Nick Kellar is a senior, double majoring in psychology and history. He's also a member of the University Honors program.
Kellar will be graduating in the fall and has plans to attend graduate school. He is a co-author on two conference posters, as well as a second author on a manuscript with instructor Ryan Hjelle. He’s continuing to develop additional research projects under Hjelle’s mentorship.
For his project, titled “Predictors of Classroom Expression,” he worked with Hjelle as well as student Nick Catlett. They looked into factors that may affect a person’s willingness to contribute in the classroom.
“We ran a correlational study about understanding if any given student’s religious commitment, political alignment, sex, or personality traits could be associated with how much or little they would feel comfortable contributing to in-class discussion of noncontroversial or controversial topics like race, gender, politics, sexuality, and religion,” explains Kellar. “Essentially, we wanted to see how holding certain beliefs would impact your in-class participation.”
This line of research could have relevant implications for higher education and social cohesion. “I believe that it is important that dialogue continues across both aisles to prevent further polarization and allow for the expansion of people's perspectives. It is a responsibility of higher education to lead the way in this development and discussion,” says Kellar. “It seems like the best way to avoid any seeming ‘echo-chambers’ of strongly held beliefs in a university is to have interpersonal relationships and interactions with folks in a controlled, learning-oriented environment like a classroom, where faculty should be able to facilitate the discussion.”