quoted
course
83
in full with the proviso that for the Sussex students their
’’retains for its students an attractiveness well in excess
of that exercised by other courses”.
Generally they point out
The overall pattern of change is also clear. After
experiencing their course, including the teaching
practice with its exposure to the classroom situation,
their reassessment of the elements of the course
is striking. The three theoretical aspects of the
course, psychology, sociology and philosophy all
decline in importance. They apparently fail to
achieve their promise. They do not assist in the
practical job of becoming a teacher in anything like
the degree that was hoped. On the other hand the
practical aspects of the course either retain their
importance (teaching methods and the day-to-day run-
ning of schools) or, like educational administration,
increase in importance.
The most
remarkable
is in those items relating to knowledge of
and of individual children. The stresses
change
’self’
of the
classroom situation and their first contacts with
children cause these to be uprated in practically
all universities. The dedication to their teaching
subject remains practically unchanged. (Ch4 P46)
The concurrent theory and practice element in the Sussex scheme did
little to
establish
Il
ιportance
of theoretical aspects
of the
course and Lacey’s conclusion is important.
It would
that are
the
am
seem that in those aspects of the course
not dealt with formally but spring out of
concerns of the student, the classroom
situation and his relationship with individual
ren,
that
increase
enormous
iy
in importance.
child-
(Ch4 P48)
That the
university-based’ side of the Sussex course had no
'formal mode of
response indicates the extent to which the separateness
of university
and school were built
from
the beginning into this
innovation.
this stage it had more to do with changing PGCE
practices in school than in bringing the disparate elements together.
What the research suggests here is how important it is in PGCE
for students to be able to develop a personally active and useful