Michele Moscicki, PhD

Areas: Stress, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

 

I am interested in studying the broad areas of stress and teaching/learning and the intersection of these fields.

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Regarding stress, I am particularly interested in understanding factors contributing to variability in the effectiveness of individual stress coping, developing practical and effective stress coping interventions, reducing barriers to effective coping, and determining ways to increase the use of effective stress coping techniques. I am also interested in how stress experience affects and interacts with lateralization in structure and function of the cerebral hemispheres and how this lateralized functioning may relate to cognitive biases, personality characteristics, and stress inoculation.

 

In addition, my experience teaching undergraduate students has led to an interest in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). I am particularly interested in developing and evaluating effective methods for increasing student engagement, motivation, ability to use constructive feedback, and metacognition skills. I am also interested in how mindset (e.g., growth vs. fixed) influences both stress and learning.  My two areas of research interest are closely linked, as stress has a strong influence on learning. I aim to integrate my love of stress and learning by examining how the perception of stressors, and stress coping interventions, affect learning outcomes.

 

In 2018, I transitioned my research from predominantly animal models (i.e., convict cichlid fish) to humans. However, I am still interested in animal research and maintain collaborations to continue this work.