Michelle Cadieux proves a little humour goes a long way. 

For every class, teaching full houses in McMaster’s largest lecture theatres, Cadieux wears a different pair of psychology-themed earrings, a gift from a former teaching assistant. The 20-piece handcrafted collection includes miniature brains, eyeballs and ears, plus mice in cages and raw steaks with bells. 

Then there’s Cadieux’s closet at home, jammed full of Halloween costumes; the  skits she weaves into her lectures along with self-deprecating humour; and gentle jokes at the expense of professor Joe Kim whenever they teach together. 

Teaching assistants are told to bake semester-long storylines into their tutorials, complete with cliffhangers, plot twists and grand finales: This year’s storyline was built around the Broadway musical and Disney movie Wicked.  

Cadieux and Kim also recruit TAs to face off against each other while doing demonstrations during online lectures.  

“We turn the demos into competitions with students choosing sides and cheering on their favourite TA over in the chatroom.” 

That sense of humour and open embrace of having fun helped Cadieux, an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, earn a 2025 Teaching Excellence Award from the McMaster Students Union. 

She credits four people for the student-nominated award.  

First up are her parents — “they’ve always been my biggest supporters and we’re a really funny family. I was lucky to inherit their sense of humour.” 

Psychology professor, David Shore was her undergraduate and graduate supervisor. He gave her her first big break: making her a sessional instructor for some of his courses, complete with his lecture notes and slides. “It was such an incredible opportunity and David was there whenever I needed help.” 

And then there’s Kim. Right from the start, he encouraged Cadieux to be herself when delivering lectures. “I started out being more serious as a teaching assistant and sessional instructor,” she says.  

“But Joe taught me that entertainment is such an important part of teaching. If students are having a good time, they’re more likely to pay attention and learn more.” 

The proof is in attendance rates that average around 85 per cent for in-person courses. 

“When students show up, they inspire me to show up and give my absolute best as an instructor.” 

But it’s not all fun and games in the intro psych course, Cadieux says. “This is a content-heavy course. Yet we’ve designed it in a way that every student can be successful if they’re willing to follow the program and make the effort. Humour helps keep them engaged.” 

Kim and Cadieux bring complementary skills to a first-year course that has among the highest enrolments at McMaster.  

“Joe’s the ideas guy — the innovator and mad genius. Ninety per cent of his ideas aren’t doable but that other 10 per cent is pure gold,” Cadieux says.  

“I’m the person who’s good at figuring out how to make other people’s dreams come true and find a way to make that 10 per cent happen. And I’m not afraid to point out when something we’ve tried isn’t sustainable or isn’t working for students.” 

Early on in their collaboration, Kim asked Cadieux if this was just a job she was going to do for a couple years, or if she intended to make it her career. “Was I committed to doing this work forever? I said yes and then Joe said, ‘Well then let’s go teach this course and make it something amazing for students.’ ”   

Cadieux and Kim also designed their course to ease the transition to university and help students develop study habits and time-management skills, through weekly quizzes and marks for attendance and participation. 

Those habits and skills weren’t something Cadieux had until her third year of undergrad at McMaster.  

“I didn’t know how to study or manage my time. Every student assumes their professors were brilliant right from their first day at university. I definitely wasn’t.” 

She was feeling lost in courses that dwarfed her high school’s entire population — there had been just 49 students in her graduating class. And it seemed like every student at Mac had been the top student at their high school.  

The one big upside — “lots of new friends and lots of invitations to get together after class” — nearly proved to be her undoing.  

And on top of it all, like many science students, she originally planned to go to medical school, but soon changed her mind and couldn’t come up with a Plan B. “I didn’t know why I was here.” 

After Cadieux fell in love with psychology she set her sights on grad school.  But she had middling marks that made her plan seem like a long shot.  

Advice from a student in one of her third-year study groups was a game-changer. “I started to think of my undergrad degree as a 40-hour-a-week full-time job… doing work between classes rather than leave it all for the weekend when there was never enough hours to get it all done without burning out.” 

Cadieux also met with Ann Hollingshead — at the time, the department’s undergraduate advisor and research coordinator.  

After Cadieux raved about a second-year course she was taught by Shore, Hollingshead put in a good word on her behalf.  

“My marks weren’t as good as the students David usually welcomed into his lab, but Ann vouched for me, telling David that my marks were moving in the right direction and that our personalities were well-matched. He agreed to supervise my fourth-year thesis project and the rest is history.” 

After completing her PhD, Cadieux was looking to stay in academia as an administrator. She applied to work as the coordinator for the department’s intro psych courses. With upward of 6,000 students to teach and a crew of 40 teaching assistants to recruit, train and supervise, it would be a demanding job. “But it was the only job I wanted.” 

She got an interview with Kim and it went well. “Joe told me I would’ve been great in the role but he was giving it to someone else.”  

When the preferred candidate turned the offer down for a job closer to home, Kim came back to Cadieux.  

“And I’ve never let him forget it,” says Cadieux.