Innovations for Learning

University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario: 16mm.
"By the early seventies several professional schools in Ontario were making radical changes in curriculum and teaching approach in recognition of the fact that students must be prepared for unanticipated change. One of the first to do this was McMaster Faculty of Medicine, which abandoned classroom and lecture format for practical experience and small group tutorials. Both student and tutor were subject to on-going rather than periodic evaluation, and faculty advising played a greater role. The administration introduced innovations such as matrix management, which encouraged interdisciplinary study. In the University of Toronto's School of Architecture, a studio approach to study was initiated, again encouraging the practical aspect. Personal evaluation and student participation and parity is a focus of the course. For those opposed to such radical changes in approach, the final point made in the film is that students at McMaster performed well on professional examinations, as well as doing well as graduates. The success of the school is attested to by the formation of a graduate school in medicine."