Transitions

In the early days of Canada’s education system, school could be quite a trying experience for many students. Teaching methods were strict, corporal punishment was still prevalent and teachers emphasized recitation and rote learning.

By the early 1900s, however, educators began talking about approaching children with sympathetic insight rather than unbending discipline. In the 1920s, some teachers were turning away from formal discipline and beginning to look at schools as institutions that could adapt to a child's natural development.

In Alberta in the 1940s, teachers were experimenting with the enterprise and activity methods of teaching in their elementary schools. 'Continuous progress' entered the teaching vocabulary in 1948 and eventually influenced many elementary schools across the country.

By the 1960s and 1970s, new concepts such as the discovery method and team teaching found advocates. Some schools adopted an open area concept for classroom layouts and teachers began emphasizing a teamwork approach to learning—developing a wider range of student skills than in the past.

Perhaps the most dramatic transition has occurred over the past few years, with more and more Canadian classrooms becoming computerized and going online.

Over the past 20 years, provincial and territorial ministries and departments of education have promoted the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in schools. Initiatives include special funds for the purchase of computers, computer networks, new distance learning strategies, in-service training for teachers and the integration of ICT skills into the standard curriculum. The federal government has also promoted the development and use of ICT in education through, for example, Industry Canada’s SchoolNet program.

In Canada in 2000, there were on average seven students per computer in a school—one of the best ratios internationally. Other countries with favourable ratios were the United States and Australia (6:1) and the United Kingdom (8:1).

Information technology is more available and more frequently used in schools and homes than it used to be, but this does not guarantee that computers are being used for educational purposes such as researching a topic on the Internet or writing a report.

While more than three out of four Canadian 15-year-olds reported that they had frequent access to computers at school and at home in 2000, only about one in three reported frequent use of computers to support their school work. One in five said they never used computers to help them learn school material.