Volume 6 Number 1 - Adm.monash.edu.au - Monash University

MONASH UNlVERSlTY GAZETTEwhich suggests differential salaries and conditions forscience teachers.At the moment, in Australia, there are somewhatconflicting indications about the existence of a drift fromscience. It is certainly not as clear as in Britain, butthere is no doubt that Australia suffers even more acutelythan Britain from a shortage of well-trained scienceteachers, and exhibits an alarming inability to hold asteachers those who do begin a career in the classroom.Several experiments in the further education of scienceteachers have sprung up in England. Some are full-timefor a term, while most are part-time of varying lengths,but none yet approach the thoroughness of the Japaneseprogramme which requires six months full-time refresherstudy every five years for all science teachers.Macquarie and Monash now both offer courses forthe further education of science teachers, but these are,at this stage, optional and touch only a tiny proportionof the teachers. New pre-service courses to train scienceteachers have been slower to emerge, although both thetraditional undergraduate science course and the year ofprofessional teacher training have unsatisfactory features.The new demands on science teachers to make sciencemore attractive, to teach it as part of general educationand to make its nature and social significance explicit,underline the need for changes.At Chelsea College, within the University of London,a new one-year course for science graduates leads to aDiploma of Education. There is a minimurn core offormal lectures and for the rest of the year the studentsand staff work together in small seminar groups, integratingas much as possible the experiences of teachingpractice and the findings of the academic study of education.The association of the Nuffield science curriculumprojects with this unit at Chelsea makes possiblethe easy familiarization of the students with the mostrecent materials and curricula ideas. A similar approachto preparing science graduates for teaching occurs atthe very strong centre for science education of OhioState University. Once again, the integration of teachingexperience with academic findings is stressed and thesignificance of cultural and sociological context forteaching methods in science is a major emphasis. Inboth these courses full advantage is taken of the homogeneousbackground of the students as science graduates.As yet, there appear to be no such courses in Australia,although a radical revision along these lines is plannedfor science graduates at Monash.The training of teachers is only one aspect of theteacher problem; the more major one is the essentiallypolitical problem of retaining them in education as acareer. when they. above all other teachers, have a basictraining which makes them highly marketable persons ina society essentially shorl of technically trained persons.JAPANESE CONSUL-GENERALPRESENTS BOOKSSeventy-two valuable Japanese books were presented toMonash on 24 March by the Japanese Consul-Generalin Melbourne, Mr N. Imajo, on behalf of the JapaneseGovernment.The Acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor K. C. Westfold,formally accepted the gift. The books, which areabout contemporary Japan, were then given to the University'sdepartment of Japanese.MR R. OSBORN APPOINTED AIDE-DE-CAMPTO THE QUEENMr Richard Osborn, a senior administrative officer onthe staff of the Academic Registrar, and secretary tothe faculty of Medicine from 1964 until the recentrotation of faculty secretaries,has been honouredby Her Majesty The Queenin being chosen as anAide - de - Camp to theQueen. The appointmentis for a term of two yearsexpiring in August 1971.Mr Osborn's appointmentstems from the occasionswhen he 'wears anotherhat'-in this instance the'hat' of Commandant ofthe Victoria UniversitySquadron. an office he hasheld for the past ten years,commencing in the daysMr R. Osborn when there was only oneuniversity in Victoria andthis unit was then calledthe Melbourne University Squadron. The office ofCommandant is distinct from that of CommandingOfficer, and the role of the Commandant is primarilyone of liaison between t.he universities and the Air Forcein the interests of the Squadron and its undergraduatemembers, as well as 'showing the flag' at BirthdayLevees and other similar ceremonial occasions.Mr Osborn served as a night bom.ber pilot in theR.A.F. in England throughout the second world war,and was awarded the D.S.O. and D.F.C. in this capacity.He was twice wounded in action, and also spent nearlytwo years as a prisoner of war in Germany. As Commandantof the Victoria University Squadron he holdsthe rank of Wing Commander in the RA.A.F. Reserve,and it is in this capacity that he has now been appointedA.D.C. to the Queen.An A.D.C. is called upon to escort and assist theMonarch as occasions require - with the forthcomingroyal visit in 1970, Mr Osborn anticipates some measureof direct involvement in the tour but as yet no detailshave been notified to him.MEDICAL FACULTY AWARDSSECOND DOCTORATEDr D. M. de Kretser, from the department of Anatomy,has been awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine.This is the second doctorate in Medicine to be awardedby Monash University and the first in the basic medicalsciences.Dr de Kretser's thesis Studies on the Structure andFunction of the Human Testis is concerned with thestructural bases of male fertility and infertility. Dr deKreiser is a member of an advisory group at the EndocrineClinic of the Royal Women's Hospital and he hasbeen able to provide an electron microscopic assessmentof various forms of therapy used. He is at present onleave at the University of Washington in Seattle wherehe is continuing his studies on the mechanisms of hormonalcontrol of gonadal activity.14