Honors Collegium 129
Research in Psychology and Legacy of John Wooden
Enrollment: Instructor Consent. Please contact Professor Karen Givvin (karen.givvin@ucla.edu) for enrollment information. Please introduce yourself, and provide your interest in the course.
Course Description: Seminar, four hours. Designed for College Honors students. Exploration of life and work of Coach John Wooden, with particular attention to his pyramid of success, how he was viewed and is remembered by his players, and relationship between his philosophy and academic research. His philosophical approach as lens through which to explore research in fields of sport and education psychology. Connects different elements of Coach Wooden’s pyramid of success (and other aspects of his coaching philosophy) to research in psychology.
Professor Karen Givvin
I’m interested in teaching and learning across domains, particularly in academics and sport. Early in graduate school, I was assigned to read an article titled, “What a coach can teach a teacher,” by Tharp and Gallimore. Though I’d been exposed to Wooden’s pyramid of success in high school, that article initiated a scholarly interest in his work. During my doctoral studies I TA’d for UCLA’s undergraduate course in Sport Psychology, in which Coach Wooden became an annual speaker. Coincidentally, after grad school, my research on teaching led me to become colleagues (and friends) with one of the authors of the article I’d read years before. Ronald Gallimore has been a guest speaker for my Honors course, bringing my history full circle.
Outside of this course, I teach Psychology and Education and conduct research related to math and statistics education. Karen Givvin
Q & A
What is your home department at UCLA? Psychology
How long have you been teaching your HC seminar? In 2017, as part of the run-up to UCLA’s centennial celebration, I taught a Fiat Lux seminar on Coach Wooden. It was through that experience that it became clear to me that there was sufficient content to warrant a larger course. I proposed such a course to the Honors Collegium in 2017 and I’ve been teaching it annually since then.
What is your favorite part about teaching this HC seminar? It’s a joy to discuss Wooden’s philosophy of coaching with students who are so engaged and eager to learn. Many have had some exposure to Coach through their parents or through coaches of their own. Others know him only through UCLA landmarks. I love it when students come to fully appreciate why Wooden is worthy of those landmarks.
What do you find to be the most compelling about the subject matter of this seminar? Although Coach’s job was to teach athletes, his philosophy is applicable to life, more generally.
I find UCLA students to appreciate his definition of success and how it compares and contrasts with other definitions to which they’ve been exposed. I also find it compelling that much of what Wooden practiced is supported by science.
What are the learning objectives for this course? The aim of the course is to take different elements of Coach Wooden’s pyramid of success (and other aspects of his coaching philosophy) and connect them to research in Psychology. For instance, Wooden’s discussions of industriousness, team spirit, and intentness can be connected to literature on incremental theories of achievement, cohesion, and grit, respectively. For each content area, study is framed within Wooden’s definitions, examining his writings and interviews on the topic, including videos of his annual visits to UCLA’s Psych 137 (Sport Psychology) course. Then, students are expected to dive deeply into primary research, understanding scientific studies related to the topic. .