Higher Education as Well as the Quality

¶ … higher education as well as the quality and content of teaching in higher education" (Mandelia, 2000). In modern society, students come from a variety of different backgrounds and lifestyles, and each presents a unique learning style challenge for instructors. Criminal Justice Students are much the same. Students often come from many varied backgrounds, and not one learns the same as the other. Thus, the need for Teacher's to broaden their teaching perspectives, and incorporate a variety of teaching styles, is critical to the future success of Criminal Justice students.

Many Criminal Justice students are also trying to balance out the desire to obtain a degree in Criminal Justice with the need to support a family or work full time. The slightest obstacle, such as a flat tire on a car, may cause a student to feel desperation and flail. Many students have dropped out of programs for simpler reasons.

Teachers have to learn how to be mentors and teachers, how to form a supportive environment in which students may deal with their daily struggles, life's obstacles, and still be successful. Stress is also a tremendous factor for students wishing to enter the Criminal Justice Field. Teachers must learn to utilize and teach stress reduction methods and techniques so that students better learn to cope with the real life events, on and off the job, that they will be required to face in this field.

OBJECTIVES: To define the different types of learning styles that are present in learners, not just Criminal Justice students but all students. For example, traditionally schools have taught students using verbal methodologies, when in fact some students inevitably are visual learners or hands on learners. Describe different methods teachers may utilize to incorporate hands on learning styles with traditional classroom teaching and at home assignments. Establish a program that allows Criminal Justice Students to partner with a mentor, someone currently working in the Criminal Justice Field.

By doing so, students will gain hands on experience and insights into the unique challenges that criminal justice students often fact Establish rigorous and standardized stress reduction techniques that students can take with them on the job and use at home. DESCRIPTION: This project will involve a complex analysis of current teaching methods in the Criminal Justice Field as compared to teaching methodologies in like and different fields. A survey must be conducted of several criminal justice programs in universities and trade schools throughout the United States.

Some of the factors to be assessed and surveyed include the existence of the following: Varied Teaching Methodologies that incorporate verbal, visual and hands on teaching methods Assessment of Students Satisfaction with course objectives and teaching styles Analysis of stress management teaching programs within similar and divergent programs Analysis of compositional make up of various student bodies enrolled in Criminal Justice Programs Analysis of existence of current student/mentor programs in university and technical studies Survey of existing businesses willing to partner with universities and trade schools to offer mentorship programs to students This project will analyze how effective current teaching methods are in varying Criminal Justice programs, and investigate opportunities to improve programs.

Suggested additions to existing programs include mentoring, internships, stress reduction classes, variant teaching methods and hands on work. Also important will be to evaluate students perceived success and struggles with existing programs, in an effort to draw satisfactory conclusions as to how to alter existing programs, and improve new ones.

CAMPUS GOALS: The goals of the department are as follows: Establish a comprehensive Criminal Justice Teaching Methodology that incorporates a variety of techniques targeted at different learning styles Survey similar programs around the country and add/modify program techniques where necessary Establish a leading Criminal Justice Teaching program that incorporates hands on learning and mentoring programs for students Address unique challenges criminal justice students face such as stress management on and off the job The department's objectives are to be the nation's leading criminal justice teaching authority.

The department seeks to be at the forefront of modern advances in education, in an effort to address the needs of an increasingly divergent and busy population of students. BENEFIT: Immediate: Students will have the ability to assess current criminal justice programs and evaluate the similarities and differences between their program and programs in other states. Teachers will have an opportunity to modify current teaching methods and incorporate a more universal and eclectic approach to working with criminal justice students.

Long-Term: The Criminal Justice Program in our department will be the nations leader of programs, incorporating new teaching methodologies that address any student's needs. Students will graduate much better prepared than ever before to deal with real life situations and stressors in the field, thanks to the addition of mentoring and stress coaching programs, as well as teaching methods that address their unique learning styles.

EVALUATION: The success of the project will be evaluated and determined through continued surveys of students participating in the new program compared to student's impressions of the old program. Students will be followed over a course of one year to assess their fulfillment and satisfaction in the criminal justice field upon graduation, as compared to students in alternative programs. Bibliography Cole, George F. (2001) The Criminal Justice System: Politics and Policies. 8th edition, Wadsworth Publishing Company Eble, Kenneth E. (1994) The Craft of Teaching: A Guide to Mastering the Professor's Art.

2nd edition. Jossey-Bass Publishers Gihooly, James. (2000). Using Peer Mediation in Classrooms and Schools. New York: Sage Publications. Goodwin, Glenn. (2000) "Professing Humanist Sociology," Washington, D.C., American Sociological Association, Retrieved March 8, 2003 from,.