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Plowden (1967) Notes on the text Volume 1 (page numbers in brackets) Preliminary pages (i-xxii)
Part 1 Introduction
Part 2 The growth of the child
Part 3 The home, school and neighbourhood
Part 4 The structure of primary education
Part 5 The children in the schools: curriculum and internal organisation
Part 6 The adults in the schools
Part 7 Independent schools
Part 8 Primary school buildings and equipment; status; and research
Part 9 Conclusions and recommendations
Notes (486-495)
Research and Surveys about Plowden |
The Plowden Report (1967)
A Report of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England) London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1967
[page 339] 949. The rapid turnover of teachers, however disastrous it may be in other ways, does at least provide the opportunity for new ideas in education to make themselves rapidly felt in the schools. Because of this, the colleges of education and university departments have at this moment a more influential position than they would have in more settled times. This is the time when there should be a full study of the whole subject of the training of teachers. Undertaken now, it could help to influence the ways in which expansion takes place instead of being an inquest on what has been done. The training of teachers was examined by the Robbins Committee only as part of a much wider survey. An analysis of the effectiveness of different patterns of teacher training should form a major part of such an enquiry. The most that we could do was to study the training of teachers from the angle of primary education and to consider the part the schools can play in training. 950. Teacher training institutions have been working under great strain in the past decade. The three year course was introduced generally in 1960. The years immediately before 1960 were devoted to the intensive planning of the extended course, to the preparation of members of staff and the recruitment of the many additional lecturers who were needed. Yet in the very year in which the first students entered the three year courses, the Ministry of Education, faced with an impending shortage of primary school teachers, asked the colleges to increase substantially the proportion of those who were preparing to teach in primary schools. Since 1960 the colleges have been engaged on an expansion programme which has more than doubled the number of places. It was under 30,000 in 1958/59; it was over 70,000 in 1965/66. This year it will be 80,000. 951. The colleges and departments of education are preparing teachers for several different roles. Many women students need a sound basic training which will enable them to make a useful contribution to the schools for a few years until they start their own families. Their training should equip them with constructive and adaptable attitudes towards children and teaching. When they later return to teaching, full-time or part-time, a refresher course will enable them quickly to pick up the threads. Many men and women students will make education their life work. Among them will be the innovators, the future heads of schools, the teachers in colleges and departments of education, the advisers and administrators. Both the admission procedures and the courses arranged in the colleges must be flexible and imaginative enough to be suited to students who will play these differing parts in the educational structure of the future. The Present Position: A Factual Summary 952. There are about 67,000 students taking courses in general colleges of education in England and Wales. In spite of the grave shortage of primary *See Suggestion on the Supply and Training of Teachers at the end of the main Report. [page 340] and particularly infant teachers only one third, nearly all of them women, are preparing to work with very young children by taking nursery-infant, infant or infant-junior courses. About 19,000 students are taking junior-secondary courses; about half are men. 953. Not only are there twice as many students as there were seven years ago, but they are better qualified. In 1965/66 about 66 per cent had one or more Advanced Level passes in the General Certificate of Education compared with 62 per cent in 1961/62. The great majority have qualifications well above the five Ordinary Level passes, which is the statutory minimum (see Table 25) [on page 364]. 954. The standard length of course is three years but some 3.5 per cent of all students in colleges of education are in shortened courses. These students are normally over 25. Mature students as a whole are an important group which provided 14 per cent of all first students in 1964 and 1965. Many of them go to special day colleges, or to 'outposts' of other colleges. These outposts have been set up in areas which are likely to provide a continuing flow of recruits who are unable to live far from their homes. 955. The training of graduates is either concurrent, in which academic and professional courses take place alongside each other, or consecutive, in which professional preparation follows degree work. Concurrent training has been provided in two undergraduate university courses and in a small number of colleges of education. The amount of concurrent training will increase rapidly in the next few years as the four year course for the BEd [Bachelor of Education] degree becomes established. Most universities are planning to hold their first examination for the BEd degree in 1969. 956. Six university departments of education in England and two in Wales offer one year post-graduate training for primary education. Less than four per cent of post-graduate students in university departments of education were following one of these courses. There are also some post-graduate students in colleges of education, but although the proportion taking primary or primary-secondary courses was much higher (29 per cent), the total number was negligible. In 1965/66 there were only some 300 graduates training for primary school work. 957. The colleges and departments of education are grouped in 20 institutes or schools of education, which act as area training organisations. All but one of them are university bodies. While they vary in structure, they all co-ordinate the facilities in their areas for training teachers and oversee the content of the training courses. They are also responsible for the examination of students and recommend successful students to the Secretary of State for qualified teacher status, subject to a satisfactory probationary period. The Structure of Training 958. Most colleges of education prepare students for one career only, that of teaching. This arrangement has the advantage that academic and professional studies are carried on side by side, a point to which we return later in paragraph 972, and that vocational interest can give a sense of purpose to all the work. But there are disadvantages. A choice of career is forced on students at 18 or earlier, before some know their own minds, and future teachers are segregated from those preparing for other types of work. It is not easy to [page 341] balance the advantages and disadvantages; and at present it could only have academic interest. The grave problem of the supply of teachers would prevent any considerable modification of the present system. 959. A concurrent course of training for teachers need not be the only course provided in a college of education. There are already one year 'consecutive' courses for graduates and certain specialists. Some colleges of education include an optional course in youth work in their teacher training courses. A college in the midlands trains students for teaching, youth service, work in community centres and for other careers. One Scottish college provides a two year course for social workers as well as training for teachers. 960. We hope there may be some institutions in which social service students and students preparing for teaching can share much of their first year work, especially as this should encourage closer collaboration in the field. Certainly all students preparing to teach need to know much more about social work and family needs, just as most social workers would benefit from a deeper insight into the work of schools. We also welcome experiments now about to be put into effect for training teachers in selected technical colleges, especially because they will increase the opportunities of prospective teachers to train side by side with students in other disciplines who are preparing for other professions. At the outset lecturers dealing with main subjects in such colleges might well feel the disadvantage of slight knowledge and experience of the primary school and it must be hoped that they will look for help from their colleagues in the Education Department, who are likely to be specially recruited for this work. All such courses for the training of teachers should be affiliated to the institutes of education. Admission of Students 961. Although the general level of academic qualifications of students is satisfactory, there are aspects which cause disquiet. Too many students have concentrated in the sixth form on English, history and geography. Too few are qualified to take college main courses in mathematics, science or music. All primary school teachers need to be numerate in the Crowther sense as well as literate. [1959 Crowther Report 15-18 wide-ranging report on the education of 15-18 year olds.] A minimum standard of numeracy involves the capacity to secure a pass at Ordinary level in mathematics in the GCE. A quarter of the men and two fifths of the women entering college have not reached this level and the proportion is deteriorating. The future teacher needs as well to have some understanding of scientific method and a recent acquaintance with the practice of one of the arts. The secondary schools with their specialist tradition in teaching are not, we think, sufficiently aware of the need of the primary schools, and we would include the proposed middle schools, for teachers whose value lies to a marked degree in their versatility. The main courses in secondary schools and the use of sixth form minority time need scrutiny with this problem, among others, in mind. 962. Assessment of candidates' suitability is made by individual colleges which use many different selection procedures. Their criteria include examination success, school reports, intelligence and other tests, evidence of experience with children and the impressions created on interview. Many colleges now share the responsibility for selection widely amongst members [page 342] of staff; a few invite primary school head teachers to take part, a useful practice though it may make too heavy demands on a head teacher's time. Balance of Men and Women Students 963. There is little to choose (as shown by Table 25 [on page 364]) between the qualifications of men and women students recently admitted to the colleges. At first sight, therefore, it seems possible to increase the proportion of men without risk to the quality of intake. But scrutinies of unplaced candidates undertaken by the Central Register and Clearing House tend to confirm the view held by the colleges that the average quality of men applicants is lower than that of women. There is a particularly marked shortage of able men wishing to enter primary courses. More could be done to bring the work of the colleges to the attention of sixth formers, particularly those in boys' schools. Visits might be arranged for members of sixth forms to colleges and also to primary schools, as is already done in some parts of the country. College-based courses might be held for sixth formers during the Easter vacation. Mature Students 964. Mature students are an important group of future teachers. They are valuable in the colleges because of the additional experience they bring to their corporate life; they are valuable in school not only because of their training and experience, but also because they are more likely than young women to stay in teaching. Those we met were thoughtful people, working hard and likely to become good teachers. It is worth while planning facilities for training in such a way as to make it possible to enlist more. The day colleges and 'outposts' have been successful largely because they are ready to adapt their hours to students' family obligations. The courses in technical colleges will make teacher training available to more day students. We should like to see experiments in part-time courses for mature students and understand that some will begin in 1967. Graduates 965. Graduates have been regarded with some suspicion by other primary school teachers, since some graduates entering primary schools are poor teachers. Some are untrained and try to base their methods on those of grammar schools. Yet the primary schools need graduates for two specific reasons. Our evidence has shown a critical shortage in colleges of education of lecturers for 'education' departments with qualifications in psychology, sociology and philosophy. The right people to fill these posts need good degrees in these subjects and teaching experience in primary schools. The second reason is that the introduction of new subjects in junior schools and, still more, the prospective demands at the top of middle schools if our recommendations are accepted, will make it important for more primary school teachers to have specialist knowledge. Graduates who enter primary teaching will find that it offers intellectually challenging work. Primary schools will need all the benefits which trained minds, interested in writing and research, will be able to bring. 966. The BEd degree ought to be a major, perhaps the major, source of supply of graduates for primary schools. How far it will in fact take into account the special requirements of primary education depends on decisions [page 343] being made by the universities. They will determine whether the BEd will give us the teachers we need. Clearly it is most important that the universities should equip students of good ability for this work. We take up this question in paragraphs 977 and 978. 967. If the university departments of education expand to the extent that is likely in the next few years, more of them will be able to provide suitable training for work in primary schools. We should like to see all of them offer this training provided that they have sufficient staff of the right experience and a large enough group of students intending to teach in primary schools. But the colleges of education have special advantages for training postgraduate students to teach in primary schools since so much of their experience is with primary work. We hope that the total number of postgraduate students in colleges of education, and also the proportion who are preparing for teaching in primary schools will increase substantially. 968. Increased recruitment of graduate students to courses of primary training will depend to some extent on better contacts with secondary schools. A campaign is needed to make the opportunities for graduate teachers in primary schools known in secondary schools and universities. The teachers' associations might play their part. Colleges of education might tell secondary schools how their former pupils are doing and keep in touch with those of their applicants who withdraw to take up university places but who may remain interested in primary teaching. A fresh approach could be made to university appointments boards. The Department of Education and Science should give more publicity to courses of primary training for graduates and to the career prospects for those who take them. 969. Under present regulations, professional training is not a compulsory requirement for the award of qualified teacher status to graduates. We must make it quite clear that we share the views of the whole of the educational service that graduates should be required to receive training before they teach, above all if they are going to work in primary schools. The Courses in Colleges of Rducation and University Departments of Education 970. We have not been in a position to assess the courses in colleges and departments of education; but we have given some thought to the strengths and weaknesses of the teachers they produce, and how far they meet the needs of the schools. 971. We have also taken into account the evidence we have received, both formally and informally. We have heard many favourable comments on the work of the colleges and departments of education but also a considerable amount of criticism open or implied. Half the head teachers to whom our questionnaire was sent (Appendix 1, Table E.24) thought that students were adequately prepared in colleges of education; over a third disagreed. Nearly three fifths of the assistant teachers were satisfied; nearly a third were not. There was stronger criticism of the training in university departments of education. The views expressed in evidence or in answer to the questionnaire could not, of course, have been based on long experience of the effects of the three year course because it only started in 1960 and the first teachers trained in it did not reach the schools until late in 1963. Some teachers may not have [page 344] realised the strain under which colleges have been working. But there are criticisms which ought to be taken seriously. These are complaints about: (i) the quality of college courses: some of the abler students are dissatisfied with the standards of some courses;Main Courses 972. The content of the course varies both between institutes and between individual colleges, but there is much common ground. All students undertake an advanced study of one or two subjects (main courses). Some teachers question whether this is necessary for students training to be primary school teachers. We accept the general view that study in some depth forms an essential part of the education of any teacher. The practising teacher will be learning to be a teacher all his life but he may have less opportunity, once he leaves college, for the systematic study of a subject for its own sake. Students need resources of knowledge and judgement upon which they can draw both as teachers and individuals, and these will not necessarily be related to the day to day work in the primary schools. We are advised that there is a wide variation in the standards attained by students in their main courses. The best already reach the level of an ordinary degree, but at the other end of the scale are students who pass at a level little beyond the Advanced Level in the General Certificate of Education examination. Education Course and Teaching Practice 973. The education course contains some common sections and others designed to prepare students for teaching a particular age range. Students training for primary teaching usually spend a substantial part of their time in studies of child development, a practice we commend and should like to see extended to all students in junior-secondary courses. We also share the view that educational theory and practice should support one another throughout the course. For this reason, the sooner students get into school - though not at first to teach - the better. We have been told that the work in the theory of education shows a wide variation in quality. It may range from courses of a rather discursive and descriptive nature to others which make a much more rigorous intellectual demand and involve reading, discussion and written essays of a high standard. Part of the difficulty lies in the dual nature of education courses. The lecturer most competent in the schools may not be suited to teaching the more theoretical aspects of children's development, or the psychology, sociology and philosophy of education. We welcome the [page 345] trend towards the appointment of specialists in these fields, and hope it will go further. As far as possible these specialists ought to have had direct experience of primary schools and a post-graduate course relevant to primary education. Curriculum Courses 974. Curriculum courses, intended to inform students both about the subject matter that children will learn in school and the way in which they will learn it, are essential. It is difficult to know how best to prepare students who may have to take responsibility for the full range of work in a single class. An attempt to cover everything can lead to fragmented and superficial work; the selection of a restricted number of subjects for intensive study can leave gaps which many students find awkward. The student needs help at his own level and detailed guidance in working with children. If too little attention is given to the former, teaching may be impoverished by, for example, a lack of a sensitivity to the arts, or too little knowledge. If too little attention is given to the way children learn, a junior school teacher may be quite unable to teach children to read. Students' time can be saved if their curriculum courses are chosen and designed with a view to individual needs. Some colleges try to ensure that students, either through their main courses or a curriculum course, study an example from each main aspect of the children's curriculum, language, mathematics, learning by discovery and experiment, and creative work in the arts. In other colleges, curriculum courses begin with an integrated study of the neighbourhood, a way of learning highly relevant to children, or a study of a primary school in its setting. It is particularly important that students who are taking junior-secondary courses and from whom many of the teachers needed for primary schools must come have a sufficient range of curriculum courses to feel competent to teach in primary schools. Staffing of Colleges of Education 975. The old anxiety lest colleges should become inbred has been allayed by the rapid expansion bringing in many newcomers direct from schools; but there are plenty of other problems. The staff responsible for work in main subjects must be well qualified specialists and this frequently means that they have been secondary school teachers. This in turn means that in nearly all colleges of education the proportion of students in training for primary teaching is much higher than the proportion of the staff who have had, at the time of their appointment, substantial experience of work in the primary schools. Many of these lecturers have to help with curriculum courses and with teaching practice, partly to relieve the burden which would otherwise fall on their colleagues, but even more to avoid a cleavage between the subject specialists and the members of the education staff which would defeat the purpose of concurrent training. Specialists in psychology and sociology may, like other specialists, know too little of the primary schools. The fact that the majority of the staff know more about secondary than primary schools may help to explain why students who have followed junior-secondary courses are over anxious to obtain posts in secondary schools. Other possible explanations are offered in Chapter 29. [page 346] 976. Another problem faces the colleges in the appointment of education staff. Good practitioners with recent experience of teaching young children have an essential part to play, but some of them may lack the background of reading and the training in exact thought needed for successful work in college. In these related problems lies the cause of some of the criticism of college staffs by primary school teachers and others among our witnesses. 977. When the pace of expansion slows down these problems should be easier to solve. A larger proportion of subject specialists will be able to spend some time in primary school teaching before joining college staffs; primary school teachers will more frequently be able to take advanced diplomas before taking part in teacher training. In time there should be an inflow of recruits with a BEd degree. BEd Courses 978. The universities are rightly anxious that high academic standards should be established in the BEd degrees. We are equally concerned lest those who follow these courses should be less likely to enter primary schools and less well prepared to teach in them than if they had taken a teacher's certificate only. The degree put forward for consideration in the Robbins Report was envisaged as consisting of education and two other main subjects. This is well suited to the needs of students for secondary teaching who would be equipped with two strong teaching subjects and a limited range of curriculum courses in other subjects. But students training for primary teaching need a wider range of experience than they will be able to acquire if they have to concentrate on two main subjects and the theory of education. Another possible difficulty lies in the subjects acceptable for a BEd degree course. Some of the main courses in colleges of education are not subjects for which universities have in the past granted degrees. 979. There is less anxiety than there was. A few universities have devised a scheme in which the education course is interwoven with subject studies and sufficient time left for curriculum courses. There is an encouraging trend for universities to accept for the BEd course subjects such as art and craft, physical education and drama which prospective teachers in the primary schools may well wish to take. Some universities are allowing BEd students to take education and one instead of two main subjects. Naturally there are still unsolved problems; and the plans of a few universities are deeply disturbing. In one university, education itself is not to figure in the fourth year course of a BEd degree; in a few others the only subjects, other than education, to be allowed in the BEd course, at any rate to begin with, are those normally examined by the universities. We hope that as universities, institutes of education and colleges come into closer contact, ways will be found of reconciling high academic standards in the BEd course with relevance to primary education. We also hope that, as soon as possible, arrangements will be made for BEd courses to be taken by established teachers. Other Graduate Courses 980. The major problem of the post-graduate course for students preparing for primary education is that an academic year, nine months or less, allows too little time for the range of work which has to be covered or for developing [page 347] an understanding of education and child development. An interesting experimental scheme covering a two year period was introduced in one university department of education in 1963. A small group of graduate students embarked on a two year course (the first grant aided and the second salaried) in which training and teaching alternate, and the final assessment of practical teaching is postponed till the end of the second year. The scheme allows for a longer period in training without loss to the teaching force. If the results are favourable, this scheme might provide a useful alternative pattern for graduate training. It has also been suggested to us that particular help should be given to post graduate students in their probationary year. They should be able to go on learning after they complete training, especially if they are given sufficient guidance during their early years of teaching. Some General Points about Students' Life and Work 981. The discipline in training colleges used often to be paternal and sometimes authoritarian. There has been a noteworthy movement in recent years towards treating students as adults, responsible for their personal lives and for the corporate life of the college. We welcome this trend which is exemplified by the agreement reached in 1964 by the ATCDE [Association of Teachers in Colleges and Departments of Education] and the National Union of Students on regulations for students who are in residence. It now remains for all colleges to follow the example of those which have accepted adjustments in discipline. 982. More emphasis is being placed in the three year course on independent study, which has been helped by great improvements in college libraries. A growth of seminar and tutorial methods, and a corresponding reduction in formal lectures, should help students develop active attitudes to learning and make it easier to meet their individual needs. When they become teachers, they are likely in turn to encourage a similar independence in their pupils. Some will teach in primary schools which already use modern methods; they will fit in naturally. Others will go to more traditional schools. We hope that those who do will neither flaunt their difference nor surrender to convention. They are more likely to succeed if they have been introduced during their training to the whole range of method and organisation in schools. 983. There are certain aspects of training both in colleges and departments of education which seem to us to be of especial importance. We should not want students to be overloaded with additional courses on these aspects, but rather that they should be emphasised in the education course. We recognise that many colleges are already taking into account the points mentioned below: (i) An understanding of child development is of particular importance to those preparing for work in primary education. Students should be acquainted with the more important results of contemporary research, even when these are in dispute. They will then be more likely to interest themselves in similar debates when they become teachers. [page 348] influenced by their home circumstances. All students need to understand the effect of home and community on children. Special emphasis should be placed on the problems of children who are, in one or another way, gravely deprived by the circumstances of their homes and districts, and on the help that teachers can give to these children, in collaboration with other social services. Contacts with parents and others in the neighbourhood should be organised in a positive fashion and should introduce students to situations to which they themselves can make a constructive contribution. Many young teachers feel anxious and inadequate when confronted by parents; they cannot be free from these anxieties unless meetings with parents are planned and subsequently discussed with as much care as practice teaching itself.The Relationship between Schools and Teachers Training Institutions 984. The schools and colleges are yoked together. The purpose of training is to produce good teachers who will serve the schools. It cannot be achieved unless the staff of training institutions know what is happening in the schools and are sympathetic to their needs. Equally, schools will not provide good conditions for young teachers and students on teaching practice unless their staffs understand what the training institutions are trying to do. Evidence has already been quoted which suggests some failures in understanding and cooperation on both sides. Teaching Practice 985. The purpose of teaching practice is to underpin and enliven theoretical studies in child development and education, and to provide sources from which theory can be derived. Teaching practice must also familiarise students with the problems and the daily round that will await them when they qualify. Through it, colleges and schools can learn about each other's new ideas. 986. Students have traditionally spent continuous periods of several weeks in a school. In 1964 most colleges were arranging three periods of 'block practice'*, usually totalling 12 to 15 weeks, for students taking a three year course and fewer periods for those following shortened or post graduate courses. The recent request by the Secretary of State for a more intensive use of college premises has helped to stimulate proposals by colleges for some practices lasting a whole term, and amounting in a few instances to a year's practice in all. 987. Most lecturers are responsible for groups varying in size from two up to 12 or more students distributed among several schools. Lecturers in education act as general supervisors and consultants to groups of students and as consultants to their colleagues. In the present situation, when many subject specialists have come recently from secondary schools and know little about primary schools, some students may be visited by members of staff who cannot give them as much help as they need. But there is also evidence that students in some colleges receive too many visits and too much protection *Block practice is practice undertaken over a substantial time. [page 349] from their supervisors. Several of the colleges which are experimenting with long periods of practice are proposing to associate schools more closely with the supervision and assessment of students. There have already been interesting experiments, notably in a university school of education, where practising teachers supervise students, take part in meetings with the university tutors and are paid small honoraria. 988. Periods of continuous work in schools are supplemented by intermittent visits. This type of visit is sometimes known as 'group practice' because several students may work together in the same class. This often happens early in the course when students observe children and work with small groups rather than teach a whole class. In some colleges, students visit the same school and the same class for a day a week over a period which may last as long as six months or more. It is also not uncommon for teachers, college lecturers and students to work together with children, and this cooperative effort may be concentrated on a few weeks in the year or may take place at weekly intervals over a longer period. These types of practice interact usefully with the more theoretical aspects of the education course and provide valuable occasions for experimental work in the schools and collaboration between schools and colleges. 989. Films, closed circuit television and video tape recording can also enable students to observe children's behaviour and learning. They can reduce the number of occasions when students need to go into schools, and enable them to be differently spaced. They can depict schools from contrasting social areas, organised in different ways and using more varied educational methods than students can see at first hand. The camera and commentator can direct the attention of students to the behaviour of children in a way that is not possible in the classroom. Closed circuit television which at the moment is in its infancy has the advantage that students can help plan the work and can then see how children react. 990. The expansion of teacher training must influence the arrangements made for students. Its effects are already to be seen in some of the developments that have been described. Roughly 100,000 students are expected to require teaching practice in primary and secondary schools in 1971, three times as many as in 1961. The number of primary classes will not increase at anything like this rate. In addition, as the training of teachers' aides and nursery assistants begins, there will be a considerable further demand for practice places in primary schools. Students will have to travel further from their colleges than in the past. Most schools can expect to have one or more students on teaching practice in some part of every term. It has long been difficult to ensure that good schools were not over-used while others were used insufficiently or not at all. Coordination of teaching practice arrangements by Area Training Organisations and local education authorities is essential. This is already being done in some areas. Our Views 991. Solutions to the problems of school practice must take account of local circumstances, but some general points should be made: (i) In planning teaching practice, colleges should help to meet the needs of the schools as well as those of their students. In areas where there is a [page 350] grave shortage of teachers, colleges might collaborate to ensure that there are students in the schools in each term of the year. In making this recommendation we realise that all students, even those in their final year, make demands on the schools, as well as give relief, and that some students ask much more from the schools to which they are attached than they can contribute. [page 351] (vi) Closed circuit television, video tape recorders and films are not yet widely enough used in colleges for observation purposes. More films on child development and on teaching techniques should be available. But it is obvious that television and films can only substitute in a small degree for first hand contact with children.Other Aspects of the Relationship between Schools and Teacher Training Institutions 992. Partnership between schools and teacher training institutions is the key to satisfactory arrangements for teaching practice and is worth almost any effort to achieve. Relations between colleges and the schools they use for teaching practice are usually cordial, but often restricted to the necessary arrangements and to the work of particular students. The suggestions we have made for school practice will of themselves widen and deepen the relationships between training institutions and the schools. But we have some further suggestions to make, which fall outside school practice, and almost all of which derive from arrangements which already exist in some parts of the country. Initiative for a closer relationship coming from the college or department of education is most likely to be welcomed if it is clear that its purpose is to seek ways in which the teachers' knowledge can contribute more fully to students' training, as well as means by which the college can be of greater service to the schools. We hope that schools will put forward their own suggestions for strengthening links with the colleges and schools of education in their district. 993. Some colleges offer teachers an opportunity to share their facilities. A college with a good collection of children's books may invite teachers to make use of the library and call upon the help of the librarian in choosing books for their schools. Similarly some colleges invite teachers to try out their experimental material for work in mathematics and science. We know colleges which have established teachers' centres and have appointed members of staff to be in charge of in-service training for teaching. 994. Quite apart from group practice, an increasing number of lecturers in colleges and departments of education make arrangements to teach regularly in local schools. In this way lecturers can extend their experience with children of differing ages and try out new ideas. The schools may receive fresh stimulus. 995. Conversely, teachers could with advantage take a fuller share in the work of the colleges. Some teachers could make a contribution as visiting lecturers and talk to a large group of students. More often, perhaps, their most useful contribution would be in the intimate setting of a discussion group. It can be of great value to students to discuss their school problems with teachers and lecturers in such a context and to gain more precise ideas on the range of children's achievement by seeing and discussing work brought in by a teacher [page 352] from his own class. The colleges have sometimes been hesitant about asking for this help because they have felt it would be unfair to impose yet another burden on the hard pressed schools. Many teachers have said, however, that they would welcome an occasional invitation of this kind, and local authorities are usually cooperative in making it possible for teachers to visit colleges during school hours. 996. Joint appointments for work partly in school and partly in college are another useful form of collaboration. At present they are rare, but they should be much easier to arrange now that part-time teachers are becoming common in primary schools. There are some complications over salary arrangements and we recommend that the bodies responsible for negotiating salaries should consider the problems arising from full-time joint appointments. Similar problems have been solved in other professions. Secondment is another possibility. There are, of course, difficulties especially at present. Experienced lecturers and teachers have to help the many newcomers to college and school staffs, and often cannot be released. But both schools and colleges have much to gain from the exchange or renewal of experience. 997. There are many other possible useful contacts. Curriculum development, such as the new work in primary school mathematics, may provide an incentive for discussion and collaboration. Innumerable conferences are open to lecturers and teachers; they could with profit more frequently be focused on the problems of teacher training itself. The need for recruiting college lecturers with experience in primary school teaching was one reason for a recent series of courses for primary school teachers during which the teachers saw something of a college of education. Research projects could often be carried out jointly by institutes of education and schools. Some institutes publish journals which might, even more frequently than at present, provide opportunities for teachers to describe innovations which they have found to be successful. 998. The English system of teacher training, which puts great store on the student's gradual growth in understanding of children and of the educational process, stands or falls on the degree of contact which there is between training institutions and schools. The Probationary Year 999. On first entering teaching service in a maintained school the qualified teacher has to serve a probationary period, normally of one year. The Secretary of State may extend the period if the teacher has not proved sufficiently proficient or may declare him unsuitable. When a teacher is trained in the United Kingdom the local education authority acts as the agent of the Secretary of State in determining whether he is satisfactory, but in other cases the authority makes a recommendation to the Secretary of State which is considered, together with the opinion of HMI. Since it is difficult for all untrained teachers to be visited within a year by local authority advisers and HM Inspectors, we concur with the recommendation made by a Working Party of the ATCDE, the National Association of Inspectors and Educational Organisers [NAIEO] and the NUT that the probationary period for teachers without a professional qualification should normally be two years. The analysis of extensions of probation of trained teachers in 1961/62 (1) showed that up to [page 353] nine per cent were recommended for extension in counties and up to five per cent in county boroughs. Since the gravest shortage of teachers and the more difficult schools are in the boroughs, it is reasonable to suppose that the higher extension rate in the counties reflects more exacting standards and more thorough checks on efficiency rather than a poorer quality of teacher. The number whose probation is extended in different areas should be made known to all authorities. Differences in the standard required could be reduced if there were more advisers and advisory teachers to supervise probationers, and if head teachers were helped to understand what their responsibility is towards young teachers. The Department of Education and Science have begun to notify colleges and departments of education of former students whose probation has been extended. This should help colleges to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their training, and to recognise other students who are likely to fail or who need special help. Closer consultation between authorities and colleges of education about young teachers who are in danger of failure would be advantageous. Some young teachers, who are working in the area where they were trained, might be advised to return to their college for help, or tutors might be invited to visit young teachers in difficulty and see their problems at first hand. 1000. It is a small minority of teachers who fail to reach a minimum standard of proficiency in their first year. But it is doubtful if the majority of young teachers are given the conditions and guidance in their first posts which will reinforce their training and lead to rising standards in the profession as a whole. 1001. Most of our witnesses believe that insufficient care is taken in placing teachers in their first posts, though they realise that vacancies have to be filled and that some schools which are not really suitable for probationers because of their shortage of experienced teachers could not remain open unless some probationers were sent to them. There is dissatisfaction about the classes to which probationers are assigned, as well as with the schools to which they are posted. Similar dissatisfaction was expressed by the majority of the sample of teachers whose opinions were asked by the Council. (Appendix 1, Table E.27) The young teachers were more discontented with the arrangements than those whose probationary period was further away. Witnesses suggested to the Council that insufficient guidance was available for young teachers who ought to receive more help from both local authority advisers and from colleges of education in the neighbourhood. The ATCDE and the NUT agree that the probationary year should be regarded as an extension of training rather than as a period when young teachers prove themselves. 1002. In the last five years various enquiries have been undertaken into the probationary year. The ATCDE and the NUT issued a joint pamphlet 'Teachers in their First Posts' (2) in 1962. This was followed the next year by a Working Party of the ATCDE, the NAIEO and the NUT which has produced an interim report (3). The Birmingham Institute of Education Training Colleges Research Group in 1962 sent a questionnaire to 2,000 teachers who had recently left their colleges. 58 per cent replied, including 604 primary teachers. As the report suggests, 'if a considerable number of students indicate that they meet a particular problem, then whether the sample is representative or not it remains true that this is a problem worth investigation' (4). [page 354] In 1964-65 HM Inspectors made a small enquiry into the problems of 67 teachers in their probationary year. 1003. The Bristol University Institute of Education is now carrying out a systematic factual investigation into teachers' first year of service. Authorities are being asked about the arrangements which they make both for the introduction and supervision of beginners, and for judging their performance. Two questionnaires will be addressed to a national sample of probationers who will be asked about their problems and about the guidance they receive. This research will only establish facts. Further research, for example, into the circumstances of probationary teachers who fail, may then be necessary. 1004. The Birmingham enquiry provided little direct evidence on the question whether probationers were in schools that were suitable for their reception. About one third of the primary teachers were appointed to the service of the authority and not to a specific school, an arrangement which, however questionable in other ways, has the advantage that probationers who are unsuitably placed can be moved. Many of these teachers were probably used to fill vacancies for which teachers could not otherwise be found. We heard of one rural area where it is difficult to appoint assistant teachers to two teacher schools. In consequence, posts for assistants tend to be filled by a succession of probationers to whom the head teacher, because of his preoccupation with his own class, can give little help. Probationers are also found in schools with a bad history of staffing instability. 1005. The Birmingham enquiry showed that 70 per cent of the respondents who were in infant schools were given five year old pupils to teach, though it was not clear how many of these children were beginners at school. Nearly half of the women probationers in junior schools were teaching seven year olds. Colleges of education should take account, when preparing students, of the age groups in which young teachers are usually placed. The allocation of classes to probationers in streamed schools did not support the view that they are automatically given the lowest streams; in two stream schools they were much more likely to be with B classes than with A classes; in three stream schools, they tended to be given the B streams and about the same proportions were with A and C classes. But the HMI enquiry into the cases of 67 probationers gives examples of what statistics may mean in practice. A teacher with one year's training after failing a degree course was teaching a C stream. Another was in charge of 46 pupils in a B class which had a 50 per cent changeover after the first term. A graduate in agriculture with a teaching diploma was taking first year juniors, and an untrained graduate was with a reception class. It seems inescapable that in a period of shortage and maldistribution of teachers, some probationers will be placed in unsuitable schools and unsuitably placed within them. But we endorse the recommendation of the joint Working Party of the ATCDE, NAIEO and NUT that Administrative Memorandum 4/59 should be revised to give greater emphasis to the need for careful placing and systematic guidance for teachers in their first posts. We also agree that the reports sent by the colleges of education to employing authorities should be made available to heads of schools to help them in their placings. 1006. During teaching practice the student has the support of the college staff and the relief of a time table which is usually less than full time. It has been rare for students to be in charge of the class for as long as a term though [page 355] this length of practice is becoming more common, and will, we hope, become fairly general. The more thoroughly students are drawn into the life of the school, the less likely are they later to be worried, as many of the probationers in the Birmingham Survey were worried, by such problems as class organisation, backward children and correction of children's work. It is reasonable to expect more from probationers who have followed a three year course than from those in the Birmingham Survey who had spent only two years in college. Nevertheless we hope that with the help of part-time teachers and teachers' aides, probationers will be allowed some non-teaching time in which to visit schools and classes other than their own. 1007. Although the primary school probationers in the Birmingham Survey were more satisfied than the secondary teachers with the guidance they had been given, many would have liked more advice from their head teachers and experienced colleagues. Here again, if the schools take over more responsibility for the guidance of students, it will be natural to continue that guidance into the probationary year. It is disturbing to find that many young teachers have no contact before they start work with the school to which they are going. When further guidance is issued by the Department, it should stress the importance of a good beginning to the probationary year. It should ask local authorities to emphasise the responsibility of head teachers for seeing that probationers know in advance what work they will be undertaking. It should also ask training establishments to impress upon students the need for visiting the schools in which they will be working. 1008. It would be easier for probationers to make contact with the schools to which they are appointed if all authorities followed the example of those that reimburse the expenses of teachers who visit the schools where they are going to work. Some authorities sensibly arrange for students to start work in school as soon as their training has finished. Unfortunately they often do not go to the school in which they will spend their probationary year. If they do, they get to know the background of the school, their future colleagues and often their future pupils. They prepare for the work they will be doing during the following year and help the schools at a time of great pressure. This applies with especial force to those who are to teach in poor neighbourhoods where schools are often chronically short of teachers and a settling in period for probationary teachers is particularly useful. If it is desirable for young teachers to be at the school to which they will be appointed for the end of the summer term, it is essential that they should turn up in good time for the autumn term and attend preliminary staff conferences when these are held. Colleges of education can do much to put high professional standards before their students. Local education authorities should give early notification to young teachers of their appointments. Most do. Some do not. 1009. The number of probationers in large schools may mean that head teachers, with their many other duties, can give insufficient help to young teachers. In any case there will always be some young teachers who seek and take advice more easily from their equals than from anyone in authority over them. Though the ultimate responsibility for probationers within the school must rest with the head, detailed arrangements should vary according to individual circumstances. In some schools, the deputy head may be the right person to give advice; in others, the holder of a graded post might be responsible for probationers and students on teaching practice, and keep in touch [page 356] with the colleges of education. Support can be given to a probationer by the skilful allocation of classes to teachers. If, for example, an experienced teacher and a probationer are placed with parallel age groups, a modest degree of team teaching, helpful to experienced teacher and probationer alike, can develop. The work to be done can be discussed, books and equipment shared, and there may be an occasional exchange of classes or joint teaching. These devices are particularly necessary in junior mixed and infant schools, where a head master may be unable to give much help to beginners who are teaching infants. Whoever gives the help needs to know, in general terms at least, what the probationer has been doing at college. Local education authorities might well organise small conferences or study groups, for head teachers and others who share their responsibility, at which the placing and guidance of young teachers can be discussed. Lecturers from colleges of education should also be invited to take part and the programme should include some guidance on the assessment of teaching skill. 1010. The local education authorities are rightly responsible for providing further guidance to probationers in addition to what is given by the school. Some authorities have no inspectors, organisers or advisers, and more are without inspectors with a special knowledge of primary education. Even when they have organisers, the demands on their time are usually heavy and help is sometimes confined to those probationers who are in danger of failure. The enquiry by HM Inspectors showed that in the areas examined, noteworthy help was given by only one authority, though in that instance the support from an advisory teachers' service was of the greatest possible value. All authorities need officers who are known to have the immediate responsibility for probationers and who are accessible to them and to head teachers. It must be for the authorities to decide whether to have separate advisers for probationers or whether to divide the responsibility among several organisers or advisers with other duties. The officer with special responsibility for probationers might maintain contact with colleges of education. In some large authorities a welfare officer is appointed to assist probationers in personal problems such as finding accommodation. 1011. It seems to us that some general supervision is needed so that probationers can get advice on the problems that confront them in and out of school. It is sensible for all probationary teachers to be visited by an adviser in their first term so that an unsuitable posting can be altered before too much damage is done. We have been impressed by what we have seen and heard of advisory teacher services. We wish to stress the need for advisory teachers who can work beside young teachers in the classroom. This help is particularly necessary in rural and deprived areas. Probationary teachers are visited for a half day, a full day or even several consecutive days if this is needed. There is time for discussion of books, materials and organisation and for letting head teachers know the advice that has been given. Help need not come to an end when probation is completed. Advisers or advisory teachers can arrange conferences, courses and visits for young teachers when they are sufficiently experienced to profit from them. Conferences and courses should be informal and provide opportunities for young teachers to meet one another to talk over common problems. We suggest that probationers should be provided with information about the educational services in their authority either by a booklet or conference or both. [page 357] 1012. The teachers who replied to the Birmingham enquiry placed training colleges high among sources of help from outside the schools, though it was not certain that they referred to contacts during the first year of teaching. The enquiry by HM Inspectors also noted that some teachers had been helped by students' reunions at their former colleges and that others wished to go back for advice to their tutors. 'Teachers in their First Posts' described an experimental group run by the Reading Institute of Education which offered young teachers guidance which came neither from 'the employer, the inspector or training college tutor' (5). There may be something in the argument that the institutes offer neutral ground from the point of view of the young teacher; but their geographical distribution is such that they can provide only a patchy contribution to the general problem. On the whole, the responsibility for organising conferences and other help for probationers should rest with the authorities who alone know all the probationers, trained or untrained. We assume that the authority will want to draw in the local institute and colleges of education. But the immediate, and therefore the greatest, responsibility for the welfare of young teachers must rest on their schools. It is for head teachers and colleagues in the staffroom to look after them, to give favourable conditions and to set, mainly by example, high standards for them. In-Service Training 1013. The unique freedom of the English schools is defensible only if teachers prove themselves equipped to meet demands which are increasingly exacting. The three year course is no more than a basis. In-service training provides a necessary superstructure. The Department of Education has recently issued a circular (6) which reviews the problems for in-service training created by the number of new teachers. Present Provision of Courses and Plans for Expansion 1014. Our concern is primarily with the purpose of in-service training and the extent to which it succeeds. The National Association of Schoolmasters drew our attention to the difficulties which prevent teachers from taking subject degrees. Few authorities, they say, allow secondment for a first degree course because there is no pooling arrangement for the expenditure. This, we agree, is deplorable; but, as we have suggested, it is particularly important that experienced teachers, as well as new entrants, should be able to obtain a BEd degree. As soon as the main outlines of the BEd courses have been agreed, arrangements should be made for serving teachers, including those holding posts of responsibility, to take these degrees, probably by a combination of part-time and full-time study. 1015. There are two types of one year course held in institutes of education, colleges of education and university departments of education. Supplementary courses are designed to give a year of further training to experienced teachers who have had only two year training college courses. For the most part they give additional experience in a special area of the curriculum, for example art and crafts, divinity, history and mathematics. These courses will increasingly be replaced by courses of advanced study for teachers with at least five years experience. They normally lead to a university diploma or certificate. Their [page 358] original purpose was to deal with an aspect of education such as junior education. They have been extended to include study in depth of an area of the curriculum. Last year 625 teachers attended full-time advanced courses, a sixth of them on topics related exclusively to primary education. The corresponding part-time numbers were 1,753 and 135. At least 1,000 full-time students annually are expected by 1974. In addition last year there were 35 courses for teachers of handicapped children attended by 415 students. 1016. Advanced courses are intended to equip teachers for responsible posts in colleges, schools advisory services and remedial centres. Their status may be affected by the introduction of the BEd degree and it has been suggested to us in evidence that they should be regarded as a qualifying examination for a higher degree in education. Since 1965, one year of full-time study for a higher degree has been possible under the regulations governing advanced courses. We think that the rapid expansion of these courses should continue. They can do much to meet the acute shortage of lecturers who combine specialised subject knowledge with insight into primary education. It is important too, that some teachers who have no intention of leaving the schools should follow these courses; their work is the spearhead of advance. 1017. The expansion of one year courses should not be at the expense of the one term courses of which there are about a hundred a year. Their merit is that they provide a flexible means of meeting changing needs by giving teachers time to become familiar with new content and methods and to try out experiments, free from the day to day responsibility of teaching. They have played an important part in the revolution in the teaching of mathematics. They could be valuable in preparing teachers for work with children who are socially deprived, including immigrants, and could accelerate collaboration between school, home and community. 1018. Short courses, lasting for a day, a weekend, a week or longer, or taking place for one or more sessions weekly over a period in time are especially important now that the shortage of teachers makes secondment difficult. Residential short courses have been one of the main ways by which HM Inspectors have influenced the school curriculum and been brought into informal contact with teachers to their common benefit. In recent years teachers from colleges of education and schools and local inspectors have often joined the staff of these courses which have included also many who are not in a formal sense educationalists. Though there are often six times as many teachers applying for primary courses as there is room for, pressure on the inspectors' time prevents much further expansion. For this reason the policy of Circular 7/64 is timely. Courses are arranged which bring together successful and original teachers, head teachers, college of education lecturers and local authority advisers to discuss their work with HM Inspectors and to take their thinking and practice further. Those who attend these courses can then help on local courses and conferences in their home area. Some outstanding teachers hesitate to apply for this type of course out of modesty; there is a strong case for attendance at some courses to be by invitation. Certainly, the frontiersmen of education need opportunities to meet like-minded teachers, to test innovations by the practice of others, and to continue their personal education. There are occasions when it is better to confine a course to a group of people from the same area even if good candidates from elsewhere have [page 359] to be turned down. As research and enquiry expose areas of primary education where change is called for, national courses can make the new findings known to those teachers who are most likely to act on them. 1019. Numerous short courses are also provided by local authorities, by professional associations, by informal groups of teachers and by institutes and colleges of education. The part played by these bodies in in-service training is vital. National and local courses are complementary. At local courses the findings of research and good practice can be made available in a way that will encourage teachers to think more deeply about their own methods, or take from new curricular materials and method whatever meets the need of their pupils, and to reject the irrelevant. In this way a base is established from which further advances can be made. Local courses are also invaluable in supporting the innovations introduced by individual teachers, the source of most educational progress. They ought to start from a knowledge of what local teachers are doing. They can provide opportunities for teachers to meet others who are a little ahead of themselves but whose practice is within their reach. Before the end of a course, all teachers can be playing an active part in discussion, in learning and in making, just as we hope that they will encourage all children to play an active part in the classroom. The work done on a course can be followed up in a teachers' group or in the schools. The diffident can be encouraged to break new ground, but not so hastily that disheartenment is the outcome. This slow building up of teachers, best done on small courses, is perhaps the most difficult and the most rewarding aspect of in-service training. We have seen its results in some of the most distinguished primary school work in the country. Local courses should be staffed by the same combination of people as national courses, though perhaps in different proportions. 1020. Residential courses, where talk can go on into the small hours, have a value of their own. In some areas a general adult education centre provides accommodation. Teachers gain from meeting adults from other occupations. We have seen for ourselves the value of a residential centre where teachers can feel at home and where there can be permanent displays of books and equipment useful to them. A network of residential centres throughout the country would be useful, but these teachers' centres ought to be available for courses for others than teachers. Residential centres or residential short courses will not meet the whole need. There is a case for more local centres some of which are being provided by colleges of education. In local centres, equipment and materials can be tried out and discussed and the ideas gained at residential courses can be appraised after being tested in the schools. These centres, for which some of the stimulus has come from the Nuffield projects, are excellent for courses of one session a week for several terms, a pattern which is of particular value when there is new subject matter which has to be mastered. In sparsely populated rural areas, the follow up of residential courses is best provided by meetings in different schools in turn, and by the help of advisory teachers and inspectors. 1021. Co-ordination of in-service training is needed at several levels nationally, regionally and locally. National responsibility for co-ordination should, it seems to us, rest with the Department of Education and Science. It will want to see that the character and extent of the national programme meet the needs which are created by the curriculum studies and other work com- [page 360] missioned by the Schools Council. The Department are in close contact with institutes of education, colleges of education, local authorities and above all with the schools. The inspectorate can serve as 'eyes and ears' to report existing demand and to indicate where it is necessary to provide courses to make new work and ideas better known. 1022. There is also a need for regional planning. The final responsibility for local courses should rest with the local education authorities who are in contact with their teachers and able to know their needs. The authorities, however, will not necessarily be the sole agency through which in-service training takes place. Some are too small to make adequate provision; even in medium sized authorities in-service training may become too inbred. The resources of institutes and colleges of education and of colleges of further education ought to be used to the full. The institutes of education are particularly well placed for bringing universities, colleges of education and schools together for conferences and courses. They need staff and material resources to carry out this important role. 1023. Even so, some small authorities will be unable to provide in-service training for their teachers, and larger authorities may have difficulty in arranging sufficiently varied and balanced courses. The Schools Council has met this obstacle to the development of its projects by suggesting ad hoc groupings of authorities. We think that authorities should review their arrangements for in-service training and should be asked to submit plans to the Department for their areas, and that some form of regional planning should be devised. In this way authorities would be encouraged to run joint courses, or to make their courses available to teachers from other authorities within the region. Any regional body ought to include representatives of institutes and of teachers. It might need a small staff paid by the group of local authorities concerned. 1024. The primary teacher, who normally is responsible for all subjects and may teach children of all levels of ability, is in particular need of the refreshment of in-service training. We were glad to find from the National Survey that two-thirds of all primary teachers had followed a refresher course between September 1961 and June 1964, and that on average these teachers had spent 13 days on courses. (Appendix 5, paragraphs 15 to 26)* But most courses, particularly those organised by local authorities, are very short. We think that there should be more courses where teachers can study the problems of primary school teaching in some depth. It is excellent that many teachers (26 per cent) have attended courses in mathematics at this time of rapid change in the curriculum. It is less clear that provision of, and attendance at, other types of courses reflects the needs of the schools. For example, many teachers (21 per cent) attended courses in physical education. Is this because most authorities have advisers in physical education? Relatively few teachers (nine per cent) go to music courses despite the generally acknowledged shortage of teachers competent in this subject in the schools. The relatively small number of courses in science, though they have probably increased since our survey, and the almost complete absence of in-service training in history and geography, are a matter for some concern. Some of *This average is inflated by the small numbers attending one term and year courses. Other reservations about these figures appear in Appendix 5. [page 361] these aspects of the curriculum may be treated in general courses. But comparatively few teachers attend general courses. Only eight per cent of the total number of teachers in the National Survey had attended a general primary course, three per cent a junior course and nine per cent an infant course. It is doubtful whether there are enough general courses or teachers attending them, especially at this time of changing organisation and curriculum. 1025. From all sides we have heard of the inadequate provision of courses to prepare new and prospective head and deputy head teachers for their future duties. There are opportunities for them to increase their understanding of children and of the curriculum; but they need help about management and administration. They need to study social problems and their impact on children, and to understand the work of the family social services. This study should be in a local context and should include contact with workers in the social services. Courses for Returning Teachers 1026. Married women who return to teaching either full or part-time after a lengthy break in service may lack confidence and be out of touch with recent developments in the schools. About a fifth of authorities are now providing courses to meet this special need. Some of these courses are also for secondary trained teachers who want to transfer to primary work and for graduates who have never taught. Some teachers coming back to the schools do not feel the need for any special help, although authorities have often found that when courses are known to be available the response is good. A small survey carried out by one authority showed that some returning teachers found a period of observation and teaching practice to be more valuable than formal courses. Most of the courses are divided between practical work, lectures and discussions. Some are full-time from two weeks to a term in length; others are part-time, often a day, half day or evening a week, supplemented by school visits and teaching practice. In one area courses of whole day lectures are provided which teachers can join or leave at any time. Teachers who have no opportunity of following a course before returning should at least visit for observation other schools than that to which they are appointed. Two out of three authorities already arrange this. The more that authorities can help married women when they wish to return to teaching, the more effective will be their contribution to the schools. 1027. We think all teachers should have a substantial period of in-service training at least every five years. Some of the teachers who do attend courses are among the leaders of primary education; other would no doubt be less effective without the help which they get. But the review of in-service training ought to answer the question whether it reaches the teachers and areas most in need of it, as distinct from those who apply for it, and whether it is dealing with the right topics and in sufficient depth. An enquiry should be made into the expenses of teachers attending courses in order to ensure that no teacher is prevented for financial reasons from improving his efficiency as we suspect sometimes happens now. Should we go further and provide incentives as the USA does for those who attend courses? Teachers who successfully complete diploma and certain other courses already receive an addition under the Burnham scale. We think it would be impracticable to reward attendance at [page 362] short courses irrespective of the qualification to which they lead. Authorities and heads should use more freely the power they have (within a minimum obligatory number of sessions in the school year) to close schools in order to make possible in-service training. Closure of schools is particularly suitable for local conferences on such matters as continuity between stages of education when it is desirable that all members of school staffs should be present. It is bad when it leads to mammoth courses or forces teachers to unwilling attendance. Recommendations 1028. (i) There should be a full enquiry into the system of training teachers. [page 363] (xiv) The normal period of probation for untrained graduates and for teachers trained outside the UK should be two years. 1. 'The Probationary Year'. Interim Report of Joint Working Party of ATCDE, NAIEO and NUT.
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