Journal article

A concern for language learning, and the place of languages in the overall educational experience have not been the issues of great moment in New Zealand that they have been overseas, except amongst those actually involved in the teaching of foreign languages. In 1974 a small research committee was set up by the New Zealand Association of Language Teachers (NZALT) to discuss ways in which debate on the place of foreign languages in New Zealand could be, as it were, brought out into the open.

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.

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 findings to date seem clear enough, and may be summarized as follows:

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.

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 changes have taken place in the achievements of some New Zealand children.

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 features of the various methods of individualized learning are an emphasis on:

Noise is, or can be, a source of constant difficulty in a pre-school institution, affecting the health and behaviour of both teachers and children, and making it difficult if not impossible to carry on specialized or individual programmes of one kind or another. Dr David Barney, Associate Professor, Department of Education, University of Auckland, directed, 3 years ago, a preliminary investigation designed to reveal the noise producing factors in a group of eight relatively new kindergarten buildings in the Auckland district.

In this bulletin an attempt has been made to explain what is meant by the term intelligence, and to answer some of the queries concerning intelligence tests which teachers and principals often raise. More specifically, the purpose of the bulletin is to provide answers to the following questions: