Diffusion Studies

It is evident that important and far reaching changes are at present contemplated at all levels of the educational system. In particular, innovations of all sorts are being offered to the schools, eg the four term year, ‘new’ mathematics, language laboratories, comprehensive re‐organization, non‐streaming, programmed learning, and the numerous Nuffield projects. But contemporary reform in education involves much more than the introduction and acceptance of new visual aids, textbooks, methods of organizing the school timetable and so on. Recent developments in school science, mathematics and modern language teaching demand a change in the teaching approach and a departure from what appears to have been traditional practice. Thus the Nuffield O‐level project in science set out to sell a new attitude1 and not, primarily, a new course. The emphasis in the reform of modern language teaching lies in the direction of an audio‐visual approach to the subjects concerned.