Featured below are two great articles on teaching, including “Assessing the Need for a Learning Community in the Typical Criminal Justice Department: A Valuable Tool for Student Success” and “Innovative Practices to Classroom Instruction.”
Looking for some great tips on how to teach either Victimology or Crime and Inequality? Look no further! Just click HERE for a PDF that you can download or print out and save!
Assessing the Need for a Learning Community in the Typical Criminal Justice Department: A Valuable Tool for Student Success
by Charisse T.M. Coston, Ph.D., Vivian B. Lord, Ph.D., and Anita N. Blowers, Ph.D.
Securing noteworthy employment and establishing a flourishing career are shaped by academic success in college. This is particularly the case in the field of criminal justice. Criminal justice has become a popular university major that has resulted in a competitive job market. One way of ensuring job and career success is the adaptation of learning communities, e.g., a small concentrated group of students, to the criminal justice major. Students interested in criminal justice most often transfer to universities as juniors after earning an associate degree or by earning two years of university credits from their local community colleges. These populations often need additional support adjusting to campus life and the rigor of university academics.
The university environment compared to the community college environment may be a vast confusing place for the new transfer student (Wilson and Ryder, 1996). In a study of undergraduate criminal justice majors, Hartman and colleagues (2008) have found that transfer students are more likely to have attended orientation sessions but less likely to have met with their CJ advisors. Overall, students need to have their transfer experience facilitated with activities to increase their sense of belonging at the new university. By facilitating the student’s academic and social transition to the university, we can help promote the students’ success towards graduating. Students can be immersed into the university by using team building activities that will build cohesiveness, become involved in criminal justice associations and their activities, be introduced to and then engage in service at the university as well as related internships in local criminal justice agencies. These activities have been shown in the literature to reduce the number of concerns about the transfer experience, enhance group support, result in higher numbers of students who complete the criminal justice program and a greater number of job prospects with criminal justice and related agencies (Strong et al., 2007; Richlin, 2006; Meyers and Jones, 2003; Richlin, 2001). One vehicle for establishing these positive outcomes is student participation in a criminal justice learning community.
What is a Learning Community?
A learning community (LC) is a cutting-edge academic undergraduate learning program that strives to promote student success (Blowers, 2006; Huerta, 2004). Over the past 15 years in the making, these initiatives are designed to focus on a small group of students who are immersed in activities that involve the students’ departmental and related faculty, student peers, internal university units such as writing resources, advisors and the career center throughout the student’s program of study. Some LC programs have the requirement of on campus residential living. In order for the program to be a success, the university must support this initiative and be involved in the program from its inception, through the operation of the program including its outcome (Cox and Richlin, 2004; Richlin, 1993). The program requires an ongoing budget.
According to the National Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education (2007), learning communities are classifications that are linked or clustered around a theme. A common cohort of students is enrolled. The idea is to build a community among the students, departmental professors, the discipline and university. Generally, the three types of general learning communities are:
1. Student Cohorts/Integrative Seminar
Learning communities can be structured as programs in which a small cohort of students enrolls in larger classes that faculty do not coordinate. In this instance, intellectual connections and community-building often take place in an additional integrative seminar.
2. Linked Courses/Course Clusters
Learning communities may involve two or more classes linked thematically or by content which a cohort of students takes together. In this instance, the faculty does plan the program collaboratively.
3. Coordinated Study
Learning communities may involve coursework that faculty members team teach. The course work is embedded in an integrated program of study” (The National Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education, p.274).
These are broad classifications along a spectrum of learning community activities. Dozens of adaptations of these types exist to fit the needs of specific departments, colleges and universities.
The Adaptation of a Learning Community for Criminal Justice
Criminal justice departments usually have a high number of transfer students (some as high as 60 enrollment each semester) who enter the university in their junior year. Students often get overwhelmed with the transfer process. They have trouble with time management. Not only are they going to a university from a community college which was much smaller, but, they may be unaware of the internal resources available (and designed to insure academic success) to them as a student attending the new university.
Some departments add courses as prerequisites for being accepted as a major such as Statistics and Introduction to Criminal Justice. While most students don’t have a problem passing Introduction to Criminal Justice, passing Statistics can be a barrier to some students. Likewise, often students might not be fully aware of the existence of university support programs designed to enhance learning outcomes such as structured study groups. Finally criminal justice students ought to prepare for their career success. Students need to be introduced to the opportunities available and to systematically explore the discipline and its associated careers from within the university, in the academic field of criminal justice, and in the arenas of writing, research and library resources.
One Example of a Criminal Justice Learning Community
Plans to explore a learning community are stated in our department’s academic plan, and the department is committed to having a faculty member devote his/her time to developing and teaching the two new courses in the year long program. After developing a learning community program proposal for transfer students that was supported by departmental faculty, a Criminal Justice Learning Community for transfer students was funded for planning during the academic year 2007-08 with the program’s inaugural for the fall of 2008. Our Criminal Justice Department is beginning our LC program with small numbers (12) and hope to build upon these numbers as the program is refined. Since a large number of criminal justice students are transferring from community colleges and tend to be slightly older than typical undergraduate students, the participants are not required to live on campus. Students in this LC are required to enroll in our LC for one academic year (fall and spring semesters).
Participating students are required to take a sequence of two LC courses in order to assist with their integration into the University and into the criminal justice community. During the fall semester, students enroll in the first LC course: Criminal Justice Learning Community Seminar I: Learning about the University and the Criminal Justice Community. This cohort of students is advised by the Learning Community Coordinator (LCC) in conjunction with our regular advising staff. The goals of this first course are to expose students to support services both on and off campus to enhance and facilitate academic personal and social growth. Additionally, students will be exposed to various on and off campus criminal justice and related agencies. Academic, personal and social resource offices on campus include, but are not limited to:
1. University Center for Academic Excellence, Library and Writing Resource Center for academic support;
2. Ventures for team-building among the participants;
3. Health Center, Counseling Center, Disability Services, Office of Adult and Evening Services, Dean Of Students, International Programs, Minority Academic programs, and Financial Aid for personal and operational support;
4. Entertainment and Recreation services for social support;
5. Career Center for professional planning.
Representatives from criminal justice agencies will expose students to possible career paths and instill the value of service. Some of these agencies that are both on campus and in the community consists of:
1. Police agencies,
2. Community and institutional correctional agencies,
3. Legal/court agencies,
4. Victim agencies,
5. Treatment agencies,
6. Juvenile justice agencies.
Students are required to identify a personal issue of importance to them in relation to successful transition into the university. At the end of the course in a three to five-page paper, the students are asked to indicate how well this course addressed their previous concern (s). Students are also required to write a substantial paper (about 10-15 pages, excluding bibliography) about the agency at which they plan to volunteer during the following semester. An outline of requirements for the substantial paper are given to these students at the beginning of the semester. The students also are exposed to lectures by the LCC on the transfer experience and on the representative segments within the university and community service agencies before the representatives from the agencies present in class. These lectures coexist with required selected readings in preparation for the guest speakers. The students generate a formal list of questions that they then ask the representative from the organization during his/her presentation. In a three to five page paper, students assess the unit represented by each guest speaker.
By the end of this first course students are required to have identified where they will complete their volunteer experience, which is required in the second course. They also must identify their minor. Successful completion of this course will result in three credit hours for the student as a criminal justice elective and writing requirement.. After passing this first course, students are eligible to take the second course during the spring semester.
The second required course in this year-long learning community requires the student to take The Criminal Justice Learning Community Seminar II: Civic Engagement. The goal of the second course is to expose majors to career opportunities that they selected in the during the fall LC course During the semester the student will be required to volunteer with an agency either on or off campus for 25 hours. Their participation as a volunteer in the agency will result in a 10-15 page (excluding bibliography) paper and a presentation of the paper in class. The paper will focus on the experiences and unique aspects of their volunteer work. An outline of requirements are given by the LCC during the fall LC course. The students will also meet in class with the coordinator for lectures throughout the semester. The lectures will focus on such areas as:
1. Job interviewing skills,
2. Professional appearance,
3. Resume-writing and other job seeking skills (filling out an application).
Required readings will be assigned. Participants also will be required to meet with the LCC for individualized instructional periods which will cover course objectives along with academic and personal queries.
In addition students will be required to contact a full-time professor who either teaches in the Criminal Justice Department or in the department of their minor in order to acquaint themselves with the professors’ teaching and research initiatives. Selected readings authored by the full-time professors will be chosen by the student, collected from the library, read by the student before their scheduled meeting with the professor, and then discussed during the half hour appointment that the transfer student has made with the faculty member. The results of the student/professor meetings will then be presented during a class session. The course grade will be calculated using a traditional grading scale (A-F). Successful completion of this course will result in 3 credit hours of CJ elective for the student along with satisfaction of the oral requirement.
In addition to the two special LC courses, blocked seating for the required CJ courses, Criminal Justice Theory and Research Methods, originally was planned to ensure that the LC students would be able to take these courses with their cohort. However, throughout the registration period we realized that there were far too many students who could not be admitted as criminal justice majors because they had not completed Statistics with a grade of ‘C’ or better. So, instead of the two required criminal justice courses, a group of seats in a Statistics course were blocked to accommodate those students who wanted to participate in the learning community, but could not take the CJ Theory until they became majors.
Measuring Future Outcomes and Concluding Remarks
We will initially assess seven intended outcomes:
1. A decrease in the number of concerns as a new transfer student, a sense of cohesiveness to their cohort, and a sense of connection to the University. Students will be integrated into the University student population, understanding and taking advantage of its services and activities.
2. A higher level of participation in the CJ associations. Students will be involved in criminal justice student associations, i.e., Alpha Phi Sigma, the Criminal Justice Student Association and the Pre-law program.
3. A higher level of participation in our Criminal Justice Internship program. E should see increased enrollments in our internship program and increased employment of CJ majors in the CJ field.
4. An increased sense of community. Measured by our Department’s values and beliefs surrounding our role to serve the region and larger community.
5. Secure employment in criminal justice agencies or continue in graduate school. Increased employment of CJ majors in the CJ field. Placing qualified students in our graduate program.
6. Increased rate of graduation. Criminal Justice majors will graduate in a timely fashion.
7. Improve professional skills. Improved written and oral communication skills. Improved job-seeking skills.
All of these assessments will use comparisons between our LC participant outcomes and both transfer and non-transfer students who are pre-criminal justice majors and/or criminal justice majors. These outcomes will be achieved by requiring final papers, conducting pre/post testing of participants, monitoring memberships in the students associations common to criminal justice departments nationwide and those who graduate, students securing employment and/or continuing onto graduate school. We will be tracking our students’ grade point averages, employment histories and post undergraduate education by partnering with the University Registrar and the University’s Alumni Association. We will also monitor the number of LC participants who withdraw or are suspended along with those who complete the program.
We expect that this innovative program will be successful in producing a group of criminal justice graduates who will have pride and a sense of belonging to our University, Department and professions throughout their criminal justice careers.
References
Blowers, A. (2006). “Learning Communities: Assessing Learning in Learning Communities.” Paper presented at the annual conference at the National Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education. Olympia, WA: The Evergreen State College, The Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education.
Hartman, J.; Lord, V and B. Bjerregaard (forthcoming, 2008). “The Importance of Factors Influencing Students’ Sense of Belonging to Their University.” Journal of Criminal Justice Education.
Huerta, J.C. (2004). “Do learning communities make a difference?” PS: Political Science & Politics, 37(2), 291-96.
Meyers, C and T.B. Jones (2003). Promoting active learning: Strategies for the college classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Richlin, L. (1993). “The ongoing cycle of scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching.” Paper presented at the 13th annual Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching, Oxford, OH.
Richlin, L. (2001). “Making public the scholarship of teaching. Part 1: Designing publishable projects. Part 2: Presenting and publishing the scholarship of teaching.” Paper presented at the 21st annual Lilly Conference on College Teaching, Oxford, OH.
Richlin, L., & Cox, M. D. (2004). “Developing scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching and learning through faculty learning communities.” In M. D. Cox & L. Richlin (Eds.), Building faculty learning communities (pp. 127-135). New Directions for Teaching and Learning, No. 97. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Richlin, L. (2006). Blueprint for Learning: Constructing College Courses to Facilitate, Assess, and Document Learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Strong, K; Saunders, K; Everett, K; Beck, D.; Mickelson and K. Lyons (2007). “Networking learning communities in engineering: development of common objectives for first year students.” Journal of Learning Communities Research. 2(3) 17-42.
Wilson, B. and M. Ryder (1996). “Dynamic learning communities: An alternative to designed instructional systems.” Journal of the Learning Sciences. (3) 265-83.
Contact Information
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Department of Criminal Justice
9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte North Carolina 28223
704.687.2008
Innovative Practices to Classroom Instruction
by Jack S. Monell, Ph.D. and Angela C. Monell, M.Ed.
As we move forward in our technologically driven world, face-to-face communication is becoming increasingly obsolete. In addition, a need to address learning differences and offer options for creative assessment are on the rise. Despite the world changes and advances in technological systems, there remains a need to preserve some form of discourse. The use of technology to support the content is critical; likewise it needs to be coupled with “real-time” opportunities to practice effective communication skills. These skills are being offered less and less; which causes a lack of ability when the need arises. In the educational setting, authentic conversation, addressing learning differences and project-based learning can serve to foster social skills as well as allow for demonstration of content knowledge and understanding.
Communication Discourse
Communication is executed in many fashions. Many daily exchanges are quick, to the point and refrain from in-depth dialogue. It does not allow for learning the basics in communicating. Through basic social and communication skills, we learn turn-taking, conflict-resolution and gain an overall understanding of when our input is warranted. Hence, the importance of discourse is necessary. Conversation regarding content allows students to outwardly process information; receive peer or instructor feedback and to regularly use basic skills for communicating. As an example, many audiological learners learn best by hearing information and can remember “hearing” the information upon the time it is needed for recall. Likewise for other learners in a group, the opportunity to discuss what they know may serve to help them identify misconceptions or misunderstood concepts. Transformative learning can take place for many students in which their individual frame of references can be correlated with actions and experiences. Once identified, it can be used as a platform for the instructor to re-teach concepts; clarify information and for students to build and network with colleagues.
Addressing Learning Needs
As our community college and university populations (HMSO) continue to grow, there continues to be an array of students with varying abilities. In working with those students, allowing for creative and project-based assessment can better demonstrate understanding and overall subject knowledge. Widening participation helps build a society of learners. The reports states that they key to learning is to provide those that are learning easier opportunities to learn (HMSO, 1998). Provisions to support differences in learning have been legally and financially supported. Not only are students with disabilities being served, but students with varying needs and abilities are moving forward. Creative assessment can include projects that will require hands-on learning for tactile and kinesthetic learners. Moreover, the need to have a deeper understanding is communicated, facilitated and expected prior to a lesson. Examples of projects to be created or developed can be shared with students; but a preferred example would be a final project from previous students. Students should be allowed flexibility within their project, but should be held to a consistent standard.
Project Based Learning and Technology
As we continue to improve teaching methods and provide innovative strategies to engage students in the classroom, the usage of technology becomes such an integral tool. Long has been the years where overheard slides were the primary source of technology used to convey theory and application in the college classroom. When considering the implementation of innovative technologies into the classroom as a way to increase student participation and excitement, (Wang, 2008), discusses three components (pedagogy, technology, and social interaction) of the generic model that should be considered as it relates to instruction.
Looking at the learning styles of students today and their capacity to withstand receiving information at short intervals, such practices associated with project based learning with the assistance of technology becomes a professor’s best friend. The proverbial PowerPoint lecture does not suffice. Students want and need more interaction, engagement, and most of all deserve quality instruction, despite their interest level. Therefore for faculty members, the need to continue working toward these three components is very important.
References
HMSO. (1998). The Learning Age: a renaissance for Britain. London: HMSO.
Taylor, E. W. (2008). “Transformative Learning Theory.” New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education , 5-15.
Wang, Q. (2008). “A generic model for guiding the integration of ICT into teaching.” Innovations in Education and Teaching International , 411-419.
Contact Information
Jack S. Monell, Ph.D.
Central Piedmont Community College
Claudia Watkins Belk Center for Justice
P.O. Box 35009, Room 113
Charlotte, NC 28235
704.330.4164
Angela C. Monell, M.Ed.
South Piedmont Community College
Old Charlotte Highway Campus
Monroe, NC 28110
202.425.5485