On the Rhodes faculty since 1979, Dr. Walton has taught a wide variety of topics, including interdisciplinary courses team-taught with faculty members in Biology, Economics, English, History, Mathematics, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology, and Theatre. She enjoys encouraging students to think broadly about the intersections between psychology and other disciplines, and she welcomes students from other majors in most of her classes.
An early adopter of community-based learning pedagogies, Dr. Walton has had students in her Developmental Psychology class involved in work with children in a variety of off-campus settings since 1982. This course seeks an even balance between the discussion of theory, the learning of research findings, and engagement with current issues pertaining to the well-being of children. Each semester the class takes on a different issue, and students work in teams to gather information and to frame a discussion about all aspects of the issue. Sometimes these result in public presentations; sometimes they culminate in a report to a service agency or to policy makers. In recent semesters, the course projects have been:
2008 Children and the Arts
2006 Children in Crises and Natural Disasters
2005 Children and Violence
2004 Effects of Racism on Children (50 years after Brown v. Board of Education)
2003 Children and Technology
B.A., M.A. and Ph.D University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Phi Beta Kappa)
Developmental Psychology
Foundational Issues in Psychology
Adolescent and Early Adult Development
Psychology of Women
Psychology of Language and Communication