As children return to the classroom for the start of the new school year in Scotland, we highlight the 1940s teaching placement diary of trainee teacher, Marie McCallum McDougall (pictured below, Marie (left), with fellow student).
Marie trained as a primary school teacher at the Glasgow Provincial Training College (later known as Jordanhill College of Education) from 1945-1948. The course required her to spend several hours each week on placement in a local school, observing the teachers’ classroom techniques. In her first year, she was placed at Napiershall Street School in Glasgow, and in her second year, at Penilee Primary School in Glasgow. In her final year, she spent four weeks at Arrochar Primary School in Tarbet, and the remainder of the session at Banknock School near Falkirk. Like the other students, she kept a detailed record of her placement sessions, which had to be signed off by the headmaster of each host school.
On her first placement at Napiershall Street School, Marie was immediately struck by the discipline maintained there, observing that even the infant class ‘tiptoe[d] quietly to take off their coats and hats.’ The infant class teacher had to work hard to hold her small pupils’ attention but succeeded in doing so by speaking clearly and distinctly, varying her manner of teaching lessons, giving the children drill (physical exercise) every now and then, and ‘praising each child, for smart answers, good behaviour, and any small sparks of brightness’. Where reading lessons were concerned, Marie noted that ‘praising and the promise of a nice new reading book’ was enough to render all the pupils ‘eager and enthusiastic’. She also found that the infant class loved to sing and recite nursery rhymes, and that those with the loudest and clearest voices were allowed to stand at the front of the room to lead the others.
At the same school, she watched the teacher of a more senior class, class III(a), employ numerous techniques to ensure discipline, such as having the children sit with their hands behind their heads whilst the register was taken and putting a black mark against pupils’ names for any display of disobedience. Conversely, when obedience was later shown, the black mark was taken away again.
Anyone who found maths difficult at school would sympathise with the pupils of Napiershall class III(a), who struggled terribly with arithmetic lessons. Marie recorded in her diary that:
‘They are doing a revision of tables, and division seems very difficult to them. Constant slogging at tables and division is done every morning, first mentally, then in their squared paper jotters.’
However, at Napiershall Street Marie also discovered that ‘A lesson should begin by showing its attractive side first’, and that ‘All work should be “play” for infants’. Oral composition was accordingly taught through word games such as the Minister’s Cat, where each child in the class took turns to suggest an adjective to describe the appearance and personality of the imaginary cat.
The placement diary also contains many ideas for primary school handwork, or craft lessons. The page shown on the right, for example, suggests various ways in which the infant class at Penilee Primary School might use silver paper to make Christmas decorations:
‘Penilee School, Infants [class] II 2.
Handwork.
With the coming of Christmas there is plenty of scope provided.
IDEAS:
1. Silver paper circles joined together make fascinating chains.
2. Lanterns made from silver paper & Christmas wrapping paper, and strung across the room with silver paper bells – made from cardboard glued to silver paper.
3. Silver paper joined together forming a huge bow and covered with cellophane paper.
4. Small Christmas trees made from a cotton reel covered with coloured paper (forming the stand) and green paper cut into the shape of the tree fixed into the stand.’
Whilst on placement, student teachers also had to prepare and deliver a certain number of lessons themselves, observed and assessed by one of the host teachers who then wrote a critique in their placement diary. This was a nerve-wracking experience for most students. The assessors’ remarks in Marie’s diary reveal that she initially made the common mistake of blocking pupils’ view of the blackboard by standing in front of it, rather than beside it when teaching, and that her choice of coloured chalks could not be seen clearly enough on the board. Miss Stone, the infant class mistress at Napiershall Street, praised Marie’s general manner when standing before the class, but urged her to ‘correct a habit that spoils it: folded arms’. Miss Stone also felt that tighter control was required over pupils’ behaviour during mental arithmetic lessons, suggesting that: ‘Your oral work should be crisper & move more quickly – then perhaps the snapping & rising would be curbed. Do not allow these disturbances.’ However, perhaps the sagest advice came from the infant class teacher at Banknock, who encouraged Marie to ‘Try to be calmer and give [an] impression of reserved power’.
Marie McDougall evidently took these, and the other pieces of constructive criticism offered by her placement hosts seriously, and always made efforts to address them. On completion of her three years at college, she achieved the grade of ‘Good Plus’ for practical skill in teaching, while her training record (pictured below) estimated her general capacity as a teacher as ‘Promising’.
The glimpse into the classrooms of the late 1940s afforded by Marie McDougall’s teaching placement diary is not only interesting of itself, but also shows how much (and in certain respects, how little) has changed for trainee teachers today.
Further information:
Papers of Marie McCallum McDougall, including teacher’s certificates, lecture notebooks, needlework samples and snapshots (reference: JCE/22/5/6).
As children return to the classroom for the start of the new school year in Scotland, we highlight the 1940s teaching placement diary of trainee teacher, Marie McCallum McDougall (pictured below, Marie (left), with fellow student).
Marie trained as a primary school teacher at the Glasgow Provincial Training College (later known as Jordanhill College of Education) from 1945-1948. The course required her to spend several hours each week on placement in a local school, observing the teachers’ classroom techniques. In her first year, she was placed at Napiershall Street School in Glasgow, and in her second year, at Penilee Primary School in Glasgow. In her final year, she spent four weeks at Arrochar Primary School in Tarbet, and the remainder of the session at Banknock School near Falkirk. Like the other students, she kept a detailed record of her placement sessions, which had to be signed off by the headmaster of each host school.
On her first placement at Napiershall Street School, Marie was immediately struck by the discipline maintained there, observing that even the infant class ‘tiptoe[d] quietly to take off their coats and hats.’ The infant class teacher had to work hard to hold her small pupils’ attention but succeeded in doing so by speaking clearly and distinctly, varying her manner of teaching lessons, giving the children drill (physical exercise) every now and then, and ‘praising each child, for smart answers, good behaviour, and any small sparks of brightness’. Where reading lessons were concerned, Marie noted that ‘praising and the promise of a nice new reading book’ was enough to render all the pupils ‘eager and enthusiastic’. She also found that the infant class loved to sing and recite nursery rhymes, and that those with the loudest and clearest voices were allowed to stand at the front of the room to lead the others.
At the same school, she watched the teacher of a more senior class, class III(a), employ numerous techniques to ensure discipline, such as having the children sit with their hands behind their heads whilst the register was taken and putting a black mark against pupils’ names for any display of disobedience. Conversely, when obedience was later shown, the black mark was taken away again.
Anyone who found maths difficult at school would sympathise with the pupils of Napiershall class III(a), who struggled terribly with arithmetic lessons. Marie recorded in her diary that:
However, at Napiershall Street Marie also discovered that ‘A lesson should begin by showing its attractive side first’, and that ‘All work should be “play” for infants’. Oral composition was accordingly taught through word games such as the Minister’s Cat, where each child in the class took turns to suggest an adjective to describe the appearance and personality of the imaginary cat.
Whilst on placement, student teachers also had to prepare and deliver a certain number of lessons themselves, observed and assessed by one of the host teachers who then wrote a critique in their placement diary. This was a nerve-wracking experience for most students. The assessors’ remarks in Marie’s diary reveal that she initially made the common mistake of blocking pupils’ view of the blackboard by standing in front of it, rather than beside it when teaching, and that her choice of coloured chalks could not be seen clearly enough on the board. Miss Stone, the infant class mistress at Napiershall Street, praised Marie’s general manner when standing before the class, but urged her to ‘correct a habit that spoils it: folded arms’. Miss Stone also felt that tighter control was required over pupils’ behaviour during mental arithmetic lessons, suggesting that: ‘Your oral work should be crisper & move more quickly – then perhaps the snapping & rising would be curbed. Do not allow these disturbances.’ However, perhaps the sagest advice came from the infant class teacher at Banknock, who encouraged Marie to ‘Try to be calmer and give [an] impression of reserved power’.
Marie McDougall evidently took these, and the other pieces of constructive criticism offered by her placement hosts seriously, and always made efforts to address them. On completion of her three years at college, she achieved the grade of ‘Good Plus’ for practical skill in teaching, while her training record (pictured below) estimated her general capacity as a teacher as ‘Promising’.
The glimpse into the classrooms of the late 1940s afforded by Marie McDougall’s teaching placement diary is not only interesting of itself, but also shows how much (and in certain respects, how little) has changed for trainee teachers today.
Further information:
Papers of Marie McCallum McDougall, including teacher’s certificates, lecture notebooks, needlework samples and snapshots (reference: JCE/22/5/6).