Once a fortnight the Teacher team ventures down to Room 3 – the basement archives at the Australian Council for Educational Research.
For the first edition of Room 3 for 2018, we've delved into a range of texts spanning from 1928 to 1998 and we bring you tidbits from some of our favourite historical titles via Facebook and Twitter.
If you happened to have missed some of our Room 3 gems, here's a recap of what's recently been posted online (you can also click on the related articles at the bottom of this article to explore other volumes):
Smith, D. (1931) Class Size in High School English. USA: University of Minnesota
‘What is the relationship between the size of the class and the efficiency of instruction? Will increasing the number of pupils per classroom unit react unfavorably upon pupil development and achievement?' (1931)
‘In the elementary field there is urgent protest against the practice of increasing class size in the lower grades in order to decrease it in the upper levels, where, it is claimed, pupils are better able to work by themselves.' (1931)
‘Some teachers feel that the burden of three large classes would be less than that of five small ones.' (1931)
‘Recognition of individual differences is a major problem in the handling of a large class.' (1931)
‘One of the major problems of the teacher of a class of 50 is how to furnish opportunity for individual participation that is at all compatible with the standards of activity and “learning by doing” set up by progressive educators of our day.' (1931)
‘In most classes, and especially in large ones, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.' (1931)
Strang, R. (1947) Reporting to Parents. USA: Teachers college, Columbia University
‘Reports to parents can be one of the most useful instruments for the personalizing of education and the guidance of pupils … the items on the report card serve as goals for the pupils.' (1947)
‘Reports that show the progress of the class and the individuals in it give the teacher new insights into his methods of teaching, and thus lead to improved instruction.' (1947)
‘Of all the bridges between the school and the community, the report to parents is the oldest … depending upon the kind of message it bears, this report builds good will or ill will; it enlists or alienates the cooperation of pupil and parent.' (1947)
‘If the teacher is interested in “the whole child,” he will report on the physical, social, and emotional as well as the intellectual aspects of his development.' (1947)
‘The effective report will give parents confidence in the teacher's ability and will assure them that their children are being treated as individuals.' (1947)
‘Has your method of reporting to parents been developed cooperatively? Unless parents, teachers, and pupils work with the administrator in developing the report, they will not fully understand it.' (1947)
‘Does your report to parents show trends in each pupil's development? Pupils and parents are interested in progress – the child's own progress.' (1947) #Room3
‘Is your report to parents constructive? Does it direct their attention to the future? Does it suggest how progress can be made? Constructive comments take the sting out of low marks.' (1947)
‘As soon as [students] are able to assess their own progress in any of its phases, they should share in the evaluating process … it makes the pupil a partner in the venture of progressing toward sound educational goals.' (1947)
‘In general, reports to parents seem to be becoming more humane, more personal, more astute, and more concerned with the future than with the past.' (1947)
‘With every thoughtfully appraised parent conference, the teacher will grow in his ability to understand and guide pupils and parents.' (1947)
‘A dual marking system may be used in reports to parents. This would show the parents the child's achievement in relation to that of other pupils of his grade, and would also indicate whether he is working above or below his ability.' (1947)
Tyler, R. (1949) Basic principles of curriculum and instruction. USA: The University of Chicago Press
‘The teacher can provide an educational experience through setting up an environment and structuring the situation so as to stimulate the desired type of reaction.' (1949)
‘It is essential that learning experiences be set up which give an opportunity for the student to practice the kind of behavior implied by the learning experience.' (1949)
‘The same learning experience will usually bring about several outcomes…' (1949)
‘An activity does not become interesting through sheer repetition. It is necessary to use a new approach in order to shift interest … [like] using totally different materials or putting the learning experience in a totally new context.' (1949)
‘Evaluation can also be used continuously during the year as a basis for identifying particular points needing further attention with particular groups of students.' (1949)
‘The process of planning learning experiences is not a mechanical method of setting down definitely prescribed experiences for each particular objective. Rather, the process is a more creative one.' (1949)
‘What can your subject contribute to the education of young people who are not going to be specialists in your field? If subject specialists can present answers to this question, they can make an important contribution.' (1949)
Kandel, I. L. (1955) The New Era in Education: A comparative study. USA: The Riverside Press
‘The nature of the individual as a growing personality and the complexity of modern society must both be taken into account in formulating policy, the major premise of which is the provision of equality of opportunities.' (1955)
‘Soundly conceived, education cannot be reduced to mechanical routine, for it is something that results from the impact of the personalities of teachers and pupils upon each other.' (1955)
‘The work of the secondary school has been too bookish, there was too much memorization, and there was too little relation to the contemporary world.' (1955)
‘There is a marked tendency to point out that the end of education is not to load the memory with a great amount of knowledge, but to train for the use of that knowledge in the practical affairs of man.' (1955)
‘The training of the mind is still regarded as an important function of education, but it must be directed to problem-solving, to awakening a spirit of research, to cultivating initiative, and to developing an open mind free from prejudices.' (1955)
‘The large class with more than thirty pupils is likely to encourage mass instruction to the neglect of individual differences.' (1955)
Halsey, A. H. (1972) Educational Priority: Volume 1: E.P.A. Problems and Policies. Bristol: J.W. Arrowsmith Ltd.
‘The problem at all stages is to integrate school and life.' (1972)
‘When comparing their jobs with those of friends, more teachers thought they were better off than thought they were worse off in respect of security, intellectual stimulation, opportunities to improve qualifications and general satisfaction.' (1972)
‘Although the teachers tended to regard themselves as better off in regard to volume and hours of work, most of them thought that the pressure of work while they were actually on the job was worse than in other occupations.' (1972)
‘It is encouraging to find that a greater input of teaching resources … appears to be rewarded with a measurable improvement in the children's skills.' (1972)
‘Teachers must be constantly aware that ideas, values and relationships within the school may conflict with those of the home.' (1972)
‘Teachers need to be sensitive to the social and moral climate in which their children are growing up. The application of teaching [as a] tolerant and critical examination of all social, political and moral issues is the highest hurdle on the road.' (1972)
Best, R. (1948) Education for International Understanding. Adelaide: The Hassell Press.
‘The greatest error that educators can make is to assume that education is an isolated or cloistered institution which should be interpreted by itself without regard for the tremendous revolutionary forces which are sweeping through the world.' (1948)
‘For that, after all, is what education does: it transmits knowledge of the world to the generations growing up, and it fits the young to take their place as adults in the community.' (1948)
‘[In recent years], many people learned for the first time in their lives that collective activities [in the classroom]… could hold both emotional and intellectual satisfactions.' (1948)
‘No one could carry out the task … unless he co-operated with the others in the team. It was this co-operative factor that produced the exceptionally pleasant “atmosphere”.' (1948)
‘Where group co-operation takes place with free discussion, people discover for themselves that they have similar problems or difficulties; that they have similar abilities.' (1948)
‘Experimental work has shown that the effect of praise on learning is greater than the effect of blame or punishment.' (1948)
‘The use of group techniques … increases the pupil's stability and his being accepted in his own group, which will increase his sense that the work he is doing is important.' (1948)
Rusk, R. R. (1919) Experimental Education. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
‘Attention has always been regarded by teachers as the mental power of first importance, for if they can count on securing the pupil's attention, at least half the battle of teaching is in their opinion won.' (1919)
‘In the past Education has concerned itself with methods of teaching: now it is turning to consider methods of learning, for the suspicion has dawned upon us that pupil's method of learning may not correspond with our methods of teaching.' (1919)
‘We cannot, however, straightaway assume that the child by his own undirected efforts will adopt the most economical and most efficient methods of learning.' (1919)
‘We cannot directly prepare the child to meet all the manifold situations of life … the best we can do is to put him in possession of the instruments which, we hope, he will be able to apply as occasion requires.' (1919)
‘“To teach how to learn” will be one of the main functions of the teacher in the future.' (1919)
‘The physical condition and mental tone of the pupil should also receive attention, as the emotional disposition and the will to advance are important for progress in learning.' (1919)
‘Where alternative methods of presentation or of exposition are possible to the teacher he will be required to adopt that mode of procedure which is best adapted to the method of learning of the pupil.' (1919)
Malherbe, E.G., Carson, J. J. G., Rheinhallt Jones, J. D., (1937) Educational Adaptations in a Changing Society. South Africa: Juta & Co., LTD.
‘Education must … allow scope for individuality and initiative, otherwise education is not worthy of the name.' (1937)
‘Good Art teaching provides a child from earliest infancy with a pliable medium through which it can genuinely express itself and thus attain a sane emotional life.' (1937)
‘Life is, however, so vast, so complex, that it is very difficult to know just what elements should be so selected [to be in the curriculum]' (1937)
‘In a rapidly changing society all teachers should ideally be prophets. They will be successful teachers in proportion as they are able to foresee what situations children will be faced with in twenty or thirty years' time.' (1937)
‘Of course teachers must have knowledge, but imagination is the mental quality most needed.' (1937)
‘Education is not merely the imparting of knowledge: it is the imparting of life, character, and personality – the putting life into a human being.' (1937)
‘Let us therefore see that the Arts have their proper place in our schools and that they are free and unhampered, though guided and stimulated.' (1937)
Wynne, J. P. (1947) Philosophies of Education. New York: Prentice-Hall Inc.
‘Unless the teachers are able to develop new aims, use new materials, and employ new methods … it is difficult to see how the various curriculum programs can be effective' (1947)
‘The heart of the curriculum problem is not whether we shall teach subject matter or pupils, or whether pupils shall or shall not engage in activities, but what kind of activities they shall engage with.' (1947)
‘In the past, the content proposed by authoritative committees has often been selected without reference to the needs and capacities of particular pupils,' (1947)
‘Teachers were expected to have pupils cover the ground prescribed. With the increase in school population it gradually became clear that, although all covered the ground required, only few mastered it to the degree expected.' (1947)
‘[The current curriculum] emphasizes the importance of scientific research in the field of curriculum-making as well as in other fields.' (1947)
‘It is less difficult to define facts and skills than it is to define understandings, appreciations, and attitudes.' (1947)
‘Education is perhaps the only occupation in which everyone is constantly engaged, for it includes all activities that influence subsequent conduct in either desirable or undesirable ways.' (1947)
Cegielski, C. (1998) Yearbook of Science and the Future 1998. Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc.
‘Modern society seems to be moving towards a 24-hour lifestyle. Electric lighting ensures that no place need close when the sun sets, while the web of modern electronic communication systems allows instantaneous, round-the-clock contact between virtually any two points on Earth.' (1998)
‘In the future, people who operate on too little sleep may be considered as much a menace to themselves and society as intoxicated motorists.' (1998)
‘The speed and power of personal computers (PCs) also climbed steadily in 1996, and there was a proliferation of new models of all makes. The best of these PCs featured central processing unit (CPU) speeds of about 300MHz and higher.' (1998)
‘In March 1996 Clinton and U.S. Vice Pres. Al Gore participated in California's NetDay96, a Saturday on which school staff members, parents, volunteers, and community leaders spent the day wiring schools for high-speed computer data networks …' (1998)
‘The National Association of School Psychologists estimated that each day 160 000 children in the US miss school out of fear of being bullied. In response to this national problem, psychologists in a Colorado school district launched a “bully-proofing” program…' (1998)
Bourne, P & Eisenberg, J. (1978). Social Issues in the Curriculum. The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
‘It has been suggested on occasion that teachers are not really necessary as they interfere with the autonomous process of learning. We reject this suggestion …' (1978)
‘The teaching process or how a topic is dealt with is as important as the resources used in determining the learning outcomes.' (1978)
‘Rarely is it realistic to expect students to accept the responsibility for developing and implementing educational programs. If students were capable of performing these tasks the existence of schools and teachers would be extremely difficult to justify.' (1978)
‘To ensure that student attention is focussed on the issue, a teacher might find it extremely useful to state explicitly the issue under discussion at various times during the class period.' (1978)
‘Another excellent strategy for improving discussion is through the use of videotapes. If it is at all possible, group activities and discussions should be videotaped at fairly regular intervals and then played back for viewing and analysis by students.' (1978)
‘It is important … teachers develop an awareness of the ways in which the physical environment – the kind of furniture used and how it is arranged, the lighting, the decoration of a room – can promote or inhibit discussion, inquiry and interpersonal relationships.' (1978)
Cunningham, K.S.. Education for Complete Living, Australian Council for Educational Research (1938)
‘It is very valuable if teachers could have had some experience in other walks of life besides teaching, because such experience will enable them to give that realistic approach to education which is so sorely needed in our schools.' (1938)
‘We should pay attention to such matters as art, music, etc., which are too often regarded as mere frills in education, but which, if we can learn anything from the Greeks, are the very foundations of a true education.' (1938)
‘Never was it more true than to-day that all countries are faced with the same problems of education; this means that in education much can be gained by exchange of views.' (1938)
‘Progress in education depends upon opportunities for experimentation.' (1938)
