VISUAL EDUCATION

Evening Star, Issue 22684, 25 June 1937, Page 16

VISUAL EDUCATION

IMPORTANCE OF FILMS IN SCHOOLS CHILDREN LEARN 33 PER CENT. FASTER [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, Juno 24. The value of educational films in schools was emphasised by E. G. Malherbe, Director of the National Bureau of Educational and Social Research for the Union of South Africa, who arrived from Sydney by the AVangauella. Dr Malherbe has come to New Zealand to attend the seventh Regional Conference of the New Education Fellowship, and will speak at the Christchurch and Dunedin sessions. He will also study education methods in the .Dominion. As far as South Africa at least was concerned, educational films were going to be the biggest instrument of instruction that teachers had had so far. Dr Malherbe said. That statement was made, lie added, on the result of the work of the Film Institute section of the National Bureau of Research, which had now been in operation for several years. “If you have two groups of equally intelligent children taught by equally capable teachers you will find that the group instructed with the assistance of films will show a 33 1-3 per cent, gain,”- said Dr Malherbe. The Film Institute was organised to disseminate educational films throughout the country for ordinary theatres. The institute certified certain films as being educational, as the result of which they could bo brought into the country free of duty. There was, accordingly, a premium on good films in theatres. Many educational films were also imported for exhibition at schools only, and tho institute was also producing a number of such films itself. The schools were required to buy and pay for their own projectors, but they obtained films from tho institute at insignificant cost. There wore films on practically every subject, including geography, biology, science, physics, and chemistry. Musical appreciation could be taught much better by sound films than by radio. Dr Malherbe remarked. To cope with the language difficulty films sounded in English were translated for audiences speaking Afrikaans. Sometimes a teacher spoke the translation, or it was given through ordinary sound equipment It was to be understood, however, that films could never take tho place of a teacher altogether, but they were of great advantage, especially in rural districts. CONFERENCE WITH MINISTER. WELLINGTON, June 24. A conference on visual education today discussed practical matters in connection with the use of films in schools. The Director of Education, Mr N. T. Lambonrne, presided, and the Minister of Education (Air P. Fraser) attended for part of the conference. After a general discussion on the place of the cinema in education, the age group for which it is most suitable, and relative merits of sound and silent films, the conference dealt with a number of practical questions in committee, including the supply and distribution of films, the purchase of projectors, the structural alterations necessitated in film theatre schoolrooms, and the training of teachers in the technique of film teaching.