Outstanding Teachers at the University; Sociology Department

[DAVE COSLOY]: Hi, welcome to University in your Community. My name's Dave Cosloy and this is a first in the series that we're having on featuring outstanding teachers in Wichita State University. And we'd like to welcome as our first guest on this program, special Friday edition, Ron Matson from the department of sociology at Wichita State University. Welcome. [RON MATSON]: Thank you Dave. [DAVE COSLOY]: Well, it's a pleasure to have you here as our first guest as an outstanding teacher, and I'm sure that you well deserve that award. Why don't you tell us a little about your philosophy of teaching, and then we can go on from there? [RON MATSON]: My philosophy. Well, I suppose that my philosophy of teaching centers around trying to get the students involved in the coursework -- and however I can do that, if I can get them to read a book or think about the material or carry out an assignment that's somehow relevant to the material. I want to get them physically -- not just intellectually -- but physically involved in the doing of, in my case, sociology. Out of that involvement usually emanates some kind of increased commitment to

learning. So whatever the baseline embodiment of my philosophy is it centers around involvement for students. [DAVE COSLOY]: So when you get the students involved you- does learning automatically follow? [RON MATSON]: I think that they have a heightened learning experience, the way I like to put it. I believe that you can learn in all sorts of environments, in all sorts of situations, but I am committed to the idea that optimal learning, or a heightened learning experience, occurs with student involvement -- or least as a result of it. You can learn without it. But it is not the same kind of learning experience. [DAVE COSLOY]: Do you find that the students are helped by an interest in the area, or can they just take it for a required course and still get the same amount out of it? [RON MATSON]: Well, it's probably easier to work with people who believe that they have an interest as they come into the class. But, I think the key to involvement is to pique their interest with either an assignment or some idea or some reading that they're doing for the course -- so

I wouldn't say that- I wouldn't say that just because it's a required class that you're going to have to deal with a bunch of students who aren't interested or aren't involved. But it takes a little special something extra to get them hooked in at that level. [DAVE COSLOY]: What would you say is an outstanding class of students? [RON MATSON]: What makes for an outstanding class? Well, people who are involved and interested enough to communicate with one another and with me in a classroom setting. People who are able to take what would otherwise be dry, cognitive, intellectual material and do something with it in their daily routines and then be able to report back on that experience. Be able to take that material outside the classroom and do something with it. And the greater the percentage of people you have in the class that are willing to do that, I think, then the better the dynamic in the classroom. [DAVE COSLOY]: What sort of

things do you do within the classroom to keep it from becoming cognitive, boring, dull, intellectual, sort of things? I assume there must be some stimulation you're attempting to achieve in the classroom. [RON MATSON]: Yeah, there really is, and I think that I've tried all the tricks that there are -- at one time or another. I would suppose that the most common, the most common denominator in all my classes is enthusiastic and dynamic lecturing. That's sort of what I work off of. But in addition to that if in the middle of a class, if in the middle of a class I notice their attention waning a little bit and I'm losing them, I'll give out a war whoop or- [LAUGHTER] I'll do anything. I mean I'll tell an off color joke. I'll make some reference to sex. I'll do whatever is necessary in order to bring them back online with

me. And, I mean, I've played records in class. I read poetry in class. I played- you know, I have them do fantasies -- guided fantasies -- in class. I'll do just about anything to make that classroom experience be atypical. Now most of the time I'm just up there lecturing, but in addition to that are lots and lots of other qualities, characteristics, and events that you can build into a total spectrum of activities that I think will enhance their response to the class. [DAVE COSLOY]: What it sounds like you're saying is you're very adaptive within the classroom environment. Would you say that adaptability is what makes you an outstanding teacher? [RON MATSON]: I think that's a part of it. I've never thought about it being adaptability before -- maybe it is. If I could take that idea of adaptability- teaching for me is, is a dialogue. It's not a monologue. I'm not up there talking to them. I'm communicating with them,

and that means that I can't be strapped to my notes in front of a class. I can't be- I can't have my nose buried in a book reading, because I'm not, I'm not in a communication loop with them. If I'm lecturing and being sensitive to them as individuals and as a group, then I know how to pace my instruction. I know how to give a war whoop when I need to. I know when to back up and re-enunciate or discuss some kind of issue or idea. That all occurs, because I'm sensitive to the feedback that they're giving me -- and almost all of that feedback is nonverbal. Almost all of it's nonverbal. So it's a matter of what you might call adaptability, I will call sensitivity to their relationship to me in the classroom. [DAVE COSLOY]: What they're telling you. [RON MATSON]: If they're in their communication loop with me. [DAVE COSLOY]: Would you advise somebody if they were a student, say, in sociology or any other department to

become a professor, a teacher? [RON MATSON]: Sure, sure I would. Because, I mean, I think that if they went into it with their eyes open knowing what it means to be in an academic environment in the 1980s, I love being a teacher. And I can't think of one other thing in the world that I would rather do for an occupation than teach. So, I mean, I really found my niche here, and I think that there are probably other people out there who might at some point feel the same way that I do. I'm perfectly willing to encourage them to go into it, recognizing that there are pitfalls and dramatic sacrifices that you make. [DAVE COSLOY]: The rewards aren't that monetarily satisfying. [RON MATSON]: Not at all, not at all. But there's, I don't know, I mean if I look at it I cannot think of if I look at the positive side of it which normally do, I can't think of anything that- any occupation that provides me more flexibility. I can't say that I work any less than anybody else. I don't think I do. But I have enormous flexibility. I mean, take today. My

first day of classes for this semester, and I've gone in and done my preparation and given my lectures today, and here I am in the middle of the afternoon being interviewed at KMUW. I mean, who else in the middle of the afternoon can take a jaunt across campus, sit down, do an interview, get up, go back, and do some reading. That's the kind of flexibility, day in and day out, that makes this really an exciting job for me -- as well as the kind of contact that I can have with students. And that's the other thing is that students- all of us who commit ourselves to an occupation in a university environment will grow old in that environment. But the environment stays young, and the dynamism and the enthusiasm that comes out of that sort of mix of young people is something that I can look forward to feeding off of for all of my older years as as a teaching professional. Yeah, I- it'll never be dull for me. [DAVE COSLOY]: Is your professional goal to continue with it

and do you have some other goal that you'd like to achieve? At this point, at this point, I really want to be in the classroom more than anything else. Do you think that would change? It may. It hasn't. I mean, I've been doing this now at Wichita State for eleven years and I've had opportunities to become an administrator and I have of late developed my own career path more in a professional direction with research and writing than I had in the past, but I'm in no way yet ready to think about leaving the classroom, even part time. I want to, I want to maintain my focus as a classroom teacher and I can only project that I will continue to do that into the future for some time. Hang on, maybe someday I'll want to be an administrator, but it hasn't come yet. In a related question, do you feel very free in the environment the Wichita State University has to allow you to be this kind of teacher that you want to be, your own style? Absolutely. Through profession conversations

with lots and lots of other faculty members at lots and lots of other universities I believe I've had ultimate freedom to develop my skills as a teacher, to experiment with all kinds of different modalities, methods. The administration has trusted me when probably I didn't deserve that trust but out of that has come a person, myself, who is deeply committed to teaching and to the university because of the opportunities I felt here. No one has rained on my parade as a teacher, ever, and I've been given great license to do almost anything that I would like to do. In all your different, I assume from this you've experimented a lot with trying different teaching modalities. What would you say it was your best experience in various teach. I assume it's something like what you're doing now. It's very similar. Courses, ideas,

orientations change for me and for students as we move through time but the course format that I'm most closely associated with is what I call an experiential modular format. I like experiential learning. I like students doing things outside of the classroom and that means completing assignments. Let me give you an example, a concrete example. When I teach a class in criminology they will tour institutions and the University gives me license enough to go on overnight tours. In other words, we'll be gone for thirty six or forty eight hours from the university campus in private cars and that's the kind of freedom that I've been able to experience. We'll go to Texas to go to a Federal institution and Fort Worth or we'll go to Leavenworth in Leavenworth, Kansas. There are those kinds of opportunities. I'll also have them sit in on a criminal jury trial. I have them interview people and ask them why they commit certain types of crimes. Get them outside the classroom,

into what I call an experiential learning situation. That's the experiential side of the class. Must also be good for you as a sociologist to get out there and be able to ask those questions. Certainly. Do you find yourself growing with that? Of course, of course. It's necessary for me to be able to do that. Sometimes my research provides me that but when I build these kinds of experiences into the class situation then that prompts me out to do those good kinds of sociology at the same time. The second half of the model besides experiential learning is a modular approach and what I do is break the course down into modules, sections, is what that amounts to and then there is usually a repeated set of exercises with each module and they'll have an assignment due. We'll have a class discussion strictly class discussion during that time period. There will be some lectures. There may be a tour, there will be perhaps a guest

speaker or panel of people coming in. But instead of looking at the course over a sixteen week continuous period, I found it easier and I think that students perhaps more rewarding, to break the course down into models, segments, units, and immerse themselves and me in that for a relatively sane period of time, two maybe three weeks, drop it get out of it move on to something else. Now in fact, all those models that together to make a course but it's easier to think about pieces that are two or three weeks long rather than a piece that's sixteen weeks long if we're talking about a semester course. Thank you very much, Ron Mattson from the Department of Sociology. I'm sure you're an outstanding teacher. I thank you for being here on University and Your Community. My name is Dave Coswol and we've had production assistance by Carla Williams [music] [music]

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