Episode Transcript

During the past century, much has been learned about how we educate, as well as the subjects we choose to teach.
The University of Dundee has been teaching the teachers for more than 100 years, with the first lectures in Education given in 1900. James Malloch had been appointed the first lecturer. With a background of teaching in Dundee schools, he was keen that the city should have an education college like those in Glasgow and Edinburgh, where he had trained.

Six years later in 1906, the Dundee Training College was established. Malloch was its Principal and Director of Studies but with no building of its own, it shared the Small’s Wynd premises of the Technical Institute.

Construction of the college’s first dedicated home began in 1912, but the First World War delayed the opening until 1920. It could accommodate 400 students but kept women and men apart in common rooms and on the staircases.

Subjects such as household management were taught in a model flat and a bridge connected the college with a demonstration school for students to get their first practical teaching experience.

When James Malloch died in 1932 the city paid tribute, saying that his “vision, enthusiasm, and tireless energy were largely contributory to the systematic training of teachers in Dundee, and to the ultimate establishment of the large and finely equipped Training College.”

The facility, renamed Dundee College of Education in 1958 outgrew the buildings, even with extensions to the Park Place property and a campus was built away from the city centre. At the beginning of the 1970s the new college was built on Gardyne Road. The 30-acre site could accommodate not only tutorial rooms, but also a wide range of facilities to improve the quality of teaching. There was a theatre, an extensive library, games halls, art, drama, and music rooms, a bookshop, a physical education complex and even a bank. The site was built in a primarily residential area giving the campus a strong community feeling.

From 1987 to 2001, the college merged with Aberdeen College of Education to become Northern College, but then the Dundee College of Education was integrated into the University of Dundee, becoming what is now the School of Education & Social Work.

The students moved back into the city centre, just a short stroll from the original Park Place premises at the new Dalhousie Building.

Today, the School of Education and Social work at the University of Dundee offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate opportunities. It also carries out extensive research into how education can transform lives for people across the world.

It has also embraced each new tool that can help new generations of learners to understand the world around them.

It also has an understanding that we learn from everyone around us, rather than just teachers and to that end The Centre for Peer Learning develops systems that can be used by peers, parents, volunteers and others who are not professional teachers.

Embracing technology is also important to inspire a generation that is native to digital applications in play and education. And with Dundee’s position as a centre of digital innovation, bringing applications that will complement traditional learning is a natural step.

Derek Roberston, a lecturer in the School of Education, Social Work and Community Education believes that the use of Minecraft, the game that allows freedom of expression and the chance to create worlds can be a positive influence in the classroom.

Developed in the city for several platforms by 4J studios, collaborative projects have shown teachers that learners can be motivated by the control they have over this digital space.

This is simply the next chapter in the past century’s reinvention in education, ensuring that every learner has the opportunity to realise their potential.