BORDER CROSSINGS: US CONTRIBUTIONS TO SASKATCHEWAN EDUCATION, 1905-1937
OF DISSERTATION
On the Principles of Secondary Education
On the principles of secondary education.-The literature of secondary education has recently been enriched by the publication of a new book in that field.' In this volume the author gives us a stimulating discussion of the current philosophy of secondary education. The style is pungent, occasionally caustic, but always interesting. The method of treatment of the issues raised is dialectic rather than statistical. Tables are sparingly employed, and these only in the more historical portions or chapters of the book. The method of treatment is chosen, presumably, on account of the fact that the author is undertaking to paint a picture of the school that ought to be rather than to give details regarding the school that is. He therefore takes the position that the philosophical principles and the desirable objectives of secondary education must be agreed on and formulated before effective effort can be applied in the direction of achieving those objectives. The book has an analytical introduction and twenty-eight chapters. Three of these chapters describe education in other countries, primarily in England, France, and Germany; three are devoted to secondary education in America; one, to the changing curriculum; two chapters discuss the characteristics of adolescence; three are taken up with a discussion of the issues in secondary education; two deal with the functions of secondary education; one, with articulation between the administrative units; two, with curriculum principles; four, with emotionalized attitudes; two, with mores; four, with interests as liberal education; and the final chapter gives a vision of secondary education as it might be. In the chapters on secondary education in other countries the traditional three-England, France, and Germany-are discussed. There is, however, much new material, and the picture is brought up to date. One could wish, nevertheless, that some attention had also been given to the more experimental types of secondary education that are to be found in Russia and Denmark. The treatment of adolescent characteristics does not differ much from that found in other books on the principles of secondary education. It is in his treatment of the issues and the special functions of secondary education that Professor
Initial Teacher Training: the French view
ABSTRACT This paper, against the background of trends in the development of initial teacher training in Europe as a whole, identifies and explains some of the recent, radical reforms which were introduced in France by a socialist government. These include the need to raise the status and the competence of the teaching profession; the creation of new teacher‐training institutions of university status (Instituts universitaires de formation des maitres); the introduction of common entry qualifications at degree level for both primary and secondary levels; the harmonisation and the extension to 2 years of the post‐degree teacher‐training course and the increase in emphasis placed on professional training, both theoretical and practical. These reforms provoked a storm of protest and an examination of the reasons for this reveals a multiplicity of crucial questions which have far‐reaching implications.