Bulletin Special Supplement Jun 1965

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON TEACHING METHODS I . P R E L I M I N A RY C1. The committee was appointed by the Vice- Chancellor in March, 1964. Its first meeting took place on 1st A p r i l and its thirteenth and last on 7th September. Its members w e r e— D r . C . T. Yung , Chung Chi College, Chairman, D r . N . E. Fehl, Chung Chi College, D r . S.T. Tsou, United College, D r . J . M. Yang, New Asia College, D r . K , Y . Yen , New Asia College, M r . N . H . Young, Un i t ed College, M r . R.N. Rayne, Chung Chi College, Secretary. M r . S.K. Su, New Asia College, replaced D r. K . Y . Yen at the second meeting and was himself replaced by D r. B.S. Hsu, New Asia College, at the ninth meeting. D r. P.C. Chen, United College, was invited to join the committee at the second meeting and then replaced D r. S.T . Tsou at the fourth meeting. D r. Joseph C.C. Hwang, Chung Chi College, replaced D r . N . E. Feh l at the fifth meeting. C2. The Vice-Chancello r defined our task as follows:— " T h e Committee is requested to examine in detail the present teaching system and to come up w i th a proposed workable program which will adapt the best features of the British, American and other systems to our needs. I have conducted some enquiries alon g these lines in the past, and have come to the tentative idea that for our purpose the emphasis may well be on tutoring (in some form) in the first two years, on lecturing and small group discussions in the next two years and on seminar work i n the post-graduate schools. As regards syllabuses, while their content need not come under the purview of the Committee, their nature w i ll have to be commented upon. Moreover, as far as under-graduate teaching is concerned, it might be better to divide the examinations into two stages, one for the first two years and the other for the last two years. Although purely tentative, these ideas w i ll suggest to you what I have in m i n d . " Moreover he expected our report to serve as a basis for further discussion w i th two experts f r om the Un i t ed K i ngdom, Professor A . G . Lehmann, Professor of French in the University of Reading, and D r . J.V. Loach, Registrar o f the University of Leeds, who are to visit the University f r om 12th September. C3. We soon found that it was impossible to study teaching methods effectively without some consideration of the academic structure of the university as a whole. T i me, however, did not allow us to go into every aspect of this, so we confined ourselves to discussing one problem which seemed to us to be of fundamental importance, that is, General Education. Hence our report falls into two parts, one on Teaching Methods and one on General Education. But we are only too well aware that teaching methods are affected by many other factors which we could not deal with, e.g., the organization of intercollegiate teaching, the conten t of degree programmes and postgraduate studies. C4. Teaching methods are regarded by university teachers as their own concern, peculiar to each individual teache r and built up gradually out of each individual's education and experience and conception of what the job of teaching in a university means, so that for a committee to enunciate rigid dogmas and rules about them would rightly be resented. We can only put forward ideas and suggestions for discussion and experimen t and make such proposals as are likely to make the task of teaching easier and more efficient and rewarding. 10