From the moment he walks into Dorman 100, 300 pairs of eyes turn to the professor with the light blue oxford shirt and colorful tie of the day, a uniform accompanied by a giant grin and chipper greeting, “Good morning, scholars.”
Forty years and 30,000 students later, Thomas Carskadon, professor of psychology, is still bursting with enthusiasm for teaching and love for his students.
“I am told I walk in looking delighted to be there, which is accurate,” he said. “To me, the first day of class in the fall is Christmas, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July all rolled into one day.”
If Carskadon’s class is Christmas, the stories he shares during his class are the presents under the tree.
Carskadon, or Dr. C as his students fondly call him, said anywhere he goes, even Disney World, he will bump into students who recall one specific story he told in class.
His legendary stories keep students on their toes and have an educational purpose. The next entertaining anecdote might come in 10 days or 10 minutes, but by keeping students guessing. Carskadon said they are likely to grab onto whatever piece of information is thrown to them and retain it.
He said it is a “parable technique,” which helps students connect to the material they need to remember while providing an illustration for hard-to-remember information.
Carskadon served as editor of the Journal of Psychological Type, the most widely used peer-reviewed academic journal in psychological type, for 33 years from 1977 to 2011.
In 1987, Carskadon began focusing on making classes and the first year of the college the best experience possible for freshmen or “freshlings,” as he affectionately calls them.
That same year, Carskadon led the development of the First Year Experience program at Mississippi State University.
Carskadon said that is when he learned something he already knew: great teachers are great because of what they do. The magic is in the method.
Exit surveys and positive feedback he has received from students prove Carskadon’s techniques and teaching style work for his social psychology, theories of personality and general psychology students.
He said a team of teaching experts from the Air Force who visited MSU in the 1970s served as his inspiration.
Carskadon said he asked himself, “How can I teach the maximum amount of material to the maximum number of students?”
In Carskadon’s classes, students are assigned seats according to their learning communities so students in his large classes will recognize classmates from their other smaller learning community classes and can easily form study groups.
Workbooks for Carskadon’s classes include outlines, space for notes and catch-up sections to keep students organized.
Student birthdays that fall on class days are celebrated with a Bop’s gift certificate and a serenade by the entire class and Carskadon himself singing “Happy Birthday,” Michael Jackson style.
Carskadon said he discovered the wonderful challenge in his general psychology class was introducing psychology to students for the first time.
He said this is often his only chance at proving its usefulness to non-psychology majors.
His personal stories and humorous teaching style forge a connection between himself and his 600 or more students.
Carskadon pinpointed the turning point of his career at MSU to when he began to think beyond his own department to the freshman experience, the university as a whole and introducing students to modern research and university life.
He said he feels he was meant to come to MSU.
“It is the best kept secret in higher education and what I have devoted my life to,” Carskadon said.
His face lights up even more as he talks away about the possibililty of teaching the children of his current students.
“I just wish my students could see themselves through my eyes. They are awesome individuals with interesting ideas,” Carskadon said. “Forty is fine, but I am looking to 60.”
 
**Editors Note** Some dates published in The Print Edition of The Reflector are incorrect and have been corrected in the online story. The Reflector regrets these errors.