REFRESHER COURSES FOR TEACHERS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27563, 21 January 1955, Page 3

REFRESHER COURSES FOR TEACHERS

MEETINGS AT SUMNER AND LINCOLN

Refresher courses are being held at the School for the Deaf (Sumner) for primary school teachers and at Canterbury Agricultural College (Lincoln) for post-primary school teachers. The technique of infant teaching, which emphasises the early recognition of varying abilities in children and their progress at varying speeds, is being studied for its application to the lower standards, by the primary school teachers, said the course administrator (Mr J. R. Grigg) yesterday. About 50 teachers from Auckland to Invercargill are attending the course, and 12 speakers are giving talks on practical experiences in classrooms, with special reference to activitv rather than verba) instruction, he said.

Mr Grigg is headmaster of the Terrace End School, Palmerston North.

The chairman of the course is Mr Arthur Rawlinson, headmaster of Musselburgh School, Dunedin, and the treasurer is Mr W. G. Beardsley of Bryndwr School. Miss E. C. Harris, of Beckenham School, is women’s warden.

Mr F. D. Lopdell, a former chief inspector of primary schools and now in charge of in-service training for the Education Department, it at the course.

A similar course is also being held in the North Island at Feilding. At Canterbury Agricultural College 60 teachers are attending a week’s refresher course in general science. Forty of the teachers are in residence

at the college. The chairman of the course, Mr M. A. Bull, headmaster of Timaru Boys’ High School, said that the three or four sessions each day will deal with post-primary teaching techniques and experimental work in the branches of science.

Lectures were given vesterday on the scope of general science by Mr P. B. Aldridge, of the Waitaki Boys' High School, on laboratory techniques by Mr E. G. Hay of the Waimate High School, and science in industry and agriculture by Dr. I. D. Blair, of Canterbury Agricultural College. Today, Mr T. H. McCombs will open a discussion on a new general science syllabus for school certificate, proposing the introduction of a separate examination syllabus and an unexamined ’ core devised by individual teachers By such a scheme it is hoped to establish a better balance among physics, chemistry and biology in the course. A similar refresher course is being held at Massey Agricultural College.