THE MASTERS DEGREE�SECONDARY ORCOLLEGE QUALIFICATION?

Marc A. LaframboiseUniversity of Detroitj Detroit, Michigan

Debatable as the notion may be, the doctorate should be considered the desir-able qualification for college competence in teaching.However, in the next decade colleges and universities will need at least 27,000

new teachers a year. The present Ph.D. output is 9,000 a year. Of these, fewerthan half become college teachers.

Effective teaching requires an understanding of the methods of inquiry throughwhich knowledge in the particular field is discovered, tested, revised and ex-tended. Thus, aspirants for high school teaching posts must have a substantialamount of graduate work in their particular field of competence. Those aspirantsfor college teaching must of necessity have much more of the graduate work,since effective teaching also requires the possession of a substantial body ofknowledge.By increasing the number of teachers who are scholars in their respective

branches of knowledge, a desire for learning and the pursuit of excellence maybe aroused in a larger number of our secondary and college students since be-cause of their competence these teachers will be trusted and admired.

In addition, of course, to the academic program the professional programmust provide a basis for the continuing pursuit of knowledge in the chosenarea of study, and the development of a spirit of speculative inquiry will furtherthe acquisition of skills in motivation and guidance.The professional teacher will develop productive methods of thinking in the

philosophical and historical areas. Proficiency will develop with contacts andthe observation of skilled practitioners. A good program represents an extensionof and not a replacement for liberal education.Many schools at present are strengthening their requirements for teaching

majors. In mathematics, the ideal of course remains the 24-semester-hours-beyond-calculus major recommended by the Commission On Mathematics ofthe College Entrance Board (Sept. 1957).However, many schools still accept as teaching major in mathematics two or

so courses beyond the calculus. Some of these same institutions will then grantthe masters degree in mathematics with the equivalent of one year of studybeyond this inadequate major. These departments recognize the meagerness ofthe requirements but hope that the stronger students will elect stronger courses.

This presents something of a paradox since the master’s degree by its nameimplies mastery of a subject. Could not the master’s degree be granted only tothose candidates displaying mastery? Such mastery w^uld normally result fromsome two years of successful concentrated graduate study beyond the recom-mended Commission’s major. Broadly, this could include practically all of thepresent academic preparation for the Ph.D. but minus the thesis.The University of Chicago has recently inaugurated a two-year graduate pro-

gram beyond the B.A. degree for future high school teachers. The Master ofArts in Teaching in a specified teaching field will be awarded to those attainingsatisfactory competence. This is a big step forward and establishes definite dis-tinctions in the master’s degree for high school qualification.Many educators are reluctant to alter conventional ideas relating to the

master^s degree since symbolically this degree represents the ultimate qualifi-cation for the elementary or secondary school teacher seeking perhaps a lifecertificate or the maximum salary.

This writer would make the following suggestion. Where teachers spend asingle year doing graduate work in the subject of their choice, say mathematics,to further competence in teaching, these might be granted a Master of Educationin Mathematics degree M.Ed (Math), or if in say English a Master of Education

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The Master’s Degree 59

in English degree M.Ed (English). Those teachers obtaining the usual master’sdegree in education might be granted the M.Ed (Educ.) degree.

Tliese could be recognized primarily as professional degrees for high schooland elementary school teachers. They would still be master’s degrees and wouldrepresent a desirable and ultimate level of professional competence.Those candidates actually mastering a subject which mastery would usually

require some two full years or more of successful graduate study beyond therecommended Commission’s major (in mathematics) could be granted theMaster of Arts or Science degree, M.A. or M.S.This master’s degree could then, and rightly so, be accepted as adequate

qualification for teaching college and/or university work.The doctorate would, however, remain the desirable ultimate qualification.

CONVENIENT FRACTIONSAttractive exercises in the addition and subtraction of fractions can be made

in great variety by means of an identity,P/AB-{-Q/BC=R/AC

where A, -Z?, and C are binomials with the coefficients a and a’, b and b^y c andc\ and P, <3, and R are the determinants

a o/ b b’ a a’b b’ c c’ c c’

For example,17 18 -1

Sx^+^xy-^y2 5.^�2-22.^�.y-i-8y^ x^-xy-Hy2

WILLIAM R. RANSOM, Tuffs University

ERRATAErrata in article on "Rudiments of Probability Theory," Oct. 1960 issue. A

couple of minor typographical errors will be obvious. In addition, the symbolsgot inverted in the middle of formula (5), page 559, and after P at top of page560; also, at the top of page 566, the n slipped out of position in three placesand the last coefficient should read Cn-a".

JOSEPH MAYER

CREATIVE ABILITY RELATED TO HUMORA child’s C.Q. (creativity quotient) is related to his sense of humor. Research

by Prof. Jacob. W. Getzels and Prof. Philip W. Jackson of the University ofChicago points to development of a "creativity quotient" similar to the I.Q.system of ratings now in use.

For their research on giftedness, they used a group of about 500 adolescents inthe University of Chicago Laboratory School from the sixth grade to the endof the senior year in high school. They found that the emphasis on sense ofhumor is so marked that it is the one characteristic that sharply sets apart thehigh-creativity group from all other groups. Their research also disclosed thatteachers prefer the high I.Q. child to the child with the high C.Q. The highlycreative child studied was selected only if he was not in the top 20% in I.Q.The high I.Q. child and the high C.Q. child were equally superior in schoolachievement to the student population as a whole.