CLASSROOM AIDS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 198, 22 July 1937, Page 12

CLASSROOM AIDS.

USE OF RADIO AND FILMS. CLARIFY TEACHER’S WORK. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, July 20. Demonstrating how mechanical aids in the classroom were invaluable m advancing learning and observation, en-corn-aging good taste and leading the process of thought in the child along desirable lines, Mr G. T. Hankin, staff inspector and representative of the English Board of Education, addressed a audience at the opening lecture of the New Education Fellowship Conference yesterday. Illustrations of the extent to which radio and the films were adapted for use in the schools in England and how they expanded the teaching practice were followed keenly by the audience. ' Professor T. A. Hunter, \ ice-Chan-cellor of the University of New Zealand, and chairman of the national committee of the conference, presided.

The use of radio and film was one of the important elements in the progress of education, said Mr Hankjn. Mere interest in these mechanical aids was not enough, and whatever was presented in this form was required to stimulate intellectual energy. From a film or radio lesson presented in modern form pupils received an enormous number of impressions which normally would pass into the unconscious part of the mind. It was the task of the teacher at the close of any radio or film lesson- to bring out ideas suitable to his own process of teaching and suitable for the education of the back-ward-or clever pupil. As an example of what has been accomplished in England, Mr Hankin presented by recordings a dramatised radio talk on the industrial revolution. Tn geography and music tuition was given by a similar method, he said. Through the technique of the “talkie” film a background was produced which aroused the child’s wonder. Both these mechanical aids to teaching were designed not to take the place of the teacher, ‘but to clarify and supplement his work. The main lines of thought should be preserved and impressed upon the children who, as a class, should be encouraged to think for themselves, the teacher merely drawing inferences by questioning upon the basic lines of the radio or film presentation.