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This signified their lack of acceptance of alternative routes through the
PGCE and their requirement for students to cover all parts of the PGCE.
Essentially no change was recommended.
Alternative Course staff
supported by the Dean of Professional Studies
were
unwilling to accept
this recommendation aware that
without the assessment changes they
proposed
the development of the course would be hampered.
Accordingly a
further submission was made to the University in February 1978.
The
rationale then presented to the Subject Committee
in Education attempted
to put the proposal
into
wider framework, drawing attention to
national
uncertainty about
the appropriate
balance
between theoretical and practical considerations within
initial training and in particular
of special interest -
about the means by which these two elements may be linked.
(Doc. SCE/ 77δ∕6 paragraph 2.3, presented to the
Subject Committee in Education on 2 Feb. 1978)
It also stressed
the increasing complexity in the tasks faced by teachers,
in particular those working in our inner city schools and
in consequence of the need for initial training institutes
to explore ways of accommodating more efficiently to the
teaching roles which a majority of the students will
subsequently take. (Ibid para. 2.3)
Additionally it stressed
a further and more fundamental reason behind the present
proposal is that of research of alternative methodologies in
teacher training.
It is the intention to accomplish this
through the evaluation of the course as a case study.
(Ibid para. 2.4)
Finally it indicated that the proposed course would act as a
pilot for features which might be incorporated within the
PGCE course more widely at some later stage.
(Ibid para. 2.5)
The submission included the Long Term Working Party Report as an Appendix
which emphasised the role of the Alternative Course in relation to the
PGCE in the Institute.