TRAINING OF TEACHERS

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1933, Page 4

TRAINING OF TEACHERS

POLICY OF THE DEPARTMENT APPOINTMENT OF PROBATIONERS. LONG EXPLANATION TO THE BOARD Though it was stated that there was no question of new policy involved in the decision of the Education Department not to appoint probationers next year a letter received from the Director of Educiaton (Mr. N. T. Lamboume) by the Taranaki Education Board yesterday indicated that the value of the present system of training is engaging the thought of those responsible for education in New Zealand. A change in present methods was criticised by members of the board. In reply to a protest from the Canterbury Education Board supported by the Taranaki board contending that at least one probationary year prior to admission to training college was a fundamental requirement for the complete and effective training for all teachers, the department wrote that the non-appointment of probationers in 1934 did not indicate a new question of policy in the training of teachers. After very careful examination of all the factors it was deemed advisable not to appoint any probationers next year. Whether or not appointments would be made in 1935 yet remained to be considered. There was reason to believe, stated Mr. Lamboume, that pre-training college experience was not as fundamental as it had usually been supposed to be. From an investigation of about 800 teachers trained in the Education Department of Aberystwyth University College between 1922 and 1930 Mr. Lamboume concluded that pre-college teaching experience appeared to be significantly connected with teaching grade achieved in the case of men but not women students. This connection was most strongly marked in men students who had more than a year’s experience as uncertificated teachers, the type of experience being of more importance than the amount of it Student teacher experience seemed on the whole to be little better than no experience at all. Among the women students the experienced groups did not show any significantly better results than the inexperienced groups. A recent investigation made at Auckland, though not conclusive because of the small number of students who entered training college without teaching experience, showed the students who entered the college in 1930 to 1923 without previous teaching experience held on the average a slight advantage in college training, present grading and yearly grading increases over the students who entered after two years’ experience as probationers or pupil-teachers. The director also pointed out that in very few cases had a probationer received from the headmaster of the school a recommendation that indicated definite unsuitability for the teaching service, yet in one training college during the last three years 25 students had their studentships terminated because they showed insufficient promise. Mr. J. A. Valentine considered that the comparison between English and New Zealand teachers was not a fair one. He would like to know whether the Aberystwyth students mentioned were comparable with probationers in New Zealand and whether the teachers were trained under similar conditions. It was manifest that a teacher who had had a year’s teaching experience must be more able to take up teaching when he came out of training college. The chaiman (Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P.): Why don’t they tell us about the failures?

Mr. Valentine said the statement that 25 students had had their studentships terminated showed that the senior inspectors had not been doing their jobs in recommending students for training college. It was' evident that the full responsibility had not been shouldered in that respect in some cases. In suggesting that the department be thanked for its explanation Mr. Valentine said it was not often that the board received from the department such a full statement of its reasons.