give that up. I was
there for six years and felt ready
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for a change. I wanted to get
exposure to graduate students:
we didn’t have graduate students
at all in the programs in our
department. So I didn’t get to
teach or mentor graduate
students. I was looking for that
opportunity to work with
graduate students as well as
undergraduates.
M: How did you get interested in
Educational Psychology?
Dr. Jameson: Coming out of my
undergraduate program, I
thought that I wanted to be an
evolutionary social psychologist.
I didn’t know that there were
only three programs in the entire
country that offer evolutionary
social psych. These programs are
really highly ranked programs.
Directly out of my
undergraduate, I applied to those
three places as well as to other
straight social psych places. They
were all PhD programs. I did not
do the process very well. I did not
ask for help. I did it all on my
own. I didn’t get anywhere.
So I took a year
off and evaluated
what I wanted to
do. I asked for
help, and
someone
suggested that I
apply for masters
program. I had a
lot of research experience. I won
awards as an undergraduate
student; I had good grades. I
applied to several masters
programs, got accepted to all of
them, but picked the one at Ball
State because it was a cognitive
and social psych program. I
thought, “This might be cool; I
like cognition. I liked working
with kids and figuring out why
kids do the things that they do.”
I loved social psychology, but I
loved cognition way more. I did
a thesis on memory during my
masters program. I was thinking,
“How could I combine all the
things that I like?” I have never
heard of educational psychology
before someone from my teacher
college gave a presentation to
our program. So I applied to the
educational psychology program
at Ball University. The program
had a lot of known people. There
was a professor known in the test
anxiety world and I did math
anxiety. So it was very fortunate
happenstance to learn about Ed
Psych. I liked Ed Psych because
it was so applied. I liked that my
math anxiety research can help
kids and make a difference.
M: What kinds of professors
were your favorites or least
favorite?
Dr. Jameson: There was one
professor from my
undergraduate that stands out in
my mind. Actually, I dedicated
my dissertation
to him because I
think very
strongly that I
would not have
gone to do a
PhD if it was not
for him. I took
statistics as an
undergraduate
and I had a lot of anxiety. So
pretty quickly in statistics, I get
lost. I was embarrassed and I did
not want ask questions. On one
of the tests, my anxiety was so
high that I burst into tears and I
thought I could not do it. I ended
up with C- in that class. And he
came to me and said, “Molly
you are not a C- student you are
graduate school material and I
think getting a C-will hold you
back.”
I was going to grad school and
he suggested I take the class
again. So he said, “Ask
questions, come to my office
hours.” I did and I got an A+
the second time. He asked me
to join his research team. Then
he invited me to do a senior
honor thesis under his
supervision. He was very
supportive and I credit him a
lot for making me believe in
myself, helping me build that
efficacy that I needed to be
successful because stats isn’t
really math. It’s a foreign
language that uses numbers.
He told me he believed in me
and that really mattered.
He and other professors were
good mentors. I think I try to
model who I am as a professor
after certain handful of people
who were extremely supportive
of students. I have expectations
from my students. I try to be
supportive, very example
based, try to be engaging.
My father is Native American.
We are a very oral story telling
culture. We talk about the real
world significance of things
and application and
meaningfulness. Knowledge
for the sake of knowledge is
great, but knowledge can be
used. So my favorites were
those who can teach in
different ways, did not lecture
the whole time but mixed it up
with practice problems,
demonstrations, and question
and answer session. For those
professors, it was not just a job
but a part of who they are. I
tell my students being a
professor is part of my identity.
I am a mom, a wife, I am a
professor. Those are part of
who I am.
(Continued)
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My least favorites were the
professors who used the same
material, never updated it, those
who are very authoritarian and
not flexible. I remember when
my father died in my sophomore
year of college and most of my
professors were really
accommodating and
understanding. However, one
professor said, “You still have to
do the quiz.” I was not there for
the quiz and he gave me a zero.
As a professor, you have to have
rules, but you have to be
flexible. But I was fortunate to
have many professors who
modeled the kind of professor I
wanted to be.
M: What are your favorite
topics to teach?
Dr. Jameson: That’s a hard one
because there’s only a few that I
don’t like. If I have to pick one
absolute favorite, I choose
assessment. I like teaching it
because it does not overlap with
other areas. In psychology, you
hear a lot of the same things in
various classes, but assessment
in something new to a lot of
people. You teach foundational
knowledge, how to apply it,
how to evaluate,
and it how to
create with it.
Also, I like it
because I think
lot of people
dismiss or just
don’t think
about, for
instance, how
the quality of
the scale they are using makes a
huge difference. People often
use a scale that somebody else
used that nobody ever assessed
whether it’s a good scale or
sucky scale.
I also like to teach learning or
cognition because most people in
psychology know little about
those. I find what a lot of people
think are misconceptions or do
not understand how learning
works. For example, students
trying to cram
before an exam
clearly shows
they do not
understand how
learning and
memory work. I
am a parent, so I
have a lot of real
world experience
and examples for
both learning
and cognition that show how our
brains work and how learning
works or does not work. I think
these are interesting topics.
M: What are some of your
hobbies?
Dr. Jameson: A lot of my
hobbies involve kid activities. I
am a parent. I have a daughter
who is almost four. Her name is
Adelaide. She loves Bob Marley
and reggae music. She loves to
dance. So these days, my hobbies
involve painting, arts, or sand
crafts. Also, I love to
hike. I’ve been to the
mountains every
weekend we’ve been
here. I am a huge
bibliophile; I love
books. I read all the
time. I like sci-fi and
fantasy, a lot of good
young adult books. I am
also a photographer. I
do photography and also I do
scrapbooking. I haven’t had
much time as I used to since
having a child and moving across
the country, but it s something I
really like to do.
M: You mentioned how much
you love books, what book do
you love the most and would
recommend?
Dr. Jameson: Oh my goodness,
that is an impossible question!
Ok , so I am
going to have
three answers to
that. Answer one
is for a series:
Harry Potter, I am
a huge Harry
Potter fan. I
really wait for
the day I will
start reading it to
my daughter.
Another one is the Book Thief.
This is probably the first book
I’ve read then said, “That book
changed my life.” It was
amazing. The last one is called
the Night Circus. I have never
read a book like it and I have
read thousands of books. It is
creative and otherworldly. It’s
really good. I own copies of
them and I tell people you have
to read these books all the time.
My academic book that you
have to read is How Children
Succeed. That is a book that I tell
every educational psychologist I
come across and everyone who
wants to be a teacher, this is a
book you have to read. It talks
about social emotional learning
and how it is just as important
as cognitive ability.
M: What advice can you offer
me as a graduate student?
Dr. Jameson: I have a lot. My
first would be get involved in as
much research as you possibly
can. Being involved in research
is about more than
(Continued)
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learning methodology. Being
involved in research shows you
time management skills,
creativity, being able to
collaborate with others, writing
skills, how to think outside the
box, and how to be logical and
linear. All these are useful
whether you are going to
become an academician or not.
That’s my biggest advice. My
second advice is to be visible in
the department. It gives the
reputation that you are
dedicated. The non-academic
advice is to take time for you.
Graduate school gets extremely
intense and can be extremely
hectic and overwhelming. If you
don’t time for you, you will get
burnt out. When I was in
graduate school there was this
TV show that I really liked. It
didn’t matter how much work I
had to do. Tuesdays at 10
o’clock, I was sitting on my
couch, beer on one hand and
ball of popcorn in the other and
I was watching my TV show.
That was one way I can
guarantee I had one hour a week
where I did something for me.
It’s really important to take that
time.
where we both come from. And
we both decided we moved to
Colorado not to live in Indiana,
but to live in Colorado. So we
live in Loveland. We are very
close to the mountains. It’s very
nice. We wake up every morning
and we see the mountains out of
our bedroom window. But I am
in Greeley a lot since I work
here. I like it because it reminds
me from where I grew up. I grew
up in in a very rural agricultural
area. Greeley reminds me of
home.
I found good food in Greeley. I
love it here generally. I love the
sunshine. Where I lived for the
past 6 years the sun did not
shine. It was one of the greyest
cloudiest areas in the country. So
here I am like Yay! Sunshine! I
love the field and the cows and I
find people here really nice, so
much nicer than the people
where I lived for the last 6 years.
I find there is a lot to do here. A
lot of events, fairs, festivals and
activities. And I haven’t noticed
yet the terrible smell that people
talk about. I can smell cows but
the awful smell people talk
about? I have not smelled it.
M: How do you like Greeley?
Dr. Jameson: Actually I don’t
live in Greeley. Here is the
reason why. Greeley reminds
my husband and I of Indiana
Thank you, Dr. Jameson!
Please join
us for our
biweekly
meetings!
The Ed
Psych
Society
meets every
other
Wednesday
at 11:15 a.m.
in McKee
20. Our next
meeting is
Wednesday,
October 28,
2015. We
hope to see
you there!
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