Jim D'Arcy (Fine Gael)

I wish to speak for five minutes and to share my time with Senator Healy Eames by agreement. Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire go dtí an Teach. The Minister is very good at coming here. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment commissioned the educational policy research centre of the Economic and Social Research Institute to carry out a study of student experiences of the curriculum in the first three years of their post-primary schooling. The report was produced in September 2007.

Among the first and second year findings, students reported that they learned best when teachers explained things clearly, had a clear grasp of the subject, made learning fun and encouraged students to express their opinion in class. It was noted that a didactic form of teaching or teaching from the book was viewed by students as less helpful to their learning. The process of keeping students interested and focused on learning was helped by the use of a variety of teaching methods such as video and audio resources, group work and class discussions. Students reported that such methods were used less frequently by teachers in third year.

When asked their opinion about what would be helpful to them, students commented that it was hard to concentrate if all they do is read from the book. A student from a girl's school with mixed ability said it was good to do a little of everything, suggesting that if they did a little light tape work and then some writing it would be better than doing the same stuff every day. She explained that some teachers do the same stuff every day and that this gets boring. She further explained that if the class is boring one cannot concentrate, regardless of how much one wishes to take it in and her view was that if a class was boring the learning would not stay in a student's head. She explained that in such cases one wishes for the class to end, one wonders what time it is and one simply wishes to get out of the class because it is so boring. It is not what is being said by the students that matters but what they hear.

I welcome the Minister's ambition to reform the curriculum because many reforms have been tried during the years and sometimes the cure has been worse than the disease.