Bulletin Special Supplement Jun 1965

L2.2 (i) P r o g r a m m e , We use this word to mean the whole plan of studies laid down in a given year for a student to follow — e.g., the third - year programme in, say, Sociology at Chung Chi College, listed on pages 112 of its Calendar for 1964-65 ，� comprises 34 units, covering various subjects. ( i i) C o u r s e . We reserve this word for a component of a programme to which a code number is allotted in the Calendars — e.g ., in the United College Calendar, page 131, the "History of Chinese Civilisation (Second Year)", coded " H i s t. 201." Each course is made up of several teaching periods a week for either a whole year or part of a year. ( i i i ) C o n t a c t - h o u r . Includes every period of a student's work in which he is formally under instruction or guidance f r om a teacher. ( i v ) L e c t u r e . A monologue by the teacher, expository in nature, in a period of which only a small part, if any, can be allotted to questions f r om the student; and delivered to an audience of any size at all. ( v) D i s c u s s i o n p e r i o d or s m a l l - g r o u p t e a c h i n g p e r i o d . Any f o r m of teaching which is not a lecture, apart f r o m certain specific kinds of teaching period listed separately below under ( v i ) and ( v i i ) . I t must also be limited in size. We have had experience in certain European universities, of taking part in "discussion periods" in which up to eighty students and several teachers were present; it is clear that in a class of that size, only very few of those present can participate actively, while the remainder may or may not benefit; the universities in question are themselves anxious about such classes. We shall take it as a principle that no discussion period, or class other than a lecture, should normally contain more than twenty students, whatever its nature ; some of them may, by the nature of the work, contain fewer . ( v i ) W r i t t e n e x e r c i s e c l a s s . A period during which the student works at exercises designed to strengthen or confirm his command of materia] already expounded to him, or in periodic informal tests in any subject to which such work is appropriate. ( v i i ) L a b o r a t o r y or p r a c t i c a l c l a s s . A period, varying in length f r om subject to subject, in which students perform assigned tasks w i th or without prepared equipment, normally in the presence of teachers or demonstrators who can discuss the work w i th them as it progresses. The size of class is limited only by space available and the ratio of students to staff and demonstrators present. ( v i i i ) S e m i n a r , A discussion class under the control of a teacher in which at successive meetings a different student (or students) delivers a paper or report on a series of topics which f o rm part of the syllabus of a course. Since it is desirable that all students should prepare each week to be able to discuss actively the subject of the report and not simply listen to the teacher's criticisms, the ma x i mum size for a seminar would be no greater than that suggested under (v) above. ( i x) T u t o r i a l . A period to which the studen t comes having done a substantial amount of work in a f o rm —essay, written exercises, problems — which the teacher can discuss w i th h i m and criticise. The tutorial is normally one of a series, is conducted by the same teacher, and may either be related to a lecture course or not. It may be conducted by a teacher w i th either one or more students at the same t i me; but if numbers rise above five, the difference between tutorial and semina r becomes obscure. (x) " S u b j e c t - c e n t r e d " a n d " s t u d e n t - c e n t r e d " . These terms denote relative emphasis, since all undergraduate teaching is directed to students, and is teaching of a subject. However, some forms of small-group teaching (particularly tutorials) are concerned chiefly w i th the problems encountered by, and the intellectual development of, the individua l student himself; on the other hand, while all lectures should have in m i nd the listeners to whom they are addressed, many of them, especially the more advanced ones, are of value mainly for their exemplary quality and excellence as a treatment of th e subject. As numbers rise in a tutorial, it becomes obviously more difficult for the student's individual problems to be dealt w i th �； a seminar is mor e subject-centred than a small tutorial or one or two . We shall devote a later section in fa r more detail to small-group teaching; all forms come under one or other of the above headings. Se c t i on 3: P r o b l ems o f L a n g u a ge I n t r o d u c t o ry L3.1 We were mos t impressed w i th the helpfulnes s of colleagues in outlining to us the situation in this field as they see it developing. Clearly, the problems of language have been considered very carefully; and if the report of the Committee on Teaching Methods mentions difficulties which remain, this is because these problems are in themselves very complex, and because the difficulties are of a kind which are met w i th in universities all over the world and are not peculiar to Ho ng Kong. I f we could point to any country where we know them to have been fully resolved, we should certainly do so; but even in multi-lingual communities lik e Switzerland they are apt to be encountered in the universities, and we have borne in m i nd a variety o f other situations among which the situation in Hong Ko ng is not exceptional. L3.2 The problems are comple x because the following factors have to be taken into account :— (i) Problems arise in different ways according to courses of studies being considered. ( i i ) They are affected by th e student's earlier 26