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Abbey Professor Kicks Off CANTOP: A New Network Of Local Psychology Teachers

Network will prove to be beneficial for students.

Teachers of college-level psychology say they sometimes feel isolated and hungry for contact with colleagues, so recently some of them took action.

Fifteen psychology professors left their classrooms and kicked off a new organization devoted to ending that isolation and improving their teaching.

The Charlotte Area Network for the Teaching of Psychology (CANTOP) held its inaugural conference in the Haid Ballroom at Belmont Abbey College. The conference was funded by a grant from the Charlotte Area Educational Consortium that was matched by Belmont Abbey College.

The “founding fifteen” CANTOP members shared ideas for teaching critical thinking and helping students develop skills such as finding, evaluating, and writing about high-quality scientific studies about human behavior, mental processes, and emotion.

Dr. Leighton Stamps of Belmont Abbey College and Dr. Tracy Griggs of Winthrop University served as panelists, sharing stories about teaching and testing students for information literacy skills. The volume level in the meeting room rose as participants animatedly asked questions and swapped ideas in smaller discussion groups.

With input from steering committee members from several schools, the conference was organized by Dr. Nathalie Coté, Chair of the Psychology Department, and Dr. Carol Brooks, Director of Stewardship and Strategic Development at Belmont Abbey College and the College’s representative to the Charlotte Area Educational Consortium. By the end of the afternoon, teachers from Gaston College, Gardner-Webb University, Queens University of Charlotte, Winthrop University, Belmont Abbey College, Davidson College, Catawba College, UNC-Charlotte, and Wingate University had constructed the foundations for a network of bridges among the psychology departments of local colleges.

Plans are already underway for next year’s conference.

CANTOP Steering Committee Members. (Back row): Dr. Leighton Stamps of Belmont Abbey College, Dr. Jim Morgan of Gardner-Webb University. (Front row): Dr. Ann Calhoun-Sauls of Belmont Abbey, Dr. Nathalie Coté of Belmont Abbey, Dr. Lyn Boulter of Catawba College.

Permission to reprint article granted by the author, Dr. Nathalie Coté, Associate Professor and Chair of the Psychology Department at Belmont Abbey College. www.BelmontAbbeyCollege.edu