Featured Faculty
June 2007

Luther (Trey) Denton
Professor of Marketing

Background

Fresh from my doctoral program and a two-year stint teaching in Hong Kong, my wife and I were ready to settle down and make a home. Growing up in Georgia (Broxton…a little town of less than a thousand) and later Atlanta, earning my undergraduate degree in Psychology from Emory, earning an MBA from Emory, then my Ph.D. from the University of Georgia, we were well acquainted with Georgia Southern and its reputation as a school with something special to offer its students. Georgia Southern was the only place that I applied to work and in 1992 was fortunate to join the College of Business Administration. Georgia Southern had all that we sought in a home… big enough to offer a comprehensive university experience, small enough and friendly enough to always care, encouraging supportive colleagues, a special mission that emphasizes both teaching and research, a warm nurturing community, proximity to a large city (and airport), and relatively inexpensive land (back then) close to the University. What a wonderful decision and my how time flies.

Trey Denton

Teaching Philosophy and Strategy

"We teach; we profess in a unique and special moment in human history."

Our knowledge base is expanding at a phenomenal rate.

Our access to information is unparalleled.

Information is available in multiple formats.

Globalization and the “flattening” of the world touch every aspect of our lives.

Reading is in decline.

The national attention span is contracting.

We face threats both old (i.e., disease, religious tension) and new (i.e., global warming, terrorism).

Technology driven pedagogical aids and delivery systems are exploding in type and number.

A college education is treated as a right; not a privilege that must be earned.

Students have been rewarded too often for effort rather than results.

It seems that every university offers some portion of its curriculum online.

Google, Youtube, Myspace, Facebook, cell phones, Playstation, e-mail, laptops, Bluetooth, Blackberries, Powerpoint, and other systems too numerous or too recent to mention are catalyzing agents forcing an incredibly rapid evolution in how we communicate, play, educate, create, conduct commerce, and maintain human relationships.

Never has life been as pleasant.

Never have we been so anxious.

Students, and in fact all of humanity, continue the search for happiness, for meaning, for truth.

"We prepare students for what comes next. How best to prepare them? To think? To communicate? To lead meaningful lives? What incredible questions!"

As a professor, I have never been as puzzled or as excited about my job and what comes next. We are the guides, the intellectual sherpas of the past, present, and future. We are charged with the task of interpreting where we are and where we think we are going. We prepare students for what comes next. How best to prepare them? To think? To communicate? To lead meaningful lives? What incredible questions!

Every faculty member must answer these questions and the answers will depend on the characteristics of the teacher, the characteristics of the students, and the characteristics of the discipline.

There is and never will be any “one size fits all” model that provides the ideal solution.

With that caveat in mind, please allow me to humbly offer several some ideas and personal observations that may stimulate experimentation in the classroom.

  1. Students can process information at amazing speed. They are frequently bored NOT because the content is boring, but rather because the delivery is too slow. Speed up your classes.
  2. Be excited about your discipline. Show your passion. If you aren’t excited, they never will be. Perform! Good lectures will never go out of style. DO use multimedia, but keep in mind that nothing turn brains off faster than a Powerpoint presentation that is also available on the K drive or via web-ct.
  3. Teaching from the book will render either your lecture or the text reading assignment meaningless in the mind of the student. You do them no favor by spoon feeding information they could learn on their own. Teach them things they can’t find in the book. (This also solves the class attendance problem.)
  4. Students are better at memorizing than understanding. Today’s students know where to get information but they often do not understand the information they find. Only test them on understanding. Don’t let them write down your lectures word for word, which slows class down and promotes memorization. Go so fast they can’t keep up. Teach them to listen and think.
  5. Share with them the joys of being a scholar. Explain the value of a comprehensive liberal arts education and the core curriculum. Explain how your course/your discipline contributes to their holistic education. Students rarely think of themselves as scholars. Change their minds. Give them pride in how and why they learn.
  6. It frequently feels that students do not want “their money’s worth” in the classroom. This is not true. The good ones do. Don’t forget that.
  7. Set your expectations high. First and foremost teach to your more interested and motivated students. Do not be afraid to favor these students. Don’t be afraid to give tough exams.
  8. Build in enough “slack” to allow going off on tangents. When you abandon the notion that you have to cover all of the text material in class, you will find time for these types of experiences.
  9. Talk about current events. Incorporate time for discussion of current events related to your class.
  10. Assign one outside reading book in each class you teach. Choose a book that changed you or how you think. Talk about why the book is important to you.
  11. Be visible on campus. Eat, exercise, learn, and play on campus. Be the type of professor that students bump into as they go about their lives. Be glad to see them and take time to talk.
  12. Laugh a lot. Allow your students to have fun in your class.

Contact Information
Luther (Trey) Denton, Ph.D.
Office Phone: 912-681-0802
E-mail: ldenton@georgiasouthern.edu

Since joining Georgia Southern in 1992, Dr. Denton has been recognized for his teaching in his college and at the university level with Awards for Excellence in Teaching. He is also the recipient of the College of Business Award for Contributions in Service and in 2004 was named COBA Professor of the Year. His primary teaching duties include International Marketing (undergraduate), Global Marketing Strategy (MBA), and Contemporary Issues in Marketing (MBA). He serves on a variety of College and University committees and recently served as the Chair of the GSU Strategic Planning Council, the group charged with creating and guiding the strategic planning processes of Georgia Southern University.

CET