SPECIAL COURSES FOR TEACHERS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24902, 15 June 1946, Page 4

SPECIAL COURSES FOR TEACHERS

TRAINING CENTRE IN CHRISTCHURCH

ABOUT THIRTY STUDENTS “The expansion of the • education services in New Zealand and the more intensive demands on teachers have necessitated the preparation of specialist teachers for certain functions. At present, of the 360 students enrolled at the Christchurch Teachers’ Training College, about 30 are devoting an extra year’s work to specialisation,” said the principal (Mr Duncan Mackay) yesterday. “At the end of the. normal two-year course, each of the four training colleges in the Doniinion selects from the students who apply a number of names to be sent on to the Education Department, which makes the final choice in accordance with the quota required for the whole of New Zealand. Students are selected primarily because of very good teaching work, and their outstanding ability and interest in the selected field of study.’’ The specialists’ courses included physical education, music, art and crafts, librarianship, education of the deaf, speech therapy, education of the backward child, and agriculture, he continued. Students on the courses in agriculture, education of th& deaf, speech therapy, and education of the backward child, were centred in the Christchurch Teachers’ Training College, the last two having been instituted this year. During the war, when the School for the Deaf at Sumner had been closed, education in this sphere had been taught in Auckland, but since the school reopened Christchurch had again become the training centre, instruction being given at the school through the Training College. Miss M. E. Saunders, a pioneer in speech therapy, was in charge of the Christchurch central clinic and training was given there and at clinics attached to certain schools. Excellent progress had been made with this work since it was commenced in Christchurch in 1930. Auckland and Dunedin opened such clinics in 1922 and others had since been established in other centres, a rapid extension occurring since 1943. Education of Backward Children The new specialists’ course of training in education of the backward child had been introduced largely as a result of the findings of Dr. R. Winterbourn in a recent book, Mr Mackay said Part of the preparation of students was in the hands of the training college and part in the hands of Dr. Winterbourn, through Canterbury University College. Lectures were also given by medical specialists. Experience was given by attaching students to special classes for backward childre£ a t various schools in Christchurch. Nine men were taking the course in agriculture, which provided for two days’ instruction each week ‘at Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, and the remainder at Canterbury University College and the Training ii G^ G ’ Such trainees would probably become headmasters or assistants at district high schools and rural schools, and possibly, junior itinerant instructors in agriculture. The general objects of their work would be to give a full appreciation of natural a nd social environment in rural areas There were about 40 specialists training , in physical education, this year at the Dunedin Teachers’ Training College Each college prepared its iown Students m music and art and crafts. Students in librarianship were trained at the recently-established Library School in Wellington.