Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Abstract
All who have worked in teacher education institutions for any length of time will know that significant changes have occurred in the way in which lecturers relate to their students and the sorts of behaviour which they expect from them. One hears lecturers speak of "the good old days", especially when irritated by some particularly liberal student behaviour or some seemingly cavalier student attitude, but it would be unusual to find someone who genuinely believes that the "old days" were better than the "new" . It occurred to us that it would be an interesting exercise to look at some of the changes which have taken place in lecturer-student relationships over the years. We have chosen Armidale College of AdYanced Education as the subject of our discussion. simply because of our long association with it. No doubt, peculiarities of this College, especially in its residential aspects, would not apply to some other institutions but we feel that the general trends and directions we discuss will be common to all teacher education institutions in New South Wales and, quite possibly, to others throughout Australia. The year 1955, apart from being a neat thirty years (or one generation) from the present, also has a special significance. Both of us were at the College in that year, one as a lecturer and the other as a student. W'e have both been closely associated with it in one way or another ever since and the observations we make are based on first hand experience. In our discussion, we concentrate on four aspects of the past and present functioning of Armidale College. We examine each of these aspects in turn and then try to offer some possible explanations for the changes that have taken place over the last thirty years.
Recommended Citation
Newman, W. O., & Mackie, M. D. (1985). Lecturer Attitudes Towards Teacher Trainees in a New South Wales College - 1955 and 1985. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.1985v10n1.3