DVD diskas "What, Why and How of Children's Learning" skirtas pradinių klasių moksleivių tėvams bus pradėtas platinti 2006 kovo mėnesį. Šis diskas bus išleistas ir lietuviškai. Jis skirtas paaiškinti, kaip dabar vyksta mokymas Airijos pradinėse mokyklose.
Pilnas straipsnis: Parents get DVD lesson in how their children learn
Katherine Donnelly
PARENTS of primary school pupils are to get lessons in how their children are being taught at school.
A new DVD will offer revealing glimpses of what goes on, or should go on, in the classrooms of the 4-12-year-olds.
Parents will be guided through the huge changes in teaching and learning since their day in school and will be shown how to help with homework.
Real pupils and teachers will feature, giving examples of what is happening at each class level, and the DVD will also include tips on the pre-school period and the transition to second level. Today's primary schools are unrecognisable from those that parents left up to four decades ago.
Computers have become a classroom tool, the previously taboo subject of sex education is introduced from junior classes and children are taught to deal with bullies.
Many parents will be agreeably surprised to see how the new, child-centred, primary curriculum has shifted the spotlight from "chalk and talk" teachers to more hands-on, active learning by pupils.
Classrooms have been further transformed by the integration of children who have special needs, with learning supports.
Silent serried ranks of pupils of yore have given way to interactive environments where children are encouraged to learn from one another.
In the curriculum, Maths teaching has gone beyond mere addition, subtraction and division to shapes and spaces and pupils learn more about speaking Irish than the rules of grammar.
The DVD, the brainchild of the Government's education advisers, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), is the first of its kind in the world.
The "What, Why and How of Children's Learning" will be available in English, Irish, Polish, Lithuanian and French, reflecting the increasingly diverse ethnic background of pupils in the modern classroom.
A broad spectrum of parents admitted they needed help when the NCCA conducted its first review of the new primary school curriculum, which has been rolled out gradually since 1999.
They wanted information on what their child was learning, with a particular emphasis on "what has changed since my day", and how best to support them at home.
Parents will also get an opportunity to share the experiences of pupils in one of the increasing number of gaelscoileanna. There are 158 such schools today.
About 240,000 copies of the DVD are being produced and it will go to every home with primary school pupils, as well as schools, parents' associations and libraries.
The DVD is part of a growing trend towards greater openness in the education system. It is expected to prove useful to teachers in terms of establishing a common base of knowledge, facilitating communication with parents.
At the request of parents, the DVD, to be released in March, will also give advice on the kind of questions parents should ask at parent-teacher meetings.
The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) welcomed it as a way of developing closer links between school and home.
