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Pretend it’s the end of the semester and, for once, the
teacher has ended class early, only to hand out teacher
evaluations. Is it worth it to stay and complete the form?
Although students, instructors and department
heads have mixed emotions about the value of these
mandatory evaluations, the general reaction is positive.
Dr. Paul Busch, head of the marketing department,
said the rumor that the evaluations get ignored is a fal
lacy.
“We do take them seriously in the department,”
Busch said. “If students want to say positive things they
can say them, and if there’s a problem it’s the perfect
opportunity to bring it out.”
Busch said the evaluations are vital for rectifying
problems.
“If there are problems, I look for patterns,” he said.
“If there’s an issue, I sit down with the instructor and
talk to him.”
Laurie Bolt, a junior marketing major from Dallas,
said while some teachers may be willing to change, she
rarely sees evidence that they do.
“When someone after me has the same teacher I had,
I ask to see if they’ve changed things and they usually
haven’t,” she said. “It’s pretty disappointing.”
Dr. Leslie Marenchin, a visiting assistant professor in
the philosophy department, said the evaluations are not
helpful.
“Every once in a while, I’ll get some suggestion that
will help,” Marenchin said. “But in four years, that’s
happened maybe two or three times. Even when they
give a good suggestion, it was already something I had
an inkling of. They just corroborated it.”
Dr. Bob Gillette, a professor in the economics depart
ment, said the evaluations have caused him to change
textbooks. He said they help with improving things
other than tangible teaching techniques.
“I’ll get some people that will slaughter me, and;
means one of two things,” Gillette said. “Either
didn’t jive with that person or I was too harsh attii
The teacher evaluations help me balance out myn
live approach and my negative approach.”
In the oceanography department, the evaluation!
conducted by the Oceanography Graduate Council
made into booklets for the entire faculty to review.
“We try to weed out the ineffective teachers," Dr,
bert Roe, head of the oceanography department,!;
“It may not be 100 percent effective, but if you loo
our evaluations from three or four years ago, our
dents like the teachers better now.”
One problem with the evaluations, however,is
dent apathy, Busch said.
“I’d like to see more participation from students
said. “I hear from faculty members that often stude
are in class when the teachers give the evaluations,!
they don’t fill them out.”
The effort put into the evaluations frequently
pends on the quality of the instructor.
“How much I put into it depends on what I thinl
the teacher,” Leslie Lam, a junior marketing mi
from Houston, said. “If it’s a bad teacher, I putaloi
thought and time into the evaluation.”
Busch and Roe agree that the student input affe
the instructors’ f utures.
“Teaching evaluation is a part of a faculty memlit
overall evaluation,” Busch said. “It does have an imp
on salary and eventually on tenure or promotion
someone’s not doing well in student evaluations, we
going to hesitate in tenuring that person.”
The evaluations also play a major role when
ments consider salary increases and who will teachhe
ors classes.
“It is a general indicator of how you’ve done'(
lette said. “Remembering the lowest scoring evaluatis
I’ve ever gotten, I can concur that that’s the worst
mester I’ve ever had.”
Researcher: Computers
help rather than hurt
in teaching kids math
By Kelly S. Brown
STAFF WRITER
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Calculators and computers assist a
child who is learning math, but
many people still subscribe to the be
lief that such devices will destroy a
student’s ability to use paper and
pencil.
Helping to dispel the belief is Dr.
Clarence Dock'tt'eiler, Lb-director of
the Texas A&M Center for Math
ematics and Science Education.
“Research has shown that com
puters and calculators are aiding in
the students’ education, not hin
dering it,” Dockweiler said. “They
are just other tools in the education
process — like a textbook.”
The fact that calculators and com
puters are advancing a student’s
learning capabilities is somehow be
ing overlooked in grade schools,
Dockweiler said.
“In all the results I’ve seen, using
the calculator only improves the con-
ceptional understanding, which is
really what we’re worried about with
the children,” he said. “Children will
be much better prepared mathema
tically if they consistently have some
of the technological devices in their
instruction.”
The doubt is basically in the
minds of the parents, as well as ad
ministrators and the school board,
and understandably so, Dockweiler
said.
“There’s a. general concern that
once you put a machine in the hands
of a child, everything else goes out
the window,” he said. “I don’t be
lieve that.”
Dockweiler believes the comput
ers and calculators serve as motiva
tional devices.
He said educators are pushing to
have the machines in the classroom,
while students are showing no signs
of reluctancy in accepting them.
Dockweiler said tne difficulty lies
with fitting the machines into the
curriculum.Teachers are accus
tomed to teaching in one way and
find it h?ird to adapt to the new tech
nology.
It’s also an adjustment for the par
ents who might not have experience
with computers. And even if they do
they still wonder what is going on
with their child in the classroom,
Dockweiler said.
In the classroom at A&M, educa
tion students also are becoming ac
quainted with some of the material
on computers and the proper use of
calculators.
Dockweiler said in some cases stu
dents are required to take a com
puter literacy class before they get
certified to teach.
Getting the educators of tomor
row involved with today’s technology
is a step toward upgrading weak
mathematic abilities in the United
States, Dockweiler said.
But he added that there is still
work to be done. And studies.
Dockweiler is currently involved
in a study where 10 elementary
school teachers are using calculators
on a regular basis while the research
ers are trying to measure the impact.
“Basically, we’re trying to con
vince everyone in the world that this
is a good thing and we do need the
machines,” Dockweiler said.
It’s too early in the study to make
any speculations on what the results
will be.
Man: Police
reneged on
reward offer
DALLAS (AP) —DouglasDs
l inger thought he was doineili
right thing when he handed f
lice S140,000 he found at work,
Now he’s not so sure.
Dearinger, 31, a haggagek
dler at Love Field, found
money on Dec. 28, 1987, inasu
case that had fallen off a or
When he turned the moneym
to Dallas police, he was promis
10 percent of the money if ilw
unclaimed, the Dallas Mornii
News said.
Ten months later, the city
Dallas sent Dearinger a checkfi
$4,300 — not the $14,000hew
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expecting.
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News he feels cheated, but Dai
police say he’s lucky.
“There is no (legal) req*
ment that he receive anythin
police Capt. Doug Sword said,
Dearinger said he’s not up*
about turning in the S 139,7
but is bitter about the way thep:
lice handled the matter. “I
think they were very fair."
The amount Dearingei didif
ceive was the interest on pan
the money in the Police Depan
ment’s confiscated money fun
Sword said.
Dearinger said he found i
money after the suitcase hadbtc
run over by a luggage carl,
picked the bag up and I was it
specting it,” he said. “I pressedt ;;;
it and all this money just kir
popped out.”
Part of the 10 percent
going to go to charities, De
ringer said.
“God ,blessed me to find allti
money, so I was going to
some of it.”
SENIO
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