RADIO NOT THE BEST TO TEACHING

Chronicle (Levin), 25 September 1947, Page 3

RADIO NOT THE BEST TO TEACHING

WELLINGTON, Sept. 24. Radio broadcasts to schoola, wkich. were expected to play an imp'ortant part in ruial education, are not as successful as was lxoped. Tliis was made clear in a report of tke ckief inspector of primary scliools, Mr. G. E. Overton, whicli was tabled in Parliament today by the Minister of Education, Kon. SC. G. R. Mason. 1 ; • Mr. Overton reveals that an' experiment had been made with thelobject of ascertaining the value of radio as a teaching aid and to determino how much of the faetual matter broadcast was retained by pupils and what was the best method of listening. Ten classes from a range of schools in town and country were selected to listen to a history serial. "The results were noteworthy," says Mr. Overton, "firstly, that the pupils did not get much out . of the broadcasts from the" point of view of the facts presented, and, secondly, that the section that just listened (that is, they did noj; take notes) got most beuefit. To some extent the poor results had been attributed to poor reception conditions due in part to fauity sets but some of the notes made by the pupils clearly indicatel that they nxisunderstood much of the lesson. " Mr. Overton explains that oue great lifficulty lies in coordinating broadcast lessons with sehool programmes . aird says it would be far too restrictive, for instance, to expect sehool vlessons on, say history, to follow closely the scheme of the broadcasts or .vice versa. "And yet, if there were not adequate' preparation for and a follow-up of the broadcast, much of its value wodld be lost."