‘Lecturer says our Universities are still “Mediaeval”’, The Argus, 7 January 1955

‘Lecturer says our Universities are still “Mediaeval”’, The Argus, 7 January 1955

authority, classroom, education, lecturer, lecturing, pedagogy, specialist, teacher, teaching, teaching methods, university, W. A. Townsley.

This article from The Argus in 1955 quotes Mr W. A. Townsley, a lecturer in Political Science, on the outlook of Australian Universities as ‘still mediaeval’. Criticising lecturing on the reasoning that it turns out ‘poorly educated, highly technical specialists’ instead of critical thinkers, Townsley negatively invokes the medieval period to explain the continued use of lecturing as the principal method of university teaching. This, he suggests, is ‘a hangover from medieval times when only very few people were educated’. Implied in this statement is a sense that the medieval period is ‘backwards’ or reactionary, and that progress requires a move away from medieval ideas about, and methods of, teaching.

Anon

TROVE: National Library of Australia, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71688335

7 January 1955, p.8

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