From the archives: The international commission at Krakow

The main function of discussion groups is to help individuals to clarify their own thoughts, and there is little profit in detailed reports of their activities; but the demonstration lessons at Krakow raised many matters of general interest, and so most of the rest of this report is devoted to them. A number of the lessons at Krakow were of this second type; not merely because of the incidental difficulties of language, but because the teacher was deliberately developing an unknown situation so that all who watched could learn from it, and learn from the mistakes and from the response of the class to unusual stimuli. Since this conference took place in Poland it inevitably raises the questions "What is it like behind the Iron Curtain?" and "How does their teaching differ from ours?" I have ignored these matters in the earlier part of this report, because it is necessary to put them into perspective. In mitigation of this criticism it should be remembered that the permanent members of the International Commission are severe judges, having come together over the years because of their reforming zeal and because they find insufficient sympathy for their point of view in their own countries.