19. Mr. W. T. Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will make a statement in respect of the development of teaching machines, and of his discussions with teachers' organisations on this matter.
§ Mr. CroslandTeaching machines provide one means among others for presenting programmed learning. I am pressing ahead with the study and promotion of developments in this promising and important field. Short and one-term courses have been arranged this year to enable teachers to learn about programmed learning and to write programmes, and my Department is financing research on this subject at the Universities of London, Sheffield, Leicester and 235W Birmingham. In the last named, my Department is also financing a national centre of research and documentation for programmed learning. I have had no discussions with teachers' organisations, but they have received copies of surveys of current developments which I have circulated to local educational authorities.