Team teaching in further education — 3

A common complaint of technical college teachers is that students are spoon‐fed with information and they finally appear incapable of exercizing their initiative and imagination in the solving of problems associated with the subjects taught to them. Ask the same teachers, however, why they do not abandon the formal lesson schedule and simply guide the students in their private reading and they will undoubtedly include among their reasons not only the pressure of the examination syllabus but the probable inability of the students to study privately. Somehow this vicious circle has to be broken. To the technical college teacher, teaching by private study when associated with part‐time day‐release students is an act of faith. It requires motivation, ability, and a teacher‐student relationship that is difficult to reconcile with the existing organization. (It also requires a library and reading‐room facilities!) It is within the concept of team‐teaching, however, that the necessary confidence in individual study may be achieved.