University of North Texas 
Krisstal Clayton
Psychology
Clinical Professor
Office: Terrill Hall-337
Education
New Mexico State University - Las Cruces, New Mexico (2009)
Background & Teaching Interests
Greetings! I am a people-watching, music, podcast, and documentary junkie who brings
a variety of real-world application opportunities into my classroom. I regularly collaborate
with law enforcement professionals, clinicians, convicted offenders, survivors, and
victims' advocates to educate students about the many roles psychology plays in the
American legal system. In my classroom, students can expect to be actively engaged.
Past student activities have included interviewing inmates, creating mini-documentaries,
participating in mock death penalty juries, designing educational materials to teach
kids how to fight antibiotic resistance, analyzing and redesigning political advertisements
using Cialdini's Principles of Persuasion, and creating team research proposals using
project-based learning. My pedagogical research and student feedback demonstrate that my courses significantly impact how people see the world.
As an expert in pedagogy, I have presented pedagogical research and invited talks
at the National Institute for the Teaching of Psychology, was the invited keynote speaker for the 2018 UNT University Forum on Teaching and Learning, and was the recipient of the Western Kentucky University College of Education and
Behavioral Sciences Teaching Award in 2015. I frequently deliver streaming workshops
for educators, hosted by Sage College Publishing and UNT. I have taught 17 different courses throughout my academic career, ranging
from dual-credit Introduction to Psychology to a doctoral-level course called Psychology
in Performing Arts Health. I have taught on main, regional, and international campuses,
in sections from 10 to 296 students, across face-to-face, 100% asynchronous, and hybrid
modalities.
My teaching methods include, but are not limited to, gamification and simulations
for student engagement, both in person and online; community partnerships and team-based
learning; Aronson's jigsaw classroom method for project-based learning; and streaming
media as case-based learning.
Research Interests Outside the classroom, I am a textbook author for Sage College Publishing and a consulting editor for the Journal of General Psychology.
Currently, I am investigating student attitudes towards AI as a tool for either learning
or cognitive unloading; student wellness and housing insecurity; how these variables
impact academic performance; the impact of hybrid learning on FTIC students' attitudes,
performance, and belongingness; and sleep quality among women experiencing pre- or
peri-menopause. I have extensive experience mentoring undergraduate research teams.
Prior to my position at UNT, I collaborated with Southern Kentucky Rehabilitation
Hospital to develop music-paired rehabilitation therapy for persons with stroke. I
actually got to live my dream of being a psychological DJ! Who gets to do that? My
interests are broad, mainly because I want to improve people's lives, and I think
higher education offers wonderful opportunities to achieve that goal.
Community I am a certified yoga fitness instructor who collaborates with Good Vibes Yoga to provide educational opportunities to the broader DFW community. My empirically-based
workshops have included bullet journaling as a mindfulness practice and cultivating
deep listening skills using tools from Motivational Interviewing by Miller and Rollnick.