set 1976 : no. 2

Individualized learning is the designing and implementing of courses or sections of courses in formats suitable for individual, independent study. It involves clearly specifying what students must learn, and then organizing the available resources so that this can be done in the ways and at the times most suitable for particular individuals. In this last respect it stands in opposition to fixed time, large or small group methods like lectures, tutorials and laboratory classes. Common… Read more

In the last few years there have been signs of a new interest, both in New Zealand and overseas, in the teaching of spelling. This is evident in the amount of space American and English journals have lately devoted to the subject, and in the appearance, last year, of a new Department of Education handbook on the teaching of spelling. As well, there is the work of two New Zealand researchers, John Nicholson and Peter Freyberg, who have demonstrated, in recent and separate investigations, that… Read more

The assertion above was made, not in 1976, but over 40 years ago, in a review of the research on ability grouping published in 1932. Are we any further ahead today? Issues of grouping and streaming are still hotly debated by teachers and administrators. Many are moved to turn to the research workers, and ask the simple question - Should we stream our children into homogeneous ability groups? Like most questions concerned with school organization, there is no simple answer. It depends on our… Read more

The research on the effects of open plan classrooms on children's learning and behaviour is still very limited in scope. In particular, not enough studies have been done to enable us to generalize with complete confidence about the effects on children of different ages or ability levels, and there have been few follow-up studies of the permanence or otherwise of reported changes in achievement and behaviour. Nonetheless, bearing in mind the deficiencies of the research in this area, the… Read more

In our society abuse and misuse of drugs - including alcohol and tobacco -is not confined solely to young people, but it is evidence of illicit drug usage and experimentation among young people that arouses the greatest expressions of public alarm and concern. This anxiety tends to focus on the schools, parents and others demanding that 'something be done' about drugs. In the review following the findings of a recent major study of the effectiveness of some typical school drug education… Read more