Britain: An official handbook > 1977

EDUCATION
New Methods of
Learning and
Teaching
157
some maintained or assisted and others commercially or privately financed)
which provide many kinds of education and training. Some make their facilities
available to the public as a whole, others to a particular group, such as the dis¬
abled or the unemployed, or the employees or members of an organisation.
A recent development has been the spread of community schools and col¬
leges and community centres. Community schools and colleges are secondary
schools planned to serve also as cultural community centres, providing educa¬
tional, social and cultural opportunities for the whole community. Community
centres have a more social character and, though aided financially by the local
education authorities, are usually managed by voluntary community associa¬
tions many of which are affiliated to the National Federation of Community
Associations.
The National Institute of Adult Education provides a national centre of
information, research and publication for adult education, as well as a channel
of co-operation and consultation for the many interested organisations in Eng¬
land and Wales. It is mainly financed by contributions from local education
authorities and assisted by a grant from the Department of Education and
Science. The National Institute of Adult Education has created an Adult
Literacy Resource Agency to administer additional resources which the
Government is making available to assist local education authorities and other
organisations working to combat adult illiteracy. The Scottish Institute of
Adult Education and the Scottish Adult Literacy Resource Agency are the
corresponding bodies in Scotland.
In Northern Ireland extra-mural departments of the Queen’s University of
Belfast and the New University of Ulster organise and staff adult education
classes which are supplemented by classes organised by various non-official
bodies. The Workers’ Educational Association is responsible for classes at
other than university level and receives grants from the Department of Educa¬
tion and the education and library boards. The department has established a
Council for Continuing Education which will advise on the co-ordination of
the work being done and assist planning for the future.
The general pattern of teaching and learning on full-time courses at universi¬
ties and colleges remains a mixture of lectures, prescribed or suggested reading,
seminars or tutorials, exercises and tests, and, where appropriate, practical
work. Nevertheless, each institution has different ways of preparing its course
material and different approaches and emphases in teaching it. They make
wide and varying use of the new teaching and learning aids provided by radio
and television and of other visual aids. Considerable use is also made of teaching
machines and language laboratories, and of computer-assisted and computer-
managed learning. Most universities and many colleges have closed television
circuits. All universities have ready access to computers for education as well as
research purposes and many have their own computers.
Radio and television programmes, both specially instructional and general,
are perhaps the most penetrating purveyors of adult education, and are often
linked to a range of supplementary publications and activities. Most BBC radio
study programmes are grouped in hourly sessions on five nights a week and
week-end afternoons. Television study programmes are shown on Saturday
and Sunday mornings and at midday and in the later evening on weekdays.
Both the BBC and Independent Television provide programmes at successive
intellectual levels from domestic, social and craft skills to progressive vocational
training. The BBC channels and production teams are also used to produce
radio and television programmes in support of Open University courses.