OBSERVATION LESSONS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 11, 13 July 1931, Page 11

OBSERVATION LESSONS

NEW SCHEME ORGANISED

KELBURN NORMAL SCHOOL

A new scheme of. observational work lias been tried at the Ivelburn Normal School. Commenting on this in tho Education Board's annual report for 1930, the principal of the Training College states that the custom in training colleges for years had been to organise so-called demonstration lessons in large assembly halls, where a.class of pupils.was taught by a demonstration teacher, and a number of young teachers sat around to see how this set lesson progressed. "This method does not appeal to us," says the report. "It seems to run contrary to .a very fundamental educational priuciplc, that school teaching is fundamentally .a, study of a child developing, and not the study of these so-called set lessons. This type of demonstration is too. artificial, and very often leads fto the just criticism that teachers may give such well-staged lessons with apparently wonderful success, but could not carry them out under the ordinary conditions of the classroom. "To replace such demonstrations, we have organised a scheme of observational lessons in all the standards of the.- Kelburn School, where at certain set times sections of students file into the classrooms, sit down on the special seats recently provided for this purpose, and, observe tor a period a lesson given by the classroom teacher. To give the student a right introduction to the lesson, the Ivelburn weekly scheme is typed for every student, the syllabus of work for tho standard, studied, the lecturer'in'the subject from tlie college is present at the lesson, and a subsequent method lecture deals with the general principles involved m the particular lesson observed. The.scheme has tended to bring into closer contact the practice in the school and the theory I^Tt" of Normal done, and the excellent results obtained."