Adapting:
to teach
adaptability
In an age of specialist schooling it is essential to give pupils perspective a&d flexibility of mind. J. H. Parry, headmaster of Swinton Comprehensive School, Yorkshire, outlines his experimental method arming children for life in the 1970s.
transition from primary to secondary school proa curious discontinuity in a child's life. This involves far more than a change of building, and an Adjustment to increased size of school. For this transition marks the end of a period in which, in the more lightened primary school, the pupil has been encouraged to investigate the nature of the surroundln8 world mainly under the guidance of the one
ves
teacher.
From
this time onwards after the
he
pupil
has entered
secondary school the pursuit of knowledge usually ecomes fragmented into many subject disciplines, each studied largely in isolation from the others,
?ften
considered from
viewpoints
remote in time and
the pressures of distant public examinations a baneful influence upon attempts to pro-
^erting Uce
enlightened curriculum. competing influences the reac'?n of many pupils is predictable; there is a general ,ecUne of interest in learning which reaches a nadir the third year of secondary schooling. Some subwhere the pupil finds lv,Cte preferences develop, often teaching congenial and, where it is not, other sub)ects are rejected from the fourth year onwards re^ardless of their basic importance. The minority of pupils who emerge into the sixth ?rm frequently do so with deeprooted prejudices 0^ards whole areas of knowledge and the 'two cults' conflict described by C. P. Snow becomes a which 'general' or 'liberal' studies in the sixth a
more
Subjected
to these
.
Jeality ?rm
can do little to overcome.
minds pb'e young with this situation
there are those who, whilst the matter, believe that it is an unavoidable ,r'Ce which has to be paid for the ever wider and eePer search for knowledge. Considerations of .ational productivity and security are adduced to stify the ruthless pressures brought to bear on able minds and the paradoxical consequence is that it is only the less able who can be
faced
e8retting
a?Un8
a]C,CePted l?Wed the time a
to acquire a more liberal education, further ironic twist the increasing number of
comprehensive
schools may, in the short run,
only
aggravate the situation since, stemming from their need to produce at least grammar schools without
results to the such rigorous selection procedures, they may well extend the range and thus the numbers of pupils subjected to the pressures of narrow subject specialisations. This development, allied to the vast extension of the field of further education with its entry requirements in terms of examination results, conjures up a melancholy prospect of the increasing enslavement of the human mind within a vast academic broiler house. If this was inevitable, conditioning rather than adaption would seem to be required as a means whereby an individual came to terms with his society.
comparable employing
to pressures But, while the likelihood of this Orwellian nightmare coming to pass is repudiated by the great majority,
Adapt
what to teach young people if they to adapt to twentieth century pressures and demands remains a difficult one to answer. I believe that whilst specialisation in fields of study is unavoidable, and indeed essential in the later years of secondary schooling, far more can, and should, be done to help the child to adapt from the primary to the secondary phase of education. Essentially, the problem is one of helping the pupil to obtain some perspective of the field of knowledge before plunging into subject specialisation rather than hoping, as is the present approach, that after some years spent in the pursuit (or increasing rejection) of subject mastery, the pupil will acquire such a perspec-
the
are
problem of successfully
tive and thus be enabled to arrive at some synoptic view of the knowledge. What I have in mind for this period is not the acquisition of a philosophy of history or science but rather the attempt, at the outset of the pupil's secondary school career, to show man in his present and
to his environment. Such a project involves asking the most searching questions about what are the really important ideas which man has acquired about his environment as well as making a
past relation
5
ruthless selection, compression and interpretation so to convey them to pupils of this age group in a way which does not obscure the wood for the trees. It has been our concern at Swinton Comprehensive School to try, over the past year, to implement such an approach to the first year curriculum. In briefly outlining the general approach I must mention that this is an 8 form entry mixed comprehensive school drawing pupils from a large number of primary schools. as
Integrated syllabus
The scheme involves three aspects, each interesting in itself, arranged in such a way as to reinforce one another. They are: i) integration of some subjects ii) extension of the role and influence of the form teacher.
iii)
team
teaching
and, before commencing operation, opportunity
was
given to teachers involved to visit the contributory primary schools. The subjects integrated are history, geography and science and they form aa syllabus which we call the 'History of Ideas'. the heads of department The original brief given to the was to each select, say the twenty most important topics in their subjects which could be interpreted at first form level. In joint discussion after independent selection it
was
found that there were
areas
of
over-
Pupils enact a {above).
scene
from the
American War
of
Indepefld'
ence
madL' Boys comparing their models of prehistoric animals, mad? to
'tie in' with lessons on evolution. Photos: John
Brooke Brook?
jap
and out of this grew the nucleus of ideas for the
integrated syllabus. It finally emerged as something ?f a chronological panorama which, in subsequent Practice, posed problems for both teacher and taught ln attempting to cover its range.
The extension of the role of the form teacher ?ccurred since this 'History of Ideas' was taught for lhe allotted 11 periods by the form teacher and, as a result, it is generally admitted that the present firstyears have received more intimate academic and Pastoral care than any before them. This has produced a lively involvement in their course and visitors remark on the readiness with which the pupils ^ill talk about their course. A high level of classroom activity has been maintained, models and charts abound and there is some resemblance to the better
Primary
school
Specialist
practice
in this
skills
teaching
|he key ln
a specialist competence on it. The audience consisted of all the first year forms (including the remedial form) and their form teachers and the lesson was illustrated by wide use of visual aids of all kinds. The remaining periods allotted to the 'History of Ideas' were spent in classroom or laboratory where the form teacher could proceed to encourage work at the appropriate level for the form. For the end of year assessment of this work we have discarded the traditional pattern of examination and instead each pupil has compiled a booklet of his/her answers to a large number of open-ended questions. Question papers and booklets were handed out at the beginning of each lesson and collected back at the end but during the period free access was allowed to class reference books and personal notebooks.
sphere.
applied because it was felt that if form teachers operated in isolation they would jhe fi^d the task too difficult. Moreover, it was certainly ^ot intended that specialist skills should be dispensed in carrying out this programme. Accordingly, ?Ur existing school experience over the past two years "n team teaching to fourth-year leavers was extended to meet the challenge of the new integrated syllabus. All first-year forms were timetabled to meet in the for the first two periods of Monday morning for 'earn
had
was
'lesson'. This was an outline of some item the syllabus given by one of the form teachers who
Encourage The
effort
period lasted for a whole week's allotis, eleven periods, whilst, for purposes of internal comparison, some coarse grading of answers was made. No grade or mark was put on the booklets, although comments were, since the object of the whole year was to encourage effort not stratify assessment
ment of
time,
that
achievement. For the follow-up work next year it is intended that these pupils will go on to study in separate subject disciplines (mainly because few teachers are polymaths of sufficient degree!) for history, geography and science with specialist subject teachers but the heads of department involved are most concerned to 7
Adapting
to
change
relate second year work to the first year approach. Half the form teachers concerned are carrying on into the second year with their forms; others are returning to first year form teaching where they will act as an experienced nucleus to the new teachers recruited to this work. In this way, the numbers of teachers in the school experienced in this approach will grow. As a result of this year's work, it has been decided to modify the 'History of Ideas' curriculum so as to remove what has proved to be an excessively chronological emphasis and to substitute three major topics, one to each term. They are: man in his environment; law and order in our world; man controls and alters his environment. It is felt that these themes allow for continuous and concentric development a more beyond the first year although they will be taught on the same time allocation and team approach as at
present. Critical exchange It would appear from the past year's experience that the aims of the scheme have, to some extent, been realised. Certainly, the teachers participating are overwhelmingly in favour of going on with it. Inevitably, they find the close and critical exchange of ideas as team members to be stimulating, not least in the opportunity afforded to assess each others techniques and here the less experienced teacher can gain a very great deal from observation of a more experienced colleague. The pupils awareness of following a common course was heightened by being all present together in key lessons so that no members of the first year were seen to be excluded as substandard. There has been some valuable linking of work with other departments, notably art and craft, and others have expressed a wish to become partially involved in the History of Ideas syllabus. I believe that, if we are on the right lines, the problem of what to do with older pupils such as fourth year leavers will diminish considerably, since problems arise with these groups because they are disenchanted with the seeming irrelevance of most of what they are taught in relation to the problems and anxieties of adolescence. I hope that, from our efforts to give a preliminary unified view of knowledge to our new entrants, we shall be able to preserve their desire to go on learning and that we shall be able to provide the opportunities for them to concentrate on the aspects they find meaningful. And, even though in
the upper reaches of the school examination pressures become important, it seems to me that the increasingly enlightened methods and scope of the new C.S.E. examination will afford much assistance to schools' efforts to produce pupils who are not dispirited by excessive rote learning, but, on the contrary, are keen to pursue their studies right up to the end of
their school life. That this should seem so idealistic ambition is sufficient indication of how much remains to be done in the field of curricula reform.
an
8
to teach
adaptability
In an age of specialist schooling it is essential to give pupils perspective a&d flexibility of mind. J. H. Parry, headmaster of Swinton Comprehensive School, Yorkshire, outlines his experimental method arming children for life in the 1970s.
transition from primary to secondary school proa curious discontinuity in a child's life. This involves far more than a change of building, and an Adjustment to increased size of school. For this transition marks the end of a period in which, in the more lightened primary school, the pupil has been encouraged to investigate the nature of the surroundln8 world mainly under the guidance of the one
ves
teacher.
From
this time onwards after the
he
pupil
has entered
secondary school the pursuit of knowledge usually ecomes fragmented into many subject disciplines, each studied largely in isolation from the others,
?ften
considered from
viewpoints
remote in time and
the pressures of distant public examinations a baneful influence upon attempts to pro-
^erting Uce
enlightened curriculum. competing influences the reac'?n of many pupils is predictable; there is a general ,ecUne of interest in learning which reaches a nadir the third year of secondary schooling. Some subwhere the pupil finds lv,Cte preferences develop, often teaching congenial and, where it is not, other sub)ects are rejected from the fourth year onwards re^ardless of their basic importance. The minority of pupils who emerge into the sixth ?rm frequently do so with deeprooted prejudices 0^ards whole areas of knowledge and the 'two cults' conflict described by C. P. Snow becomes a which 'general' or 'liberal' studies in the sixth a
more
Subjected
to these
.
Jeality ?rm
can do little to overcome.
minds pb'e young with this situation
there are those who, whilst the matter, believe that it is an unavoidable ,r'Ce which has to be paid for the ever wider and eePer search for knowledge. Considerations of .ational productivity and security are adduced to stify the ruthless pressures brought to bear on able minds and the paradoxical consequence is that it is only the less able who can be
faced
e8retting
a?Un8
a]C,CePted l?Wed the time a
to acquire a more liberal education, further ironic twist the increasing number of
comprehensive
schools may, in the short run,
only
aggravate the situation since, stemming from their need to produce at least grammar schools without
results to the such rigorous selection procedures, they may well extend the range and thus the numbers of pupils subjected to the pressures of narrow subject specialisations. This development, allied to the vast extension of the field of further education with its entry requirements in terms of examination results, conjures up a melancholy prospect of the increasing enslavement of the human mind within a vast academic broiler house. If this was inevitable, conditioning rather than adaption would seem to be required as a means whereby an individual came to terms with his society.
comparable employing
to pressures But, while the likelihood of this Orwellian nightmare coming to pass is repudiated by the great majority,
Adapt
what to teach young people if they to adapt to twentieth century pressures and demands remains a difficult one to answer. I believe that whilst specialisation in fields of study is unavoidable, and indeed essential in the later years of secondary schooling, far more can, and should, be done to help the child to adapt from the primary to the secondary phase of education. Essentially, the problem is one of helping the pupil to obtain some perspective of the field of knowledge before plunging into subject specialisation rather than hoping, as is the present approach, that after some years spent in the pursuit (or increasing rejection) of subject mastery, the pupil will acquire such a perspec-
the
are
problem of successfully
tive and thus be enabled to arrive at some synoptic view of the knowledge. What I have in mind for this period is not the acquisition of a philosophy of history or science but rather the attempt, at the outset of the pupil's secondary school career, to show man in his present and
to his environment. Such a project involves asking the most searching questions about what are the really important ideas which man has acquired about his environment as well as making a
past relation
5
ruthless selection, compression and interpretation so to convey them to pupils of this age group in a way which does not obscure the wood for the trees. It has been our concern at Swinton Comprehensive School to try, over the past year, to implement such an approach to the first year curriculum. In briefly outlining the general approach I must mention that this is an 8 form entry mixed comprehensive school drawing pupils from a large number of primary schools. as
Integrated syllabus
The scheme involves three aspects, each interesting in itself, arranged in such a way as to reinforce one another. They are: i) integration of some subjects ii) extension of the role and influence of the form teacher.
iii)
team
teaching
and, before commencing operation, opportunity
was
given to teachers involved to visit the contributory primary schools. The subjects integrated are history, geography and science and they form aa syllabus which we call the 'History of Ideas'. the heads of department The original brief given to the was to each select, say the twenty most important topics in their subjects which could be interpreted at first form level. In joint discussion after independent selection it
was
found that there were
areas
of
over-
Pupils enact a {above).
scene
from the
American War
of
Indepefld'
ence
madL' Boys comparing their models of prehistoric animals, mad? to
'tie in' with lessons on evolution. Photos: John
Brooke Brook?
jap
and out of this grew the nucleus of ideas for the
integrated syllabus. It finally emerged as something ?f a chronological panorama which, in subsequent Practice, posed problems for both teacher and taught ln attempting to cover its range.
The extension of the role of the form teacher ?ccurred since this 'History of Ideas' was taught for lhe allotted 11 periods by the form teacher and, as a result, it is generally admitted that the present firstyears have received more intimate academic and Pastoral care than any before them. This has produced a lively involvement in their course and visitors remark on the readiness with which the pupils ^ill talk about their course. A high level of classroom activity has been maintained, models and charts abound and there is some resemblance to the better
Primary
school
Specialist
practice
in this
skills
teaching
|he key ln
a specialist competence on it. The audience consisted of all the first year forms (including the remedial form) and their form teachers and the lesson was illustrated by wide use of visual aids of all kinds. The remaining periods allotted to the 'History of Ideas' were spent in classroom or laboratory where the form teacher could proceed to encourage work at the appropriate level for the form. For the end of year assessment of this work we have discarded the traditional pattern of examination and instead each pupil has compiled a booklet of his/her answers to a large number of open-ended questions. Question papers and booklets were handed out at the beginning of each lesson and collected back at the end but during the period free access was allowed to class reference books and personal notebooks.
sphere.
applied because it was felt that if form teachers operated in isolation they would jhe fi^d the task too difficult. Moreover, it was certainly ^ot intended that specialist skills should be dispensed in carrying out this programme. Accordingly, ?Ur existing school experience over the past two years "n team teaching to fourth-year leavers was extended to meet the challenge of the new integrated syllabus. All first-year forms were timetabled to meet in the for the first two periods of Monday morning for 'earn
had
was
'lesson'. This was an outline of some item the syllabus given by one of the form teachers who
Encourage The
effort
period lasted for a whole week's allotis, eleven periods, whilst, for purposes of internal comparison, some coarse grading of answers was made. No grade or mark was put on the booklets, although comments were, since the object of the whole year was to encourage effort not stratify assessment
ment of
time,
that
achievement. For the follow-up work next year it is intended that these pupils will go on to study in separate subject disciplines (mainly because few teachers are polymaths of sufficient degree!) for history, geography and science with specialist subject teachers but the heads of department involved are most concerned to 7
Adapting
to
change
relate second year work to the first year approach. Half the form teachers concerned are carrying on into the second year with their forms; others are returning to first year form teaching where they will act as an experienced nucleus to the new teachers recruited to this work. In this way, the numbers of teachers in the school experienced in this approach will grow. As a result of this year's work, it has been decided to modify the 'History of Ideas' curriculum so as to remove what has proved to be an excessively chronological emphasis and to substitute three major topics, one to each term. They are: man in his environment; law and order in our world; man controls and alters his environment. It is felt that these themes allow for continuous and concentric development a more beyond the first year although they will be taught on the same time allocation and team approach as at
present. Critical exchange It would appear from the past year's experience that the aims of the scheme have, to some extent, been realised. Certainly, the teachers participating are overwhelmingly in favour of going on with it. Inevitably, they find the close and critical exchange of ideas as team members to be stimulating, not least in the opportunity afforded to assess each others techniques and here the less experienced teacher can gain a very great deal from observation of a more experienced colleague. The pupils awareness of following a common course was heightened by being all present together in key lessons so that no members of the first year were seen to be excluded as substandard. There has been some valuable linking of work with other departments, notably art and craft, and others have expressed a wish to become partially involved in the History of Ideas syllabus. I believe that, if we are on the right lines, the problem of what to do with older pupils such as fourth year leavers will diminish considerably, since problems arise with these groups because they are disenchanted with the seeming irrelevance of most of what they are taught in relation to the problems and anxieties of adolescence. I hope that, from our efforts to give a preliminary unified view of knowledge to our new entrants, we shall be able to preserve their desire to go on learning and that we shall be able to provide the opportunities for them to concentrate on the aspects they find meaningful. And, even though in
the upper reaches of the school examination pressures become important, it seems to me that the increasingly enlightened methods and scope of the new C.S.E. examination will afford much assistance to schools' efforts to produce pupils who are not dispirited by excessive rote learning, but, on the contrary, are keen to pursue their studies right up to the end of
their school life. That this should seem so idealistic ambition is sufficient indication of how much remains to be done in the field of curricula reform.
an
8
