Closed‐circuit Television in Training for Teaching in Further Educational Institutions

Abstract

In 1971 the Department of Education mounted an In‐Service Course for teachers in institutes of further education. Students were trained to formulate and achieve precisely stated lesson objectives. It was felt that self‐observation and subsequent discussion with tutors using standard assessment forms would be useful for training in the systems approach. Students were recorded teaching short lessons on their own subjects to an audience of fellow‐students who in general knew nothing of the topic taught. Eight recordings were retained and viewed by full‐time postgraduate students who entered in 1972 for teacher‐training in further education. These students viewed the model recordings as well as making their own. Questionnaires and interviews were used to obtain reactions of in‐service and postgraduate students and their tutors. Students’ and tutors’ reactions were very favourable even though there were some reservations about the artificiality of recording and an audience group of fellow students. The postgraduate students, though they found the models interesting, professed a preference for live observation despite administrative difficulties.