2 February 11, 1972

Teaching methods

The Scarlet and Black

Team Taught Courses Succeed

by Curt Gorreii

Professors Alan R. Jones and
James S. Magee co—teach the ima
pressively titled advanced seminar:
"Cold War and the National Secur-
ity Process”. To those on the in-
side, meaning ARH 11 on Mondayand
Friday afternoons, this class is
more informally known as “Abbot
and Costello Meet the Cold War".
Here the historical background of
Jones finds a counterweight in Ma-
gee, who ieeds on political science
and Planters Peanuts.

One might continue to banter this
Dynamic Duo about (a pseudonym
early adopted by the aforementioned
professors), but further such treat-
ment in this article would so an inr
justice to the subject, ior team
teaching is indeed an innovation of
great education promise.

intellectual Without Ego

Speaking in depth and in earnest,
Mr. Magee stated his belief that
one of the ultimate values of the
“Cold War" Course was that it
would “...show students how two
people, who are close friends and
have similar interests, can differ
intellectually about something, and
it not be a question of ego involve-
ment, it presents a kind or intel-
lectual situation where they can See
people ditiering...bul kind or en
joying the'diiierences, and it’s serv—
ing a userul purpose. I think it's a
very important kind of intellectual
model to get across."

The. development of team teaching
experiments is becoming more
widespread at Grinnell today. Mr.
Don A. Smith, Associate Professor
of History who corteaches ”The
Transatlantic Community in an Age
of Democratic Revolution" with
Assistant Professor of History
David W. Jordan, believes that a
great advantage of team teaching is
the manner in which “...it perhaps
recreates in a more natural way the
way ideas are exchanged between
people, the way people learn irom
one another. it gets away irom the
kind of note taking and the authority
figure approach." Mr. Smith prOr
jects that a valuable consequence of
team teaching might be that the
kind of infallibility that the teacher
has, maybe in the minds ofsomestur

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dents...will be modified to the extent
that another figure of infalliblllty in
the room might disagree.”

Get To Know One Another

A most interesting point raised in
discussions held with numerous pro-
fessors involved in team teaching
was the stress which many placed
upon the beneiits to be garnered from
such programs by taculty members
themselves. Ronald J. Kurtz, PFOr
lessor of Anthropology who co-
teaches the special topic “Conflict
and Change in Modern East Africa”
with John C. Dawson, Professor of
Economics, has discovered that he
and Mr Dawson are themselves
sharing ideas here, and we’re learn
ing, and i think that perhaps one or
the most important things involved
here is the degree to whichone pro-
iessor learns about what else is
going on in this university...”

This same theme was forwarded by
Mr, Magee, who ielt that corteaching
“ facilitates intellectual commune
ication among professors here.
There is so much committee work,
independent work, time spent seeing
students, and the extent that anyone
does writing and research, that we
Just really don’t communicate with
our iaculty members oi similar in
terests, and this (co»teaching) is a
good way to do that."

Relating this view specifically to
his “Cold War” Course, Magee finds
that, in addition to the rationale of
presenting students with material
from two different modes Distress
and interpretation, the course also
provides an opportunity for he and
Mr. Jones “ .todo some oithe same
reading, to expand each other’s inr
iormation about readings, and also
to put it in a framework where we
can discuss it. Al and I both work
very hard ior this course, but it's
really sort oi an extra stimulation
for us,..it’s really not work, it’s
run."

students Left Out

in spite or all the plus marks
credited to team teaching, as lndlr
cated in the comments above, there
are nonetheless problems involved
in co-teaching programs. Jones, in
a Critical examination of the “Cold
War" seminar, admits that ”We’re
trying to cover quite a bit ofmaterr
la], and l have myself tended to talk
too much tor a seminar", and yet
this is necessary, ”...partly toprer
sent another point oi view, and part
Iy to cover material that students
haven't had." Magee echoes .iones,
saying, “Al and I have alotoithings
we want to say, that we think are
important, and we want to respond
to each other...so this probably Cuts
down on student participation to
some extent."

Smith recognizes this same prob
lem, but points out that its effects

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need not necessarily be detrimental:
“If you have two teachers, both who
like to talk it lot, it might make it
even more difficult for students to
get into the thing On the other hand,
if there are two people talking, it
might elicit more conversation irom
others...” “Particularly”, contin—
ues Mr. Jordan, “if among the two
people talking there are two diiiere
ent models or points of view, It's
not as difficult then for you (the
student) to challenge a point oi view
presented.”
Different Look on Things

The co»teaching type of presentae
tion has generally met with a favor
able response (in the part of Stu»
dents. Senior Mike Siegel, expres~
sing his satisiaction, commented
thztt, “In the Case of Jones and Ma»
gee, in addition to having them at-
ternate between being straight men
and comedians, you've got a his
torian bringing a very differenttype
oi analytical approach than a politi-
cal scientist brings. You have two
very diiierent experiences being
brought together...you've got the
combination oi two disciplines, and
a lot of valuable discussion comes
out of that.” Similarly, political
science major Mark Siegiried iound
this course “worthwhile because of
the two orientations of the males
sors...because of the material and
the opposition oi their impressions
to it"; while Bot! Sakai character
ized it as .. . a really good Concept”
and, considering his background as
a history major, found that “,,.the
main thing that interests me is that
i get a political science perspec-
tive.”

Even in a course where the teach»
ers are drawn irom an lntradepart»
mental level, rather than from an
interdisciplinary scale, students are
registering their approval. Sopho-
more Julie Appel,,a participant in
the Smith/Jordan ”Transatlantic
Community” course, recognized the
value of channeling inputs irom two
instructors “ becausethey'repre-
senting both European and American
history. Jordan is the colonial eXs
pert, and then Smith takes over the
European part oi it, one oi them
alone might not know enough about
both civilizations to beableto handle
it, but with both of them they are
able to work it out together.”

At this time no further long range
plans with regard to team teaching
projects are being iormulated, for
it is difficult to effectively or ac-
curately evaluate the results of the
current programs with the semester
only four weeks old.

Students iind it encouraging, how-
ever, to see that a number of mar
iessors are willing to act upon their
owrl initiative to attempt to experi-
ment with, and hopeiully improve,
the Griniiell educational environ—
mente—iollowing, perhaps, a ra-
tionale similar to that expressed by
Mr Smith: “If you’re interested
in it .I’d say the most important
thing is to stop talking about it and
do it.”

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Some Disagreement:
Faculty Hiring Continues

The process oi hiring new faculty
members ior next year is proceeding
apace despite the iact that there
have been some disagreements about
what role the newly iormed Search
Committee should play inthe evalua»
tion of candidates once they arrive
on campus for interviews.

The departments or Classics, Elo-
logy, Education, American Studies,
Phllisophy and Sociology are all
proceeding to choose new employees
for the coming year. The position
in the Philosophy Department is in
religious studies, which may become
an autonomous department by next
year.

Classics has interviewed three
black and has submitted its rer
commendation to the Executive
Council for action. Biology has
interviewed two women, One black,
one woman, and one white male have
been interviewed for the teaching po-
sition in Religious Studies and the
department has iormulated its ree
commendation to the Executive C0-
uncil. Sociology’s first candidate
was on campus yesterday - a
woman . and the department is une
certain whether it will invite any
other candidates. Two people have
been interviewed for the American
Studies position, but neither ofthem
completely filled the qualifications
necessary, so the department is
still looking. The Education Depart-
ment has only just begun the pro-
cess of inviting two “promi ng”
candidates to campu
candidates to campus.

There was never any doubt that the
Search Committee was to have a
signiiicaht role in iinding quali—
fied black and woman candidates
and bringing them to the college for
interviews, but there has been some
disagreement about what role it
should play in evaluating candidates
once they were here. Yesterday
it was agreed that all candidates
should meet with at least some re-
presentatives of the Search Commi—
ttee while they are on campus.

The Search Committee will Con-
sider each candidate and make some
sort of recommendation to the Ex-
ecutive Council, but Acting Dean
Waldo Walker told the Ski! that it
has not been decided what form that
recommendation would take.

Walker emphasized that the status
of the department in making recomr
mendations has not been diminished
and that the Search Committee has
no power to veto any candidate. "On-
ly the department is oualitied to
make a recommendation on the aca—
demic qualifications of candidates,”
said Walker. The decision on whe-
ther to hire or not is completely

in the hands of the Executive Coun-
cil, which bases its decisions on
the recommendations it receives.

Dean Walker told the SdrE that
though there have been some diSr
agreements they do not seem to have
affected the colleges effort to find
qualified people, and they have not
yet resulted in damaging depays in
the process of hiring He Said
that he conferred yesterday with
three candidates now under consi-
deration and that they indicated to
him that they could wa't the another
week or so for a deci ion from the
Executive Council,

The departments contacted by the
SLB have experienced no difficul-
ties due to the disagreement over
the role of the Search Committee,
william Mckibben (Classics) told
the sol: that the department proe
bably would not have found one very
qualified black candidate without inc
stituting the search procedures sugr
gested by the Search Committee. MC
Kibben was not surprised that there
has been some disagreement over
the role of the Search Committee.
since it is in its first year and
“has to work out its Own role,”
Department Chairmen have not
been terribly confused about the
question. Howard Burkel (Philo»
sophy) said that there has been no
confusion about what the role of the
committee was, but “disagreement
in principle" about what it should
be. Other department chairmen
reached by the 55:3 seemed to agr
ree with this analysis.

Candidates who come to campus
must now meet with representatives
of seven groups during their visit:
CBS, the Associated Jewish Stu-
dents, majors in the department,
the Black and women’s Search comr
mittees, the Executive Council and
members of the department This
is a busy schedule, but Mr. Eurkle
pointed out that the candidates may
beneiit by becoming acquainted with
a farily broad picture of Grinnell,
In previous years, the candidates
met with all groups except theSearcil
Committees.

Housing Problems?

or Information?

The next 5&5 magazine sup-
plement will survey studentho-
using in Grinnell. If you have
any iniormation n or any com—
plaints, anecdotes, or special
problems, drop a note in the
sun iaculty mailbox, or get in
touch with one of the editors.

oil-campus calendar

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
Theatre

Feb. 11, 12 - “The Subject Was Roses" l965 Pulltzer Prize Winner,
Admission 1.75 (Curtiss Auditorium)

Lecture

February to -'Margaret Mead 8:00 Ci. Stephens Auditorium

Music

February 20 - “Jesus Christ Superstar” C. Y. Stephens 3 8r 8 p.m.

Films

February ll . ”Guns oi Navarone” Pioneer Room, 7 and s p.m.

February is - "Shadows”

Exhibits

Curtiss Auditorium, 7 andﬂpm.
February 12-13 ~ “The Big Sky”,

Pioneer Room, 7 and 9 pm,

Through Feb. 23 - French Prints of Five Centuries, John nuseby
' Collection, Gallery, Memorial Union.

UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
Theatre

February 11-12 - “Baby Blue", premiere oi a new play by u ofl

graduate student Richard Blanning,

a p.m.
Concerts

Studio Theatre,

February 13 A U olearoqueTrio; Harper Hall, Music Bldg., 3 p.m.

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