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Teaching Philosophy

My only reason for entering this profession was to teach. it's the only reason I remain in the profession thirty years later. While I did publish as a graduate student at Washington University (St. Louis), I was not comfortable dedicating more time to research than to teaching. In addition, as my career matured, I became interested in working with organizations in the community which could bring about certain changes that seem needed to address the problems I was studying and teaching about (aging, isolation, alienation, poverty, hunger, crime and delinquency, and other issues).

When I began my career I told my tenure committee that I gave 70% of my time to teaching (in the classroom, writing new courses, improving advisement and other facets of teaching), 20% to service (to the community, my profession, my department, college and university) and the remaining 5% to research (conduct original research, reading professional literature, etc.).

Since that time the pattern of my activities have changed little although I would say that I spend about 60% of my time teaching, 20% conducting research or reading in the field, and the remaining 20% of my time in service activities. I do not intend to change this pattern in the future as I am very comfortable with it now.

The 40% of my time dedicated to service and research seems to play well in the classroom. Through the service activities I have many contacts to draw upon as area professionals are invited into my classrooms to be interviewed regarding topics my students are studying about at the time. They also provide access to field trips including observations of our local special weapons and tactics team (SWAT), interviews with inmates on death row, tours of area prisons, ride-alongs with are police, and more.

At the present time, I am very active in the Southwest Interagency Task Force on Gangs and Youth Violence (I am also the Webmaster for the group). The Task Force serves a 20 county area with a population of approximately 300,000 inhabitants. We offer public forums and educational programs on gangs, support direct services to gang members, their family members, and victims. We are also a clearinghouse for gang-related and youth violence programming in the area.

The task force work dovetails nicely with my research on gangs and with my classroom instruction. My research interests have changed over time with an emphasis on prisons during the first decade of my career, on the police in the second decade, and on offenders and victims in the third. I do not know what my interest will be in the long run, but I have no problem dedicating myself to my current interest in gangs and that which causes their formation and those things which may reduce their presence.

I believe the classroom is a crossroads between students, the instructor, area professionals, and the Internet. I believe most students benefit from their involvement in that environment. Towards this end, my syllabi tend to be very specific and clear. They provide not only a clear articulation of the rules and guidelines for the course, they also outline, on a day-to-day basis, what we are going to be doing. You can see a sample syllabi by clicking here. My syllabi are rather long, but I have yet to receive one complaint about them from the students. On the contrary, they seem to appreciate their clarity and thoroughness.

I believe personal involvement is key to the success of any learning experience. I try to accomplish this by staying involved in my discipline and in the field, by inviting students into our daily discussions in class, by having them participate in interviewing invited practitioners who visit the classroom, and by taking them into the field for tours of institutions and organizations relevant to the courses' content.

I try to use a variety of techniques for reaching students. The spoken word, graphics, text, and audio-visual aids are used to convey the information to be disseminated in the classroom. The Internet is also used in the classroom and in related out-of-class assignments.

Courtesy and respect are a vital part of teaching. They smooth the way for student participation and help in maintaining student interest in the topics being studied.

Finally, learning never ends. I'm not sure how to "teach" that to students. I hope, however, that the way in which I present myself may be of some value. I believe learning is a never-ending, exciting, useful, and enjoyable pursuit.

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