E.— 2.

Appendix D.J

XI

Accommodation. —There are 117 students, of whom ninety-seven are women. The College was built to accommodate eighty students, in ratio as to sexes 1 : 2— i.e., fifty-three women. It has therefore to accommodate ninety-seven instead of fifty-three. The crush may be imagined when both-years students come together. Boarding Arrangements. —There are not any. Sixty-nine young women from outside Dunedin have to find board as they best can. I have before expressed the need there is for a College hostel. The advantages would be (1) unity and control of supervision; (2) boarding arrangements to suit College work, and consequent economy of time and energy; (3) increase of College spirit and greater unity among students, and therefore more lasting result of College training. To these might be added better health arrangements as to exercise and baths, &c. I regard this boarding question as the most pressing one in connection with training colleges. Medical. —In connection with the health of students I think that arrangements might be made for the Medical Inspector of Schools stationed at Dunedin to attend at College once a month and inspect the health condition of students, especially the women. This could easily be done in connection with drill, and a record kept of condition, &c, of each district. Many cases of nervous weakness would then be detected in time. It seems odd that Medical Inspectors should be instructed to examine the school-children but not the students of the institution. In fact, I think that pupilteachers and probationers should be examined also during their course, which could then be adjusted to their health-capacity on such lines. The health of women students decidedly needs more supervision. Too many of them come here fresh from the worries of teaching large classes, and also from the worry of the January examinations, and in anything but a fit state to undertake a College course without regular and compulsory medical supervision. It is impossible to pay for it out of their meagre allowance, and it seems to me that the Medical Inspector should take over this work as a regular part of routine. The fact that so many students are away from home care intensifies the need. Home science continues to supply the main scientific training for female students. Professor Boys-Smith," whose department supplies the teaching, complains that the C programme in domestic science ii is too diffuse and needs to be unified. The students have three hours a week each year at this subject, and should benefit by the course, more so if it were improved. General Science Subjects. —As will be seen by the return of University classes, science subjects continue at a disadvantage compared with other subjects. The reason is that a University science class takes from seven to nine hours a week, yet for a certificate only counts as one subject. English counts as a C subject with only two to three hours a week. If a science subject up to degree standard were to count as two subjects for C instead of one, or if a student taking a University science were allowed to drop English as a compulsory C subject (provided it was taken up to Matriculation standard) there would be a more equal division of effort and result. Pupil-teachers and Probationers. —The question continually comes up for discussion as to the connection between pupil-teacher or probationer training and training-college training. Which should come first? A considerable number of pupil-teachers and probationers never go through the training oollege, but proceed straight to positions, satisfied with the practical training they have received. On the other hand, pupil-teachers or probationers who have been through the College freely admit the benefit they have received. As to which form of training should come first there are opinions on both sides. There is no doubt that a preliminary course of practical teaching before entering college tends to make the student more awake to the problems involved in an adult attempting to teach a child; but, on the other hand, it also tends to give the student preformed ideas, often narrow and mechanical, as to methods which solve these problems. We find these two results in our practice with students : (1) The student who has not been a pupilteacher or probationer is often unaware that there is any jiroblem to be faced in teaching a child. To him words must carry the same idea to all classes of mind. On the other hand, (2) the student who has been a pupil-teacher thinks that he has the proper one and only method of teaching a subject. He tends to revert to this method which he has used every day for at least two years, and leave the new one which he has seen for only a few hours altogether and has practised with a certain lack of responsibility inseparable from mere practice lessons. One of last year's students expressed the opinion, after being in charge of a sole-teacher school for a year, "If I could go back to college now wouldn't I learn and notice far more than I did before! " I think the ideal way would be to combine both elements: First one year at college, then one or more years responsible teaching, then a second year at college. Students' Practice. —We have made considerable use of associated schools, nearly half the senior students gaining their practice and observation in them, of course, in rotation. I do not see how it can be otherwise. If 117 students are to find each 200 teaching-practice-observation hours in the year in the Normal School, both that practice and the work of the school must be very much cut up. Then what becomes of the school as a model one —for the children at each stage would necessarily be ill prepared owing to constant interruption 1 Of course, the plan of associated schools has its weak points. The greatest is the prevalent opinion (due to the more or less mechanical manipulation of large classes) that teaching method is evolved and perfected, " cut and dried," to be acquired imitatively and applied universally. There is also, of course, the question of control. Nevertheless, the students appreciate the privilege of seeing different