Beyond Division Street: Carleton alumni and the Charles L. Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award

As indicated in recent reports and rankings, Carleton is widely known for its excellence in undergraduate teaching. From classrooms to labs, professors consistently foster learning environments that set their students up for future success. However, this standard for teaching does not stop at the Northfield city limits. On the contrary, there has been an interesting trend of Carleton graduates becoming award-winning professors themselves; that’s true across disciplines, but in this piece, let’s focus on psychology.

Within the past eight years, Dr. Karen Brakke ’85,  Dr. Beth Morling ’90, and Dr. Regan A. R. Gurung ’91 have all received the Charles L. Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award, which recognizes “a significant career of contributions of a psychologist who has a proven track record as an exceptional teacher of psychology.”

Brakke, Morling, and Gurung were all taught by Dr. Neil Lutsky, who has taught psychology at Carleton since 1974 and received the same award in 2011.

What about Carleton inspires psychology students to become professors, and award-winning ones at that? These psychologists credit Carleton’s environment as a whole.

“Carleton encouraged us to be ourselves,” Brakke said. “When I was there, there was not nearly as much pressure to conform, to be a particular way, or to fit in with a particular groove [as there was in other places or other schools]. We were encouraged to be ourselves and were accepted for that. That gives us confidence.”

There is indeed a certain Carleton “quirk” the student body wholly embraces, extending from extracurriculars to academics. This alleviates social pressure that may distract from learning itself, while also fostering a sense of collaboration, rather than competition.

Lutsky reflected on how he sees his own students work, describing how “students help each other” during class time and how “students will talk about what they’re learning in class with other students outside of class.” From a psychological standpoint, he explained, these moments not only cultivate a sense of community but also “reinforce curiosities and learning.”

So, it seems later success in teaching may correlate with first learning in an atmosphere of collaboration and curiosity. Carleton students graduate with this cooperative attitude and, for those who become teachers and professors, carry it into their classrooms, continuing the cycle. However, as a student who has had her fair share of late-night, caffeinated cramming sessions, I know it can sometimes be hard to approach a subject with the enthusiasm it deserves, and I find myself wondering why what I’m learning even matters. This is where Carleton professors set themselves apart, as they are quick to show how information applies to the “real world.”

“I got the feeling that Carleton faculty really took pains to show you why you should value and apply the learning,” Gurung said. “They seemed to be explicit about the philosophical decisions behind their teaching choices. And that’s important, because it’s not productive to go to a classroom and just say, ‘No phones. That’s the law.’ Instead, if I go and tell you the psychology of divided attention and multitasking and give you the choice whether to use it or not, then I’m being a more reflective teacher using psychology.”

“Our field is very closely related to the learning sciences and to teaching and learning,” Brakke added, “so we can accept the literature and relate it to what we’re doing.”

So, looking beyond a curious student body that prioritizes collaboration, the psychology professors at Carleton take learning one step further: they apply the literature they teach to the classroom itself. Graduates who become professors learn to do the same.

But what qualities of Carleton’s psychology department inspire such success within the realm of psychology teaching and the Brewer award specifically? Or, really, who at Carleton inspires such success?

“[Neil Lutsky] was one of my professors, and he had this method of testing that I really liked,” Morling said. “He would give you the essay question in advance and then have you come to class and remember your answer in the blue book. I really love that method, because there is less test anxiety, you get to think deeply about questions, and there’s still long-lasting learning.”

There is a saying echoed everywhere around campus: Carls help Carls. That couldn’t be more true within the Carleton psychology department.

“Pretty much across the board, the department has a group of excellent teachers and has had them for a long time,” Lutsky said. “One of the things you learn as a teacher is you model yourself after the teachers you’ve been exposed to. Or to put it more crudely, you steal ideas. That helps you be a better teacher. I think a lot of the students who have come through here and gone on to get PhDs have an internalized appreciation for what outstanding teaching can mean to students. Then, they aspire to do the same in their own ways.”

Lutsky’s students all confirmed that.

“A lot of the things I do now, I realize I do because of Carleton and the way [Lutsky] did things,” Gurung said. For instance, “whenever Neil presents, he will use cartoons and book covers. I realized that I don’t use cartoons as much, but I do heavily use book covers. I’ve never consciously made that link. But I think we all do this, right? We see something and we think about it and we incorporate it into what we do.”

As an interviewer, it’s a special kind of feeling to hear every one of your separate interviewees speak so highly of each other, showing how the Carleton support system continues even after graduation.

“Karen Brakke and Beth Morling and I talk to each other with some frequency,” Gurung said. “Beth and Karen have done a lot of [the same] psych service stuff I’ve done, so we run into each other now and then. Beth also has a great bestselling research methods book which I love to use when teaching research methods.” 

His contact with Morling made for another connection: “In a couple of months, I have a book coming out on the best ways to teach research methods,” Gurung said, “and Beth was nice enough to write the blurb on the back cover for me.”

Publishing books, conducting research, chairing various psychology committees — these Carleton alumni are busy! Through much deciphering (because they were all too modest to elaborate on such accomplishments, of course), it’s apparent that teaching psychology is by no means the only sphere in which these professors thrive. My question became: Where did these Brewer recipients learn to balance quality teaching with their other psychology commitments?

Morling thought back to her days in Northfield.

“Because I went to Carleton, I carried this idea to my own career: I can be a good teacher and I can do research as well,” she said. “Carleton is also a rigorous place that develops your stamina and your ability to read and write well.”

Carls across disciplines will certainly attest to this rigor, especially those in their senior year; even though students are tasked with various large assignments throughout their years on campus, the true test of stamina is your senior thesis project (aka comps). 

“[Comps] was the first time I had done that,” Morling said, “dove into all of the stuff at once and tried to make sense of it and come out with a hypothesis.”

“[Comps] was the best thing,” Gurung added. “To this day, when we Carleton people talk about our senior years and comps, there are other people that went to similar schools, but nobody had the kind of experience we had.”

To some, comps may seem like the marker of an end, but a degree from Carleton is a certificate to a lifetime of recurrent learning. This theme is also evident in the inner-workings of the psychology faculty.

“One of the things that’s so nice about Carleton is we have the Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching, where faculty get together and share ideas,” Lutsky said. “They discuss fundamental issues in teaching. I know as a faculty member, I’ve learned a tremendous amount over the course of my career from other faculty here. That’s the culture of collaboration and recursive learning.”

Carleton psychology students ultimately graduate after learning in a curious and collaborative environment, with award-winning professors they can rely on to guide their teaching, while developing the stamina to balance their schoolwork and other projects.

To reiterate: three of the past ten recipients of the Charles L. Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award are Carleton graduates. That is a remarkable feat.

An even more remarkable, and very Carleton, thing to me were the very modest responses in the face of my congratulations to these alumni.

“It’s a nice recognition, but it’s also odd to be recognized for something that my peers and I just do every day,” Brakke said. “It’s our job. We love it, but it’s odd to be singled out.”

Every year, many Carleton students graduate with degrees in psychology, going on to be researchers, therapists, and everything in between. No matter what they choose to do, they will always have a supportive network of psychologists by their side. And, who knows? There may be another Charles L. Brewer recipient in Dr. Lutsky’s classroom right now.