EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22103, 27 May 1937, Page 3

EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

WORK OF NEW ZEALAND COUNCIL DIRECTOR'S ANNUAL REPORT "The last year has further confirmed the council in its opinion that the greatest value is to be gained by concentrating upon a few related topics within a limited sphere," states the director (Dr. C. E. Beeby) in the second annual report of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. "If anything, the scope of the research programme has been narrowed and intensified during 1936. Three small researches which were intended only as try-outs in certain directions have proved that those fields will not repay study under present conditions, and they will not be pressed further. The total monetary expenditure along these lines was less than £20." The report states that the avowed intention of the Labour Government to begin in 1937 a complete reorganisation of the education system made it the council's obvious duty to throw all its available resources into the field of organisation and administration, so as to be in a position to offer what help it could to those responsible for educational reform. Work in the minor field (which is elsewhere stated to be a small group of psychological researches dealing with the effects of formal schooling on the child's physique, knowledge, skill, and attitude of mind) would be continued, but the main pressure would be on more immediately practical topics. Defending the sacrifice of fundamental to ephemeral research, the report states that the Education Department in New Zealand has no research departments attached to it corresponding to those in America and England, and that the council is the only educational body in the country which has no suspicion of a vested interest in the education system, and no allegiances which prevent it from saying exactly what it thinks. Duties and obligations were thus imposed on it which could be avoided in other countries. Survey of Intermediate Schools Research work undertaken by the council included a survey of the intermediate school system with a view to evaluating the system as at present established in New Zealand. This subject, the report states, "is an extremely delicate one. since the intermediate school is an educational noman's land which has been fought over by rival interests for the last IS years, but the council felt that it had no right to refuse the request, and agreed to undertake the survey." Another request was from the University of New Zealand, which asked for an investigation into the working of the university entrance examination. The sum of £250 was voted to the council for this. The New Zealand Educational Institute requested an investigation into the teacher s professional life, but it was not found possible to undertake this. Referring to the survey of the intermediate school system. Dr. Beeby states that he spent four months visiting all these schools, collecting material which is now being worked up. Mr Colin Bailey, of Wellington, was assisting with the collection of comparative data from overseas. Mr K. W. R. Glasgow, of Dunedin, had continued for a further year with research into the relationship between primary school record, intelligence, and entrance examination on the one hand, and success in the postprimary school on the other. From these findings the methods of classifying entrants at the two Dunedin high schools had been radically altered, and the rectors reported that the new method was eminently successful. The standardisation of two intelligence tests was carried out with more rapid progress than expected by Mr*. R. J. Davies, of Wellington, and Dr. Beeby, the report states. A report would be published in the second half of this year. Reference is also made to the research into Maori education, for which the Carnegie Corporation offered to pay half the cost of £llOO a year for three years. Dr. Beeby accompanied Mr D. G. Ball, Inspector of Native Schools, on an inspection through the Urewera, and attended a refresher course for native school teachers. The year ended with a credit balance of £943 8s 6d.