Ten years of change in the classroom

The last decade has seen no easing of the forces for change, both inside and outside the classroom or lecture theatre. The Plowden and Newsom reports, in terms of primary and secondary education, continued the exercise, possibly started by Crowther and reinforced by Robbins, of prescribing the use of educational processes as a way of reconciling equality of personal opportunity with the various needs and demands of our society. Thus teachers and lecturers continue to be seen as essential participants in these educational processes and, although not necessarily in the mainstream of their recommendations, few major educational reports today fail to comment on the teacher's role in one way or another. Crowther had, for example, expected County College tutors to bridge the gap between secondary and further education because of the ‘combination of teaching and general pastoral care’ that was required. Robbins mentioned receiving ‘extensive complaints concerning methods of instruction’ and recommended that newly appointed junior teachers in higher education ‘should have organised opportunity to acquaint themselves with the techniques both of lecturing and of conducting small group discussions’. Similarly, Plowden told primary teachers to ‘enlarge their endeavours and enlist parents interest to a greater extent in their children's education’, and Newsom recommended that the training of all teachers should include sociological and environmental studies, with special reference to the problems of pupils in culturally deprived areas. It is interesting to note that over the seven years represented by the issue of these four reports there shows through a growing awareness of the environmental and cultural influences outside school.