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- |
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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
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iy
: Hill said the state needs spending
controls and not “all this bureau
cracy, waste and hidden em-
byees.” He said Briscoe has not
voted his time to the management
iinds.
fill said he would keep his office
en to the public. He accused Bris-
: of “working through power
I
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