5 February 2010

Bell lecture on Education - February 16th

Professor Sue Jackson, Director of the Birkbeck Institute for Lifelong Learning at the University of London, will present the latest Bell Lecture at the University of Dundee on Tuesday February 16th.

Professor Jackson’s lecture is titled "Older Women and informal learning: international perspectives". The lecture takes place at the Dalhousie Building on the University campus, and starts at 6pm. All are welcome to attend.

The Bell Lecture series is hosted by the School of Education, Social Work & Community Education at Dundee.

The Rev. Dr. Andrew Bell was chaplain to the army of the East India Company in Madras, India. In charge of educating the soldiers' children and finding a shortage of teachers, he used the older boys (who had been taught the lesson by the master) to instruct the younger pupils. On return from India, Dr. Bell travelled the country encouraging schools to adopt 'the Madras system'. This method of peer learning became widely used in schools at home and abroad. By his death in 1832, over 10,000 schools were using his methods.

The Rev. Dr. Bell also founded Madras College in St Andrews in 1833 and what is now called Bell Baxter High School in Cupar. To further promote the study of education he founded two Chairs in Education, one at Edinburgh and the other at St Andrews which transferred to Dundee while Dundee was a College of St Andrews.

To remember his innovations and show respect for Andrew Bell’s work as a philanthropist, the School of Education, Social Work and Community Education at the University of Dundee holds a series of evening lectures given by highly respected invited academics from the wide field of education.

Free tickets for this event are available from:
t.pratt@dundee.ac.uk or n.barton@dundee.ac.uk
OTI Reception
Tower Building Reception
www.dundee.ac.uk/tickets.

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07800 581902