Dr. Brown-Kramer (known as Dr. BK to her students) joined the faculty at UNL as a lecturer in 2012 and an Assistant Professor of Practice in 2016. She attained the rank of Associate Professor of Practice in 2021.
Courses Taught at UNL (2012-present):
- PSYC 100: Career Planning for Psychology Majors (enrollment: 190)
- PSYC 181: Introduction to Psychology (enrollment: 150 to 440)
- PSYC 181H: Introduction to Psychology - Honors (enrollment: 20)
- PSYC 288: Psychology of Social Behavior (enrollment: 140)
- PSYC 288 - WHT: Psychology of Social Behavior - William H. Thompson Learning Community (enrollment: 20)
- PSYC 462/862: Motivation & Emotion (enrollment: 40)
- PSYC 483/883: Advanced Social Psychology (enrollment: 40)
Teaching Awards & Grants:
- UNL Center for Transformative Teaching grants (2020):
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- Incubation Fund Grant for a scholarship of teaching and learning project examining introductory psychology students' learning strategies and the outcomes of in-class intervention attempts to improve students' use of effective strategies
- Pedagogic Intervention Grant with Manda Williamson and Chelsea Witt to develop online recitation activities to increase active learning and deep understanding of the most difficult concepts in introductory psychology
- Society for the Teaching of Psychology Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Reseach Grant (2020): Nationally competitive grant awarded to 5 researchers across the country to conduct research on topics related to teaching and learning. My project is titled, “Interventions to improve student learning strategies.”
- UNL College of Arts and Sciences International Travel Award (2020): Competitive internal grant awarded for international travel to present at a research conference
- Society for the Teaching of Psychology International Travel Grant (2019): Nationally competitive grant awarded to 6-8 faculty members annually for international travel to attend and present at a psychology teaching conference
- UNL Kelly Grant Recipient (2018-2019): Part of the Successful Teaching with Affordable Resources (STAR) Initiative at UNL, the Kelly Grant provides support to faculty members adopting and adapting open educational resources (OERs) in their classes to increase educational affordability and accessibility for all students
- Society for the Teaching of Psychology Early Career Professional Grant (2-time recipient, 2018 & 2019): Grant awarded annually to 20 early career professionals nationwide to enable travel to psychology teaching conferences
- UNL College of Arts & Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award (2018): 6 awards are given annually among the 537 faculty members across the College in recognition of excellence in teaching
- UNL Family & Friends Association Award for Contributions to Students (2018, 2020, 2021): This award is given annually to faculty or staff members who have made a significant contribution to their students’ lives while at the University
- Frank Costin Memorial Award for Excellence, National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology (2018): Presented in honor of Dr. Frank Costin, founder of NITOP, this award is given annually “for the poster judged by the Institute faculty to be most outstanding in terms of contributing to excellence in teaching psychology,” and was awarded based on my poster titled Learning how to learn: Encouraging students to adopt effective learning strategies through an empirical paper assignment in Introduction to Psychology
- Teacher of the Year Award, UNL Psychology Department (2016-2017): Presented annually by psychology students to one faculty member in the psychology department “who has made a positive difference in the lives of students”
Research Interests:
My primary research interest lies in the scholarship of teaching and learning--namely, how student learning and instructors' teaching can be improved through the investigation and application of systematic, empirical research in both laboratory and classroom settings. Current projects include:
- Testing the effectiveness of an Introduction to Psychology empirical paper assignment in which students explore and apply evidence-based learning strategies to their own studying behavior (Brown-Kramer, 2021a; Brown-Kramer, 2021b; both published in Teaching of Psychology; summary chapter forthcoming in an ebook from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology)
- A comparison of the implicit association test (IAT) and first-person shooter task (FPST) as tools to help students learn about and reflect upon measures of implicit bias in Advanced Social Psychology (with Amy Hillard, Adrian College, currently in press at Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology)
- Implementing an undergraduate learning assistant (ULA) program to improve introductory psychology students' outcomes and ULAs' academic and professional development
- Examining the effects of various strategies to engage students actively in peer-lead discussions in Advanced Social Psychology
- Nationally competitive grant awarded to 5 researchers across the country to conduct research on topics related to teaching and learning. My project is titled, “Interventions to improve student learning strategies.”