Issues and events

Abstract

The progressive approach to teaching out-rightly condemns the type of classroom arrangement where pupils are seated in rows facing the teacher as being too rigid: assigning to pupils a listeners' and to teachers a talkers' role. Besides it impedes the creative organization of teaching and learning activities. Groupwork, to name one example, cannot be organized effectively within such a classroom set-up. Progressives, therefore, would do away with dual benches and have them replaced with tables around which pupils sit in groups. Such an arrangement, they claim, brings about more effective teaching and encourages pupils to work together in carrying out learning tasks. Emphasis, therefore, is placed on cooperation rather than competition.