The Problem of the Unacademic Student

Abstract

Everyone who has taken part in the teaching of craft apprentices has come up against the problem of those students who find the orthodox approach to technical theory very difficult. The typical ‘blackboard’ lecture seems quite alien to a large proportion of these young men and it seems probable that they have always disliked school. The liberal use of experiments and visual aids to emphasise the points being dealt with should, of course, be axiomatic in the teaching of trade courses, but even this fails to make much impression with many students. To make matters worse, employers often find that these very apprentices, about whom the college complains, make the best workmen. It is no use, therefore, to cry ‘selection’ as the cure. Nor can we eliminate all the theory which causes the trouble, because in this day and age there is a certain basic minimum of technology of his trade which the craftsman in industry must know.