Teaching Science: Object Lessons
A teacher's life is not an easy one, but seeing 'the glow of understanding' on children's faces is one of the many rewards of a career in teaching.
Early in this film a young science teacher talks about the 'tremendous workload, considerable stress... you have to be very resilient, you have to be able to cope with failure' - hardly the ringing endorsement that might be expected in a recruitment film intended to encourage people to become science teachers.
This public information film was made by the Central Office of Information for the Department of Education and Science. Heather Couper, astronomer and leading public scientist, provides a brief introduction and conclusion, but most of the film's voiceover is provided by several teachers, nearly all of whom have entered the career after time in industry.
The backdrops of classrooms in the 1980s reveal chunky computers with flickering screens, school laboratories and Bunsen burners, as well pupils passing round a saucer of maggots - all part of the pursuit of scientific insight into 'the way the world is' - or at least, how it was in 1987.
Two schools are featured in the film - The Weald School, Billingshurst, Sussex; and Holmes Chapel Comprehensive, Cheshire - though it's not clear which sequences are filmed in which school. Both schools are still flourishing.
The effectiveness - as a recruitment technique - of this film's striking openness about the downsides of teaching as a career is not known. The long term shortage of science teachers in the UK remains to this day.
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How We Learned
From classroom to lecture hall to living room: a look at the many ways TV and video shaped our learning experiences over the years.
For most of us, the screen has been as much a part of our education as the blackboard or whiteboard. Early 20th century educators quickly saw that moving images could be a valuable teaching aid, and by the 1920s and 30s a thriving industry was delivering thousands of films for classroom use. By the 1960s, the small screen had largely taken over, and schoolkids would thrill at the sight of the teacher wheeling out a television set.
In the meantime, education was transforming, too, with grammar schools, secondary moderns and technical schools giving way to comprehensives, which in turn made room for academies and faith schools. Higher education swelled with new universities and polytechnics, while the Open University, launched in 1969, used video and television to reach students in their homes. Through television, informal learning has also helped those who missed out on traditional schooling, or who just want to expand their minds. Whether we spoke our first words along with onscreen puppets, studied along with Open University broadcasts or followed educational debates in current affairs programmes, television and video have always had a lot to teach us.
22 videos in this collection
1
2
Make It Count [22/01/78]
3
Elton Well Dressing
4
Bill Has Trouble with the Magic Box
5
Don't Ask Me [10/08/77]
6
School
7
School Leaver
8
Chalkface [04/07/82]
9
Adult Basic Skills: Entrance
10
Think Tank [18/08/81]
11
A New Choice of School
12
Children Talking 1 Assessing Spoken Language at Eleven
13
Teaching Science: Object Lessons
14
Able Children
15
Brighton Polytechnic Promo 2
16
Painting by Numbers
17
Multi-cultural Education
18
One Week in July
19
Introduction to Computers
20
Christmas Special
21
Dulwich College and Village
22