Dan Czech, Associate Professor
Health and Kinesology

Dr. Dan Czech - Sailing in Key West

Background

Dan Czech is an associate professor, graduate program director and sport psychology coordinator in the Department of Health and Kinesiology at Georgia Southern University. He also assists the athletic department as the staff sport psychology consultant.

Dan earned the B.S. in Psychology and Physical Education from Denison University, the M.S. in Exercise Science from Georgia Southern University, and the PhD in Sport Psychology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

In the summer months, he works for Major League Baseball International as a Baseball Envoy, where he has traveled to over 45 countries developing the game and teaching performance psychology. Dan is also a certified mental consultant for numerous professional football basketball and baseball players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) National Football League (NFL), and Major League Baseball (MLB) respectively.

His research interests include the effects of optimism and pessimism on performance, changing healthy behavior in college aged individuals, the cultural/social aspects of sport and exercise, the use of prayer as a mental enhancement technique and the usage of psychological skills to enhance perforamcne. He has published his research in numerous scholarly journals, has produced 2 books, 6 book chapters, and just finished his third book geared toward athletes and sexual addiction. He was recently named “Researcher of the Year” in the College of Health and Human Sciences.

Dan Czech and son Tucker

Dan is married to Melinda Czech, the former GSU All-American Diver, and more recent 2007 Southern Conference Diving Coach of the Year for GSU. Melinda and Dan have a wonderful son named Tucker and a precious daughter named Rivers, who are the light of their lives. Dan enjoys all sport and fitness activities, attending movies, teaching in Key West, Florida, listening to reggae music, traveling to distant countries, praying, reading the Bible, and taking his wife out on dates.

Teaching and Learning Philosophy

I believe in the following message that I send to all of my students every semester:

YOU are why I am here. Whether you need guidance on a specific health, exercise and/or sport topic, help with a personal problem, or a question about something outside of my class, JUST ASK ME and I will try to assist you. There are both opportunities and responsibilities for you in my classes. Your opportunity is to learn and share. Your responsibilities are to expand your own mindset, and improve your intellect (e.g., improve your intelligence on exercise, health, and sports concepts). Take advantage of the opportunities and accept the responsibilities that my classes entail I expect you to master the basic and learn the complex, complete your work in a timely manner, make it the BEST work that YOU can do, and apply what you have learned to your life. I am a firm believer that too many students take classes simply to increase their grade point average, as opposed to seizing a class to learn and share. It is important to note that I want you to learn and share in my classes. Because of this philosophy, I want you to FOCUS all of your concentration not toward grade outcome, but rather toward gaining a synthesis of knowledge and doing the best you can. If you do this, success is imminent.

As an associate professor in upper level and graduate exercise science courses, the majority of my students are experienced undergraduate students and graduate students. With that in mind, I have four main objectives for their learning experiences:

1. to teach the appreciation for sport, health, and exercise psychology,
2. to teach the importance of caring and giving
3. to provide fundamental knowledge and tools applicable to my students’ career and life after Georgia Southern University, and
4. to enhance self-awareness and understanding of the world around them and the people in it.

I incorporate these objectives by allowing the various aspects of who I am, both professionally and personally, to integrate into my interaction as I take an active role in my students’ learning. My students not only see the teacher in me, they also see the sport and exercise consultant who is sensitive to the psycho-social-cultural context within which they learn, the researcher who is abreast of the current research, but most of all, they see a person who is very passionate about what he is doing.

Teaching of Sport and Exercise Psychology

I believe that my graduate and undergraduate students do not come to class as blank slates and often bring with them preconceived notions about the field of sport and exercise psychology. These notions may consist of false assumptions, over-generalizations, and ideologies that show a lack of understanding for the science of sport and exercise psychology. As a teacher, a certified sport psychology consultant, and a researcher, it is important for me to acknowledge that but to also provide my students with a well-informed view of sport and exercise psychology. However, before I can challenge them to think in a different manner, I must first help my students view the relevance of sport and exercise psychological concepts in their lives. I bring sport and exercise psychology to life by providing examples my students can grasp based on what they know of the world. I break large theories down to possible answers to every-day life questions for athletes and exercisers (i.e., what characteristics of a coach do you like? why do athletes conform to team norms?) to make the connection between book knowledge and real life issues. Applied activities are used to help students “see, feel, and touch” what sport and exercise psychology is all about.

Because they do have experience, I encourage students to use their life experiences when learning the course material. I involve students in activities, ask for examples from their lives, and allow time for reflection and reactions to the various course discussions. For example, in my undergraduate sport and exercise psychology class, I have them work together in a group to come up with a 30 second dance routine. The groups are picked at random and their performance is judged by a panel of my colleagues. The winning group receives extra credit. Because of the judgment, the extra credit and the randomization of groups, I have found students really get to experience “team dynamics” at its best as they try to win the competition. With this outcome orientation, many times state anxiety increases and thus we discuss the experience of going through such an event. As I have found through my teaching experiences like the one described, once students are engaged and excited about the material, they will begin to proactively ask questions, think critically, and search for connections and relevance on their own. All the while they gain a better understanding and appreciation for sport and exercise psychology as a scientific study.

Team Learning Process

Team Building through Paintball

I believe that optimal learning occurs when it is done in a team fashion between students and the professor. In my opinion, students not only learn from me and from each other, but that I learn from my them as well. This applied connection and energy created between my students and me is a significant teaching technique that I use in creating an optimal experience. By sharing with them my four teaching objectives, students know that I truly care and am invested in them. My role as the “classroom coach” is not only a source of knowledge and support, buts as a road to other resources. Students know that I am approachable, available to answer questions, and genuinely invested in their learning and growth. My goal is to be student centered, capable, flexible, and aware of the distinctiveness amongst my students. As I have learned through my teaching experiences, my role as a teacher vacillates throughout the learning process. I try to find that delicate balance between having a more directive active lead and having a more facilitative observer role. Depending on the course material, class dynamics, and student needs, the shifting of roles continues throughout my graduate and undergraduate courses. I believe there are times to teach and times to let the learning take place on its own. With that in mind, I frequently use myself as a springboard for illustration of concepts and for difficult dialogues. When appropriate, I use my personal experiences to help students grasp the information, make the connection between the text and real life, and also to challenge my students to reflect on their thoughts and behaviors. I then take a step back to allow them to wrestle with their discomfort as they self-reflect. These difficult self talk moments and self-reflections, I think, can teach students in levels far beyond mere book explanations.

Learning Beyond the Walls of Georgia Southern

Czech talking life with two students on Key West trip

More recently, I have developed and planned experiences for students to learn outside the walls of Georgia Southern University. From learning how to change their behavior to a more healthy lifestyle in Key West, Florida, to having my graduate students lead elite NFL prospects in psychological skills training, to developing the necessary pedagogy skills for graduate teaching assistants within the department, to advising over 24 student research presentations at the Graduate Student Symposium and Phi Kappa Phi Research Consortiums, to traveling over 12 hours with 15 graduate students to International Sport Psychology conferences, I enjoy the view of students learning. I also enjoy the process of planning or as I like to say it “daydreaming for learning experiences.” To me, there is nothing more satisfying than planning a learning centered event in another place and seeing students enjoy and learn a great deal.

I challenge my students to broaden their minds by enhancing their awareness of multi-culturalism. By asking students how applicable a concept is across different cultures and sport environments, I challenge them to think critically. For example, in the “Dance Routine” dialogue described above, students are asked to think about issues such as peer pressure faced by those who may not adhere to what the group is doing, trying to understand the differences between gender, race, and age and the importance of understanding and challenging ingrained power issues when interacting. When we talk about how stereotypes can positively and negatively impact how we interact with others, I challenge them to apply what their learning to future interactions with other people. It is very rewarding when students tell me that they now think differently and how they have utilized a theoretical concept learned in to explain an experience. These personal applied experiences speak a great deal about the learning that takes place in my classroom.

Furthermore, my optimism, love for learning and excitement exhibited while teaching help facilitate student learning within and beyond the classroom. I believe my presence in the classroom exudes my passion for what I am doing. I feel blessed to have a role where the various aspects of who I am can synthesize. As some students have shared with me, the passion they see that I posses serves as inspiration and motivation for them to find their passion. It pleases me to see that I have a positive impact upon my students, simply by being who I am.
In the past six years of teaching, I have come to find that the four objectives I have set as an associate professor are ultimately what I would set regardless of the discipline or courses I teach. My ultimate goal as an academician is to create a significant effect in the lives of my students. Not only do I want them to gain concrete knowledge in sport and exercise psychology, more importantly I want them to apply the knowledge they have gained from their participation in my course into their own personal lives. I hope that the learning experience would positively influence how they view themselves, the discipline and the world. A lofty dream to many, to but a goal I believe in with all of my heart and one that will continue to motivate me. This has been a very rewarding journey and one which I plan to keep experiencing for years to come!

Contact Info

email: drczech@georgiasouthern.edu