Teaching experience

My teaching philosophy centres on twin aims: to ignite a passion for science and crime in my students, and to maximise success in their future careers through the authentic knowledge and skills I help them to develop. In pursuit of these aims, I infuse my teaching with anecdotes on crime and policing by directly drawing from my research and engagement with practitioners. As a keen advocate for evidence-based practice, I continually strive to use the most effective and engaging methods in my teaching. Examples of this include:

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• Contributing as a member of the planning team for UCL DSCS’s first undergraduate degree (BSc Security & Crime Science). In particular, I helped to quality assure the design of the programme by harvesting best practice from within and external to UCL. I also assumed leadership roles (e.g. UG Departmental Tutor) for the first year of this running and undertook pastoral responsibilities (e.g. Safeguarding contact).

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• Being an early adopter in the Department of e-learning strategies in my role as convenor of the MSc. module ‘Crime mapping and spatial analysis’ (2008/09 - 2009/10), which was part of the newly launched distanced learning certificate.

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• Incorporating into the three undergraduate modules that I developed and convened in 2016/17 a range of methods to maintain engagement with and enthusiasm for the taught material (e.g. field trips to places such as the ‘Old Bailey’, in-class live polls). For example, for the new foundational BSc. module ‘Crime and Society’ I set up a debating forum in tutorials, where the students had to use the taught theory to compose short arguments in support or critique of a position. This deepened students’ engagement with the theoretical content of the module and also provided an inclusive environment to try out different forms of arguing. In the BSc. ‘Crime Mapping’ module I used a flipped lecture model so that students had to prepare by engaging with teaching materials before turning up to the computer-based session. Moodle quizzes then tested that students’ had fully engaged with the range of information they had been exposed to.

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• Leading on pedagogical innovations in my Department, such as piloting delivering student feedback in Moodle within my BSc. Crime Mapping module.

 

I constantly strive to make my teaching accessible, interactive and inclusive. In my role at the University of Waikato I developed a podcast series to complement the reading my students were set. I also integrate a variety of exercises throughout my teaching, to enable students to link the new knowledge they are exposed to to their existing knowledge. I also use non-traditional forms of assessment to keep students engaged and learning from each other (e.g., peer review). I favour active blended learning and this is the thread that runs throughout my teaching. I currently teach two foundational papers (modules) at undergraduate level and two foundational papers at postgraduate level.

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I am interested in supervising student projects on crime analysis, crime prevention (particularly through problem oriented policing), evidence synthesis on crime and policing topics and complex crimes such as human trafficking.