THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Vol. 86 No.44
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Focus on Teaching
October 24,1975
Inside . . .
Staff Photo by DON PIERCE
Robert Numley, professor of geography, explains the workings of a mini computer system he uses in the Space Technology Center on West Campus. The system, Numley says, can be utilized by a wide range of programs at the university.
Imaginative teachina
Of the three goals of the University—teaching, research and public service—there is little doubt that teaching will have the greatest direct effect on students during their days at KU. Every student must have at least 124 credit hours to graduate. Whether those hours drag by or are savored—often depends on the imagination of the teacher.
On page 10, the Kansas examines what teachers have done in six University courses to make them more interesting and enjoyable for students. Among these classes are the Pearson Integrated Humanities Program's star-gazing sessions. Pearson students take advantage of clear nights to view the stars to complement their poetry reading classes. Clark Becker studies a philosophy using magic shows at the end of each semester in his chemistry lecture course to illustrate chemical properties. And women in KU physical fitness programs are beginning to throw weight around—in University weightlifting classes.
Cheating examined
Are chest sheets, stolen tests and over-the-shoulder peeks being used by the average KU student to make the grade or get the award? A review of 45 shredded and examined their responses to questions about the cheating situation on campus in his story on page seven.
KU traditions traced
The "hallowed halls" and hill of ol' KU are steeped in tradition, and at no time of the year do these become more evident than at Homecoming. Few students, however, seem to know where many of these traditions developed, so on pages four and five of this section the Kansan traces the history of some important symbols of KU.
The history of the term Jayhawk dates back to an 1848 wagon train phrase but wasn't used as KU's mascot until 1896. The Jayhawk was first drawn by Henry Maloy in 1912 and has constant ties with the University professor needed a chant for his science club. The KU songs and seal are also reprinted, and the history of the Chi Omega fountain is dipped into.
Teaching techniques vary
A letter from Chancellor Daelo Waldo
Kreisler in 1904 read-
To Heads of Departments
There have come to my attention persistent rumors and occasionally actual reports of practices not educationally sound, including the following examples: 1) Use of technology permits, even encourages, dishonest work. -Use of the same test during successive semesters, so that quiz files become altogether too useful.
-Delay or failure return tests or papers.
-Tendency of instructors to be late to
This letter shows that people have known for at least 25 years which techniques typify bad teachers. However, there is still no good teacher, which techniques are used by good teachers.
—Instructors cutting class.
Innovations in teaching, such as the use of computers and audio visual equipment, have occurred. But award-winning teachers, University of Kansas administrators, and students who have
magic formula* for good teaching existed
Alison Gwinn and Greg Hack Staff Writers
Many professors said the best techniques were those that fitted a professor's subject to their teaching.
Eldon Fields, professor of political science and a HOPE award winner, said, "It's so important to teach any of any teaching technique is determined by the extent to which the teacher is enthused about it. If the students sense that the teacher's bored with what or how he's taught, then it may be time for him."
He said he hadn't changed his teaching style, a mixture of lecture and questions for the class.
"I'm comfortable with my teaching methods, which seem to work well for political theory and philosophy, which most of my upper-level courses deal with," he
J. Hammond McNish, adjunct professor of business and a HOPE award winner, wrote this book to explain the accord to the subject matter. For example, business law lends itself to discussion, because it takes abstract principles and relates them to everyday life.
He said that, from his observations, he didn't think that teaching methods had changed.
doing them is something else. I guess you'd say that I use a modified Socratic method by continuing to ask my students questions."
"The goals and the ways you go about it probably haven't changed since the Greeks and even before that," he said. "I think it's clear what our objectives should be, but
"Any teacher, to be at all successful, has to be enthusiastic about what he's talking about," he said. "The method is not so important, and the methods used vary so
much from discipline to discipline that you can't say any method is best."
He said he had to use the lecture approach because of the size of his classes. For Bricker, a small group discussion" still requires some contact with students.
"You have to know your students personally, too," he said. "I despise all of this social security and student number business. I like to know my students by name. I've talked on a one-to-one basis with
"I used 24 rolls of 36-exposure film this semester," he said.
Paying attention
Staff Photo by DON PIERCE
Although classroom teaching techniques have improved over the years, no one has yet found a substitute for the classroom situation—the lecture and the note taking.
nearly every one of my students this semester."
Bricker said he learned his students' names by photographing each one of them at the gallery.
Oscar Haugh, professor of curriculum and instruction and the oldest OHP award winner still teaching, said a teacher had to be aware of safety of methods to present knowledge.
"I think teaching methods have changed," I said. "I like to think that I'm improved."
He emphasized the importance of teachers keeping office hours.
"I think it's scandalous that many teachers don't keep office hours," he said. "I suppose I have close to 20 hours a week and I do office hours. I value that as being important."
KU students who have studied classroom teaching don't seem to endorse any parental views.
Chris Illiff, chairman of the Commission on the Quality of Classroom Teaching, said, "There are as many excellent methods of teaching as there are excellent teachers."
"Based upon conversations with recognized outstanding teachers, I would say that the most important thing which is common to all of them is an intangible quality which they themselves cannot pin down."
Ed Rolfs, student body president, said, "The prevalent thing that came out of the report is that a good teacher isn't necessarily one who has facts and knowledge, but one who can convey them to students."
Bruce Woner, student researcher for the commission, said two schools of thought existed among faculty and administrators about teaching.
One school of thought, he said, is that teaching ability is inherent in the teacher, and that a poor teacher can learn only from mistakes and from watching good teachers.
The other school of thought is that teaching techniques are improved through mindfulness.
Dennis Quinn, director of the Pearson Humanities Program and a HOPE award winner, said a shift to team-teaching was the major change in his teaching methods during the six years Pearson program has been in operation.
"This is the most successful sort of thing we've ever done," he said. "The students like the lectures. It's so successful that we worry about it. We have to remind the students that the books for our courses are more important than the lectures."
Quinn lectures with John Senior, professor of comparative literature and a HOPE award winner, and Franklin Nellick, professor of English. Quinn said that teaching together, the three provided contrast, balance and "a kind of richness."
Ron Calgaard, vice chancellor for
See TEACHING page 9
Adequate English skills lacking
Are college students today less proficient academically than their counterparts of several years age? Some observers of American education have said yes, while others have disagreed.
Part of the controversy stems from the fact that the average scores for two major college entrance examinations, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the Advanced Placement test, were higher during the past decade. The ACT, which is used more often at the University of Kansas, has had a national drop in average composite score from 19.9 points in 1964 to 18.7 points in 1975, on a 36 point scale. At KU the composite score remained flat for six years, although it is still above the national average.
One subject area measured in both the SAT and the ACT is English proficiency. The question of whether basic English skills of college students today are actually sufficient for academic achievement has been discussed on a national level, as well as at KU.
Vance Packard, social critic and author of "The Status Seekers" and "A Nation of Strangers," has said that a decrease in English skills has occurred nationally. According to Packard, a study of about 100,000 Americans by the Pew Research Center in 2004 indicated that by age 17 only about one half of the students sampled could put together simple sentences and express simple ideas in general, imprecise, language. In addition, Packard said that a 1971 survey by the Louis Harris polling organization found that about 19 million American students were unable to measure measures of literacy, such as application forms.
According to several KU instructors, KU students at present are just as proficient in English skills as their counterparts of several years ago were but they aren't as proficient as they should be at a college level. James A. Gowen, director of freshman-sophomore English, said that no significant decline in verbal ability has been seen in the student body despite courses, although such a decline had been reported by instructors in some other colleges and universities.
Gown said the reported decline in English skills on other campuses occurred simultaneously with the return of instructors who had taught upper level courses for several years to lower level English courses.
"The instructors returned to teaching basic English
skills because the enrollment declined in many colleges and universities," he said. "The reported drop in English skills could be a subjective response to the different type of student being taught. These instructors were used to upper level and graduate English students and then came into contact with freshmen."
Gowen said he thought high school teachers were being blamed unnecessarily for failure to teach English skills. If any of the failure has occurred on the high school level, he said, it has occurred because high schools are overcrowded and underfunded. Some high schools have become baby-sitting institutions, he said.
However, other instructors said that high schools were responsible for the lack of adequate English skills in students. They also said that students English, said that students don't think of written English as being separate from spoken English. They aren't
Paula Jolly
Staff Writer
aware that word choice and sentence formation in spoken English are different from those in written English. College instructors often have to re-educate students to understand the difference, she said.
"I think the whole idea of writing isn't emphasized in high schools," Wiedling said. "They don't try to develop writing skills because high school teachers don't know how to deal with the problems involved. Students are taught about grammar, but not about putting grammatical parts together.
"I taught in high school for awhile and I think other teachers thought compilation writing was an extension of talking about literature, and that it wasn't essential for a high school student's survival."
"Students are often very frustrated because they
Oliver Filmey, assistant instructor in English, taught English 101 seven years ago and returned to teaching that course last year. He said he saw no noticeable difference in over-all literacy and verbal competency. However, even seven years ago the students' verbal preparation wasn't adutenate, he said.
aren't able to express themselves in writing without a struggle," he said.
According to Susanne Shaw, assistant professor of journalism, the English skills of students now haven't decreased noticeably when compared to the skills of students several years ago. However, she said that there is still a need for teachers to be remedial teaching of skills that should have been grasped by students in high school or junior high.
"Many journalism schools require that students pass an English proficiency test before entrance into the school," she said. "We're considering something like this. I think they need to be more familiar with the land of English before they enter the journalism school."
John Bremner, professor of journalism, also said he saw no noticeable decrease in the English proficiency of students in his editing classes. However, the over-all skill level isn't good, he said.
"The students give little indication that they had elementary or secondary school teachers who were concerned with the elements of grammar or with the use of language," he said. "It all bows down to the fact that elementary and high school teachers seem to have given up teaching the parts of speech. Students haven't been taught to diagram sentences or identify parts of speech, and spelling is often atrocious."
Another view of the relation of primary and second education to college student English skills was offered by Judy Freed, learning disabilities teacher at Hickory School, and Diana Olsen, a school district. According to Freed, the success of special education programs in grade schools has kept many students in school who would have otherwise dropped out. These students may catch up enough in their reading and writing skills, so that they can excel as well as other students on the collage level, she said.
Some KU instructors pointed to factors other than high school English instruction as possible causes for poor performance in English. One of the most frequently mentioned factors was television.
According to Brad Tate, principal of Lawrence High School, teachers there haven't given up teaching the basics of English. One semester of grammar and composition is required of all students, he said.
See ENGLISH page 2