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Tuesday, November 11, 1975
University Dafly Kansan
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1.
Students close to HOPE finalists' hearts McNish utilizes Socratic method
Final voting for this year's HOPE award will be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow in the information booth on Javhawk Boulevard.
Anne Cox, co-chairman of the HOPE award committee, said that all seniors who show their registration cards would be eligible to vote. Each year the HOPE award recognizes an inquiring teacher at the University of Kansas.
This year's five finalists are: Allan Cigler, assistant professor of political science; J. Hammond McNish, adjunct professor of business; Calder Pickett, professor of journalism; Dennis Quinn, professor of English; and Lee Young, professor of journalism.
Cox said that the results of the balloting would be announced at halftime of the KU-University of Colorado football game Saturday.
The winner will receive a money stipend and will have his name engraved on a permanent plaque in the Kansas Union, Cox said. The four other nominees will receive engraved plaques.
By DIERCK CASSELMAN
The HOPE (Honor to an Outstanding Progressive Educator) Award was initiated by the class of 1959, which established a trust fund with the Endowment Association. The class did not collect the amount donated by the senior class from class dues make up each year's cash award.
Staff Writer
Five years ago, J. Hammond McNish gave up a successful law career in Sidney, Neb., to come back to the University of Texas at Austin, where he was the last thing he thought he'd be doing.
Now McNish, who is 58, is an adjunct professor of business and one of three KU teachers of business law courses, a research fellow, and an alumnus. He was one of 16 KU faculty members to be designated Outstanding Educators of America for 1974. He is also one of five finalists for the PTE PE Award, the highest award he has been either a semifinalist or for the奖牌.
It wasn't a loss of interest in his law practice that caused him to inquire about
the availability of a teaching position at KU in 1970, be said.
"I was losing my enthusiasm," he said. "it used to be such a thrill when a person would walk through our door with a good case."
"I began thinking in terms of, 'Now how are we going to get this done?' " he said.
10 make matters worse, he said, during
the 22 years he practiced law at Sidney's,
where he was a lecturer.
But a consistently heavy workload began
because the satisfaction he derived from
bake was low.
For McNish, who taught business law at
So in 1970, he said, he wrote the University to say he was open here when it was purchased to learn the
"I didn't think about going anywhere else." he said.
McNish said that his classes in the '40s were smaller than the classes he was teaching now but that his teaching method had remained the same.
"For the subject of business law," he
said, "a modified Socratic method works
KU from 1946 to 1948, it was a good homecoming.
The method simply involves asking the students in the class to recite, he said, thereby letting the students teach themselves.
Love basic to Quinn's teaching
Max Johnson, Salina senior, said he thought that McNish's methods were effec-
Bv MARY ANN HUDDLESTON
On the desk of Dennis Quinn, professor of English and director of the Pearson Integrated Humanities Program (PIHP), sits a small, handmade plaque.
Those words apply characterize Quinn's attitude toward teaching. This year he is one of five finalists nominated by the senior teacher, Quinn, award, which honors outstanding teachers.
"While I find it very pleasing to be recognized for my achievements in teaching," Quinn said, "that it think it would be a benefit if there were no need for such awards."
The plaque says, "To learn and never be filled with Wisdom. To teach and never be filled with Knowledge."
Quinn won the HOPE Award in 1984 and the
HOPE Student Excellence Award in 1986,
in Classroom Teaching in 1986.
He said that such awards existed because the University didn't recognize teaching excellence through normal means, such as salary and promotion.
The function of teaching at the University has been secondary, Quinn said.
Big Eight athletic conference and the NCAA. This position also places McNish on the University of Kansas Athletic Corporation (KUAC) as an ex-officio member.
"Publishers and administrators enjoy positions of great prestige in the academic community," he said. "Teachers enjoy prestige among their students."
Students who were interviewed agreed in their praise of Quinn's teaching.
David Routh, Prairie Village senior,
and his brother, John, will tour
Oupland for an hour and a half.
"He directs the student's interest more toward the author's intentions and the purpose of a work rather than the details of the work itself," he said.
Students in PIHF and in Quinn's other courses are asked not to take notes during lectures so they can learn the material without having it written down to refer to
The goals of KUAC affect all special groups within the University community, McNish said, and he is interested in making KUAC run as smoothly as possible.
mnonplace among students, parents and legislators, he said.
Chuck McGuire, City City, Mo., senior, who was not in PIPH although he took other courses from Quinn, said he liked Quinn's ability to communicate without using note-
The program grew out of long-standing criticisms of the University that were thought to be valid by all three professors, Quinn said. The criticisms are com-
I met the idea that we sat and listened to him without having to write anything down. Whatever's important I will remember whether I write it down or not, he said.
"He made you want to be prepared for class," said Johnson, a business law student of McNish last spring. "He didn't depend on volunteers: he'd call on anybody."
Quinn said that although he could describe his teaching methods, he didn't know how to explain them.
Quinn, who is 47, has been at the University since 1966. He came to the University at the age of 28 because it was the only job available when he returned from studying in Holland on a Fulbright scholarship, he said. He received a second Fulbright award in 1962 for research in Salamanca, Spain.
Those criticisms are that university education is fragmented and has no order, he said. A student can't put everything he's learning into practice. University education has no interatient factor, he said.
In 1971 Quinn founded PHIP with Franklyn Nellick, professor of English, and John Senior, professor of comparative literature.
"A teacher can use any method," he said,
"but will he be able to successful to the extent that he begins by conveying a love of the subject he is teaching."
the teacher, Quinn said. They try to win
it on flattering when a friendship can't
be based on flattering.
"There is an order in education," Quinn said. "It is basically the same as that in Plato's Republic, starting with poetry and proceeding to Philosophy."
"The average undergraduate at any university is not given a square deal so far."
"Plato says education must take place in an atmosphere of friendship," he said.
A mistake many teachers make is in telling their students they know as much as
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Quinn said the mostpleasing aspect of his job as director of PHP was teaching.
A love of the subject is more important than knowledge of it, he said.
However, he said, that friendship is often misunderstood to be equality. The relationship between a student and a teacher is based on inequity. The teacher desire to help him and his knowledge that the teacher can assist him in learning, he said.
"What is especially pleasing to me is the continuity I get in my relationships with others."
The Socratic method works best with classes of 20 to 30 students, McNish said, but most of his classes have 60 or more students and at times it's hard to inspire students.
Yet, interesting students to learn is what McNish said teaching should be.
"Learning should be fun and, to a degree entertaining," he said.
The aspect of teaching that McNish said he enjoyed most was seeing a student gain confidence in the subject and believe in his abilities. He also appeared to be overwhelming subject matter.
"A lot of my students should be doing better," he says, but they have a mental toughness.
Helping build confidence is difficult, McNish said. He tries to learn the names of his students and to keep his office open to them as much as possible, since his students are very large, he said.
Since July 1974, McNish has been the University faculty's representative to the
Mneish received both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Nebraska in 1939 and 1941. Following his years with the U.S. Armv. he taught at KU.
Experience was Young's teacher
By GREG HACK
Although his teaching style defies exact definition, Lee Young, professor of journalism, must be doing something right. For six of the last eight years he has been nominated for the HOPE award, and the admiration of his students shows.
"He has an incredible dedication to students and to teaching," Kathy Stechert, Young's graduate student assistant, said. "He has an affection for and an interest in every student, and this has come across to me. I know who has had him for a teacher."
"Sometimes a teacher will give your work back and you won't learn anything from it," she said, "but 'Folp. Young spends a lot of time working on his job.' He makes you feel that he cares."
Young, who teaches two magazine courses, a graduate magazine seminar and courses in advertising copy and campaigns, should be able to present "a practical view." From his college graduation until 12 years ago, he worked in advertising and
magazine businesses, and eventually primary Medicine, a veterinarian's magazine.
"Then I decided to leave it all," he said. "I had a feeling of boredom, of being on a treadmill. So, at the age of 38, after 15 years he was out of school for a second day of life at middle age."
Young, who is 50, said he thought of teaching American history to high school students because he had majored in American studies. However, the dean of the School of Education steered him to the Journalism, where there was an opening.
"We had no magazine program," he said,
Young soon earned his degree and became a full member of the faculty. In 1968 he designed the magazine courses he now teaches,
"I went to the journalism school, very impromptu, with no notion of what was going on," he said. "But in the summer of 1964 there I was, teaching basic advertising and working on a master's degree in journalism."
"and the faculty asked me to develop one. Today, I try to take an abstract and make it a slice of reality for the students. My projects and teaching are designed to do
The student in Young's first magazine course must, for his final project, design a prototype magazine, including details of its production process, advertising rates and
"The premise is that the student is applying to me for financial backing for his new magazine," he said. "The project brings together all of the things learned in the course." The class also deals with the magazines in society, past and present.
The second magazine course deals with the production of many kinds of magazines. Its students produce the Jayhawk Journalist magazine and have the opportunity to be assigned to internships on other magazines.
"I consider the magazine courses an addition to someone's journalism background, not a sequence in and of themselves," he said.
Pickett strives for extra insight
Young said he tried to avoid lectures when possible.
about yourself and society at large," he realizes what in happening around them.
I young, who is also associate dean of the School of Journalism, said he was strongly against the notion of rigidly structured sentences of classes.
"I remember my student days and sitting through hours of lectures taking notes," he said. "Some places you have to lecture, but I'm a strong believer in establishing dialogues in the classroom whenever possible.
Young said he enjoyed life in general, but especially teaching and his bobbies, which include gardening and golf. He is also the curator of a collection of first issues of magazines, formerly known as the Gilbert Collection.
Staff Writer
Not even the man himself has an explanation for why Calder M. Pickett, professor of journalism, has been so successful in his chosen field.
Pickett, a finalist for the 1975 HOPE Award, has won a variety of honors for his work in journalism, including a Peabody Award in 1973 for a weekly KANU radio show, "The American Past," and a research award in 1970 from Kappa Tau Alpha, an honorary journalism society, for his book about Edgar Howe, a former AT&T executive. He spent time in the six years that he has been nominated for the HOPE Award.
Steckert said, "He's very effective in drawing students out. I think that's because they don't feel threatened. He's interested and they say. He really likes when you talk."
By BRENT ANDERSON
"I don't really know why I get nominated," Pickett said. "Each teacher develops his own formula and hopes it is effective.
"What I try to do is import as much knowledge and enlightenment as I can in an interesting way as I can. I try to offer advice to a clever student can't find in a regular textbook."
"I don't think you can really say that there's one thing that makes him so good," one student said. "He makes you work hard, but you know he's working hard at the same time. And when you know he's interested in playing, it is easier for you to get interested."
In his classes, Pickett uses both visual and audio devices to make his points. Records, tapes, slides and pictures are used by him to make his courses interesting, as well as occasional dramatic interpretations that he performs.
Salt Lake City Tribune and a copy editor for the Salt Lake City Desert News, in addition to working for the Kansas City Star and Daily Capital while teaching at KUV.
"I'll do anything that I think might help a student understand the material better," he said. "Maybe these things are just gimmicks, but they can teach those that have seemed to work for me."
Young said he believed in a broad, liberal education.
continuous spanning more than 300 years of journalism, he said. He is writing a runin
Pickett teaches several journalism courses, including History of American Journalism, Editorial and Interpretive Writing, Mass Media and the Popular Arts in America, and Propaganda and Censorship. He also teaches graduate courses.
He has a masters degree from Northwestern and a Ph.D. in American studies from the University of Minnesota. Pickett was acting dean of the William Allen White School of Journalism from 1960 to 1981, when he became a full professor.
He said that the radio show was similar to an autobiography because it presented things that interested him and, in his own words, he least a part of the American experience.
"The American派," which is broadcast on a RANU-FM at 8 p.m., each Wednesday, is in the same location as the program is spiced with some of the same records and tapes that he uses in his recording.
Pickett, who is 54, came to KU in 1951 as an assistant professor. He had taught at the University of Denver from 1949 to 1951, and at Utah State from 1946 to 1948. He has been working since he was 16, when he worked as a printer and reporter on an日報 weekly.
Fickett said he read more than 200 books each year, covering a wide range of subjects, and that he looked through hundreds more each year in performing his duties of book review editor for Journalism Quarterly.
Pickett's book about Edgar Hawk, which was entitled "Ed Hewe: Country Town Philadelphia," is expected to be joined next week by the author in the History of American Journalism." That book, which Pickett now is working on, will contain news stories, features and
"You have to learn as much as you can
Pickett has worked as a reporter for the
When teaching 12 hours of classes, as he is this semester, Pickett said he sometimes had as many as 500 pages of editorials and essays to personally grade each week.
"I never have any trouble coming up with ideas for the show," he said. "I'm always coming across topics that interest me and stimulate ideas."
Cigler approach stresses analysis
By JIM BATES
A young political science professor looked out the window of the blister Hall office and spoke with a reporter.
"Today's students are cynical but interested," he said. "They're sitting on the political sidelines and watching.
"My job is to give them the tools so they can figure it all out."
The speaker was Allan Cigler, 32, an assistant professor who, in only his sixth year of teaching, is a HOPE Award finalist. He taught at the University of Greenville, Pa., and received his master's from the University of Maryland and his doctorate from the University of Indiana. Cigler teaches mostly undergraduate students on an political behavior and educational process.
"Most students come with open minds, and that gives me an advantage," he said. "But sometimes you have to state of flux, Cigler said. The old New Deal issues and alliances are dead, he said, but
According to Culver, a large portion of his success in teaching can be attributed to his emphasis on the importance of
Cagler said students find the lack of clear political viewpoints frustrating and that's why many of them take his courses. In his courses, he said, he tries to teach them how to analyze the situation so they can face the new issues when they become defined.
Today's students are much different from those of the 50s or late '60s. Cigler said, The "ninety-nine" were more confident.
apathetic, he said, and the students of five
country concerned almost entirely with Vietnam.
Students now show a broad general interest but hesitate to get involved, he said. Cigler said the American public as a whole was wary and unaware. There is an increasing sense of political awareness among people still interested in politics, he said.
This, Cigar said, is a dangerous situation. Government has to become more
"Most people in this country are politically frustrated." Clerai said.
responsive to people to avert ever-increasing 'anti-system behavior,' he said. The increase in the number of assaults in schools could be a symbol of a frustrated, public.
The HOPE Award is, according to its name at least, for "progressive" educators. Yet Cigler doesn't see himself as a "regressive" educator.
lecture and discussion classes with an emphasis on readings rather than on papers. He said he was sometimes surprised that his students rated him as a good teacher.
"I've never heard I was that good," he said. "I had some professors as an aid, and I don't know why."
However, Cigar said, he supposed he had some things in common with other award winners.
"when you look at the really good teachers," he said, "you see all different types of teaching styles. Yet with each of them, you learn something new in the students that the teacher really cares.
Communication is a key word to Cigler. He said that he had been impressed with the need for communication as a student and think of improving time thinking about ways of improving it.
"It's crucial that I help people make some sense of the confusion around them," Glerl said.
It's also rewarding to see students react in a positive way, he said.
"He communicates very well," Debbie Morrow, Arkansas city sophomore, said. "Maybe it’s because he’s so young, but he comes across talking to you as an equal."
Cigler said teaching was very important and might not be getting the emphasis it should. Research is also essential, however, because resources need to keep up with both, be said.
"The dichotomy between teaching and research is a false one," he said.