Two Arts & Letters Faculty Members Receive 2018 ISU Outstanding Master Teacher Awards

Michael Stubbs, Associate Lecturer, Department of English and Philosophy; and Xiaomeng “Mona” Xu, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology received the 2018 ISU Outstanding Master Teacher Awards.

“Teaching is the cornerstone of the institution,” said Laura Woodworth-Ney, Executive Vice President and Provost for Academic Affairs, “and we are very fortunate that these master teachers work in ISU classrooms, labs, and throughout the University community.

Michael Stubbs 

Stubbs has a long-lasting interest in pedagogy.  As a teenager, he taught swimming lessons to children. From 2000-2003 he taught Spanish to missionaries, and throughout his undergraduate and graduate college careers he worked as a writing tutor at three different universities. It was in this setting that he developed a love for working one-on-one with writers trying to solve the problem of communicating difficult ideas.

Prior to teaching English full-time at ISU, Stubbs taught classes as a graduate teaching assistant in Alaska from 2003-2005. He taught freshman composition and a course in writing for the social and natural sciences. As a doctoral fellow at Idaho State University in 2006 and 2007, he continued his exploration of pedagogy. His teaching internships at ISU examined different methods of teaching composition and environmental literature.

Stubbs has been teaching full-time at Idaho State University since 2010 when he was hired as an assistant lecturer by the Department of English and Philosophy. He is now an associate lecturer and teaches both composition and literature every semester. His writing courses range from first-year composition and developmental writing workshops to courses in critical reading and writing. His literature courses are generally introductory; however, he also teaches surveys in world literature and in American literature. His research and interest in nature and environment influences both his reading and writing courses.

Xiaomeng "Mona" Xu

Xu received her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology with honors from New York University, and had minors in gender and sexuality studies and English and American Literature. She earned her Master of Arts degree in psychology and Ph.D. in social health psychology from Stony Brook University and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship sponsored by the National Institutes of Health at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and The Miriam Hospital.

Xu teaches both in-seat and online courses for both undergraduate and graduate students. Her courses include social psychology, human sexuality, close relationships, social neuroscience, professional development and writing, and teaching of psychology. She regularly attends teaching conferences to learn about empirically-based best practices and engages in pedagogy training from courses through Quality Matters and the ISU Instructional Technology Resource Center for eISU’s Quality+ Online Teaching Certification
Program.

Xu’s teaching aims are for students to gain appreciation for the research process and psychology as a science, to hone fundamental skills such as critical thinking, and to increase their psychological knowledge so they are better able to understand themselves and others.

In addition to coursework, Xu advises psychology majors and minors and ISU’s chapter of Psi Chi, the International Honors Society in Psychology. Xu’s research focuses on cardiovascular and behavioral health, close relationships, neuroimaging and pedagogy. She includes students in all aspects of her research and mentors both graduate and undergraduate students as they conduct projects including theses and dissertations, write manuscripts and grant applications, present at conferences and secure careers that utilize their psychology training.