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Show Someone should grade the graders KHAN: How far do you think a professor should go in getting' involved with affairs other than those that are strictly academic? KRANES: The wording of that question unsettles me a bit. I think a man's life is his own. One hopes that he chooses teaching because it's meaningful to him. One also hopes he does otherl things which are meaningful to him. I know I do. And I don't think for a minute whether these other interests are consonant with my academic interests. I hope they're consonant with my - interests. If someone in the academic community doesn't approve of them-that's tough. It (Continued on Page 13) THE FACULTY: Interview With Dr. Kranes By Nazir F. Khan (Ed. Note: First in a series of articles that the Chronicle will be publishing expressing the views of faculty-members. The Chronicle invites students and faculty-members to suggest professors they would like to see j presented in this series. I Suggestions may be left with Nazir F. Khan, UB 160, Chronicle offices.) After the hysteria of freshman-year, all too soon, college starts to become a drag. The lectures, papers and grades all become routine. A student begins I to feel that he would like to get ; his sheepskin and "get out." And education isn't supposed to be that way. Ideals shattered, students begin to sense that the "creators of their minds" are themselves untutored in offering value in what they teach. The witty word-games that are exchanged by small minds on both sides of the classroom lectern cease to delight. The students know that for their professors the classroom is but a whistlestop I between their offices and the I faculty-club. They resent the ! condescending attitudes and bloated sense of importance with 1 which education is meted out to them. Sparked Souls ! And then . . . somewhere ... at 1 some time . . . they meet a teacher j who strikes sparks in their rninds ...the myriad injustices ' of the world set their souls on fire with indignation. They are driven to question what they have did the work or he didn't; that was all there was to it. The class was small enough so that I think I knew pretty much each week who was doing and thinking about the week's work, although I admit that there were about 5-10 of the grades which I felt unsolid about. This quarter, I'm trying a system that defines the first day just what a student has to do to earn a C, B or A. The student can decide just how much effort he or she wants to put into the course and the return is in some measure, equal. These experiments are designed to let the students feel a bit more in control of rather than controlled by the system. Hopefully this leads to more confidence and more freedom. To finally attempt an answer to your question: I would recommend a grading-system with clear-standards that allows the student to feel free, during the time of the course to explore the relevance of the material to himself. Also a grading-system which stimulates continued exploration after the last day of classes. I'm still experimenting. Lecture Experiments KHAN: In one of your first lectures at the U you came into the classroom and delivered a "straight lecture" and later, you commented that you were surprised at the way the students took notes without questioning the material you were offering them. In what way would the response of the students at some eastern universities have differed from the response you received here? KRANES: In large lecture classes it might have been the same. Perhaps more students enough to a campus to hold all my classes at home. Lest the word "freedom" be misinterpreted in your question I don't want anyone in my class who doesn't want to be there. If a class is a drag in any way, the student should get out. If I sense a student is apathetic about being present I do my best to drive him either out of or into the class. The studenf should be allowed as much freedom as possible--as long as I can turn the freedom in some solid way back into the material of the class. The ideal relationship? Wanting to work for each other. Enjoying each other. KHAN: You have had one of the highest ratings in course evaluation. What do you think of the course evaluation system? Refinement Needed KRANES: The idea of faculty evaluation is excellent. The system here needs considerable refinement. It's too statistically worked out. No distinction is made between an honors class where the students want generally to be in the classroom with the given instructor and the required mass class in which dread takes a strong hold even before the instructor walks into the room. Perhaps only electives should be evaluated. Also the C-students evaluation is given equal weight with the A or F-student's. As it stands, it's almost as if the Warren Report had been written by every citizen of voting age working with multiple choices on an IBM card. I don't think that's quite as valid. Harvard and Yale publish evaluations with written paragraphs on each course. I don't know if these are more valid; but they're certainly more flavorful. . .--.-- v ' ' i 1 r 7 7 r37 r v C. ' . I L.. . --.- "w v. .... wi l Photo By Brian Record Dr. David Kranes, assistant professor of English, examines a picture of a stage set for a play that is going to be presented next quarter. He is featured in a faculty interview by Nazir Kahn. v wouiq nave siepi or eaten tneir lunches or made out. But in smaller cIasses-40 on down-there would have been more immediate and active questioning. The lecture you refer to was actually a parody of a lecture, filled with the worst jargonese; I think I used the word "ambiance" seven times in two sentences. I mean, why take something like that? It's outrageous! Yet, there at least 75 per cent of the students were, pens and pencils flying over notepads. I would have had a fight on my hands at a place like Wesleyan. I like to think I could have turned it into something which maintained the cold spark but had more warmth. KHAN: You allow your students more freedom in the way of classroom behaviour than quite a few other professors would. What do you think would be the ideal student-professor relationship? KRANES: Some day I hope to have a big enough house close I 1 believed all their lives. In the huddle, in the cafeteria or on their way to class, they probe their own motives and goals. They wonder . . . and they search . . . and they begin to see what education is all about. Dr. David Kranes, assistant professor of English, is a teacher like that. The students respect him. They dig his lectures. He's on the level. They know that. He never calls roll and yet, almost always has 100 attendance. The quarter goes by too fast. You may get an A or a B or a C or an incomplete, bul you're happy. KHAN: In some of the courses you have given at this university you have tried experimenting with the grading-system. What sort of a grading system would you recommend as a result of these experiments, which incidentally, seem to have kept your students quite happy. KRANES: The present grading system would be all right if someone graded the graders, and then someone else graded the grade-graders and so on. And it would be fine if every student's transcript, beside each listed course, listed his instructor's criteria for reaching a grade in that course Then the system might approach being as uniform as it now pretends to be. Unfortunately, I think many people would agree that it's all much more arbitrary than unform. Students can get "A"s studying a good Barnes arid Noble outline for three or four hours before the exam. I know; I've done it. Other students, totally djligent about their courses, get C's sometimes, or worse. I'm also familiar with that. And all this encourages game-playing of the worst sort. I'd like to eliminate as much of that game-playing as possible. A or Incomplete Last quarter I used an "A or Incomplete" system. The student komeone should grade me graders.says Kranes Ic , CTjy ultimately be tough for me. io EUt whether I'm valuable in some C: joft of overall way where I am is "'toy employer's problem, his "'decision. Not mine. If he decides that I don't fit, he should dismiss me I'll fit somewhere. fi KHAN: With respect to student protest, have things changed much since you were an undergraduate? Do you think that the students are demanding too much? Uncommitted Generation f KRANES: Things have Jchanged immensely since my undergraduate days. My s generation has been termed "the I Uncommitted," and I think that's lla pretty fair generalization. We sulked a lot, walked along empty beaches at night, that sort of jithing. Now students sulk together, sit in corners together, have 'uncommitted-in. Surliness aside, I 'think the Peace Corps, Vista, etc. jStudents make my uncommitted generation wish they'd devoted themselves to loneliness a little less. 't KHAN: A professor has been .quoted in the Chronicle as claiming that the sciences were 'more of an education than liberal ! arts. Would you agree? j Two Cultures ) KRANES: I don't know. That sounds as if you'd have the sciences and liberal arts choose (teams and play each other in "education." I think we've both I got a lot to learn-and from each other. I suppose that CP. Snow is right, that there are "Two' Cultures," at least in practice. But given that fact, I think the effort should be focused not on widening the gap, but toward the attempting of a single culture. I used to think that mathematicians talked to each other in numbers, but I discovered they used words and that was encouraging; a mathematician I know was similarly encouraged to discover that I numbered my manuscript pages. So you see, we're on our way. KHAN: The Chronicle was d widely criticized for having printed the article entitle "The Student as Nigger." What did you think of the article? What sort of changes would you like to see in Chronicle coverage? KRANES: It was a "gadfly article," overwritten and stated to do just what it did, stir controversy. I liked it. Some people said there was no truth in it; I don't know-the University Club sells statues of students with big rings in their hands for faculty-member front lawns. That's a joke. Actually, I think both sides worry about redcapping for each other. There's too much anguish about power; not enough respect. Chronicle coverage? I think this year's paper has more professional strength and depth than last year's. Changes in coverage? With series like the present you begin to expose the dissident conservative peace and freedom war-mongering middle-wing element which has its own foothold at the University. |