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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1974.
REFERRING TO THE TENSIONS CREATED BY DIFFERENT GROUPS - PARENTS, CHILDREN, SOCIETY AND TEACHERS - AND THEIR DIFFERENT PURPOSES AND INFLUENCES OF WHAT HAPPENS IN SCHOOLS, MR. TOPLEY SAID + BELIEVE THAT WE MUST DO SOMETHING TO RESOLVE THESE TENSIONS SO FAR AS WE ARE ABLE IN THE FUTURE, AND FOR THIS PURPOSE I SEE THAT SCHOOLS MUST BE PART OF THE COMMUNITY IN WHICH IT IS SET.+
MR. TOPLEY LATER ELABORATED ON THE +ACTIVITY APPROACH+ METHOD WHEN HE ADDRESSED THE SPEECH DAY OF ST. STEPHEN'S COLLEGE.
BY ALLOWING THE PUPILS TO LEARN BY DOING, HE SAID, THEY WOULD GRADUALLY DEVELOP AN INTEREST AND ENJOYMENT IN THE SUBJECT AND A CRITICAL APPROACH IN OBSERVATION.
+IT IS IMPORTANT TO INVOLVE OUR PUPILS IN CARRYING OUT AS MUCH OF THE PRACTICAL WORK AS POSSIBLE. THEY MUST BE ACTIVE PARTICIPANTS AND NOT PASSIVE LEARNERS.+
HE SAID THE ESSENCE OF LEARNING BY DOING AND INQUIRY' WAS TO DISCOURAGE TEACHERS OR TEXTBOOK-WRITERS FROM DESCRIBING TO THE PUPILS THE RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS.
THE 'LEARNING BY DOING METHOD WAS THE ESSENCE OF THE INTEGRATED SCIENCE COURSE WHICH THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT INTRODUCED IN 1973, HE NOTED.
+IN THE SAME WAY I CONSIDER THAT THIS PRINCIPLE OF 'LEARNING BY DOING' CAN ALSO BE LARGELY APPLIED TO THE TEACHING OF SUCH SOCIAL SUBJECTS AS GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY AND ECONOMIC AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS, AND EQUALLY WELL TO SOCIAL STUDIES IN LOWER SECONDARY FORMS,+ HE SAID.
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