Page 6
Daily Nebraskan
Wednesday, November 20, 1985
APT program copied! toy o
tie
r colleges
Freshmen learn through experience,
not textbooks, in 11 -year-old program
By Milli King
Staff Reporter
Incoming freshmen at UNL could avoid over
crowded classrooms, boring lectures and end
less textbooks by taking the ADAPT program.
The program Accent on Developing Abstract
Processes of Thought is the first of its kind in
the United States. It encourages students to
reason and think not just memorize. Robert
Fuller, a UNL physics professor, pioneered ADAPT
in 1975.
ADAPT students assume responsibility for
their own learning, and classes emphasize expe
rience, not textbooks or lectures, Fuller said.
"The ADAPT classes stress the importance of
learning from other students," he said. "Many
small-group learning activities are carried out in
the ADAPT program."
The students work closely with both their
peers and professors, he said.
ADAPT, which offers courses in social and
natural sciences, humanities and math, is de
signed to contribute to students' general educa
tion, Fuller said.
"While ADAPT is neither an honors program
nor a remedial program," the ADAPT brochure
says, "it has proved beneficial and stimulating to
a wide range of students as they enter university
level work."
ADAPT enrollment increased from 44 to 66
students this semester.
Acts as model
ADAPT has become a model for U.S. education
programs, Fuller said. ADAPT staff members
have been hosts at many workshops at U.S. col
leges and universities, he said.
"We've been everywhere," Fuller said. "We've
had a lot of influence on the curriculum" at
other colleges and universities, he said.
However, many of the ADAPT-like programs
have died because their federal funding has
been cut, Fuller said.
ADAPT, which received federal money in the
past, now relies on Rudy Lewis, Vice Chancellor
for Student Affairs, to allocate about $10,000 a
year for the program.
"ADAPT is not a budgeted program," Fuller
said. "If the vice chancellor says, 'No money,'
that will kill the program the following year."
Fuller said ADAPT faculty members make a
commitment to the program to get support from
departments.
Questioned low grades
Kurt Krugerud, a past ADAPT student, said he
was impressed with the program.
"The instructors stressed a format of learning
by interaction, not just a passive atmosphere
where the student merely takes notes," said
Krugerud, a senior psychology major.
Fuller said he began examining classroom
behavior more than a decade ago, when he ques
tioned students' low grades in his classroom.
"I wondered what was going on," he said.
"How come students aren't doing better than
that?"
At a conference, Fuller discovered the work of
Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, who emphasized
cognitive development.
Piaget said people progress from being "con
crete thinkers," who manipulate symbols and
organize data, to "formal thinkers," who deal
with hypothetical situations and the effects of
variables.
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Professor Robert Fuller explains a telephone survey to ADAPT students Jen-
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niter McDowell and Hon uoie auring ineir computer ciass.
With other UNL professors, Fuller explored
the use of Piaget's theories in the classroom. The
professors met on Friday afternoons and taught
one another, using Piaget's methods, as though
they were standing in front of a freshman class.
Eleven years ago, the ADAPT program, based
on Piaget's learning-theories, started with the
aid of an Exxon Educational Foundation grant.
Fuller, whom The Chronicle of Higher Educa
tion called a "pioneer in the application of
Piaget's theories to college teaching," said
teachers must listen to students in their own
language to determine what type of reasoning
the students are using concrete or formal.
Many college freshmen have not progressed
from concrete thinking to formal thinking, he
said.
ADAPT students are expected to take an
interdisciplinary nine-hour package of special
ADAPT courses aimed at teaching them to think
better.
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Specials
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With any small, med or large pizza
get a pitcher of beer or pop for
Verbal or written request of the "Pepperoni Passion"
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Limit one free small pizza per regular pizza purchase.
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From Staff Reports
Several things mark the change from
fall to winter at UNL: the last home
football game, the first snow, and the
draining of Broyhill Fountain outside
the Nebraska Union. All three finally
have occurred.
The fountain splashed Tuesday morn
ing while snow blew and people
huddled against the cold. But early in
the afternoon the fountain was shut
down for the winter.
The fountain ususally is turned off
after the last home football game of the
year, said Harley Shrader, director of
the physical plant.
"They just didn't get to it until
today," Shrader said.
He said UNL tries to keep the foun
tain running as long as weather
permits.
The water was drained Tuesday
afternoon, he said, and the fountain
pipes should be damaged by the cold.
Front row best,
UNL official says
PARTICIPATE from Page 1
He said it takes good actors to get
the audience to be a part of the stage.
Wright said students need to realize
that they are partly responsible for
student-instructor interaction.
She suggested that students should
sit near the front of the classroom
where there is the best chance of clar
ity and less distraction.
Ward Sybouts, interim dean for the
UNL Division of Continuing Studies
and professor of educational adminis
tration, curriculum and instruction,
said students often are too shy to speak
up in class. Many students don't ask
questions because they don't want to
show their ignorance, he said.
"On the other end of the scale,"
Sybouts said, "students' mouths may
run when their brain stops."
Students can get to the point of ask
ing too many irrelevant questions, he
said.
Good communication skills are im
portant for jobs, Wright said. Such
skills are a prerequisite for many jobs.
Robert Brown, professor of educa
tional psychology, said the partici
pants are most likely to be the achiev
ers. But not all jobs require the
"risk-takers," he said.
"It is a manner of balance when you
go out for a job," Sybouts said. "In the
classroom, you should talk just enough
to get that A. When you go to apply for a
job, you should talk just enough to get
that job."
