Dr.
Susan Styles
1996
Excellence in Teaching Award Recipient
Dr.
Susan Styles has been a professor at Charleston Southern
University since 1988. Originally from Coral Springs, Florida,
Dr. Styles earned her B.A. from the University of South
Florida, and her master’s and doctorate degrees from
the University of Georgia in Clinical Psychology. Dr. Styles
came to CSU straight out of graduate school in 1988 and
soon discovered she enjoyed teaching more than working
in clinics counseling people directly.
Dr.
Styles uses several teaching methods in the classroom to
stimulate her students’ interest in the subject. In
Abnormal Psychology, she has structured panel discussions.
After discussing controversial topics, the students divide
into small groups, research the topics, and prepare debates.
Another interesting tool she uses in Abnormal Psychology
is popular film. She shows movies or movie clips that portray
characters with psychological disorders. The class then
discusses whether or not the disorder was depicted correctly
and accurately. Viewing disorders and the dynamics between
the characters helps the students learn to write assessment
reports. Some of the movies she has shown are A Streetcar
Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,
and Scent of a Woman.
A
third technique she uses is her personal desire to "find
the missing link." When a student is having trouble
in a particular area, Dr. Styles likes to sit down with
the student and work one-on-one in order to discover where
the student is having a problem. When she is able to pinpoint
the "missing link," she explains it to the student,
usually resulting in what she calls the "lightbulb
phenomenon." This moment of revelation in students
occurs when the student finds the missing link, and Dr.
Styles completes her mission. A final technique she uses
is incorporating the computer into the classroom.
Upon
review of student evaluations, Dr. Styles has concluded
that two factors contributing to her teaching excellence
are her sense of humor and her use of examples. Most of
her humor in the classroom is unplanned, yet it serves
to relax the atmosphere and make the relationship between
student and teacher more personal. She also feels that
examples help students relate to the topic in a way they
may not have been able to before.
Dr.
Styles insists she is "just a normal person" who
loves to go camping with her family and spend time with
her eight-year-old son. Though most of what she does off-campus
is typical mom and family activities, she said it might
surprise her students to know she enjoys playing sports
such as football and catch with her son.
