Erin Clabough

Erin Clabough joins the Center for Teaching Excellence as a Faculty Fellow for the 2026-27 academic year. A Professor in the Department of Psychology, Erin developed the Knowledge Flow framework, an approach to classroom teaching grounded in neuroscience and living systems principles to reimagine active learning.

Erin's work focuses on transforming large lecture courses into active, student-centered classrooms, with particular attention to student wellbeing alongside academic performance. She has found that thoughtfully designed active learning approaches can address the belonging and engagement needs that often go unmet in large classrooms, while also improving how well students learn the material. Her research combines traditional outcome measures like exam scores with newer methods for capturing student engagement and connection in the classroom.

Erin holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Virginia and has received UVA's All-University Teaching Award, along with more than $50,000 in grant funding supporting active learning innovation. Her broader scholarship spans course based undergraduate research, contemplative practices in the classroom, and the relationship between teacher wellbeing and student learning. Erin teaches courses on neural basis of behavior, ethics in science, the neuroscience of empathy, and consciousness. She is currently developing a book expanding on the Knowledge Flow framework.