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? What life experiences have influenced your teaching at UMUC?

Diane Jones-Palm:

I consider myself very lucky indeed to have found UMUC. I had moved to Germany in 1995, on leave from the US Centers for Disease Control, and happened to hear about UMUC in Heidelberg . I was delighted to come on board, first at Mannheim campus, and a bit later to the Central Division of UMUC ED.

In the first 8 years I worked at UMUC, I did intermittent work consulting (on a volunteer basis) with the World Health Organization on an 8-country study on undiagnosed depression in primary care. This work grew out of my original CDC work, and allowed me to keep involved in research and applied sociology.

In the past year and a half, I've become increasingly involved in faculty development, co-teaching face to face classes here in Germany with a colleague, Bill Mood, and teaching online courses for the Center for Teaching and Learning. I must say that facilitating CTL workshops has been a wonderful experience: I learn as much as the 'students' do. There is a kind of synergistic sharing in such classes that is quite thrilling.

My experience in teaching has been lifelong: I started volunteering in my kid's classrooms, then went to teaching Lamaze classes as a young mom. During and after getting a masters degree, I taught graduate courses and later continuing education for professional social workers. I taught concurrently during my PhD Program and after graduating as an Adjunct at Emory University. My work at the US Centers for Disease Control often involved teaching and gave me the chance to take courses to improve presentation techniques.

I've been lucky to have brilliant, inspirational teachers and colleagues along the way that have sparked in me the love of the craft of teaching. I work with colleagues here in the European Division who are, themselves, excellent, insightful and thoughtful teachers, who are curious about what they do and wiling to explore new techniques to reach our unique student population. Sharing with colleagues is very, very important to my own success in teaching.

Interviewer:

Please tell us if you teach face-to-face, online, or both and explain what made you choose that format of teaching.

Diane Jones-Palm:

For the first 5 years at UMUC, I taught face-to-face and was, to be honest, fairly resistant to the move to online teaching. I thought: How can sociology, which is above all a SOCIAL enterprise, be translated online? I dug in and took the training because it was clear that the move to online teaching was going to be the future at UMUC. Little did I know that it would be an exciting and greatly enjoyable future! Now, I'd say that the majority of my teaching is online, and my initial worries about teaching sociology online proved not to be true.

Interviewer:

What do you find most satisfying about teaching in your chosen format(s)?

Diane Jones-Palm:

I love making concepts and ideas come alive for people, and helping students make connections between their lives and social forces around them. Students may never take a sociology class again, but I want them to remember my class as useful and applicable to their life.

The rewards for teaching are not always tangible or immediate, but they become apparent when students keep in touch after many years, ask for recommendations and/or make comments that I was an enthusiastic, caring, and open-minded teacher that gave them insights and inspirations that live on after class.

Interviewer:

What do you find challenging about teaching in your chosen format(s)?

Diane Jones-Palm:

Our students are a diverse bunch! At UMUC, I've had a variety of students from the Mannheim Campus from 18 year olds to seasoned soldiers, some poorly prepared for college and not fluent in speaking or writing. Some are dogmatically tied to their beliefs. Each has his/her own learning style. Creating an atmosphere of acceptance and respect must begin in the first moments of class and continue, whether it is face-to-face or online. Some of the ways I've dealt with this are: 

Interviewer:

Please tell us about your chosen discipline�how long have you worked in or taught it? What made you interested in the area? What keeps you interested in the area?

Diane Jones-Palm:

I fell in love with sociology as an undergraduate at University of Illinois. There was not another topic that made more sense to me or provided more insights into people. But it was the application of sociology that really interested me, which is what lead me to get a masters degree in social work. I worked nearly 15 years as a clinical social worker. After 5 years as editor of a nephrology social worker journal, and editing research papers, I thought I was ready for a PhD in sociology that would giver me a firmer research foundation. I entered Emory University in Atlanta in 1983 and studied demography and medical sociology and taught undergraduate class along the way.

I started work as a behavioral scientist at the US Centers for Disease Control in 1989 and later ran a large research grant program, which again was a step back to applied sociology. My job allowed me to put research skills and my knowledge of the social foundation of behavior to the understanding of behavioral causes of disease and shed light on health policies that could improve health.

When I married a German (sociologist) and moved to Germany, I was delighted to return to teaching full time. My background in teaching and working at CDC provides a rich resource on which to enrich lectures.

It is the creative application of sociology that I have grown to love and that energizes me. Contemporary trends in society and real-life challenges make sociology all the more relevant today. Sociology provides a new light in which to see our everyday lives.

Interviewer:

What joys do you experience in teaching in this area?

Diane Jones-Palm:

Teaching for UMUC Europe has given me the great opportunity to work with a unique student population. I have a high respect and understanding for the students I teach every day. It is with these special students in mind that I craft all of my efforts to teach. My fortunate situation can be summed up by an adapted quote from author and futurist Robert Theobald: "All of us in the sociology profession are immensely privileged—to have a vocation and a discipline that enables us to make a living "growing and helping others to grow."

I consider myself a consummate sociologist who gets great joy from helping students gain tools with which to better understand social behavior in a complex world. I take pride in empowering students to think critically, write better, and develop academic and technical competencies that will benefit them through their academic and professional career. I'm involved in curriculum development and innovations in technology that allow for new and interesting ways to get material across

Interviewer:

What challenges do you experience in teaching in this area? Please describe any special challenges you face if you teach online in comparison to teaching in a face-to-face classroom.

Diane Jones-Palm:

The abilities, opinions and beliefs, and problems of each student are unique. It is also a challenge to inspire and empower students to overcome the real problems that students face—overwork, genuine family stresses and emergencies, emotional and health traumas, as well as apathy or lack of skill. The lack of personal contact in an online class makes this harder to deal with than in a face-to-face class. All of us who teach with the military must deal with such challenges as humanely and honestly as possible.

It is a challenge to detect the weaknesses and respect the real lives of our students both face-to-face and online and to build learning experiences that pace them through acquisition of new competencies.

Interviewer:

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

Diane Jones-Palm:

Teaching and learning has been a process of interaction, reaction, consideration and insight. It's a life dance, and not just an occupation, that involves improvisation, innovation and sensitivity to partners, and openness to what they can teach me in return. The challenge has been to respect, inspire and empower my partners in this process.

Interviewer:

Please explain if you do something special or unique in your approach and how you developed that approach. What do you think it is about your approach that appeals to students?

Diane Jones-Palm:

We are all amateur sociologists: we all must swim through a sea of social expectations, norms, conflicts and relationships. It is from this fundamental base that explorations in sociology must begin. The unique current and past experiences of students must be utilized to bring to life sociological concepts, paradigms and theories. Contemporary trends in society and real-life challenges make sociology all the more relevant today.

One thing I think is very important in my classes is setting the stage making diversity of ideas and opinions a strength in sociological inquiry and managing classroom milieu so it is accepting, respectful and supportive. Only in such an atmosphere can students be challenged consider alternate interpretations and think critically. I try my best to model tolerance and yet set limits to counter-productive expression.

Interviewer:

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

Diane Jones-Palm:

We are all amateur sociologists: we all must swim through a sea of social expectations, norms, conflicts and relationships. However, to major in sociology is to ask deeper questions about social behavior and to build a fundamental base from which explorations in sociology begin. It's an exciting and fascinating discipline that is relevant to a wide variety of occupations, and will provide lifelong skills regardless of occupation.

Interviewer:

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

Diane Jones-Palm:

I would counsel new faculty in the following points: We must respect our students! The abilities, opinions and beliefs, and problems of each student are unique here at UMUC. We have a wide variety of students by age, experience, culture and skill; some are poorly prepared for college or not fluent in speaking or writing. Some are dogmatically tied to their beliefs . Each has their own learning style. Creating an atmosphere of acceptance and respect must begin in the first moments of class, and continued, whether it is face to face or online.

We have to inspire our students! We have to overcome barriers to inspiration, such as students' work demands, beliefs that they 'know the answer', or apathy. We have to make academic study come alive and inspire students to look at their world in new ways. Thus, it is important to be enthusiastic, use humor, and be responsive.

We must give students the steps to enable them to succeed. We can do this by designing assignments that put students in touch with resources, ideas, and technologies that will enhance their academic and personal skills long after our classes end. We also must require the use of writing techniques, resources, and technologies that will build academic and personal competencies, even though this may not part of our own personal coursework.

Finally, we have to engage ourselves in learning from our peers. This means not only keeping up with the literature but also investing time and energy to explore new ways to teach our diverse population.