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Aided by the phonetic similarity between the two nouns that it contains, the colloquial phrase chalk and talk designates a traditional method of teaching consisting of lectures (talk) illustrated chiefly on the blackboard (chalk).
This phrase occurred (together with chalk-and-talker, designating a teacher using that traditional method) in Lunchtime learning, by Michele Hanson, published in The Guardian (London and Manchester, England) of Tuesday 25th January 2000 [Further Education section: page 4F, column 4]:
Teachers can never afford to stop learning. […] To help the teacher adapt to change, workshops are held, a little further education in your lunch hour or after school. I remember a maths workshop to help us adapt to SMILE (Secondary Mathematics Individual Learning Experience). […]
[…]
Children would hopefully work […] on their own, marking their own work. That’s why it was called an Individual Learning Scheme. It had come to save us from the hated chalk-and-talk method.
Mr Snave, dedicated chalk-and-talker, did not agree. In his experience, all SMILE pupils queue up to ask the teacher for help because they get stuck.
The earliest occurrences of the phrase chalk and talk that I have found are from U.S. publications—these early occurrences are as follows, in chronological order:
1-: From Concerts, Lectures, &c., published in The Brooklyn Daily Times (Brooklyn, New York, USA) of Monday 30th October 1871 [page 3, column 2]:
—The Sunday School Association invites its friends to meet at Y. M. C. A. Hall to-night, where Mr. Charles B. Stout, of New Brunswick, N. J., will deliver a lecture on “Chalk and Talk,” or the place of the Blackboard in the Sunday School.
2-: From Sunday School Association, published in The Brooklyn Daily Times (Brooklyn, New York, USA) of Tuesday 31st October 1871 [page 4, column 3]:
The second meeting for the season convened last evening […].
[…]
[…] Charles B. Stout of New Brunswick, New Jersey, gave a very impressive dissertation on “Chalk and Talk,” which was splendidly illustrated by blackboard exercises and in a very simple manner. He maintained that the use of the blackboard helps to fix facts in the memory. We have two avenues of approach to the heart and conscience, and by the use of the blackboard children have been so well instructed in the Scriptures, that at home the parents have found that their children knew more about the Bible than they themselves knew. We found that we could not get along without it in day schools. Our colleges and institution[s] of learning found the blackboard indispensable; so he thought we could not get along without it in Sunday School institutes.
3 [?]-: From an account of the monthly reunion meeting of the members of the Tabernacle Lay College, held on Thursday 26th June 1873, published in The Brooklyn Daily Union (Brooklyn, New York, USA) of Friday 27th June 1873 [page 2, column 5]—however, here, the phrase is chalk talk:
The chairman referred to the subject of “Object Teaching in Sunday-schools,” the proper province of which he thought was singularly overlooked.
Mr. Sykes, of New York, was introduced, and delivered a brief address on the subject, in the course of which he laid down several useful rules for the guidance of those who find occasion to use the blackboard. He had found, from his experience, that object teaching is quite as interesting to adults as to the young. People learn most and quickest by the sense of sight. The introduction of judicious “chalk talk” into Sunday-schools will be found to be of great advantage.
4-: From a list of lectures that were to be delivered at the Peabody Institute, published in The Port Tobacco Times (Port Tobacco, Maryland, USA) of Friday 5th December 1873 [page 2, column 6]:
7. Prof. E. S. Morse, M. D., of Bowdoin College, two lectures on The Theory of Evolution as held by Darwin, Wallace and others, February 10, 12
It is not the object of Prof. Morse, nor the Peabody Institute, to advocate or oppose the development theory, but to explain it as held by its advocates; to correct facts with regard to it. The whole subject will be illustrated with chalk drawings upon the blackboard. The Professor is the greatest man upon the planet for “chalk and talk.”
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