Faculty Excellence at UMUC

Interviewer:

Please tell us about yourself—what made you decide to teach at UMUC? What kind of work do you do when you are not teaching at UMUC? Are there any life experiences that have influenced your teaching at UMUC? If so, please share one story.

Dennis Winters:

In fact, just 6 years ago, I had decided to be semi-retired from full-time involvement as a corporate change consultant. I saw a UMUC advertisement for part time teachers, and I thought, after having taught for over 20 years, this would be exciting. I wanted to go to school for a degree in gerontology and cognitive studies. I thought, ‘Why not?’ After interviewing in the undergraduate UMUC department of communications, I was hired and found out that at UMUC I was faced with the most challenging part of my teaching career. I went from teaching in the undergraduate to the graduate school and am now teaching doctoral classes and just loving it. I still shudder when I think that I might not have answered that advertisement and missed the most rewarding part of my professional life.

With teaching full time and being so happily involved, I really have little time for much else. Besides a very active spouse (a political and social organizer) and a new and highly demanding refugee kitten, I am involved in pro-bono teaching in the care-giving of dependent elderly people with the Legacy Institute of University of Maryland College Park where, last year, I completed by certificate in Gerontology. I also often teach a special pro-bono class in gerontology issues. I keep thinking of doing more in this area. I have the energy, just not the time.

Besides the very special experience of on-line pedagogy – a world in itself and unique challenge for me – I have never felt so much admiration for my students as I do at UMUC. These students deserve every bit of attention that I can provide. They work often under high domestic and workplace pressure and then show up in a face to face class at 7:00 ready to have me push on them for three full hours. There are times I want to tell them to go home and lie down, but they are so full of interest and eagerness to learn! That may sound an overstatement, but believe me, after 26 years of teaching I know the real article! These students have my utmost admiration. I honestly can’t imagine a teacher who would not feel compelled to give everything he or she has after working with these students. They are the life experiences that have influenced me like never before.    

Interviewer:

How would you describe your teaching style or philosophy? What experiences or person(s) have influenced your style or philosophy?

Dennis Winters:

My degree and most of my academic work has been focused on various aspects of communication. I have worked thoroughly in all aspects of communication in schools, corporations and communities, as well as in one-on-one family and other counseling situations. It is easy to see that the base for my teaching philosophy is rooted in improving my abilities as a communicator to my students. I use, to the utmost of my abilities, what I have learned from teaching communication. I try to be an interesting teacher. I approach my students personally and with intensity. I have been a professional speaker, so it is difficult to not be personally involved in my class. I think the teacher must do all of these things, and be an entertainer at the same time.  They are not just teaching content. The teacher is transforming the way students think while communicating other ways of looking at the world and their unique place in it. I teach human sociology and organization. I must know material from all social science fields. I have a deep commitment and interest in learning about human beings. I not only bring the content to my students, I bring a unique way of thinking about each and every field. At age 72, I go into my class with the goal that my students have the very latest understanding of human biology and sociology. I want to give them viewpoints and understandings that will make other classes easier to comprehend. In my opinion, a good teacher is an excellent student first – one who never stops or slows down their learning effort. 

My parents, neither of whom got past the 8th grade, did not just push me to get an education. I was tested all the time and nearly always in matters that best fit (although they did not know it) the Ravens Abstract Thinking test. “That is interesting, Dennis, but didn’t you say the opposite last week?” My grandfather would tell me: “I know you will figure this out, Dennis. When you do, wake me and tell me the solution.”  I learned that interrogating your present and pairing it with your past experiences is the core of learning and being open to change. Perhaps that’s the reason I became an organizational and community change agent. Everything I do today, all these years later, finds its origin in these early moments in my primary discourse.

Interviewer:

Please explain if you do something special or unique in your teaching and what made you develop this.

Dennis Winters:

With a lot of personal work, I have become an excellent professional speaker. I know how to turn an audience on. As trite as that may sound, it is a core ability I call on in my teaching. I watch my student’s faces - they are talking to me all the time. While teaching, I can tell if the students are confused about something I have said or if I have expressed a point that needs elaboration. I am an interactive and transformational teacher. I know that they will only work hard and have high energy if their teacher does. I know it is better if I have more energy when I walk into the classroom. Teaching is a personal relationship and demands that the teacher make a commitment to take extra steps interpersonal risk.  I do so without question or hesitation.   

Interviewer:

What do you think it is about your teaching style that appeals to students?

Dennis Winters:

I am not sure if it is any one thing. I do know that they always talk about my passion. I am not sure what they mean by this term. I know that I do care about their transformations very much. To me this is a relationship and will only be as productive as any relationship where both parties dive in deeply and just want an outcome of value very much. I think they pick this up in the content of the course with its emphasis on relationships and communication and I think they are caught up in the intensity of my activity and of my response and I also think they pick up on how much pleasure I get out of this relationship.  

Interviewer:

Do you teach face-to-face, online, or both? Do you have a preference between teaching face-to-face and online? If so, please explain.

Dennis Winters:

I teach face-to-face, on-line and hybrid. After having found such a high degree of conviviality in teaching face-to-face, I thought I would not like on-line teaching. Now I am an advocate of on-line as one of the most intimately effective ways of teaching. I still like seeing student’s faces and seeing their “eyes open up.” But I have never got better products from students in all my teaching experience than I do on-line.  It is more work, but the results are more than worth the extra effort. It is different, though. Attempts to make teaching online fit the traditional face-to-face context only does damage to its intrinsic advantage.

Interviewer:

Please tell us about your chosen discipline-i.e., what made you interested in the area initially? What do you do to stay current in your discipline? What do you like best about teaching in your discipline?

Dennis Winters:

Human beings are the most exciting of all areas of study on this planet. From my teenage years I have been consumed with studying human beings: their biology, their choices, their institutions, their gatherings, and so on. I do this kind of ‘study’ every day professionally and outside of the classroom. I have a hard time understanding how anyone would want to do other than studying this most interesting of creatures. My current interest is in aging. Evolution and evolutionary psychology will continue to consume me in all of their manifestations. When I uncover some new point of view, I run to my class to give it to my students like I have found a miraculous treasure. I could make it more coldly professional than this but this accurately defines my personal and my pedagogical process.       

This question makes me smile. It is a good question. A night out for my wife and I is a trip to the bookstore. We will spend three hours looking at books and I will buy too many; she often jokes that a hobby of drinking would be much cheaper. Luckily, my wife is as caught up in reading to stay current as I am, only now she is in the stage I was in 10 years ago.  Besides this constant reading, I write and go to very special conferences -  some in my field, but most outside of communication and organization in particular.

The best thing is that I teach what I do and have done. I teach communication, relationships, management, organization – all of which are primary aspects of what I have done in my professional life. I teach conflict and the role of communication, for example. I have been an organizer in conflict situations from marriages to local communities to crisis communities in at least 8 different countries around the world. I was not always successful in each and every venue but, in every one, I learned and I still have all that learning with me when I walk into the classroom. Additionally, I just really enjoy human beings wherever they are enacting their lives. I want to understand them, work with them, learn from them and be of value to them. What better discipline could I be in?

Interviewer:

What is the most challenging to you in teaching in this area? What teaching strategy do you use when you encounter the challenge? Are there any special challenges to teaching your discipline online?

Dennis Winters:

The most challenging part of my teaching is knowing for certain that I am taking the most satisfying approach in each and every student’s pattern of thinking and feeling.

I do not see any special challenges. After the rigorous but wonderful training at UMUC, I recognized the very special demand that the teacher participate and respond quickly to the student’s question. I think the special opportunities afforded in the cyberspace one-on-one interpersonal relationship are readily available to teachers who want to take full advantage of this medium and are ready to recognize these advantages.   

Interviewer:

What suggestion would you give to students who are interested in majoring or working in your discipline?

Dennis Winters:

First, look at the want-ads. You will find very few that do not say ’must have excellent communication skills‘ or ’must work well with people.’  You must learn to communicate well and you must learn to work well with people. Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology and other social sciences have many insights into this challenge. In my class, I will give you every opportunity to get hold of much of this knowledge and the tricks I have learned as a practitioner. At the end of my class, you will see things you just didn’t see before. You will be more able to work with, manage and organize people than ever before. If this holds little value for you, take some other course. 

Interviewer:

In your opinion, what makes UMUC the college of choice for students?

Dennis Winters:

Initially, it is the convenience for people who must work all day and want a second chance at a higher education. I want to think, however, that the quality of practical knowledge learned and earned here is what keeps these wonderful people coming back.

Interviewer:

In your opinion, what makes UMUC the employer of choice for future faculty members?

Dennis Winters:

I know what keeps me here. I love on-line teaching and the demographically diverse character of our student body – a very special challenge that, when even partially met, delivers incomparable payback for hard working teachers for whom making a difference is a lifetime requirement. If you are not a better teacher after having been at UMUC awhile, I know you have not taken advantage of the high quality of training offered to UMUC faculty. I do miss the interaction typical of a campus-based experience but these facilities and on-line meetings do much to fill this gap.

Interviewer:

What suggestion would you give to new faculty who are interested in teaching in your discipline at UMUC?

Dennis Winters:

Teaching at UMUC cannot be a side-bar to the rest of your life. To get the most out of this experience, you must give it all you have, as much of you as there is to give to these students. Do not commit yourself  to the idea that on-line teaching is somehow easier – it is not – and do not think, for a minute, that it is impersonal. Finally, before you downgrade on-line teaching, honestly look at the disadvantages inherent in the traditional face to face classroom. Our students come to us already deeply involved in their careers and wanting to succeed. There is the special energy they bring to us from the computer propped up on their kitchen table after they have worked all day. They are parents and they have careers and the problems that come with wanting to better oneself. You can and will make a difference if you approach this challenge differently.