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University Daily Kansan, October 1, 1982
New teaching methods enhance learning
By BONAR MENNINGER Staff Reporter
As Keith Jarrett's classical piano music weaved through the background, English 101 lecturer A. Joyce Laing lectured her students on the grammatical pitfalls of sentence splices and fragments. Over the music, her symphonies displayed discipline than encouraging words of advise.
Like several other teachers on campus, Lau uses techniques in her teaching that emerged from the social transformations of the 1960s. She recently said she would improve the quality of learning in the classroom.
Laing said she used music, guided imagery, breathing exercises and other devices to stimulate students' creative thinking, singing them closer to the heart. A brief slide
The alpha state is a level of brain wave activity that some psychologists and other behaviorists think can transform greater creativity and clarity of thought.
Robert Nunley, professor of geography, also has a teaching technique that uses flashcards.
NUNLEY'S TEACHING tactics include limiting his Geography 333 class to a rotating group of 30 on any given day. The remainder of the students
observe, which allows better interaction among the group.
In Laing's class, students imagine different scenes.
"Sometimes I ask them to imagine they are lying on a warm beach with their eyes open, watching the clouds go by, and maybe seeing a rainbow, or remembering a pleasant place they have been to in their youth," she said.
LAING SAID she made a distinction between what she did in her classes and any form of hypnosis. She said any imagery she created was voluntary and students did not have to listen to or practice the exercises.
"The student is always in control of this, and aware of everything that is going on in the room," she said. "That's much control by the recipient of the suggestion."
Laing said she had developed an interest in alternative learning methods from studies in neuro-physiology and humanistic psychology. However, she said she was by no means a scientist.
Many of the methods she employs involve "suggestopedia," a system of learning that uses suggestion and relaxation to increase retention of vocabulary in the teaching of foreign languages.
"When the body is relaxed the mind can learn." Laing said.
BAROQUE MUSIC is the backdrop for most of Laing's lectures, and one of
the devices in the "suggestopedia"
method. She said that she sometimes
use more modern music and that she
should listen to books that help
to keep students actively listening.
"It has been proven that plants and animals and human beings respond to the beat of music," she said. "In brain waves start to synchronize to the beat, the she said."
The teacher said she was pleased with the first themes by this semester's course.
Several of Laing's students said her unique method of teaching was effect-
"It struck me really as strange at first," David Dempsey, Gardner University, says of my favorite class. "I never really liked a class that has a format like this."
ANOTHER STUDENT, Ashley Larson, Kansas City, Kan., freshman, said she also enjoyed Laing's style of teaching.
"It's not like the other classes. It gets across a lot better," Larson said.
Nunley recently talked about his teaching philosophy.
"I get concerned with how people are learning, and I try to get them to remove the barriers they have," Nunley said.
He said he tried to emphasize learning over any particular body of knowledge.
"Rather than lecture, I prop myself on the lecture stand in the front of the class and sit there with my shoes off in a voga position." Nunley said.
There are no exams or quizzes in his class, but Munley requires students to turn in a progress report each month on the first class meeting after a full week. Right people generally were more creative and aware during this phase.
Nunley said critics had labeled his class and his style of teaching "pad," or not particularly demanding. He countered, "You are an individualistic nature of his classes allowed students to do as much or as little as they wanted."
"Some of my students have said they had never worked harder in their lives," he said.
HE SAID he hoped his emphasis on the learning process over the material being taught would excite students.
"Once students really turn on to meaningful learning, then it's like playing Pacman or something," he said.
unley said that excitement about increasing knowledge often was lost at an institution.
"In the University, we have to formalize it, we have to examine it, we have to get objective measurements, we institutionalize, and when we institutionalize things, the learning process gets lost," he said.
Two say short filing period will hurt presidential race
By DON KNOX
Staff R-reporter
Two potential Student Senate candidates yesterday criticized an elections policy that would give students a period of only one week in which to file as presidential candidates in the November Senate elections.
Elena Brito, Elections Committee chairman, defended the policy, saying it was fair and did not violate any Senate rules, but Kevin Walker, Webster Grove, Mo., junior, said it would hamper campaigning.
"It's not going to stop me from publicly campaigning." Teporten said. He said he thought that the rule was a "deliberate move" by Brito and the elections committee to delay campaigning.
"It disrupts everything," Walker said. Walker had intended to file today as a candidate for student body president on the Momentum Coalition, along with vice-presidential candidates Tapeoorten, Vancouver, San Diego senior.
THE FILING deadline for the November 17-18 elections is Oct. 18. Brito
said yesterday that application forms would be available Oct. 11.
But the seven-day filing period is long enough, she said, and would probably not prevent any student from filing to compete in the race.
Brito said the policy, enacted by the elections committee, was in no way an attempt to hamper the campaigns of any student candidates.
But Teporteen said, "We'd like to enter the race as soon as possible. It's all part of this thing about secrecy; we'd want it to be in keeping their plans under wraps.
"Why would you have a deadline if you only have a week prior to file? It stinks."
Despite the policy, Walker said Momentum would begin to campaign publicly Monday. The Momentum Coalition fired its intent to compete in the elections with the office of student organizations this summer.
THE MOMENTUM COALITION,
Walker said, includes himself, Teoporten and 41 other students running for Senate seats.
The deadline for filing for a Senate seat is Oct. 25.
FDA seizes starch blockers says manufacture must stop
By United Press International
WASHINGTON - The government yesterday announced the seizure of more than a million starch-blocker diet tablets and said it planned to continue manufacturing the tablets manufacture and distribution because they were unmanipulated drugs.
The Food and Drug Administration said federal marshals began the seizures Sept. 17 and already had over $80,000 in value of about $480,000 in five states.
Starch blockers, which first went on sale last year, are made from raw kidney and raw northern beans and contain a substance that slows or prevents the fermentation of enzymes that allow starch. They are advertised as weight-reduction aids.
The FDA contends the tablets are drugs and are covered by law that requires proof of safety and effectiveness before they are sold. Starchblocker makers say the tablets are food.
The FDA said it has received reports linking starch blockers to nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pains and excess gas, and it has investigated 27 hospitalizations associated with starch-blocker use.
IN ADDITION, the FDA says it is concerned with possible interaction of starch blockers and medication.
The agency issued an order July 1 calling for an end to starch blocker manufacture and distribution. Spokesman Bruce Brown said most of the 300 companies involved had come under fire in terms had continued to make the tablets.
Twenty starch-blocker manufacturers and distributors filed suit against the FDA in July in federal courts in Chicago and New York seeking a judgment that starch blockers are foods. The court ordered orders for permanent orders against the manufacture and sale of starch blockers.
A federal district court judge in Chicago is expected to issue a ruling Tuesday. A trial has not yet been held in New York.
"There are people in this state so smart it is scary," Burr said. "They could make a tremendous contribution in influencing policy."
Burr proposes bringing together representatives who have "devoted their lives" to studying such issues as nuclear energy and waste, solar energy, the criminal justice system and new farming methods.
Ploger said that the state party would be actively cooperating with Burr and that the plan could
The Wolf Creek Generating Station under construction near Burlington is strongly opposed by some Kansans, including Burr, because of nuclear waste hazards and its projected financial costs. The issue is a primary reason Burr is running for office.
"For instance, both political parties agreed not to bring up Wolf Creek because it would was too hot for them," he said. "But that transcends political borders."
Burr pushed in August for a section in the Democratic platform denouncing nuclear power, but instead members approved a version that said the party was concerned about nuclear waste.
"Lance is no fool. He doesn't have a prayer in hell of winning," said McDowell, an independent support-factor. "He knows he is a sacrificial lamb."
BURR SAID yesterday that Kansas was wasting the knowledge of these "source people" because they were not consolidated politically.
Candidate creates new plan to bolster Democratic party
BUT BURR SAID he had a chance to win the election he could release all the information he had on the dangers of nuclear waste and convince voters that Wolf Creek pass on large costs to rate parks.
MAX MCDOWELL, who has been singled out by Burr because of his extensive studies into nuclear waste, said politicians were consciously ignoring controversial issuaries particularly during the campaign.
Win or lose, Burr said he would continue with his project to unite Kansans with their government.
By JULIE HEABERLIN Staff Reporter
"It sounds like desperate Democratic demagogue coming prior to an election to achieve an election," Bennett said.
Disagreement among men was not unusual, he said, so the controversy these "experts" could pose in the party would pose no problem.
Robert Bennett, Republican state party chairman, who had not heard about the plan, said it appeared to be designed without substance to create a mood for the benefit of Burr's campaign.
motivate those voters who were unleashed Democrats at heart.
A plan by Lawrence attorney Lance Burt to create a "new arm" for the Kansas Democratic party could sway non-aligned voters and even some Republicans into the Democratic coalition, the executive director of the Democratic Party said yesterday.
"It would have the effect of bringing loyal followers of specific issues together, no matter what the situation," said Jim Ploeger, the executive director.
Burr, the Democratic challenger to Attorney General Robert Stephan, is working to incorporate "experts" on specific issues throughout the state into the political process.
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TODAY
NOON-8 PM $1.00 Pitchers AT MURPHY'S
SATURDAY
PARENTS DAY SPECIAL
$1.00 Pitchers
25° Draws 6 PM-MID
AT MURPHY'S
AT THE ENTERTAINER
Enjoy a pre-game feast at the Holidome—Official Home of the KU Javahwaks!
S served on home game Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 12 noon in the Regency Grand Ballroom.
**featuring:** Scrambled Eggs,
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Country Gravy, Hash Brown,
Fresh Fruit, Assorted Fresh-baked
Muffins, Hot Cherry Cobbler,
and more!
$4.95
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Children under 12 $3.95
Free
The KU Cheerleaders will be there each Saturday from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Let the kids meet the KU Jawhawk mascots!
Our Breakfast of Champions is a great pre-game warm-up!
Holiday Inn