THE BATTALION MONDAY, APRIL 10, 1978 Page 3 Teacher, graduate roles to change within two years By GAIL SMILA The Texas A&M University math epartment has begun making pnges in graduate student assis- ince, math testing methods and tudent placement procedures, rlflch will become effective in one to iree years. Dr, G R. Blakley, head of the aath department, said the role of the eachers and graduate students will Na- jiange within the next two or three !0n g ears. ility Seven to eight years ago, faculty pt er (temhers taugh t about one half of the lath courses. Today, better than 90 lercent of the math courses are aught by faculty members, and in ■ next one or two years, all math nurses will be taught by facuty lienibers only, Blakley said. ; The graduate students have also Bap- | a her 11 hr Dr Mis- ay at cond hem 39 at changed their function radically in the last six years. “They now are really just assisting the faculty members in the teaching of a certain course rather than teach ing the course themselves,’ Blakley said. Graduate students will no longer teach math courses but will limit their duties to grading papers, teach ing labs, and working in help ses sions. Blakley said the major function of the graduate student will be grading papers because the math depart ment feels it could be beneficial for students to know how they are pro gressing in a course. “There just hasn’t been enough emphasis on day-to-day grading of problems in the last few years,” Blak ley said. Hill leading in governor’s race By BILL WILSON uTexas Attorney General John Hill fine in smiling. He has good reason osmile. According to recent poll by nan VFAA television in the Dallas-Fort rs in Vorth area, he is the leading con- >nof woer in the Democratic Primary i. A pGovernor with 43 percent, id as His nearest competition, Gov. pi e Hph Briscoe has 33 to 35 percent. iy the same poll Preston Smith has ^ J §?en to nine percent and 16 percent ur re undecided, were i iHill spoke Thursday to about 50 eople at the College Station lamada Inn. Hill’s number one plank is educa- jon. He has the support of TEPAC, He political arm of the Texas State [eachers Association. Hill has come j >ut in favor of spending $900 million (ITiio $1.3 billion for education in the 979and 1981 legislative sessions. At st (| . iresent, teachers in the state receive 11,750 less than the national aver- ’ ige. Hill said there was no specific ' Mention of salaries to the TSTA. ' U P Hill came down hard on Briscoe’s 11 ’ n ack of leadership. He said people 3S at vere ti re d of politicians “overstaying that heir welcome” and “dynasty build- ng" instead of managing the state. 1 ‘ s "' Briscoe was elected in 1972. ring I On property tax reform, Hill omised “more equitable adminis- ation’’ of property taxes. He also ! he would try to consolidate tax trees. brokers.” He cited one of Briscoe’s favorite projects, the Texas Highway Department, as an example of the lobbying power of certain groups. He promised that people “won’t need a power broker to get to me. ” Hill listed his accomplishments as Attorney General including stopping the Southwestern Bell telephone company rate increase for intra-state calls, obtaining 100 indictments against officials of Duval County and claiming approximately $100 million of the Howard Hughes estate for in heritance taxes. Hill is pleased with the way the election is going and will continue on his tour of the state as he winds his way towards El Paso. “I’m not cocky,” he said, “I’m confident.” Blakley also said the math de partment is trying to coordinate in struction in the multi-section math courses. “Obviously, at the point where we give a test the coordination has to be perfect. We’ve always had a common syllabus but until last year we had a much more loose system of coordina tion than we’ve adopted now,” Blak ley said. “We now have a person who is a director of each course and that per son meets with the instructors in dif ferent sections and keeps them on track.” Uniform tests and finals are also scheduled changes. Standardized fi nals will be used in spring, 1979, with standardized exams in the fall semester. “You more or less have to test everyone at the same time because you couldn’t give a test at 8 o’clock in the morning and one at 5 o’clock in the afternoon and expect the grades to be equal,” Blakley said. “We really feel the students would be bet ter served if they all took the same test in the same time.” Many lecture courses will changed to lecture-lab courses, specifically freshmen and sophomore courses that enroll a large number of stu dents. Math 102, and 130, and Calculus 151, 152, 230, 253, and 308 will be changed to lecture-lab because each enrolls about 1,000 students a semester, while other courses enroll about 500 students. “The idea is we want to have a student, at some point, be in a room with just 20 or 30 people,” Blakley said. He added that course expan sion to the lecture-lab format will allow students to receive more indi vidualized help. A pre-testing stem in math courses will also be started to see whether or not a student belongs in a course or should be placed in another course, Blakley said. “We think we may improve course placement as a result of this,” he said. “Between lecture-lab courses and the improved course placement based on what a student really knows and where a student really fits in, we expect grades to rise some.” Dr. William Perry, assistant to the department head, said beginning this summer, placement tests taken by freshmen will have an emphasis on mathematics. Due to an increase in the popular ity of engineering, the College of Engineering has requested that new students take more math tests, Perry said. He added that scores will be used for advisory and placement purposes only. Each college will interpret the scores as they see fit. Calculus 150, 151, and 253 were adopted last semester in response to the needs and requests of the Col lege of Engineering, he said. Blakley said he does not believe the changes will cost the math de partment much money. He said the department has more teachers and graduate students now than it did two or three years ago but added that the changes to be made in the future are the result of the increases in fac ulty and graduate students in the past. He said had the faculty and graduate student increases not been made, the upcoming changes would probably not be possible. the VARSITY SHOP announces the association of GLADYS LISTER Professional Personalized Hair Care for Men and Women 301 PATRICIA • NORTHGATE 846-7401 REDKEN SHOP ★ drive . ^ ,,, , V. ' > : CULPEPPER PLAZA MONDAY THURSDAY AND FRIDAY NIGHTS TIL 8:30 P.M. J.T3 calling all artists! THE ARTS AND CRAFTS FAIR April 26 & 27 Come by the Craft Shop and register for your booth. 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