A Study Of The Monitorial System And The Pupil-Teacher System In Britain In The First Half Of The Nineteenthe Century

The first half of the 19th century was the transitional phase of the formation of the British modern educational system. The monitorial system and the pupil-teacher system, which were the important institutional reform results of the elementary education in this phase, had foundational role in the modernization of the British education. The studies of the British education system reform in the first half of the 19th century were scattered throughout the relevant works of political reform, education reform, and social reform. That is to say, the research was lack of systematic. Therefore, the author hopes that this paper can do its little bit to this subject.This paper consists of 3 parts:the monitorial system, the pupil-teacher system, and the historic role of the monitorial system & the pupil-teacher system. The first and second parts of this article will trace the emergence of these two systems and combine their contents. The third part of this paper will analyze their impacts on the construction and reform of elementary education system in the first half of the 19th century, and also evaluate their historical status.The monitorial system and the pupil-teacher system are important innovations of the British elementary education in the first half of the 19th century. They are the transitional forms of education, which ranged from traditional education to modern education. They also met the educational needs which was aroused by social transition moving from an agricultural society to industrial society. The monitorial system was created by Andrew Bell(1753-1832) as well as by Joseph Lancaster (1778-1838), the core of which is the mutual system. It became the major school system of elementary education in the 1920s and 1930s. The pupil-teacher system was the standardization system of training teachers for elementary education which was established by the government in 1846. And in the 1850s, it became the major school system of elementary system in England.The reform of monitorial and pupil-teacher systems broke the monopoly of the Church of England in elementary education. They established a more sophisticated system of elementary education. The monitorial system created the voluntary system. And the pupil-teacher system formed a new kind of elementary education system which integrated the tripartite forces, the government, the Church of England and the Dissenters, into one educational organization. Furthermore, the government's intervention in education reform seemed to be inevitable. The government thereby was to be a leading force in the elementary education. They also had many innovations in the educational organizations and teaching methods, such as grading students according to their ability and allocating of the school hours rationally. And on this basis, the class teaching system was established. It was the embryonic form of the Britain modern class system.As a transitional education system, the monitorial system and the pupil-teacher system still had their weakness, but they played an important role in structuring and reforming the elementary education system of England in the first half of 19th century. Moreover, they laid a solid foundation for the establishment of British modern education system in the latter half of this century.