UNL begins involvement in teaching improvement proj ect
By Patty Wewel
Staff Reporter_
UNL’s participation has begun in a
12-university teaching program that
would increase peer evaluation and
combine scholarship and teaching.
Russell Edgerton, president of the
American Association of Higher Ed
ucation, met with UNL officials Fri
day to outline and get feedback on the
project called “From Idea to Proto
type: The Peer Review of Teaching.”
UNL is one of the 12 universities
across the nation that will participate
in the project.
Three departments — mathemat
ics, English and the school of music
—are involved. Edgerton was at UNL
Friday to work with these departments
to start the project.
Edgerton said that while change
had been taking place in all other
levels of education, higher education
had been an “elephant sitting up on
the hill not changing very much.”
The University of Nebraska-Lin
coln was invited to participate in the
project, conducted by the Stanford
University Institute, because UNLhad
been in the lead in deal ing with chang
ing issues in higher education.
Some of these issues are:
• change in faculty priorities.
• a more inclusive definition of
teaching.
•a focus on the evaluation of teach
ing.
• departmental performance.
Edgerton said the project called for
teachers to be evaluated by their peers
in their own department in hopes of
bringing scholarship, and in turn im
provcment, to the teaching process.
Edgerton said a minor reason for
the project was to keep evaluation
within a department rather than an
outside bureaucratic agency.
However, a more important reason
for peer reviews, he said, is to raise the
status of teaching.
If teaching is not important enough
for one’s peers to care to review, teach
ing must not have a high status, he
said. ,
Until teaching is given the same
peer review as research, Edgerton said,
it will not have the same status.
Another reason for peer evalua
tions, Edgerton said, is that peers of
ten are the best qualified to evaluate
the teaching.
Although student evaluations are
important, Edgerton said, they usual
ly only cover the simple mechanics of
teaching, 1 ike clarity of the syllabus or
properly working equipment.
There is a lot more to teaching, he
said.
A result of peer teaching evalua
tions, Edgerton said, would be that
scholarship would become part of the
teaching process.
Edgerton compared the scholar
ship that should take place in teaching
to the scholarship that takes place in
research.
In research, he said, professors draw
up plans and confer with their col
leagues for input.
He said this process should be the
same in teaching.
For example, he said, professors
would draw up their syllabuses for
their courses and then present argu
ments to their colleagues, 1 isting such
things as why they chose their materi
al and what they planned to get across
to the students.
He said this “cross-talk” would not
result in all new teaching methods but
rather in uncovering and sharing the
good things that were being done.
Edgerton said peer evaluations
would bring about distinctions and
rewards that were not possible before.
He said this might interest more pro
fessors in teaching and help them see
teaching as an “integrated part of their
fields, not just something tacked on.”
Robert Simerly, dean of the Divi
sion of Continuing Studies, said the
project was “a very appealing notion.”
“We sometimes forget why we are
teaching: to help others learn.”
E-Week open house
takes ‘fun’ approach
uy Brian snarp
Staff Reporter
Engineering is more than just math
ematics; it’s fun.
Bruce Polnicky, a junior civil engi
neering major at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, said that was the
message Engineering Week, or E
Week, tried to give visiting elementa
ry, junior high and high school stu
dents.
An open house Friday ended the
weeklong celebration at the UNL Col
lege of Engineering and Technology.
It was estimated that more than 500
students took tours of the college and
viewed presentations and research
projects during the free event.
The students also competed in con
tests like the straw bridge contest, the
egg drop contest and the mousetrap
car contest.
Engineering classes were canceled
for the day so students could lead the
events.
Connie Husa, assistant to the dean
and director of student activities at the
college, said the unsinkablc boat con
test was the most popular.
At times, more than 40 kids crowd
ed around oblong tables, making boats
out of aluminum foil, duct tape, plas
tic wrap, paper and glue. Designs
ranged from simple, cup-shaped ves
sels to more elaborate ones.
Boats were placed in a rectangular
table pond, with a role of pennies as
cargo. A small weight hanging over a
pulley and attached to the opposite
side of the basin pulled the crafts
through the water. That was if they
floated.
A few sank immediately, and more
went under before reaching the finish
line.
Brian Boone, 14, said the boat con
test was his favorite event. The eighth
grader at Pound Middle School spent
more than 20 minutes on his creation
— a makeshift pontoon boat.
While younger students sometimes
asked the college students for advice
on building the best boat, Polnicky
said the older students’ purpose wasn ’ t
to lecture on buoyancy. Sometimes
the younger ones knew best, he said.
“The main thing is to ... support
interest in the field. I did it (made a
boat) last year, and the little kids beat
me.”
Husa said getting the children ex
cited about the projects and letting
them create their own designs was
what made the open house a success.
As one little girl’s boat was placed
in the water and moved toward the
checkered flag, that excitement was
obvious.
“It actually stayed up,” the girl
shouted. “It’s amazing!”
“That’s engineering,” Husa said.
Free Computer
1 Classes!
The Computing Resource Center is offering free
microcomputer classes to UNL students. The classes will
feature an introduction to Microsoft Word for the
Macintosh and WordPerfect for IBM machines. No
reservations are required.
Introduction to Microsoft Word for Macintosh
Thursday, March 3 3:00 - 4:00 Andrews Hall lab
Michelle Paulman/DN
Sled dog
Abbie, a dachshund mix, tries to keep up with owner Jason Howe of Lincoln while he
sleds at Pioneers Park Saturday. “She’d probably be upset if I didn’t bring her with
me,” Howe said.
Conference
Continued from Page 1
and the Southwest Conference in an
even more vulnerable position,” he
said. “With the four teams we’ve in
cluded, we will derive some benefits.
“We at least doubled our market.
We have become a major player na
tionally.”
Nothing is final yet except for the
four S WC teams joining the Big Eight
in 1996.
Items to be discussed include a
television contract, bowl alliances and
a national playoff in football.
Byrne said no discussions on con
ference structure had been discussed
yet.
Spaniersaid there was a possibility
the league might go to more than 12
schools, but it was not likely.
“I wouldn’t want to say anything’s
final,” he said. “We’ve been thinking
for some time that 12 was an idem
number.
“With 12, we get an awful lot of
benefits.”
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Ethnicity issues addressed
Author stresses
cultural identity
By Julie Sobczyk
Staff Reporter
Becoming educated about one’s
culture and tradition is the key to
maintaining a cultural identity, said
Pat Mora, a Mexican-American au
thor, on Friday.
Mora said cultural conservation
preserved ethnic traditions and dealt
with ethnic prejudice.
“We need to remember we arc all
ethnics and we all have different cul
tural backgrounds. Who gets to define
what’s American and what isn’t?”
Mora said in her speech “Cultural
Heritage: A Right, Not a Trend,” in
the Nebraska Union.
Mora said it was important to know
who you were and from where you
came.
“We can know and learn more
from various cultures because every
culture is still evolving. By knowing
your own cultural traditions, you can
decide which ones to take with you,”
she said.
The United States could move in
two possible directions in the future
with regard to ethnic prejudice, she
said.
“Either increased ethnic tensions
will result, or people will begin to
accept that all cultures are equal,”
Mora said.
In order to accept all cultures as
equal, education is required, she said.
Mora criticized the education sys
tem as she described her own experi
ence of growing up along the U.S.
Mexico border in El Paso, Texas.
“Educators need to explore who
writes our history. I am concerned
about the fact that my history was
never part of my educational experi
ence,” she said. “No one ever men
tioned that El Paso was originally part
of Mexico.
“It’s also ironic to say Spanish is a
foreign language when it isn't to the
Southwest,” Mora said.
Because cultural education is lack
ing, prejudices can form, Mora said.
Confronting racism is something ev
eryone must do, she said.
“Bravely confronting racism in our
past and present requires courage,"
Mora said. “Schools need to give chil
dren a better sense of who they arc.”
Mora said one way to alleviate
ethnic racism was to get to know
others of a different race.
“Once you form a personal rela
tionship with someone who is differ
ent, prejudices can be overcome.”
Mora also mentioned linguistic
barriers. She said those with Spanish
accents might be looked down upon in
society. —
Mora said many people feared that
focusing on other cultures would sep
arate the nation as a whole.
“Interest in different cultures
doesn’t mean being separatist,” she
said. “Fears about cultural conserva
tion and heritage can lead to the desire
to maintain one tradition as the dom
inant tradition.”
Nebraskan
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