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Thursday. July 24, 1975
University Daliv Kansan
Classroom quality . . .
From page 1
Western Civilization department, said, "It is been common in the past to have as many as 20 people on each floor."
He said a rather complete accounting on the part of the applicant concerning his academic interests and his experience with conducting classes was required, as was an interview that judged how well the person would fit into discussion sections.
Donaldson said that in teaching evaluation surveys, A.L.s and T.A.s didn't rank very far, if at all, below full faculty instructors.
"We turn down highly qualified people all the time," he said. "That doesn't mean we need to get some bad apples. But we like to think that we have highly qualified A.I.s."
"There's a big difference between what people think they should think of A.I.s and T.A.s and what they actually think," he said.
Students tend to rank A.I.S. and T.A.S. lower than faculty members on what they think is important.
The basic process for hiring instructors requires each applicant to submit a resume,历任课程教师证书, school, college transcripts, letters of recommendation and his graduate record.
Russell Bradt, professor of mathematics,
said, "There isn't too much more you can
Most departments rank the applicants each year on the basis of this information, before they try to hire graduate students to teach.
"There's a certain amount of risk. Some of the T.A.'s aren't so good, but then, some of them are."
Shapiro said, "One problem the department had is that it had to go down to the third or fourth person on its list before it got one acceptance."
The math department had to ask about 30 T.A. applicants to teach before it had the eight instructors it needed for basic math courses. They said they there wasn't enough money in it.
Bradt said he couldn't think of many cases when T.A.S already teaching quit because of financial reasons, but some might not accept positions for financial reasons. He estimated that about one-third of their applicants accept.
The University of Kansas pays a maximum salary of $3,400 to graduate students for a school year of teaching, a second amount to about $303 a month, Sharon said.
"We're right in the middle of other universities as to what we pay A.I.S and T.A.s, but we don't give enough benefits," he said. "A very important step would be tuition waivers. They would make the positions so much more attractive."
Denaldson said it was possible for a T.A. or A.L. to make $3,500 or 3,600 a year.
"One way of attracting more highly
qualified graduate students is by paying higher wages," he said. "But, 'I don't believe that A.l.s and T.A.s should be paid handsomely.'"
Shapro said that options to low-quality graduate student teaching could be found.
"When you get down to the person you ranked 30th, that's when you start investigating whether you should put classes in front of professors teachers lecture courses," he said.
Different departments have various methods of evaluating applicants. For example, a committee of nine faculty members who rotate onto a three-member committee to rank an applicant on the basis of a 500-word theme explaining why he wants to teach, etc.
Gerhard Zuther, professor of English, said the evaluation of applicants for A.I. positions in the English department was closely linked to their admission to graduate school, and was "fairly stringent."
Shapiro said a problem also existed with foreign T.A.S. and A.L.s.
An examination that tests English fluency is falsely used as a criterion for ability to read.
"It tells us whether you know the language, but it doesn't tell us if they can speak the language," he said. "If they can't speak it, they can't teach with it."
Sapiro's report will recommend that graduate students with language problems be hired, but as researchers rather than as teachers for their first year at KU.
Shapiro also said more on-going training of T.A.S. and A.L.S was needed.
"There's no real training unless a department is concerned enough to do so."
Zuther said that in the English department every A.I. without prior teaching experience was required to attend the class he would teach, while it was being taught by a professor. He is in turn visited by the professor while he is teaching.
English department A.I.s also have weekly meetings in which specific details of teaching are discussed, and an evaluation at the end of the year, when the professor
exchanges papers with the A.I. to compare grading standards, he said.
"If we find a serious deficiency, the person isn't reappointed," he said.
Bradt also said T.A.S and A.I.s in the math department meet regularly with
Some departments videoteed instructors while they are teaching class and criticize them.
Donaldson said that in the Western Civilization department, A.I.s were required to read all the books for both semesters of the course.
In addition, instructors meet at least one hour each week with specialists in the field from which the readings for that week are taken.
Western Civilization instructors may also participate in teaching workshop sessions. Shapiro said removal policies for instructors were non-existent.
"The math department representative we talked to said they hadn't removed anyone for 12 years," he said. "There needs to be a safety policy for the removal of instructors."
John Tolleson, associate dean of the School of Business, said his school's fundamental problem was that it was using too much money. It would be. He said the problem was financial.
"Roughly, you can do four times as much teaching with graduate teaching assistants than with starting full-time faculty members," Tolleson said.
He said another problem was the shortage of people with Ph.Ds.
"There have been times when we have been so short-tailed that there's been little rain."
He said there was no problem retaining qualified graduate students in teaching positions, but it was difficult to keep the extremely qualified people.
"They want to devote full time to studies and to their dissertations because of the low level of compensation and the cost in terms of delay in completing their programs," he
Shapecro he said would probably ask the Student Senate to petition Dykes to pass the law. "We'll take it," he said.
Music campers will jazz it up
tuba ensemble which he described as sounding "like an elephant choir with
The Blue jazz ensemble is directed by Bill Hartmann.
Tryouts were held during the first week of the camp for positions in the jazz ensembles. Barnes said the top five trumpets, trombones, saxophones and rhythm players of each band comprised the ensemble. He and his fellow musicians had jazz ensembles had 20 members each.
Two jazz ensembles from the Midwestern Music and Art camp will present their third and final concert at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow in Swarthout recital hall.
Barnes refused to reveal the numbers he said, and he said, is customary with jazz concerts.
James Barnes, director of the concert jazz ensemble, said the concert would consist of the two jazz bands performing four numbers each.
He said, however, that there might be a
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