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Title: Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education
Author: Ontario. Ministry of Education
Language: English
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ONTARIO NORMAL SCHOOL MANUALS
SCIENCE OF EDUCATION
AUTHORIZED BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION
TORONTO THE RYERSON PRESS
COPYRIGHT, CANADA, 1915, BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION FOR ONTARIO
Second Printing, 1919.
Third Printing, 1923.
CONTENTS
PART I
THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION
CHAPTER I PAGE
NATURE AND PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 1
Conditions of Growth and Development 2
Worth in Human Life 4
Factors in Social Efficiency 6
CHAPTER II
FORMS OF REACTION 9
Instinctive Reaction 9
Habitual Reaction 10
Conscious Reaction 11
Factors in process 12
Experience 13
Relative value of experiences 15
Influence of Conscious Reaction 17
CHAPTER III
PROCESS OF EDUCATION 19
Conscious Adjustment 19
Education as Adjustment 19
Education as Control of Adjustment 22
Requirements of the Instructor 24
CHAPTER IV
THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM 25
Purposes of Curriculum 25
Dangers in Use of Curriculum 28
CHAPTER V
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 34
The School 34
Other Educative Agents 35
The church 35
The home 36
The vocation 36
Other institutions 36
CHAPTER VI
THE PURPOSE OF THE SCHOOL 38
Civic Views 38
Individualistic Views 40
The Eclectic View 43
CHAPTER VII
DIVISIONS OF EDUCATIONAL STUDY 46
Control of Experience 46
The Instructor's Problems 48
General method 49
Special methods 49
School management 50
History of education 50
PART II
METHODOLOGY
CHAPTER VIII
GENERAL METHOD 52
Subdivisions of Method 52
Method and Mind 53
CHAPTER IX
THE LESSON PROBLEM 55
Nature of Problem 55
Need of Problem 57
Pupil's Motive 59
Awakening Interest 61
Knowledge of Problem 67
How to Set Problem 69
Examples of Motivation 71
CHAPTER X
LEARNING AS A SELECTING ACTIVITY 75
The Selecting Process 77
Law of Preparation 82
Value of preparation 83
Precautions 84
Necessity of preparation 85
Examples of preparation 86
CHAPTER XI
LEARNING AS A RELATING ACTIVITY 89
Nature of Synthesis 90
Interaction of Processes 91
Knowledge unified 94
CHAPTER XII
APPLICATION OF KNOWLEDGE 95
Types of Action 96
Nature of Expression 97
Types of Expression 99
Value of Expression 100
Dangers of Omitting 102
Expression and Impression 103
CHAPTER XIII
FORMS OF LESSON PRESENTATION 106
The Lecture Method 106
The Text-book Method 109
Uses of text-book 111
Abuse of text-book 113
The Developing Method 113
The Objective Method 116
The Illustrative Method 118
Precautions 119
Modes of Presentation Compared 121
CHAPTER XIV
CLASSIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE 122
Acquisition of Particular Knowledge 122
Through senses 122
Through imagination 122
By deduction 123
Acquisition of General Knowledge 124
By conception 124
By induction 125
Applied knowledge general 126
Processes of Acquiring Knowledge Similar 127
CHAPTER XV
MODES OF LEARNING 129
Development of Particular Knowledge 129
Learning through senses 129
Learning through imagination 131
Learning by deduction 133
Examples for study 137
Development of General Knowledge 139
The conceptual lesson 139
The inductive lesson 140
The formal steps 141
Conception as learning process 143
Induction as learning process 144
Further examples 145
The inductive-deductive lesson 148
CHAPTER XVI
THE LESSON UNIT 150
Whole to Parts 151
Parts to Whole 154
Precautions 155
CHAPTER XVII
LESSON TYPES 156
The Study Lesson 157
The Recitation Lesson 160
Conducting recitation lesson 161
The Drill Lesson 162
The Review Lesson 165
The topical review 166
The comparative review 169
CHAPTER XVIII
QUESTIONING 171
Qualifications of Good Questioner 171
Purposes of Questioning 173
Socratic Questioning 174
The Question 177
The Answer 179
Limitations 181
PART III
EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
CHAPTER XIX
CONSCIOUSNESS 183
Value of Educational Psychology 186
Limitations 186
Methods of Psychology 187
Phases of Consciousness 189
CHAPTER XX
MIND AND BODY 192
The Nervous System 192
The Cortex 198
Reflex Acts 199
Characteristics of Nervous Matter 202
CHAPTER XXI
INSTINCT 207
Human Instincts 209
Curiosity 214
Imitation 217
Play 221
Play in education 223
CHAPTER XXII
HABIT 226
Formation of Habits 230
Value of Habits 231
Improvement of Habits 234
CHAPTER XXIII
ATTENTION 237
Attention Selective 240
Involuntary Attention 243
Non-voluntary Attention 245
Voluntary Attention 246
Attention in Education 251
CHAPTER XXIV
THE FEELING OF INTEREST 257
Classes of Feelings 258
Interest in Education 261
Development of interests 264
CHAPTER XXV
SENSE PERCEPTION 267
Genesis of Perception 270
Factors in Sensation 273
Classification of Sensations 274
Education of the Senses 276
CHAPTER XXVI
MEMORY AND APPERCEPTION 282
Distinguished 283
Factors of Memory 284
Conditions of Memory 285
Types of Recall 288
Localization of Time 290
Classification of Memories 290
Memory in Education 291
Apperception 293
Conditions of Apperception 294
Factors in Apperception 296
CHAPTER XXVII
IMAGINATION 298
Types of Imagination 299
Passive 299
Active 300
Uses of Imagination 301
CHAPTER XXVIII
THINKING 304
Conception 305
Factors in concept 309
Aims of conceptual lessons 310
The definition 313
Judgment 315
Errors in judgment 317
Reasoning 320
Deduction 320
Induction 323
Development of Reasoning Power 328
CHAPTER XXIX
FEELING 330
Conditions of Feeling Tone 331
Sensuous Feelings 334
Emotion 334
Conditions of emotion 335
Other Types of Feeling 340
Mood 340
Disposition 340
Temperament 340
Sentiments 341
CHAPTER XXX
THE WILL 342
Types of Movement 342
Development of Control 343
Volition 345
Factors in volitional act 346
Abnormal Types of Will 348
CHAPTER XXXI
CHILD STUDY 352
Methods of Child Study 355
Periods of Development 358
Infancy 358
Childhood 359
Adolescence 361
Individual Differences 363
APPENDIX
SUGGESTED READINGS 369
THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION
PART I. PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION
CHAPTER I
NATURE AND PURPOSE OF EDUCATION
=Value of Scientific Knowledge.=--In the practice of any intelligent
occupation or art, in so far as the practice attains to perfection,
there are manifested in the processes certain scientific principles and
methods to which the work of the one practising the art conforms. In the
successful practice, for example, of the art of composition, there are
manifested the principles of rhetoric; in that of housebuilding, the
principles of architecture; and in that of government, the principles of
civil polity. In practising any such art, moreover, the worker finds
that a knowledge of these scientific principles and methods will guide
him in the correct practice of the art,--a knowledge of the science of
rhetoric assisting in the art of composition; of the science of
architecture, in the art of housebuilding; and of the science of civil
polity, in the art of government.
=The Science of Education.=--If the practice of teaching is an
intelligent art, there must, in like manner, be found in its processes
certain principles and methods which may be set forth in systematic form
as a science of education, and applied by the educator in the art of
teaching. Assuming the existence of a science of education, it is
further evident that the student-teacher should make himself acquainted
with its leading principles, and likewise learn to apply these
principles in his practice of the art of teaching. To this end,
however, it becomes necessary at the outset to determine the limits of
the subject-matter of the science. We shall, therefore, first consider
the general nature and purpose of education so far as to decide the
facts to be included in this science.
CONDITIONS OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
=A. Physical Growth.=--Although differing in their particular conception
of the nature of education, all educators agree in setting the child as
the central figure in the educative process. As an individual, the
child, like other living organisms, develops through a process of inner
changes which are largely conditioned by outside influences. In the case
of animals and plants, physical growth, or development, is found to
consist of changes caused in the main through the individual responding
to external stimulation. Taking one of the simplest forms of animal
life, for example, the amoeba, we find that when stimulated by any
foreign matter not constituting its food, say a particle of sand, such
an organism at once withdraws itself from the stimulating elements. On
the other hand, if it comes in contact with suitable food, the amoeba
not only flows toward it, but by assimilating it, at once begins to
increase in size, or grow, until it finally divides, or reproduces,
itself as shown in the following figures. Hence the amoeba as an
organism is not only able to react appropriately toward different
stimuli, but is also able to change itself, or develop, by its
appropriate reactions upon such stimulations.
In plant life, also, the same principle holds. As long as a grain of
corn, wheat, etc., is kept in a dry place, the life principle stored up
within the seed is unable to manifest itself in growth. When, on the
other hand, it is appropriately stimulated by water, heat, and light,
the seed awakens to life, or germinates. In other words, the seed
reacts upon the external stimulations of water, heat, and light, and
manifests the activity known as growth, or development. Thus all
physical growth, whether of the plant or the animal, is conditioned on
the energizing of the inherent life principle, in response to
appropriate stimulation of the environment.
[Illustration: A. Simple amoeba.
B. An amoeba developing as a result of assimilating food.
C. An amoeba about to divide, or propagate.]
=B. Development in Human Life.=--In addition to its physical nature,
human life has within it a spiritual law, or principle, which enables
the individual to respond to suitable stimulations and by that means
develop into an intelligent and moral being. When, for instance, waves
of light from an external object stimulate the nervous system through
the eye, man is able, through his intelligent nature, to react mentally
upon these stimulations and, by interpreting them, build up within his
experience conscious images of light, colour, and form. In like manner,
when the nerves in the hand are stimulated by an external object, the
mind is able to react upon the impressions and, by interpreting them,
obtain images of touch, temperature, and weight. In the sphere of
action, also, the child who is stimulated by the sight of his elder
pounding with a hammer, sweeping with a broom, etc., reacts imitatively
upon such stimulations, and thus acquires skill in action. So also when
stimulated by means of his human surroundings, as, for example, through
the kindly acts of his mother, father, etc., he reacts morally toward
these stimulations and thus develops such social qualities as sympathy,
love, and kindness. Nor are the conditions of development different in
more complex intellectual problems. If a child is given nine blocks on
which are printed the nine digits, and is asked to arrange them in the
form of a square so that each of the horizontal and the vertical columns
will add up to fifteen, there is equally an inner growth through
stimulation and response. In such a case, since the answer is unknown to
the child, the problem serves as a stimulation to his mind. Furthermore,
it is only by reacting upon this problem with his present knowledge of
the value of the various digits when combined in threes, as 1, 6, 8; 5,
7, 3; 9, 2, 4; 1, 5, 9; etc., that the necessary growth of knowledge
relative to the solution of the problem will take place within the mind.
WORTH IN HUMAN LIFE
But the possession of an intellectual and moral nature which responds to
appropriate stimulations implies, also, that as man develops
intellectually, he will find meaning in human life as realized in
himself and others. Thus he becomes able to recognize worth in human
life and to determine the conditions which favour its highest growth, or
development.
=The Worthy Life not a Natural Growth.=--Granting that it is thus
possible to recognize that "life is not a blank," but that it should
develop into something of worth, it by no means follows that the young
child will adequately recognize and desire a worthy life, or be able to
understand and control the conditions which make for its development.
Although, indeed, there is implanted in his nature a spiritual tendency,
yet his early interests are almost wholly physical and his attitude
impulsive and selfish. Left to himself, therefore, he is likely to
develop largely as a creature of appetite, controlled by blind passions
and the chance impressions of the moment. Until such time, therefore, as
he obtains an adequate development of his intellectual and moral life,
his behaviour conforms largely to the wants of his physical nature, and
his actions are irrational and wasteful. Under such conditions the young
child, if left to himself to develop in accordance with his native
tendencies through the chance impressions which may stimulate him from
without, must fall short of attaining to a life of worth. For this
reason education is designed to control the growth, or development, of
the child, by directing his stimulations and responses in such a way
that his life may develop into one of worth.
=Character of the Worthy Life.=--If, however, it is possible to add to
the worth of the life of the child by controlling and modifying his
natural reactions, the first problem confronting the scientific educator
is to decide what constitutes a life of worth. This question belongs
primarily to ethics, or the science of right living, to which the
educator must turn for his solution. Here it will be learned that the
higher life is one made up of moral relations. In other words, the
perfect man is a social man and the perfect life is a life made up of
social rights and duties, wherein one is able to realize his own good
in conformity with the good of others, and seek his own happiness by
including within it the happiness of others. But to live a life of
social worth, man must gain such control over his lower physical wants
and desires that he can conform them to the needs and rights of others.
He must, in other words, in adapting himself to his social environment,
develop a sense of duty toward his fellows which will cause him to act
in co-operation with others. He must refuse, for instance, to satisfy
his own want by causing want to others, or to promote his own desires by
giving pain to others. Secondly, he must obtain such control over his
physical surroundings, including his own body, that he is able to make
these serve in promoting the common good. In the worthy life, therefore,
man has so adjusted himself to his fellow men that he is able to
co-operate with them, and has so adjusted himself to his physical
surroundings that he is able to make this co-operation effective, and
thus live a socially efficient life.
FACTORS IN SOCIAL EFFICIENCY
=A. Knowledge, a Factor in Social Efficiency.=--The following simple
examples will more fully demonstrate the factors which enter into the
socially efficient life. The young child, for instance, who lives on the
shore of one of our great lakes, may learn through his knowledge of
colour to distinguish between the water and the sky on the horizon line.
This knowledge, he finds, however, does not enter in any degree into his
social life within the home. When on the same basis, however, he learns
to distinguish between the ripe and the unripe berries in the garden, he
finds this knowledge of service in the community, or home, life, since
it enables him to distinguish the fruit his mother may desire for use
in the home. One mark of social efficiency, therefore, is to possess
knowledge that will enable us to serve effectively in society.
=B. Skill, a Factor in Social Efficiency.=--In the sphere of action,
also, the child might acquire skill in making stones skip over the
surface of the lake. Here, again, however, the acquired skill would
serve no purpose in the community life, except perhaps occasionally to
enable him to amuse himself or his fellows. When, on the other hand, he
acquires skill in various home occupations, as opening and closing the
gates, attending to the furnace, harnessing and driving the horse, or
playing a musical instrument, he finds that this skill enables him in
some measure to serve in the community life of which he is a member. A
second factor in social efficiency, therefore, is the possession of such
skill as will enable us to co-operate effectively within our social
environment.
=C. Right Feeling, a Factor in Social Efficiency.=--But granting the
possession of adequate knowledge and skill, a man may yet fall far short
of the socially efficient life. The machinist, for instance, may know
fully all that pertains to the making of an excellent engine for the
intended steamboat. He may further possess the skill necessary to its
actual construction. But through indifference or a desire for selfish
gain, this man may build for the vessel an engine which later, through
its poor construction, causes the loss of the ship and its crew. A third
necessary requisite in social efficiency, therefore, is the possession
of a sense of duty which compels us to use our knowledge and skill with
full regard to the feelings and rights of others. Thus a certain amount
of socially useful knowledge, a certain measure of socially effective
skill, and a certain sense of moral obligation, or right feeling, all
enter as factors into the socially efficient life.
FORMAL EDUCATION
Assuming that the educator is thus able to distinguish what constitutes
a life of worth, and to recognize and in some measure control the
stimulations and reactions of the child, it is evident that he should be
able to devise ways and means by which the child may grow into a more
worthy, that is, into a more socially efficient, life. Such an attempt
to control the reactions of the child as he adjusts himself to the
physical and social world about him, in order to render him a more
socially efficient member of the society to which he belongs, is
described as formal education.
CHAPTER II
FORMS OF REACTION
INSTINCTIVE REACTION
Since the educator aims to direct the development of the child by
controlling his reactions upon his physical and social surroundings, we
have next to consider the forms under which these reactions occur. Even
at birth the human organism is endowed with certain tendencies, which
enable it to react effectively upon the presentation of appropriate
stimuli. Our instinctive movements, such as sucking, hiding, grasping,
etc., being inherited tendencies to react under given conditions in a
more or less effective manner for our own good, constitute one type of
reactive movement. At birth, therefore, the child is endowed with
powers, or tendencies, which enable him to adapt himself more or less
effectively to his surroundings. Because, however, the child's early
needs are largely physical, many of his instincts, such as those of
feeding, fighting, etc., lead only to self-preservative acts, and are,
therefore, individual rather than social in character. Even these
individual tendencies, however, enable the child to adjust himself to
his surroundings, and thus assist that physical growth without which, as
will be learned later, there could be no adequate intellectual and moral
development. But besides these, the child inherits many social and
adaptive tendencies--love of approbation, sympathy, imitation,
curiosity, etc., which enable him of himself to participate in some
measure in the social life about him.
=Instinct and Education.=--Our instincts being inherited tendencies, it
follows that they must cause us to react in a somewhat fixed manner upon
particular external stimulation. For this reason, it might be assumed
that these tendencies would build up our character independently of
outside interference or direction. If such were the case, instinctive
reactions would not only lie beyond the province of formal education,
but might even seriously interfere with its operation, since our
instinctive acts differ widely in value from the standpoint of the
efficient life. It is found, however, that human instincts may not only
be modified but even suppressed through education. For example, as we
shall learn in the following paragraphs, instinctive action in man may
be gradually supplanted by more effective habitual modes of reaction.
Although, therefore, the child's instinctive tendencies undoubtedly play
a large part in the early informal development of his character outside
the school, it is equally true that they can be brought under the
direction of the educator in the work of formal education. For that
reason a more thorough study of instinctive forms of reaction, and of
their relation to formal education, will be made in Chapter XXI.
HABITUAL REACTION
A second form of reaction is known as habit. On account of the plastic
character of the matter constituting the nervous tissue in the human
organism, any act, whether instinctive, voluntary, or accidental, if
once performed, has a tendency to repeat itself under like
circumstances, or to become habitual. The child, for example, when
placed amid social surroundings, by merely yielding to his general
tendencies of imitation, sympathy, etc., will form many valuable modes
of habitual reaction connected with eating, dressing, talking,
controlling the body, the use of household implements, etc. For this
reason the early instinctive and impulsive acts of the child gradually
develop into definite modes of action, more suited to meet the
particular conditions of his surroundings.
=Habit and Education.=--Furthermore, the formation of these habitual
modes of reaction being largely conditioned by outside influences, it is
possible to control the process of their formation. For this reason, the
educator is able to modify the child's natural reactions, and develop in
their stead more valuable habits. No small part of the work of formal
education, therefore, must consist in adding to the social efficiency of
the child by endowing him with habits making for neatness, regularity,
accuracy, obedience, etc. A detailed study of habit in its relation to
education will be made in Chapter XXII.
CONSCIOUS REACTION
=An Example.=--The third and highest form of human reaction is known as
ideal, or conscious, reaction. In this form of reaction the mind,
through its present ideas, reacts upon some situation or difficulty in
such a way as to adjust itself satisfactorily to the problem with which
it is faced. As an example of such a conscious reaction, or adjustment,
may be taken the case of a young lad who was noticed standing over a
stationary iron grating through which he had dropped a small coin. A few
moments later the lad was seen of his own accord to take up a rod lying
near, smear the end with tar and grease from the wheel of a near by
wagon, insert the rod through the grating, and thus recover his lost
coin. An analysis of the mental movements involved previously to the
actual recovery of the coin will illustrate in general the nature of a
conscious reaction, or adjustment.
=Factors Involved in Process.=--In such an experience the consciousness
of the lad is at the outset occupied with a definite problem, or felt
need, demanding adjustment--the recovering of the lost coin, which need
acts as a stimulus to the consciousness and gives direction and value to
the resulting mental activity. Acting under the demands of this problem,
or need, the mind displays an intelligent initiative in the selecting of
ideas--stick, adhesion, tar, etc., felt to be of value for securing the
required new adjustment. The mind finally combines these selected ideas
into an organized system, or a new experience, which is accepted
mentally as an adequate solution of the problem. The following factors
are found, therefore, to enter into such an ideal, or conscious,
reaction:
1. _The Problem._--The conscious reaction is the result of a definite
problem, or difficulty, presented in consciousness and grasped by the
mind as such--How to recover the coin.
2. _A Selecting Process._--To meet the solution of this problem use is
made of ideas which already form a part of the lad's present experience,
or knowledge, and which are felt by him to have a bearing on the
presented problem.
3. _A Relating Process._--These elements of former experience are
organized by the child into a mental plan which he believes adequate to
solve the problem before him.
4. _Application._--This resulting mental plan serves to guide a further
physical reaction, which constitutes the actual removal of the
difficulty--the recovery of the coin.
=Significance of Conscious Reactions.=--In a conscious reaction upon any
situation, or problem, therefore, the mind first uses its present ideas,
or experience, in weighing the difficulties of the situation, and it is
only after it satisfies itself in theory that a solution has been
reached that the physical response, or application of the plan, is made.
Hence the individual not only directs his actions by his higher
intelligent nature, but is also able to react effectively upon varied
and unusual situations. This, evidently, is not so largely the case with
instinctive or habitual reactions. For efficient action, therefore,
there must often be an adequate mental adjustment prior to the
expression of the physical action. For this reason the value of
consciousness consists in the guidance it affords us in meeting the
demands laid upon us by our surroundings, or environment. This will
become more evident, however, by a brief examination into the nature of
experience itself.
EXPERIENCE
=Its Value.=--In the above example of conscious adjustment it was found
that a new experience arises naturally from an effort to meet some need,
or problem, with which the mind is at the time confronted. Our ideas,
therefore, naturally organize themselves into new experiences, or
knowledge, to enable us to gain some desired end. It was in order to
effect the recovery of the lost coin, for example, that conscious effort
was put forth by the lad to create a mental plan which should solve the
problem. Primarily, therefore, man is a doer and his ideas, or
knowledge, is meant to be practical, or to be applied in directing
action. It is this fact, indeed, which gives meaning and purpose to the
conscious states of man. Hour by hour new problems arise demanding
adjustment; the mind grasps the import of the situation, selects ways
and means, organizes these into an intelligent plan, and directs their
execution, thus enabling us:
Not without aim to go round
In an eddy of purposeless dust.
=Its Theoretic or Intellectual Value.=--But owing to the value which
thus attaches to any experience, a new experience may be viewed as
desirable apart from its immediate application to conduct. Although, for
instance, there is no immediate physical need that one should learn how
to resuscitate a drowning person, he is nevertheless prepared to make of
it a problem, because he feels that such knowledge regarding his
environment may enter into the solution of future difficulties. Thus the
value of new experience, or knowledge, is often remote and intellectual,
rather than immediate and physical, and looks to the acquisition of
further experience quite as much as to the directing of present physical
movement. Beyond the value they may possess in relation to the removal
of present physical difficulty, therefore, experiences may be said to
possess a secondary value in that they may at any time enter into the
construction of new experiences.
=Its Growth: A. Learning by Direct Experience.=--The ability to recall
and use former experience in the upbuilding of an intelligent new
experience is further valuable, in that it enables a person to secure
much experience in an indirect rather than in a direct way, and thus
avoid the direct experience when such would be undesirable. Under direct
experience we include the lessons which may come to us at first hand
from our surroundings, as when the child by placing his hand upon a
thistle learns that it has sharp prickles, or by tasting quinine learns
that it is bitter. In this manner direct experience is a teacher,
continually adjusting man to his environment; and it is evident that
without an ability to retain our experiences and turn them to use in
organizing a new experience without expressing it in action, all
conscious adjustments would have to be secured through such a direct
method.
=B. Learning Indirectly.=--Since man is able to retain his experiences
and organize them into new experiences, he may, if desirable, enter into
a new experience in an indirect, or theoretic, way, and thus avoid the
harsher lessons of direct experience. The child, for example, who knows
the discomfort of a pin-prick may apply this, without actual expression,
in interpreting the danger lurking in the thorn. In like manner the
child who has fallen from his chair realizes thereby, without giving it
expression, the danger of falling from a window or balcony. It is in
this indirect, or theoretic, way that children in their early years
acquire, by injunction and reproof, much valuable knowledge which
enables them to avoid the dangers and to shun the evils presented to
them by their surroundings. By the same means, also, man is able to
extend his knowledge to include the experiences of other men and even of
other ages.
=Relative Value of Experiences.=--While the value of experience consists
in its power to adjust man to present or future problems, and thus
render his action more efficient, it is to be noted that different
experiences may vary in their value. Many of these, from the point of
their value in meeting future problems or making adjustments, must
appear trivial and even useless. Others, though adapted to meet our
needs, may do this in a crude and ineffective manner. As an
illustration of such difference in value, compare the effectiveness and
accuracy of the notation possessed by primitive men as illustrated in
the following strokes:
1, 11, 111, 1111, 11111, 111111, etc.,
with that of our present system of notation as suggested in:
1, 10, 100, 1000, 10000, 100000, 1000000, etc.
In like manner to experience that ice is cold is trivial in comparison
with experiencing its preservative effects as seen in cold storage or
its medicinal effects in certain diseases; to know that soda is white
would be trivial in comparison with a knowledge of its properties in
baking.
=Man Should Participate in Valuable Experiences.=--Of the three forms of
human reaction, instinctive, habitual, and conscious, or ideal, it is
evident that, owing to its rational character, ideal reaction is not
only the most effective, but also the only one that will enable man to
adjust himself to unusual situations. For this reason, and because of
the difference in value of experiences themselves, it is further evident
that man should participate in those experiences which are most
effective in facilitating desired adjustments or in directing right
conduct. It is found, moreover, that this participation can be effected
by bringing the child's experiencing during his early years directly
under control. It is held by some, indeed, that the whole aim of
education is to reconstruct and enrich the experiences of the child and
thereby add to his social efficiency. Although this conception of
education leaves out of view the effects of instinctive and habitual
reaction, it nevertheless covers, as we shall see later, no small part
of the purpose of formal education.
INFLUENCE OF CONSCIOUS REACTION
=A. On Instinctive Action.=--Before concluding our survey of the various
forms of reaction, it may be noted that both instinctive and habitual
action are subject to the influence of conscious reaction. As a child's
early instinctive acts develop into fixed habits, his growing knowledge
aids in making these habits intelligent and effective. Consciousness
evidently aids, for example, in developing the instinctive movements of
the legs into the rhythmic habitual movements of walking, and those of
the hands into the later habits of holding the spoon, knife, cup, etc.
Greater still would be the influence of consciousness in developing the
crude instinct of self-preservation into the habitual reactions of the
spearman or boxer. In general, therefore, instinctive tendencies in man
are subject to intelligent training, and may thereby be moulded into
effective habits of reaction.
=B. On Habitual Action.=--Further new habits may be established and old
ones improved under the direction of conscious reaction. When a child
first learns to represent the number four by the symbol, the problem is
necessarily met at first through a conscious adjustment. In other words,
the child must mentally associate into a single new experience the
number idea and certain ideas of form and of muscular movement.
Although, however, the child is conscious of all of these factors when
he first attempts to give expression to this experience, it is clear
that very soon the expressive act of writing the number is carried on
without any conscious direction of the process. In other words, the
child soon acquires the habit of performing the act spontaneously, or
without direction from the mind. Inversely, any habitual mode of
action, in whatever way established, may, if we possess the necessary
experience, be represented in idea and be accepted or corrected
accordingly. A person, for instance, who has acquired the necessary
knowledge of the laws of hygiene, may represent ideally both his own and
the proper manner of standing, sitting, reclining, etc., and seek to
modify his present habits accordingly. The whole question of the
relation of conscious to habitual reaction will, however, be considered
in Chapter XXII.
CHAPTER III
THE PROCESS OF EDUCATION
CONSCIOUS ADJUSTMENT
From the example of conscious adjustment previously considered, it would
appear that the full process of such an adjustment presents the
following characteristics:
1. _The Problem._--The individual conceives the existence within his
environment of a difficulty which demands adjustment, or which serves as
a problem calling for solution.
2. _A Selecting Process._--With this problem as a motive, there takes
place within the experience of the individual a selecting of ideas felt
to be of value for solving the problem which calls for adjustment.
3. _A Relating Process._--These relevant ideas are associated in
consciousness and form a new experience believed to overcome the
difficulty involved in the problem. This new experience is accepted,
therefore, mentally, as a satisfactory plan for meeting the situation,
or, in other words, it adjusts the individual to the problem in hand.
4. _Expression._--This new experience is expressed in such form as is
requisite to answer fully the need felt in the original problem.
EDUCATION AS ADJUSTMENT
=Example from Writing.=--An examination of any ordinary educative
process taken from school-room experience will show that it involves in
some degree the factors mentioned above.
As a very simple example, may be taken the case of a young child
learning to form capital letters with short sticks. Assuming that he has
already copied letters involving straight lines, such as A, H, etc., the
child, on meeting such a letter as C or D, finds himself face to face
with a new problem. At first he may perhaps attempt to form the curves
by bending the short thin sticks. Hereupon, either through his own
failure or through some suggestion of his teacher, he comes to see a
short, straight line as part of a large curve. Thereupon he forms the
idea of a curve composed of a number of short, straight lines, and on
this principle is able to express himself in such forms as are shown
here.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
In this simple process of adjustment there are clearly involved the four
stages referred to above, as follows:
1. _The Problem._--The forming of a curved letter by means of straight
sticks.
2. _A Selecting Process._--Selecting of the ideas straight and curved
and the fixing of attention upon them.
3. _A Relating Process._--An organization of the selected ideas into a
new experience in which the curve is viewed as made up of a number of
short, straight lines.
4. _Expression._--Working out the physical expression of the new
experience in the actual forming of capitals involving curved lines.
=Example from Arithmetic.=--An analysis of the process by which a child
learns that there are four twos in eight, shows also the following
factors:
1. _The Problem._--To find out how many twos are contained in the
vaguely known eight.
2. _A Selecting Process._--To meet this problem the pupil is led from
his present knowledge of the number two, to proceed to divide eight
objects into groups of two; and, from his previous knowledge of the
number four, to measure the number of these groups of two.
3. _A Relating Process._--Next the three ideas two, four, and eight are
translated into a new experience, constituting a mental solution of the
present problem.
4. _Expression._--This new experience expresses itself in various ways
in the child's dealings with the number problems connected with his
environment.
=Example from Geometry.=--Taking as another example the process by which
a student may learn that the exterior angle of a triangle is equal to
the two interior and opposite angles, there appear also the same stages,
thus:
1. _The Problem._--The conception of a difficulty or problem in the
geometrical environment which calls for solution, or adjustment--the
relation of the angle _a_ to the angles _b_ and _c_ in Figure 1.
[Illustration: Fig. 1]
[Illustration: Fig. 2]
[Illustration: Fig. 3]
2. _A Selecting Process._--With this problem as a motive there follows,
as suggested by Figure 2, the selecting of a series of ideas from the
previous experiences of the pupil which seem relative to, or are
considered valuable for solving the problem in hand.
3. _A Relating Process._--These relative ideas pass into the formation
of a new experience, as illustrated in Figure 3, constituting the
solution of the problem.
4. _Expression._--A further applying of this experience may be made in
adjusting the pupil to other problems connected with his geometric
environment; as, for example, to discover the sum of the interior angles
of a triangle.
EDUCATION AS CONTROL OF ADJUSTMENT
The examples of adjustment taken from school-room practice, are found,
however, to differ in one important respect from the previous example
taken from practical life. This difference consists in the fact that in
the recovery of the coin the modification of experience took place
wholly without control or direction other than that furnished by the
problem itself. Here the problem--the recovery of the coin--presents
itself to the child and is seized upon as a motive by his attention
solely on account of its own value; secondly, this problem of itself
directs a flow of relative images which finally bring about the
necessary adjustment. In the examples taken from the school, on the
other hand, the processes of adjustment are, to a greater or less
extent, directed and regulated through the presence of some type of
educative agent. For instance, when a student goes through the process
of learning the relation of the exterior angle to the two interior and
opposite angles, the control of the process appears in the fact that the
problem is directly presented to the student as an essential step in a
sequence of geometric problems, or adjustments. The same direction or
control of the process is seen again in the fact that the student is not
left wholly to himself, as in the first example, to devise a solution,
but is aided and directed thereto, first, in that the ideas bearing upon
the problem have previously been made known to the student through
instruction, and secondly, in that the selecting and adjusting of these
former ideas to the solution of the new problem is also directed through
the agency of either a text-book or a teacher. A conscious adjustment,
therefore, which is brought about without direction from another,
implies only a process of learning on the part of the child, while a
controlled adjustment implies both a process of learning on the part of
the child and a process of teaching on the part of an instructor. For
scientific treatment, therefore, it is possible to limit formal
education, so far as it deals with conscious adjustment, to those
modifications of experience which are directed or controlled through an
educative agent, or, in other words, are brought about by means of
instruction.
REQUIREMENTS OF THE INSTRUCTOR
Formal education being an attempt to direct the development of the child
by controlling his stimulations and responses through the agency of an
instructor, we may now understand in general the necessary
qualifications and offices of the teacher in directing the educative
process.
1. The teacher must understand what constitutes the worthy life; that
is, he must have a definite aim in directing the development of the
child.
2. He must know what stimulations, or problems, are to be presented to
the child in order to have him grow, or develop, into this life of
worth.
3. He must know how the physical, intellectual, and moral nature of the
child reacts upon these appropriate stimulations.
4. He must have skill in presenting the stimuli, or problems, to the
child and in bringing its mind to react appropriately thereon.
5. He must, in the case of conscious reactions, see that the child not
only acquires the new experience, but that he is also able to apply it
effectively. In other words, he must see that the child acquires not
only knowledge, but also skill in the use of knowledge.
CHAPTER IV
THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM
=Valuable Experience: Race Knowledge.=--Since education aims largely to
increase the effectiveness of the moral conduct of the child by adding
to the value of his experience, the science of education must decide the
basis on which the educator is to select experiences that possess such a
value in directing conduct. Now a study of the progress of a nation's
civilization will show that this advancement is brought about through
the gradual interpretation of the resources at the nation's command, and
the turning of these resources to the attainment of human ends. Thus
there is gradually built up a community, or race, experience, in which
the materials of the physical, economic, political, moral, and religious
life are organized and brought under control. By this means is
constituted a body of race experience, the value of which has been
tested in its direct application to the needs of the social life of the
community. It is from the more typical forms of this social, or race,
experience that education draws the experience, or problems, for the
educative process. In other words, through education the experiences of
the child are so reconstructed that he is put in possession of the more
typical and more valuable forms of race experience, and thus rendered
more efficient in his conduct, or action.
PURPOSES OF CURRICULUM
=Represents Race Experiences.=--So far as education aims to have the
child enter into typical valuable race experiences, this can be
accomplished only by placing these experiences before him as problems
in such form that he may realize them through a regular process of
learning. The purpose of the school curriculum is, therefore, to provide
such problems as may, under the direction of the instructor, control the
conscious reactions of the child, and enable him to participate in these
more valuable race experiences. In this sense arithmetic becomes a means
for providing the child with a series of problems which may give him the
experiences which the race has found valuable in securing commercial
accuracy and precision. In like manner, constructive work provides a
series of problems in which the child experiences how the race has
turned the materials of nature to human service. History provides
problems whose solution gives the experience which enables the pupil to
meet the political and social conditions of his own time. Physics shows
how the forces of nature have become instruments for the service of man.
Geography shows how the world is used as a background for social life;
and grammar, what principles control the use of the race language as a
medium for the communication of thought.
=Classifies Race Experience.=--Without such control of the presentation
of these racial experiences as is made possible through the school and
the school curriculum, the child would be likely to meet them only as
they came to him in the actual processes of social life. These processes
are, however, so complex in modern society, that, in any attempt to
secure experience directly, the child is likely to be overwhelmed by
their complex and unorganized character. The message boy in the
dye-works, for example, may have presented to him innumerable problems
in number, language, physics, chemistry, etc., but owing to the
confused, disorganized, and mingled character of the presentation, these
are not likely to be seized upon by him as direct problems calling for
adjustment. In the school curriculum, on the other hand, the different
phases of this seemingly unorganized mass of experiences are abstracted
and presented to the child in an organized manner, the different phases
being classified as facts of number, reading, spelling, writing,
geography, physics, chemistry, etc. Thus the school curriculum
classifies for the child the various phases of this race experience and
provides him with a comprehensive representation of his environment.
=Systematizes Race Experience.=--The school curriculum further presents
each type of experience, or each subject, in such a systematic order
that the various experiences may develop out of one another in a natural
way. If the child were compelled to meet his number facts altogether in
actual life, the impressions would be received without system or order,
now a discount experience, next a problem in fractions, at another time
one in interest or mensuration. In the school curriculum, on the other
hand, the child is in each subject first presented with the simple,
near, and familiar, these in turn forming basic experiences for learning
the complex, the remote, and the unknown. Thus he is able in geography,
for example, on the basis of his simple and known local experiences, to
proceed to a realization of the whole world as the background for human
life.
=Clarifies Race Experience.=--Finally, when a child is given problems by
means of the school curriculum, the experiences come to him in a pure
form. That is, the trivial, accidental, and distracting elements which
are necessarily bound up with these experiences when they are met in the
ordinary walks of life are eliminated, and the single type is presented.
For instance, the child may every day meet accidentally examples of
reflection and refraction of light. But these not being separated from
the mass of accompanying impressions, his mind may never seize as
distinct problems the important relations in these experiences, and may
thus fail to acquire the essential principles involved. In the school
curriculum, on the other hand, under the head of physics, he has the
essential aspects presented to him in such an unmixed, or pure, form
that he finds relatively little difficulty in grasping their
significance. Thus the school curriculum renders possible an effective
control of the experiencing of the child by presenting in a
comprehensive form a classified, systematized, and pure representation
of the more valuable features of the race experience. In other words, it
provides suitable problems which may lead the child to participate more
fully in the life about him. Through the subjects of the school
curriculum, therefore, the child may acquire much useful knowledge which
would not otherwise be met, and much which, if met in ordinary life,
could not be apprehended to an equal degree.
DANGERS IN USE OF CURRICULUM
While recognizing the educational value of the school curriculum, it
should be noticed that certain dangers attach to its use as a means of
providing problems for developing the experiences of the child. It is
frequently argued against the school that the experiences gained therein
too often prove of little value to the child in the affairs of practical
life. The world of knowledge within the school, it is claimed, is so
different from the world of action outside the school, that the pupil
can find no connection between them. If, however, as claimed above, the
value of experience consists in its use as a means of efficient control
of conduct, it is evident that the experiences acquired through the
school should find direct application in the affairs of life, or in
other words, the school should influence the conduct, or behaviour, of
the child both within and without the school.
=A. Child may not see Connection with Life.=--Now the school curriculum,
as has been seen, in representing the actual social life, so classifies
and simplifies this life that only one type of experience--number,
language, chemistry, geography, etc., is presented to the child at one
time. It is evident, however, that when the child faces the problems of
actual life, they will not appear in the simple form in which he meets
them as represented in the school curriculum. Thus, when he leaves the
school and enters society, he frequently sees no connection between the
complex social life outside the school and the simplified and
systematized representation of that life, as previously met in the
school studies. For example, when the boy, after leaving school, is set
to fill an order in a wholesale drug store, he will in the one
experience be compelled to use various phases of his chemical,
arithmetical, writing, and bookkeeping knowledge, and that perhaps in
the midst of a mass of other accidental impressions. In like manner, the
girl in her home cooking might meet in a single experience a situation
requiring mathematical, chemical, and physical knowledge for its
successful adjustment, as in the substitution of soda and cream of
tartar for baking-powder. This complex character of the problems of
actual life may prove so bewildering that the person is unable to see
any connection between the outside problem and his school experiences.
Thus school knowledge frequently fails to function to an adequate degree
in the practical affairs of life.
=How to Avoid This Danger.=--To meet this difficulty, school work must
be related as closely as possible to the practical experiences of the
child. This would cause the teacher, for example, to draw his problems
in arithmetic, his subjects in composition, or his materials for nature
study from the actual life about the child, while his lessons in hygiene
would bear directly on the care of the school-room and the home, and the
health of the pupils. Moreover, that the work of the school may
represent more fully the conditions of actual life, pupils should
acquire facility in correlating different types of experience upon the
same problem. In this way the child may use in conjunction his knowledge
of arithmetic, language, geography, drawing, nature study, etc., in
school gardening; and his arithmetic, language, drawing, art, etc., in
conjunction with constructive occupations.
=Value of Typical Forms of Expression.=--A chief cause in the past for
the lack of connection between school knowledge and practical life was
the comparative absence from the curriculum of any types of human
activity. In other words, though the ideas controlling human activity
were experienced by the child within the school, the materials and tools
involved in the physical expression of such ideas were almost entirely
absent. The result was that the physical habits connected with the
practical use of knowledge were wanting. Thus, in addition to the lack
of any proper co-ordinating of different types of knowledge in suitable
forms of activity, the knowledge itself became theoretic and abstract.
This danger will, however, be discussed more fully at a later stage.
=B. Curriculum May Become Fossilized.=--A second danger in the use of
the school curriculum consists in the fact that, as a representation of
social life, it may not keep pace with the social changes taking place
outside the school. This may result in the school giving its pupils
forms of knowledge which at the time have little functional value, or
little relation to present life about the child. An example of this was
seen some years ago in the habit of having pupils spend considerable
time and energy in working intricate problems in connection with British
currency. This currency having no practical place in life outside the
school, the child could see no connection between that part of his
school work and any actual need. Another marked example of this tendency
will be met in the History of Education in connection with the
educational practice of the last two centuries in continuing the
emphasis placed on the study of the ancient languages, although the
functional relation of these languages to everyday life was on the
decline, and scientific knowledge was beginning to play a much more
important part therein. While the school curriculum may justly represent
the life of past periods of civilization so far as these reflect on, and
aid in the interpreting of, the present, it is evident that in so far as
the child experiences the past without any reference to present needs,
the connection which should exist between the school and life outside
the school must tend to be destroyed.
=C. May be Non-progressive.=--As a corollary to the above, is the fact
that the school, when not watchful of the changes going on without the
school, may fail to represent in its curriculum new and important phases
of the community life. At the present time, for example, it is a
debatable question whether the school curriculum is, in the matter of
our industrial life, keeping pace with the changes taking place in the
community. It is in this connection that one of the chief dangers of the
school text-book is to be found. The text is too often looked upon as a
final authority upon the particular subject-matter, rather than being
treated as a mode of representing what is held valuable and true in
relation to present-day interests and activities. The position of
authority which the text-book thus secures, may serve as a check against
even necessary changes in the attitude of the school toward any
particular subject.
=D. May Present Experience in too Technical Form.=--Lastly, the school
curriculum, even when representing present life, may introduce it in a
too highly technical form. So far at least as elementary education is
concerned, each type of knowledge, or each subject, should find a place
on the curriculum from a consideration of its influence upon the conduct
and, therefore, upon the present life of the child. There is always a
danger, however, that the teacher, who may be a specialist in the
subject, will wish to stress its more intellectual and abstract phases,
and thus force upon the child forms of knowledge which he is not able to
refer to his life needs in any practical way. This tendency is
illustrated in the desire of some teachers to substitute with young
children a technical study of botany and zoology, in place of more
concrete work in nature study. Now when the child approaches these
phases of his surroundings in the form of nature study, he is able to
see their influence upon his own community life. When, on the other
hand, these are introduced to him in too technical a form, he is not
able, in his present stage of learning, to discover this connection, and
the so-called knowledge remains in his experience, if it remains at all,
as uninteresting, non-significant, and non-digested information. In the
elementary school at least, therefore, knowledge should not be presented
to the child in such a technical and abstract way that it will seem to
have no contact with daily life.
CHAPTER V
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
THE SCHOOL
As man, in the progress of civilization, became more fully conscious of
the worth of human life and of the possibilities of its development
through educational effort, the providing of special instruction for the
young naturally began to be recognized as a duty. As this duty became
more and more apparent, it gave rise, on the principle of the division
of labour, to corporate, or institutional, effort in this direction. By
this means there has been finally developed the modern school as a fully
organized corporate institution devoted to educational work, and
supported as an integral part of our civil or public obligations.
=Origin of the School.=--To trace the origin of the school, it will be
necessary to look briefly at certain marked stages of the development of
civilization. The earliest and simplest forms of primitive life suggest
a time when the family constituted the only type of social organization.
In such a mode of life, the principle of the division of labour would be
absent, the father or patriarch being the family carpenter, butcher,
doctor, judge, priest, and teacher. In the two latter capacities, he
would give whatever theoretic or practical instruction was received by
the child. As soon, however, as a tribal form of life is met, we find
the tribe or race collecting a body of experience which can be retained
only by entrusting it to a selected body. This experience, or knowledge,
is at first mainly of a religious character, and is possessed and
handed on by a body of men forming a priesthood. Such priestly bodies,
or colleges, may be considered the earliest special organizations
devoted to the office of teaching. As civilization gradually advanced, a
mass of valuable practical knowledge relative to man's environment was
secured and added to the more theoretic forms. As this practical
knowledge became more complex, there was felt a greater need that the
child should be made acquainted with it in some systematic manner during
his early years. Thus developed the conception of the school as an
instrument by which such educative work might be carried on more
effectively. On account of the constant increase of practical knowledge
and its added importance in directing the political and economic life of
the people, the civil authorities began in time to assume control of
secular education. Thus the government of the school as an institution
gradually passed to the state, the teacher taking the place of the
priest as the controlling agent in the education of the young.
OTHER EDUCATIVE AGENTS
=The Church.=--But notwithstanding the organization of the present
school as a civic institution, it is to be noticed that the church still
continues to act as an educative agent. In many communities, in fact,
the church is still found to retain a large control of education even of
a secular type. Even in communities where the church no longer exercises
control over the school, she still does much, though in a more indirect
way, to mould the thought and character of the community life; and is
still the chief educational agent concerned in the direct attempt to
enrich the religious experiences of the race.
=The Home.=--While much of the knowledge obtained by the child within
his own home necessarily comes through self, or informal, education, yet
in most homes the parent still performs in many ways the function of a
teacher, both by giving special instruction to the child and by
directing the formation of his habits. In certain forms of experience
indeed, it is claimed by the school that the instruction should be given
by the parent rather than by the teacher. In questions of morals and
manners, the natural tie which unites child and parent will undoubtedly
enable much of the necessary instruction to be given more effectively in
the home. It is often claimed, in fact, that parents now leave too much
to the school and the teacher in relation to the education of the child.
=The Vocation.=--Another agent which may directly control the
experiences of the young is found in the various vocations to which they
devote themselves. This phase of education was very important in the
days of apprenticeship. One essential condition in the form of agreement
was that the master should instruct the apprentice in the art, or craft,
to which he was apprenticed. Owing to the introduction of machinery and
the consequent more complex division of labour, this type of formal
education has been largely eliminated. It may be noted in passing that
it is through these changed conditions that night classes for mechanics,
which are now being provided by our technical schools, have become an
important factor in our educational system.
=Other Educational Institutions.=--Finally, many clubs, institutes, and
societies attempt, in a more accidental way, to convey definite
instruction, and therefore serve in a sense as educational institutions.
Prominent among such institutions is the modern Public Library, which
affords opportunity for independent study in practically every
department of knowledge. Our Farmers' Institutes also attempt to convey
definite instruction in connection with such subjects as dairying,
horticulture, agriculture, etc. Many Women's Clubs seek to provide
instruction for young women, both of a practical and also of a moral and
religious character. Various societies of a scientific character have
also done much to spread a knowledge of nature and her laws and are
likewise to be classed as educational institutions. Such movements as
these, while taking place without the limits of the school, may not
unreasonably claim a certain recognition as educational factors in the
community and should receive the sympathetic co-operation of the
teacher.
CHAPTER VI
THE PURPOSE OF THE SCHOOL
CIVIC VIEWS
Since the school of to-day is organized and supported by the state as a
special corporate body designed to carry on the work of education, it
becomes of public interest to know the particular purpose served through
the maintenance of such a state institution. We have already seen that
the school seeks to interpret the civilized life of the community, to
abstract out of it certain elements, and to arrange them in systematic
or scientific order as a curriculum of study, and finally to give the
child control of this experience, or knowledge. We have attempted to
show further that by this means education so increases the effectiveness
of the conscious reactions of the child and so modifies his instincts
and his habits as to add to his social efficiency. As, however, many
divergent and incomplete views are held by educators and others as to
the real purpose of public instruction, it will be well at this stage to
consider briefly some of the most important types of these theories.
=Aristocratic View.=--It may be noted that the experience, or knowledge,
represented in the curriculum cannot exist outside of the knowing mind.
In other words, arithmetic, grammar, history, geography, etc., are not
something existing apart from mind, but only as states of consciousness.
Text-books, for instance, do not contain knowledge but merely symbols of
knowledge, which would have no significance and give no light without a
mind to interpret them. Some, therefore, hold that the school, in
seeking to translate this social experience into the consciousness of
the young, should have as its aim merely to conserve for the future the
intellectual and moral achievements of the present and the past. This
they say demands of the school only that it produce an intellectual
priesthood, or a body of scholars, who may conserve wisdom for the light
and guidance of the whole community. Thus arises the aristocratic view
of the purpose of education, which sees no justification in the state
attempting to provide educational opportunities for all of its members,
but holds rather that education is necessary only for the leaders of
society.
=Democratic View.=--Against the above view, it is claimed by others
that, while public education should undoubtedly be conducted for the
benefit of the state as a whole; yet, since a chain cannot be stronger
than its weakest link, the efficiency of the state must be measured by
that of its individual units. The state, therefore, must aim, by means
of education, to add to its own efficiency by adding to that of each and
all of its members. This demands, however, that every individual should
be able to meet in an intelligent way such situations as he is likely to
encounter in his community life. Although carried on, therefore, for the
good of the state, yet education should be democratic, or universal, and
should fit every individual to become a useful member of society.
=These Views Purely Civic.=--It is to be noted that though the latter
view provides for the education of all as a duty of the state, yet both
of the above views are purely civic in their significance, and hold that
education exists for the welfare of the state as a whole and not for the
individual. If, therefore, the state could be benefited by having the
education of any class of citizens either limited or extended in an
arbitrary way, nothing in the above conception of the purpose of state
education would forbid such a course.
INDIVIDUALISTIC VIEWS
Opposed to the civic view of education, many hold, on the other hand,
that education exists for the child and not for the state, and
therefore, aims primarily to promote the welfare of the individual. By
these educators it is argued that, since each child is created with a
separate and distinct personality, it follows that he possesses a divine
right to have that personality developed independently of the claims of
the community to which he belongs. According to this view, therefore,
the aim of education should be in each case solely to effect some good
for the individual child. These educators, however, are again found to
differ concerning what constitutes this individual good.
=The Culture Aim.=--According to the practice of many educators,
education is justified on the ground that it furnishes the individual a
degree of personal culture. According to this view, the worth of
education is found in the fact that it puts the learner in possession of
a certain amount of conventional knowledge which is held to give a
polish to the individual; this polish providing a distinguishing mark by
which the learned class is separated from the ignorant. It is
undoubtedly true that the so-called culture of the educated man should
add to the grace and refinement of social life. In this sense, culture
is not foreign to the conception of individual and social efficiency. A
narrow cultural view, however, overlooks the fact that man's experience
is significant only when it enables him to meet the needs and problems
of the present, and that, as a member of a social community, he must
apply himself to the actual problems to be met within his environment.
To acquire knowledge, therefore, either as a mere possession or as a
mark of personal superiority, is to give to experience an unnatural
value.
=The Utilitarian Aim.=--Others express quite an opposite view to the
above, declaring that the aim of education is to enable the individual
to get on in the world. By this is meant that education should enable us
to be more successful in our business, and thus live more comfortable
lives. Now, so far as this practical success of the individual can be
achieved in harmony with the interests of society as a whole, we may
grant that education should make for individual betterment. Indeed it
may justly be claimed that an advancement in the comfort of the
individual under such conditions really implies an increase in the
comfort of society as a whole; for the man who is not able to provide
for his own welfare must prove, if not a menace, at least a burden to
society. If, however, it is implied that the educated man is to be
placed in a position to advance his own interests irrespective of, or in
direct opposition to, the rights and comforts of others, then the
utilitarian view of the end of education must appear one-sided. To
emphasize the good of the individual irrespective of the rights of
others, and to educate all of its members with such an end in view,
society would tend to destroy the unity of its own corporate life.
=The Psychological Aim.=--According to others, although education aims
to benefit the child, this benefit does not come from the acquisition of
any particular type of knowledge, but is due rather to a development
which takes place within the individual himself as a result of
experiencing. In other words, the child as an intelligent being is born
with certain attributes which, though at first only potential, may be
developed into actual capacities or powers. Thus it is held that the
real aim of education is to develop to the full such capacities as are
found already within the child. Moreover, it is because the child has
such possibilities of development within him, and because he starts at
the very outset of his existence with a divine yearning to develop these
inner powers, that he reaches out to experience his surroundings. For
this reason, they argue that every individual should have his own
particular capacities and powers fully and harmoniously developed. Thus
the true aim of education is said to be to unfold the potential life of
each individual and allow it to realize itself; the purpose of the
school being primarily not to make of the child a useful member of
society, but rather to study the nature of the child and develop
whatever potentialities are found within him as an individual. Because
this theory places such large emphasis on the natural tendencies and
capacities of the child, it is spoken of as the psychological aim of
education.
=Limitations of the Aim.=--This view evidently differs from others in
that it finds the justification for education, not primarily in the
needs or rights of a larger society of which the child is a member, but
rather in those of the single individual. Here, however, a difficulty
presents itself. If the developing of the child's capacities and
tendencies constitute the real purpose of public education, may not
education at times conflict with the good of the state itself? Now it is
evident that if a child has a tendency to lie, or steal, or inflict pain
on others, the development of such tendencies must result in harm to the
community at large. On the other hand, it is clear that in the case of
other proclivities which the child may possess, such as industry,
truthfulness, self-sacrifice, etc., the development of these cannot be
separated from the idea of the good of others. To apply a purely
individual aim to education, therefore, seems impossible; since we can
have no standard to distinguish between good and bad tendencies, unless
these are measured from a social standpoint or from a consideration of
the good of others, and not from the mere tendencies and capacities of
the individual. Moreover, to attempt the harmonious development of all
the child's tendencies and powers is not justifiable, even in the case
of those tendencies which might not conflict with the good of others. As
already noted, division of labour has now gone so far that the
individual may profitably be relieved from many forms of social
activity. This implies as a corollary, however, that the individual will
place greater stress upon other forms of activity.
THE SOCIAL, OR ECLECTIC, VIEW
Moreover, because, as already noted, the child is by his very nature a
social being, it follows that the good of the individual can never in
reality be opposed to the good of society, and that whenever the child
has in his nature any tendencies which conflict with the good of others,
these do not represent his true, or social, nature. For education to
suppress these, therefore, is not only fitting the child for society but
also advancing the development of the child so far as his higher, or
true, nature is concerned. Thus the true view of the purpose of the
school and of education will be a social, or eclectic, one, representing
the element of truth contained in both the civic and the individualistic
views. In the first place, such a view may be described as a civic one,
since it is only by considering the good of others, that is of the
state, that we can find a standard for judging the value of the child's
tendencies. Moreover, it is only by using the forms of experience, or
knowledge, that the community has evolved, that conditions can be
provided under which the child's tendencies may realize themselves.
Secondly, the true view is equally an individualistic view, for while it
claims that the child is by his nature a social being, it also demands a
full development of the social or moral tendencies of the individual, as
being best for himself as well as for society.
=This View Dynamic.=--In such an eclectic view of the aim of education,
it is to be noted further that society may turn education to its own
advancement. By providing that an individual may develop to his
uttermost such good tendencies as he may possess, education not only
allows the individual to make the most of his own higher nature, but
also enables him to contribute something to the advancement, or
elevation, of society itself. Such a conception of the aim of education,
therefore, does not view the present social life as some static thing to
which the child must be adapted in any formal sense, but as dynamic, or
as having the power to develop itself in and through a fuller
development of the higher and better tendencies within its individual
members.
=A Caution.=--While emphasizing the social, or moral, character of the
aim of education, it is to be borne in mind by the educator that this
implies more than a passive possession by the individual of a certain
moral sentiment. Man is truly moral only when his moral character is
functioning in goodness, or in _right action_. This is equivalent to
declaring that the moral man must be individually efficient in action,
and must likewise control his action from a regard for the rights of
others. There is always a danger, however, of assuming that the
development of moral character consists in giving the child some
passive mark, or quality, without any necessity of having it continually
functioning in conduct. But this reduces morality to a mere sentiment.
In such a case, the moral aim would differ little from the cultural aim
mentioned above.
CHAPTER VII
DIVISIONS OF EDUCATIONAL STUDY
CONTROL OF EXPERIENCE
=Significance of Control.=--From our previous inquiry into the nature of
education, we may notice that at least two important problems present
themselves for investigation in connection with the educative process.
Our study of the subject-matter of education, or the school curriculum,
has shown that its function as an educational instrumentality is to
furnish for the child experiences of greater value, this enhanced value
consisting in the greater social significance of the race experiences,
or knowledge, embodied within the curriculum, when compared with the
more individual experiences of the average child. It has been noted
further, however, that the office of education is not merely to have the
child translate this race experience into his own mind, but rather to
have him add to his social efficiency by gaining an adequate power of
control over these experiences. It is not, for instance, merely to know
the number combinations, but to be able to meet his practical needs,
that the child must master the multiplication tables. Control of
experience, however, as we have seen from our analysis of the learning
process, implies an ability to hold an aim, or problem, in view, and a
further ability to select and arrange the means of gaining the desired
end. In relation to the multiplication table, therefore, control of
experience implies that a person is able to apprehend the present number
situation as one that needs solution, and also that he can bring, or
apply, his knowledge of the table to its solution.
=Nature of Growth of Control.=--The young child is evidently not able at
first to exercise this power of control over his experiences. When a
very young child is aroused, say by the sound proceeding from a bell,
the impression may give rise to certain random movements, but none of
these indicate on his part any definite experience or purpose. When,
however, under the same stimulation, in place of these random movements,
the child reacts mentally in a definite way, it signifies on his part
the recognition of an external object. This recognition shows that the
child now has, in place of the first vague image, a more or less
definite idea of the external thing. Before it was vague noise; now it
is a bell. But a yet more valuable control is gained by the child when
he gives this idea a wider meaning by organizing it as an element into
more complex experiences, as when he relates it with the idea of a fire,
of dinner, or of a call to school. Before it was merely a bell; now it
is an alarm of fire. So far, however, as the child is lacking in the
control of his experiences, he remains largely a mere creature of
impulse and instinct, and is occupied with present impressions only.
This implies also an inability to set up problems and solve them through
a regular process of adjustment, and a consequent lack of power to
arrange experiences as guides to action. In the educative process,
however, as previously exemplified, we find that the child is not a
slave to the passing transient impressions of the present, but is able
to secure a control over his experience which enables him to set up
intelligent aims, devise plans for their attainment, and apply these
plans in gaining the end desired. Growth of control takes place,
therefore, to the extent to which the child thus becomes able to keep
an end in view and to select and organize means for its realization.
=Elements of Control.=--In the growth of control manifested in the
learning process, the child, as we have noticed, becomes able to judge
the value, or worth, of experience. In other words, he becomes able to
distinguish between the important and the trivial, and to see the
relative values of various experiences when applied to practical ends.
Further, he gains right feeling or an emotional warmth toward that which
his intelligence affirms to be worthy, or grows to appreciate the right.
Thirdly, he secures a power in execution that enables him to attain to
that which his judgment and feeling have set up as a desirable end. In
fine, the educative process implies for the child a growth of control by
which he becomes able (1) to select worthy ends; (2) to devise plans for
their attainment; and (3) to put these plans into successful execution.
THE INSTRUCTOR'S PROBLEMS
The end in any learning process being to set the pupils a problem which
may stimulate them to gain such an efficient control of useful
experience, or knowledge, we may note two important problems confronting
the teacher as an instructor:
1. _Problem of Matter._--The teacher must be so conversant with the
subject-matter of the curriculum and with its value in relation to
actual life, that he may select therefrom the problems and materials
which will enable the child to come into possession of the desirable
experiences. This constitutes the question of the subject-matter of
education.
2. _Problem of Method._--The teacher must further be conversant with the
process by which the child gets command of experience or with the way in
which the mind of the child, in reacting upon any subject-matter,
selects and organizes his knowledge into new experience and puts the
same into execution. In other words, the teacher must fully understand
how to direct the child successfully through the four stages of the
learning process.
(_a_) _General Method._--In a scientific study of education it is
usually assumed that the student-teacher has mastered academically the
various subjects of the curriculum. In the professional school,
therefore, the subject-matter of education is studied largely from the
standpoint of method. In his study of method the student of education
seeks first to master the details of the process of education outlined
in the opening Chapters under the headings of problem, selecting
process, relating process, and application. By this means the teacher
comes to understand in greater detail how the mind of the child reacts
upon the presented problems of the curriculum in gaining control over
his experiences, or, in other words, how the process of learning
actually takes place within the consciousness of the child. This
sub-division is treated under the head of _General Method_.
(_b_) _Special Methods._--In addition to General Method, the
student-teacher must study each subject of the curriculum from the
standpoint of its use in setting problems, or lessons, which shall
enable the child to gain control of a richer experience. This
sub-division is known as _Special Methods_, since it considers the
particular problems involved in adapting the matter of each subject to
the general purpose of the educative process.
3. _Problem of Management._--From what has been seen in reference to the
school as an institution organized for directing the education of the
child, it is apparent that in addition to the immediate and direct
control of the process of learning as involved in the method of
instruction, there is the more indirect control of the process through
the systematic organization and management of the school as a corporate
institution. These more indirect problems connected with the control of
education within the school will include, not only such topics as the
organization and management of the pupils, but also the legal ways and
means for providing these various educational instrumentalities. These
indirect elements of control constitute a third phase of the problem of
education, and their study is known as _School Organization and
Management_.
4. _An Historic Problem._--It has been noted that the corporate
institution known as the school arose as the result of the principle of
the division of labour, and thus took to itself duties previously
performed under other less effective conditions. Thus the school
presents on its organic side a history with which the teacher should be
more or less familiar. On its historical side, therefore, education
presents a fourth phase for study. This division of the subject is known
as the _History of Education_.
SUMMARY
The facts of education, as scientifically considered by the
student-teacher, thus arrange themselves under four main heads:
1. General Method
2. Special Methods
3. School Organization and Management
4. History of Education
The third and fourth divisions of education are always studied as
separate subjects under the above heads. In dealing with Special
Methods, also, it is customary in the study of education to treat each
subject of the curriculum under its own head in both a professional and
an academic way. There is left, therefore, for scientific consideration,
the subject of General Method, to a study of which we shall now
proceed.
PART II.--METHODOLOGY
CHAPTER VIII
GENERAL METHOD
=Meaning of Method.=--In the last Chapter it was seen that, in relation
to the child, education involves a gaining of control over experiences.
It has been seen further, that the child gains control of new experience
whenever he goes through a process of learning involving the four steps
of problem, selecting activity, relating activity, and expression.
Finally it has been decided that the teacher in his capacity as an
instructor, by presenting children with suitable problems, may in a
sense direct their selecting and relating activities and thus exercise a
certain control over their learning processes. To the teacher,
therefore, method will mean an ability to control the learning process
in such a way that the children shall, in their turn, gain an adequate
control over the new experience forming the subject-matter of any
learning process. Thus a detailed study by student-teachers of the
various steps of the learning process, with a view to gaining knowledge
and skill relative to directing pupils in their learning, constitutes
for such teachers a study of General Method.
=Subdivisions of Method.=--For the student-teacher, the study of general
method will involve a detailed investigation of how the child is to gain
control of social experiences as outlined above, and how the teacher may
bring about the same through instruction.
Tn such an investigation, he must examine in detail the various steps of
the educative process to discover:
1. How the knowledge, or social experience, contained in the school
curriculum should be presented to the child. This will involve an
adequate study of the first step of the learning process--the problem.
2. How the mind, or consciousness, of the child reacts during the
learning process upon the presented materials in gaining control of this
knowledge. This will embrace a study of the second and third steps of
the process--the selecting and relating activities.
3. How the child is to acquire facility in using a new experience, or in
applying it to direct his conduct. This involves a particular study of
the fourth step of the process--the law of expression.
4. How the teacher may use any outside agencies, as maps, globes,
specimens, experiments, etc., to assist in directing the learning
process. This involves a study of various classes of educational
instrumentalities.
5. How the principles of general method are to be adapted to the
different modes by which the learner may gain new experience, or
knowledge. This will involve a study of the different kinds of lessons,
or a knowledge of lesson types.
METHOD IMPLIES KNOWLEDGE OF MIND
Before we proceed to such a detailed study of the educative process as a
process of teaching, it should be noted that the existence of a general
method is possible only provided that the growth of conscious control
takes place in the mind of the child in a systematic and orderly manner.
All children, for instance, must be supposed to respond in the same
general way in the learning process when they are confronted with the
same problem. Without this they could not secure from the same lesson
the same experiences and the same relative measure of control over
these experiences. But if our conscious acts are so uniform that the
teacher may expect from all of his pupils like responses and like states
of experience under similar stimulations, then a knowledge on the part
of the teacher of the orderly modes in which the mind works will be
essential to an adequate control of the process of learning. Now a full
and systematic account of mind and its activities is set forth in the
Science of Psychology. As the Science of Consciousness, or Experience,
psychology explains the processes by which all experience is built up,
or organized, in consciousness. Thus psychology constitutes a basic
science for educational method. It is essential, therefore, that the
teacher should have some knowledge of the leading principles of this
science. For this reason, frequent reference will be made, in the study
of general method, to underlying principles of psychology. The more
detailed examination of these principles and of their application to
educational method will, however, be postponed to a later part of the
text. Each of the four important steps of the learning process will now
be treated in order, beginning in the next Chapter with the problem.
CHAPTER IX
THE LESSON PROBLEM
=Problem, a Motive.=--The foregoing description and examples of the
educative process have shown that new knowledge necessarily results
whenever the mind faces a difficulty, or need, and adjusts itself
thereto. In other words, knowledge is found to possess a practical value
and to arise as man faces the difficulties, or problems, with which he
is confronted. The basis of conscious activity in any direction is,
therefore, a feeling of _need_. If one analyses any of his conscious
acts, he will find that the motive is the satisfaction of some desire
which he more or less consciously feels. The workman exerts himself at
his labour because he feels the need of satisfying his artistic sense or
of supplying the necessities of those who are dependent upon him; the
teacher prepares the lessons he has to present and puts forth effort to
teach them successfully, because he feels the need of educating the
pupils committed to his care; the physician observes symptoms closely
and consults authorities carefully, because he feels the need of curing
his patients; the lawyer masters every detail of the case he is
pleading, because he feels the need of protecting the interests of his
client. What is true of adults is equally true of children in school.
The pupil puts forth effort in school work because he feels that this
work is meeting some of his needs.
=Nature of Problem.=--It is not to be assumed, however, that the only
problem which will prompt the individual to put forth conscious effort
must be a purely physical need, such as hunger, thirst, or a distinct
desire for the attainment of a definite object, as to avoid danger or to
secure financial gain or personal pleasure. Nor is it to be understood
that the learner always clearly formulates the problem in his own mind.
Indeed, as will be seen more fully later, one very important motive for
mastering a presented problem is the instinct of curiosity. As an
example of such may be noted a case which came under the observation of
the writer, where the curiosity of a small child was aroused through the
sight of a mud-turtle crawling along a walk. After a few moments of
intense investigation, he cried to those standing by, "Come and see the
bug in the basket." Here, evidently, the child's curiosity gave the
strange appearance sufficient value to cause him to make it an object of
study. Impelled by this feeling, he must have selected ideas from his
former experience (bug--crawling thing; basket--incasing thing), which
seemed of value in interpreting the unknown presentation. Finally by
focusing these upon this strange object, he formed an idea, or mental
picture, which gave him a reasonable control over the new vague
presentation. Such a motive as curiosity may not imply to the same
degree as some others a personal need, nor does it mean that the child
consciously says to himself that this new material or activity is
satisfying a specific need, but in some vague way he knows that it
appeals to him because of its attractiveness in itself or because of its
relation to some other attractive object. In brief, it interests him,
and thus creates a tendency on the part of an individual to give it his
attention. In such situations, therefore, the learner evidently feels to
a greater or less degree a necessity, or a practical need, for solving
the problem before him.
NEED OF PROBLEM
=Knowledge Gained Accidentally.=--It is evident, however, that at times
knowledge might be gained in the absence of any set problem upon which
the learner reacts. For example, a certain person while walking along a
road intent upon his own personal matters observed a boy standing near a
high fence. On passing further along the street, he glanced through an
opening and observed a vineyard within the inclosure. On returning along
the street a few minutes later, he saw the same boy standing at a near
by corner eating grapes. Hereupon these three ideas at once co-ordinated
themselves into a new form of knowledge, signifying stealing-of-fruit.
In such a case, the experience has evidently been gained without the
presence of a problem to guide the selecting and relating of the ideas
entering into the new knowledge. In like manner, a child whose only
motive is to fill paper with various coloured crayon may accidentally
discover, while engaged on this problem, that red and yellow will
combine to make orange, or that yellow and blue will combine to make
green. Here also the child gains valuable experience quite
spontaneously, that is, without its constituting a motive, or problem,
calling for adjustment.
=Learning without Motive.=--In the light of the above, a question
suggests itself in relation to the lesson problem, or motive. Granting
that a regular school recitation must contain some valuable problem for
which the learning process is to furnish a solution, and granting that
the teacher must be fully conscious both of the problem and of its mode
of solution, the question might yet be asked whether a problem is to be
realized by the child as a felt need at the beginning of the lesson. For
example, if the teacher wishes his pupils to learn how to compose the
secondary colour purple, might he have them blend in a purely arbitrary
way, red and blue, and finally ask them to note the result? Or again, if
he wishes the pupils to learn the construction of a paper-box or
fire-place, would he not be justified in directing them to make certain
folds, to do certain cutting, and to join together the various sections
in a certain way, and then asking them to note the result? If such a
course is permissible, it would seem that, so far at least as the
learner is concerned, he may gain control of valuable experience, or
knowledge, without the presence of a problem, or motive, to give the
learning process value and direction.
=Problem Aids Control.=--It is true that in cases like the above, the
child may gain the required knowledge. The cause for this is, no doubt,
that the physical activity demanded of the pupil constitutes indirectly
a motive for attending sufficiently to gain the knowledge. But in many
cases no such conditions might exist. It is important, therefore, to
have the pupil as far as possible realize at the outset a definite
motive for each lesson. The advantage consists in the fact that the
motive gives a value to the ideas which enter into the new knowledge,
even before they are fully incorporated into a new experience. For
example, if in a lesson in geometrical drawing, the teacher, instead of
having the child set out with the problem of drawing a pair of parallel
lines, merely orders him to follow certain directions, and then requests
him to measure the shortest distance between the lines at different
points, the child is not likely to grasp the connections of the various
steps involved in the construction of the whole problem. This means,
however, that the learner has not secured an equal control over the new
experience.
=Pupils Feel Its Lack.=--A further objection to conducting a lesson in
such a way that the child may find no motive for the process until the
close of the lesson, is the fact that he is himself aware of its lack.
In school the child soon discovers that in a lesson he selects and gives
attention to various ideas solely in order to gain control over some
problem which he may more or less definitely conceive in advance. For
this reason, if the teacher attempts, as in the above examples, to fix
the child's attention on certain facts without any conception of
purpose, the pupil nevertheless usually asks himself the question: "What
does the teacher intend me to do with these facts?" Indeed, without at
least that motive to hold such disconnected ideas in his mind, it is
doubtful whether the pupil would attend to them sufficiently to organize
them into a new item of knowledge. When, therefore, the teacher proposes
at the outset an attractive problem to solve, he has gone a long way
toward stimulating the intellectual activity of the pupil. The setting
of problems, the supplying of motives, the giving of aims, the awakening
of needs--this constitutes a large part of the business of the teacher.
PUPIL'S MOTIVE
=Pupil's Problem versus Teacher's.=--But it is important that the
problem before the pupil at the beginning of the lesson should really be
the pupil's and not the teacher's merely. The teacher should be careful
not to impose the problem on the pupils in an arbitrary way, but should
try to connect the lesson with an interest that is already active. The
teacher's motive in teaching the lesson and the pupil's motive in
attending to it are usually quite different. The teacher's problem
should, of course, be identical with the real problem of the lesson.
Thus in a literature lesson on "Hide and Seek" (_Ontario Third Reader_),
the teacher's motive would be to lead the pupil to appreciate the music
of the lines, the beauty of the images, and the pathos of the ideas; and
in general, to increase the pupil's capacities of constructive
imagination and artistic appreciation. The pupil's motive might be to
find out how the poet had described a familiar game. In a nature study
lesson on "The Rabbit," the teacher's motive would be to lead the pupil
to make certain observations and draw certain inferences and thus add
something to his facility in observation and inference. The pupil's
motive in the same lesson would be to discover something new about a
very interesting animal. In general, the teacher's motive will be (1) to
give the pupil a certain kind of useful knowledge; (2) to develop and
strengthen certain organs; or (3) to add something to his mechanical
skill by the forming of habitual reactions. In general, the pupil's
motive will be to learn some fact, to satisfy some instinct, or perform
some activity that is interesting either in itself or because of its
relation to some desired end. That is, the pupil's motive is the
satisfaction of an interest or the promotion of a purpose.
=Pupil's Motive May Be Indirect.=--It is evident from the foregoing that
the pupil's motive for applying himself to any lesson may differ from
the real lesson problem, or motive. For instance, in mastering the
reading of a certain selection, the pupil's chief motive in applying
himself to this particular task may be to please and win the approbation
of the teacher. The true lesson problem, however, is to enable the
learner to give expression to the thoughts and feelings of the author.
When the aim, or motive, is thus somewhat disconnected from the lesson
problem itself, it becomes an _indirect_ motive. While such indirect
motives are undoubtedly valuable and must often be used with young
children, it is evident that when the pupil's motive is more or less
directly associated with the real problem of the lesson, it will form a
better centre for the selecting and organizing of the ideas entering
into the new experience.
=Relation to Pupil's Feeling.=--A chief essential in connection with the
pupil's motive, or attitude, toward the lesson problem, is that the
child should _feel_ a value in the problem. That is, his apprehension of
the problem should carry with it a desire to secure a complete mastery
of the problem from a sense of its intrinsic value. The difference in
feeling which a pupil may have toward the worth of a problem would be
noticed by comparing the attitude of a class in the study of a military
biography or a pioneer adventure taken from Canadian or United States
sources respectively. In the case of the former, the feeling of
patriotism associated with the lesson problem will give it a value for
the pupils entirely absent from the other topic. The extent to which the
pupil feels such a value in the lesson topic will in most cases also
measure the degree of control he obtains over the new experience.
AWAKENING INTEREST IN PROBLEMS
As will be seen in Chapter XXIX, where our feeling states will be
considered more fully, feeling is essentially a personal attitude of
mind, and there can be little guarantee that a group of pupils will feel
an equal value in the same problem. At times, in fact, even where the
pupil understands fairly well the significance of a presented lesson
problem, he may feel little personal interest in it. One of the most
important questions of method is, therefore, how to awaken in a class
the necessary interest in the lesson problem with which they are being
presented.
1. =Through Physical Activity.=--It is a characteristic of the young
child to enjoy physical activity for the sake of the activity itself.
This is true even of his earliest acts, such as stretching, smiling,
etc. Although these are merely impulsive movements without conscious
purpose, the child soon forms ideas of different acts, and readily
associates these with other ideas. Thus he takes a delight in the mere
functioning of muscles, hands, voice, etc., in expressive movements. As
he develops, however, on account of the close association, during his
early years, between thought and movement, the child is much interested
in any knowledge which may be presented to him in direct association
with motor activity. This fact is especially noticeable in that the
efforts of a child to learn a strange object consist largely in
endeavouring to discover what he can do with it. He throws, rolls,
strikes, strives _to_ open it, and in various other ways makes it a
means of physical expression. Whenever, especially, he can discover the
use of an object, as to cut with knife or scissors, to pound with a
hammer, to dip with a ladle, or to sweep with a broom, this social
significance of the object gives him full satisfaction, and little
attention is paid to other qualities. For these reasons the teacher will
find it advantageous, whenever possible, to associate a lesson problem
directly with some form of physical action. In primary number work, for
example, instead of presenting the child with mere numbers and symbols,
the teacher may provide him with objects, in handling which he may
associate the number facts with certain acts of grouping objects. It is
in this way that a child should approach such problems as:
How many fours are there in twelve?
How many feet in a yard?
How many quarts in a peck? etc.
The teaching of fractions by means of scissors and cardboard; the
teaching of board measure by having boards actually measured; the
teaching of primary geography by means of the sand-table; the teaching
of nature study by excursions to fields and woods; these are all easy
because we are working in harmony with the child's natural tendency to
be physically active. The more closely the lesson problem adjusts itself
to these tendencies, the greater will be the pupil's activity and hence
the more rapid his progress.
2. Through Constructive Instinct.--The child's delight in motor
expression is closely associated with his instinctive tendency to
construct. When, therefore, new knowledge can be presented to the child
in and through constructive exercises, he is more likely to feel its
value. Thus it is possible, by means of such occupations as paper
folding or stick-laying, to provide interesting problems for teaching
number and geometric forms. In folding the check-board, for example, the
child will master necessary problems relating to the numbers, 2, 4, 8,
and 16. In learning colour, it is more interesting for the child to
study different colours through painting leaves, flowers, and fruits,
than to learn them through mere sense impressions, or even through
comparing coloured objects, as in the Montessori chromatic exercises. A
study of the various kindergarten games and occupations would give an
abundance of examples illustrative of the possibility of presenting
knowledge in direct association with various types of constructive
work.
=A. Activity must be Directly Connected with Problem.=--It may be noted,
however, that certain dangers associate themselves with these methods.
One danger consists in the fact that, if care is not taken, the physical
activity may not really involve the knowledge to be conveyed, but may be
only very indirectly associated with it. Such a danger might occur in
the use of the Montessori colour tablets for teaching tints and shades.
In handling those, kindergarten children show a strong inclination to
build flat forms with the tablets. Now unless these building exercises
involve the distinguishing of the various tints and shades, the
constructive activity will be likely to divert the attention of the
pupil away from the colour problem which the tablets are supposed to set
for the pupils.
=B. Not too much Emphasis on Manual Skill.=--Again, in expressive
exercises intended merely to impart new knowledge, it may happen that
the teacher will lay too much stress on perfect form of expression. In
these exercises, however, the purpose should be rather to enable the
child to realize the ideas in his expressive actions. When, for example,
a child, in learning such geographical forms as island, gulf, mountain,
etc., uses sand, clay, or plasticine as a medium of expression, too much
striving after accuracy of form in minor details may tend to draw the
pupil's attention from the broader elements of knowledge to be mastered.
In other words, it is the gaining of certain ideas, or knowledge, and
not technical perfection, that is being aimed at in such expressive
movements.
=3. Instinct of Curiosity as Motive.=--The value of the instinct of
curiosity in setting a problem for the young child has been already
referred to. From what was there seen, it is evident that to the extent
to which the teacher awakens wonder and curiosity in his presentation
of a lesson problem, the child will be ready to enter upon the further
steps of the learning process. For example, by inserting two forks and a
large needle into a cork, as illustrated in the accompanying Figure, and
then apparently balancing the whole on a small hard surface, we may
awaken a deep interest in the problem of gravity. In the same manner, by
calling the pupils' attention to the drops on the outside of a glass
pitcher filled with water, we may have their curiosity aroused for the
study of condensation. So also the presentation of a picture may arouse
curiosity in places or people.
[Illustration]
=4. Ownership as Motive.=--The natural pleasure which children take in
collection and ownership may often be associated with presented problems
in a way to cause them to take a deeper interest in the knowledge to be
acquired. For example, in presenting a lesson on the countries of
Europe, the collection of coins or stamps representative of the
different countries will add greatly to the interest, compared with a
mere outline study of the political divisions from a map. A more
detailed examination of the instincts and tendencies of the child and
their relation to the educative process will, however, be found in
Chapter XXI.
=5. Acquired Interest as Motive.=--Finally, in the case of individual
pupils, a knowledge of their particular, or special, interests is often
a means of awakening in them a feeling of value for various types of
school work. As an example, there might be cited the experience of a
teacher who had in his school a pupil whom it seemed impossible to
interest in reading. Thereupon the teacher made it his object to learn
what were this pupil's chief interests outside the school. Using these
as a basis for the selecting of simple reading matter for the boy, he
was soon able to create in him an interest in reading for its own sake.
The result was that in a short time this pupil was rendered reasonably
efficient in what had previously seemed to him an uninteresting and
impossible task.
=6. Use of Knowledge as Motive.=--In the preceding cases, interest in
the problem is made to rest primarily upon some native instinct, or
tendency. It is to be noted, however, that as the child advances in the
acquisition of knowledge, or experience, there develops in him also a
desire for mental activity. In other words, the normal child takes a
delight in the use of any knowledge over which he possesses adequate
control. It is to be noted further, that the child masters the new
problem by bringing to bear upon it suitable ideas selected out of his
previously acquired experiences. It is evident, therefore, that, when a
lesson problem is presented to the child in such a way that he sees a
connection between it and his present knowledge and feels, further, that
the problem may be mastered by a use of knowledge over which he has
complete mastery, he will take a deeper interest in the learning
process. When, on the other hand, he has imperfect control over the old
knowledge from which the interpreting ideas are selected, his interest
in the problem itself will be greatly reduced. Owing to this fact, the
teacher may adapt his lesson problems, or motives, to the stage of
development of the pupils. In the case of young children, since they
have little knowledge, but possess a number of instinctive tendencies,
the lesson problem should be such as may be associated with their
instinctive tendencies. Since, however, the expressing of these
tendencies necessarily brings to the child ideas, or increases his
knowledge, the pupil will in time desire to use his growing knowledge
for its own sake. Here the child becomes able to grasp a problem
consciously, or in idea, and, so far as it appeals to his past
experience, will desire to work for its solution. Thus any problem which
is recognized as having a vital connection with his own experience
constitutes for the child a strong motive. For older pupils, therefore,
the lesson problem which constitutes the strongest motive is the one
that is consciously recognized and felt to have some direct connection
with their present knowledge.
KNOWLEDGE OF PROBLEM
=Relation to Pupil's Knowledge.=--Since the conscious apprehension of
the problem by the pupil in its relation to his present knowledge
constitutes the best motive for the learning process, a question arises
how this problem is to be grasped by the pupil. First, it is evident
that the problem is not a state of knowledge, or a complete experience.
If such were the case, there would be nothing for him to learn. It is
this partial ignorance that causes a problem to exist for the learner as
a felt need, or motive. On the other hand it is not a state of complete
ignorance, otherwise the learner could not call up any related ideas
for its solution. When, for example, the child, after learning the
various physical features, the climate, and people of Ontario, is
presented with the problem of learning the chief industries, he is able
by his former knowledge to realize the existence of these industries
sufficiently to feel the need of a fuller realization. In the same way
the student who has traced the events of Canadian History up to the year
1791, is able to know the Constitutional Act as a problem for study,
that is, he is able to experience the existence of such a problem and to
that extent is able to know it. His mental state is equally a state of
ignorance, in that he has not realized in his own consciousness all the
facts relative to the Act. In the orderly study of any school subject,
therefore, the mastery of the previous lesson or lessons will in turn
suggest problems for further lessons. It is this further development of
new problems out of present knowledge that demands an orderly sequence
of topics in the different school subjects, a fact that should be fully
realized by the teacher.
=Recognition of Problem: A. Prevents Digressions.=--An adequate
recognition of the lesson problem by the pupil in the light of his own
experience is useful in preventing the introduction of irrelevant
material into the lesson. Young children are particularly prone (and,
under certain circumstances, older students also) to drag into the
lessons interesting side issues that have been suggested by some phase
of the work. As a rule, it is advisable to follow closely the straight
and narrow road that leads to the goal of the lesson and not to permit
digressions into attractive by-paths. If a pupil attempts to introduce
irrelevant matter, he should be asked what the problem of the lesson is
and whether what he is speaking of will be of any value in attaining
that end. The necessity of this will, however, be seen more fully in our
consideration of the next division of the learning process.
=B. Organizes the Lesson Facts.=--The adequate recognition of the lesson
problem is valuable in helping the pupil to organize his knowledge. If
you take a friend for a walk along the streets of a strange city
engaging him in interesting conversation by the way, and if, when you
have reached a distant point, you tell him that he must find his way
back alone, he will probably be unable to do so without assistance. But
if you tell him at the outset what you are going to do, he will note
carefully the streets traversed, the corners turned, the directions
taken, and will likely find his way back easily. This is because he had
a clearly defined problem before him. The conditions are much the same
in a lesson. When the pupil starts out with no definite problem and is
led along blindly to some unknown goal, he will be unable to retrace his
route; that is, he will be unable to reproduce the matter over which he
has been taken. But with a clearly defined problem he will be able to
note the order of the steps of the lesson, their relation to one another
and to the problem, and when the lesson is over he will be able to go
over the same course again. The facts of the lesson will have become
organized in his mind.
HOW TO SET LESSON PROBLEM
=Precautions.=--If the teacher expects his pupils to become interested
in a problem by immediately recognizing a connection between it and
their previous knowledge, he must avoid placing the problem before them
in a form in which they cannot readily apprehend this connection. The
teacher who announced at the beginning of the grammar lesson, "To-day we
are going to learn about Mood in verbs" started the problem in a form
that was meaningless to the class. The simplest method in such a lesson
would be to draw attention to examples in sentences of verbs showing
this change and then say to the class, "Let us discover why these verbs
are changed." Similarly, to propose as the problem of the history lesson
"the development of parliamentary government during the Stuart period"
would be to use terms too difficult for the class to interpret. It would
be better to say: "We are going to find out how the Stuart kings were
forced by Parliament to give up control of certain things." Instead of
saying, "We shall study in this lesson the municipal government of
Ontario," it would be much better to proceed in some such way as the
following: "A few days ago your father paid his taxes for the year. Now
we are going to learn by whom, and for what purposes, these taxes are
spent." Similarly, "Let us find out all we can about the cat," would be
inferior to, "Of what use to the cat are his sharp claws, padded feet,
and rough tongue?"
On the other hand, it is evident that, in attempting to present the
problem in a form in which the pupils may recognize its connection with
their previous experiences, care must be taken not to tell outright the
whole point of the lesson. In a lesson on the adverb, for instance, it
would not do to say: "You have learned how adjectives modify, or change
the meaning of, nouns. To-day we shall study words that modify verbs." A
more satisfactory way of proceeding in such a lesson would be to have on
the black-board two sets of sentences exactly alike except that the
second would contain adverbs and the first would not. Then ask: "What
words are in the second group of sentences that are not in the first?
Let us examine the use of these words." In the same way, to state the
problem of an arithmetic lesson as the discovery of "how to add
fractions by changing them to equivalent fractions having the same
denominator" is open to the objection of telling too much. In this case
a better method would be to present a definite problem requiring the use
of addition of fractions. The pupil will see that he has not the
necessary arithmetical knowledge to solve the problem and will then be
in the proper mental attitude for the lesson.
EXAMPLES OF MOTIVATION
A few additional examples, drawn from different school subjects, are
here added to illustrate further what is meant by setting a problem as a
need, or motive.
=A. History.=--The members of a Form IV class were about to take up the
study of the influence of John Wilkes upon parliamentary affairs during
the reign of George III. As most of the pupils had visited the Canadian
Parliament Buildings and had watched from the galleries the proceedings
of the House of Commons, the teacher took this as the point of departure
for the lesson. First, he obtained from the class the facts that the
members of the Commons are elected by the different constituencies of
the Dominion and that nobody has any power to interfere with the
people's right to elect whomsoever they wish to represent them. The same
conditions exist to-day in England, but this has not always been the
case there. There was a time when the people's choice of a
representative was sometimes set aside. The teacher then inquired
regarding the men who sit in the gallery just above the Speaker's chair.
These are the parliamentary reporters for the important daily
newspapers throughout the Dominion. They send telegraphic despatches
regarding the debates in the House to their respective newspapers. These
despatches are published the following day, and the people of the
country are thus enabled to know what is going on in Parliament. Nobody
has any right to prevent these newspapers from publishing what they wish
regarding the proceedings, provided, of course, the reports are not
untruthful. These conditions prevail also in England now, but have not
always done so.
The work of the lesson was to see how these two conditions, freedom of
elections and liberty of the press, have been brought about. The pupils
were thus placed in a receptive attitude to hear the story of John
Wilkes.
=B. Arithmetic.=--A Form IV class had been studying decimals and knew
how to read and write, add and subtract them. The teacher suggested a
situation requiring the use of multiplication, and the pupils found
themselves without the necessary means to meet the situation. For
instance, "Mary's mother sent her to buy 2.25 lb. tea which cost $.375
per lb. What would she have to pay for it?" Or, "Mr. Brown has a field
containing 8.72 acres. Last year it yielded 21.375 bushels of wheat to
the acre. Wheat was worth 97.5 cents per bushel. What was the crop from
the field worth?" The pupils saw that, in order to solve these
questions, they must know how to multiply decimals. Multiplication of
decimals became the problem of the lesson, the goal to be attained.
=C. Grammar.=--The teacher wished to show the meaning of _case_ as an
inflection of nouns and pronouns. He had written on the black-board such
sentences as:
I dropped my book when John pushed me.
When the man passed, he had his dog with him.
He asked the pupils what words in these sentences refer to the same
person, and obtained the answer that _I_, _my_, and _me_ all refer to
one person, and _he_, _his_, and _him_ to another. Then, he proposed the
problem, "Let us find out why we have three different forms of a word
all meaning the same person." The problem was adapted to animate the
curiosity of the pupils and call into activity their capacity for
perceiving relationships.
=D. Literature.=--The teacher was about to present the poem, "Hide and
Seek," to a Form III class. He said, "You have all played 'hide and
seek.' How do you play it? You will find on page 50 of your _Ontario
Third Reader_ a beautiful poem describing a game of 'hide and seek' that
is rather a sad one. Let us see how the poet has described this game."
The pupils were at once interested in what the poet had to say about
what was to them a very familiar diversion, and, while the lesson was in
progress, their capacity for sympathy and for artistic appreciation was
appealed to.
=E. Geography.=--A Form III class was to study some of the more
important commercial centres of Canada. Speaking of Montreal, the
teacher proposed the problem, "Do you think we can find out why a city
of half a million people has grown up at this particular point?" The
pupils' instinct of curiosity was here appealed to and their capacity
for perceiving relationships was challenged.
=F. Composition.=--The teacher wished to take up the writing of letters
of application with a class of Form IV pupils. He wrote on the
black-board an advertisement copied from a recent newspaper, for
example, "Wanted--A boy about fifteen to assist in office; must be a
good writer and accurate in figures; apply by letter to Martin & Kelly,
8 Central Chambers, City." Then he said, "Some day in the near future
many of you will be called upon to answer such an advertisement as this.
Now what should a letter of application in reply to this contain?" The
class at once proceeded, with the teacher's assistance, to work out a
satisfactory letter. Here, a purpose for the future was the principal
need promoted.
=G. Nature Study.=--The pupils of a Form II class had been making
observations regarding a pet rabbit that one of their number had brought
to school. After reporting these observations, the pupils were asked,
"What good do you think these long ears, large eyes, strong hind legs,
split upper lip, etc., are to the rabbit?" Here the problem set was
related to the children's instinctive interest in a living animal,
appealed to the instinct of curiosity, and challenged their capacity to
draw inferences.
CHAPTER X
LEARNING AS A SELECTING ACTIVITY
OR
PROCESS OF ANALYSIS
=Knowledge Obtained Through Use of Ideas.=--As already noted, the
presented problem of a lesson is neither a state of complete knowledge
nor a state of complete ignorance. On the other hand, its function is to
provide a starting-point and guide for the calling up of a number of
suitable ideas which the pupil may later relate into a single
experience, constituting the new knowledge. Take, for example, a person
without a knowledge of fractions, who approaches for the first time the
problem of sharing as found in such a question as:
Divide $15 between John and William, giving John $3 as often as William
gets $2.
In gaining control of this situation, the pupil must select the ideas $3
and $2, the knowledge that $3 and $2 = $5, and the further knowledge
that $15 contains $5 three times. These various ideas will constitute
data for organizing the new experience of $9 for John and $6 for
William. In the same manner, when the student in grammar is first
presented with the problem of interpreting the grammatical value of the
word _driving_ in the sentence, "The boy _driving_ the horse is very
noisy," he is compelled to apply to its interpretation the ideas noun,
adjectival relation, and adjective, and also the ideas object, objective
relation, and verb. In this way the child secures the mental elements
which he may organize into the new experience, or knowledge
(participle), and thus gain control of the presented word.
=Interpreting Ideas Already Known.=--It is to be noticed at the outset
that all ideas selected to aid in the solution of the lesson problem
have their origin in certain past experiences which have a bearing on
the subject in hand. When presented with a strange object (guava), a
person fixes his attention upon it, and thereupon is able, through his
former sensation experiences, to interpret it as an unknown thing. He
then begins to select, out of his experiences of former objects, ideas
that bear upon the thing before him. By focusing thereon certain ideas
with which he is perfectly familiar, as rind, flesh, seed, etc., he
interprets the strange thing as a kind of fruit. In the same way, when
the student is first presented in school with an example of the
infinitive, he brings to bear upon the vague presentation various ideas
already contained within his experience through his previous study of
the noun and the verb. To the extent also to which he possesses and is
able to recall these necessary old ideas, will he be able to adjust
himself to the new and unfamiliar presented example (infinitive). It is
evident, therefore, that a new presentation can have a meaning for us
only as it is related to something in our past experience.
=Further Examples.=--The mind invariably tries to interpret new
presentations in terms of old ideas. A newspaper account of a railway
wreck will be intelligible to us only through the revival and
reconstruction of those past experiences that are similar to the
elements described in the account. The grief, disappointment, or
excitement of another will be appreciated only as we have experienced
similar feelings in the past. New ideas are interpreted by means of
related old ideas; new feelings and acts are dependent upon and made
possible by related old feelings and acts. Moreover, the meaning
assigned to common objects varies with different persons and even with
the same person under different circumstances. A forest would be
regarded by the savage as a place to hide from the attacks of his
enemies; by the hunter as a place to secure game; by the woodcutter as
affording firewood; by the lumberman as yielding logs for lumber; by the
naturalist as offering opportunity for observing insects and animals; by
the artist as a place presenting beautiful combinations of colours. This
ability of the mind to retain and use its former knowledge in meeting
and interpreting new experiences is known in psychology as
_apperception_. A more detailed study of apperception as a mental
process will be made in Chapter XXVI.
THE SELECTING PROCESS
=Learner's Mind Active.=--A further principle of method to be deduced
from the foregoing is, that the process of bringing ideas out of former
experiences to bear upon a presented problem must take place within the
mind of the learner himself. The new knowledge being an experience
organized from elements selected out of former experiences, it follows
that the learner will possess the new knowledge only in so far as he has
himself gone through the process of selecting the necessary interpreting
ideas out of his own former knowledge and finally organizing them into
new knowledge. This need for the pupil to direct mental effort, or
attention, upon the problem in order to bring upon it, out of his former
knowledge, the ideas relative to the solution of the question before
him, is one of the most important laws of method. From the standpoint of
the teacher, this law demands that he so direct the process of learning
that the pupil will clearly call up in consciousness the selected
interpreting ideas as portions of his old knowledge, and further feel a
connection between these and the new problem before him.
=Learner's Experience Analysed.=--The second stage of the learning
process is found to involve also a breaking up of former experience.
This appears in the fact that the various ideas which are necessary to
interpret the new problem are to be selected out of larger complexes of
past experience. For example, in a lesson whose problem is to account
for the lack of rainfall in the Sahara desert, the pupil may have a
complex of experiences regarding the position of the desert. Out of this
mass of experience he must, however, select the one feature--its
position in relation to the equator. In the same way, he may have a
whole body of experience regarding the winds of Africa. This body must,
however, be analysed, and the attention fixed upon the North-east
trade-wind. Again, he may know many things about these winds, but here
he selects out the single item of their coming from a land source.
Again, from the complex of old knowledge which he possesses regarding
the land area from which the wind blows, he must analyse out its
temperature, and compare it with that of the areas toward which the wind
is blowing. Thus it will be seen that, step by step, the special items
of old knowledge to be used in the apperceptive process are selected out
of larger masses of experience. For this reason this phase of the
learning process is frequently designated as a process of analysis.
=Problem as Object of Analysis.=--Although the second step of the
learning process has been described as a selecting of elements from past
experience, it might be supposed that the various elements which the
mind has been said to select from its former experiences to interpret
the new problem, come in a sense from the presentation itself. Thus it
is often said, in describing the present step in the learning process,
that the presentation embodies a certain aggregate of experience, which
the learner can master by analysing it into its component parts and
recombining the analysed parts into a better known whole.
=Analysis Depends upon Selection.=--It is not in the above sense,
however, that the term analysis is to be applied in the learning
process. It is not true, for instance, when a person is presented with a
strange object, say an _ornithorhynchus_, and realizes it in only a
vague way, that any mere analysis of the object will discover for him
the various characteristics which are to synthesize into a knowledge of
the animal. This would imply that in analysis the mind merely breaks up
a vaguely known whole in order to make of it a definitely known whole.
But the learner could not discover the characteristics of such an object
unless the mind attended to it with certain elements of its former
experiences. Unless, for instance, the person already knew certain
characteristics of both birds and animals, he could not interpret the
ornithorhynchus as a bird-beaked animal. In the case of the child and
the mud-turtle, also, there could have been no analysis of the problem
in the way referred to, had the child not had the ideas, bug and basket,
as elements of former experience. These characteristics, therefore,
which enter into a definite knowledge of the object, do not come out of
the object by a mere mechanical process of analysis, but are rather read
into the object by the apperceptive process. That is, the learner does
not get his new experience directly out of the presented materials, but
builds up his new experience out of elements of his former knowledge. In
other words, the learner sees in the new object, or problem, only such
characteristics as his former knowledge and interest enable him to see.
Thus while the learner may be said from one standpoint to analyse the
new problem, this is possible only because he is able to break up, or
analyse, his former experience and read certain of its elements into the
new presentation. To say that the mind analyses the unknown object, or
topic, in any other sense, would be to confound mental interpretation
with physical analysis.
=A Further Example.=--The following example will further show that the
learner can analyse a presented problem only to the extent that he is
able to put characteristics into it by this process of analysing or
selecting from his past experience. Consider how a young child gains his
knowledge of a triangle. At first his control of certain sensations
enables him to read into it two ideas, three-sidedness and
three-angledness, and only these factors, therefore, organize themselves
into his experience triangle. Nor would any amount of mere attention
enable him at this stage to discover another important quality in the
thing triangle. Later, however, through the growth of his geometric
experience, he may be able to read another quality into a triangle,
namely two-right-angledness. This new quality will then, and only then,
be organized with his former knowledge into a more complete knowledge of
a triangle. Here again it is seen that analysis as a learning process is
really reading into a new presentation something which the mind already
possesses as an element of former experience, and not gaining something
at first hand out of the presented problem.
=Problem Directs Selection.=--It will be well to note here also that the
selecting of the interpreting ideas is usually controlled by the problem
with which the mind is engaged. This is indicated from the various ways
in which the same object may be interpreted as the mind is confronted
with different problems. The round stone, for instance, when one wishes
to crack the filbert, is viewed as a hammer; when he wishes to place his
paper on the ground, it becomes a weight; when he is threatened by the
strange dog, it becomes a weapon of defence. In like manner the sign _x_
suggests an unknown quantity in relation to the algebraic problem; in
relation to phonics it is a double sound; in relation to numeration, the
number ten. It is evident that in all these cases, what determines the
meaning given to the presented object is the _need_, or _problem_, that
is at the moment predominant. In the same way, any lesson problem, in so
far as it is felt to be of value, forms a starting-point for calling up
other ideas, and therefore starts in the learner's mind a flow of ideas
which is likely to furnish the solution. Moreover, the mind has the
power to measure the suitability of various ideas and select or reject
them as they are felt to stand related to the problem in hand. For
example, when a pupil is engaged in a study of the grammatical value of
the word _driving_ in the sentence, "The boy driving the horse is very
noisy," it is quite possible that he may think of the horse at his own
home, or the shouting of his father's hired man, or even perhaps the
form of the word _driving_, if he has just been viewing it in a writing
lesson. The mind is able, however, to reject these irrelevant ideas, and
select only those that seem to adjust themselves to the problem in hand.
The cause of this lies in the fact that the problem is at the outset at
least partly understood by the learner, which fact enables him to
determine whether the ideas coming forward in consciousness are related
in any way to this partially known topic. Thus in the example cited,
the learner knows the problem sufficiently to realize that it is a
question of grammatical function, and is able, therefore, to feel the
value, or suitability, of any knowledge which may be applied to it, even
before he is fully aware of its ultimate relation thereto.
LAW OF PREPARATION
=Control of Old Knowledge Necessary.=--But notwithstanding the direction
given the apperceptive process through the aim, or problem, it is
evident that if the pupil is to select from his former experiences the
particular elements which bear upon the problem in hand, he must have a
ready and intelligent control over such former knowledge. It is too
evident, however, that pupils frequently do not possess sufficient
control over the old knowledge which will bear upon a presented problem.
In endeavouring, for example, to grasp the relation of the exterior
angle to the two interior and opposite angles, the pupil may fail
because he has not a clear knowledge of the equality of angles in
connection with parallel lines. For this reason teachers will often find
it necessary (before bringing old knowledge to bear upon a new problem)
to review the old knowledge, or experience, to be used during the
apperceptive process. Thus a lesson on the participle may begin with a
review of the pupils' knowledge of verbs and adjectives, a lesson on the
making of the colours orange and green for painting a pumpkin with its
green stem may begin with a recognition of the standard colours, red,
yellow, and blue, and the writing of a capital letter with a review of
certain movements.
=Preparation Recalls Interpreting Ideas.=--It must be noted that this
review of former knowledge always implies, either that the pupil is
likely to have forgotten at least partially this former knowledge, or
that without such review he is not likely to recall and apply it readily
when the new problem is placed before him. For this reason the teacher
is usually warned that his lesson should always begin with a review of
such of the pupil's old knowledge as is to be used in mastering the new
experiences.
VALUE OF PREPARATION
=A. Aids the Understanding.=--The main advantage of this preparatory
work is that it brings into clear consciousness that group of ideas and
feelings best suited to give meaning to the new presentation. Without
it, the pupil may not understand, or only partially understand, or
entirely misunderstand the lesson. (1) He may not understand the new
matter at all because he does not bring any related facts from his past
experience to bear upon it. Multiplication of decimals would in all
probability be a merely mechanical process if the significance of
decimals and the operation of multiplying fractions were not brought to
bear upon it, the pupil not understanding it at all as a rational
process. (2) He may only partially understand the new matter because he
does not see clearly the relation between his old ideas and the new
facts, or because he does not bring to the new facts a sufficient
equipment of old ideas to make them meaningful. The adverbial objective
would be imperfectly understood if it were not shown that its functions
are exactly parallel with those of the adverb. The pupil would have only
a partial understanding of it. (3) He may entirely misunderstand the new
facts because he uses wrong old experiences to give them meaning. Such
was evidently the difficulty in the case of the young pupil who, after a
lesson on the equator, described it as a menagerie lion running around
the earth. Many of the absurd answers that a pupil gives are due to his
failure to use the correct old ideas to interpret the new facts. He has
misunderstood because his mind was not prepared by making the proper
apperceiving ideas explicit.
=B. Saves Time.=--There is the further advantage of economy of time,
when an adequate preparation of the mind has been made. When the
appropriate ideas are definitely in the forefront of consciousness, they
seize upon kindred impressions as soon as these are presented and give
them meaning. On the other hand, when sufficient preparation has not
been made, time must be taken during the presentation of the new problem
to go back in search of those experiences necessary to make it
meaningful. Frequent interruptions and consequent waste of time will be
inevitable. Time will be saved by having the apperceiving ideas ready
and active.
=C. Provides for Review.=--One of the most important values of the
preparatory step is the opportunity given for the review of old ideas.
These have to be revived, worked over, and reconstructed, and in
consequence they become the permanent possessions of the mind. The
pupil's knowledge of the functions of the adverb is reviewed when he
learns the adverb phrase and adverb clause, and is still further
illuminated when he comes to study the adverbial objective. Further, the
apperceiving ideas become more interesting to the pupil, when he finds
that he can use them in the conquest of new fields. He has a
consciousness of power, which in itself is a source of satisfaction and
pleasure.
PRECAUTIONS REGARDING PREPARATION
=Must not be too Long.=--Two precautions seem advisable in the
preparatory step. The first is that too long a time should not be spent
over it. There is sometimes a tendency to go back too far and drag
forward ideas that are only remotely connected with the new ideas to be
presented. Under such conditions much irrelevant material is likely to
be introduced, and often a train of associations out of harmony with the
meaning and spirit of the lesson is started. This is especially
dangerous in lessons in literature and history. Only those experiences
should be revived which are necessary to a clear apprehension of the
ideas or a full appreciation of the emotions to be presented in the new
lesson.
=Must Recall Vital Ideas.=--The most active, vivid, and powerful ideas
in the pupil's mind are those which are closely connected with his life.
This suggests the second precaution, namely, the use wherever possible
of the ideas associated with his surroundings, his games, his
occupations. When this is done, not only will the new knowledge have a
much greater interest attached to it but it will also be much more
vividly apprehended. This will be referred to further in connection with
the use of illustrations in teaching.
NECESSITY OF PREPARATION
Teachers, however, are not always agreed as to the amount of time or
emphasis to be given to this preparatory step. If the teacher can assure
himself that a lesson is following in easy sequence upon something with
which the children are undoubtedly familiar, he may, many argue, safely
omit such preparatory work. Indeed it is evident that after leaving
school the child will have no personal monitor to call up beforehand the
ideas that he must apply in solving the problems continually presenting
themselves in practical life. On the other hand, however, it is to be
remembered that the young child is, at the best, feeling his way in the
process of adjusting himself to new experiences. For this reason, the
first work for the teacher in any lesson is to ascertain whether the
pupils are in a proper attitude for the new knowledge, and, so far as is
necessary, prepare their minds through the recall of such knowledge as
is related to the new experiences to be presented. Although, therefore,
the step of preparation is not an essential part of the learning
process, since it constitutes for the pupil merely a review of knowledge
acquired through previous learning processes, it may be accepted as a
step in the teacher's method of controlling the learning process.
EXAMPLES OF PREPARATION
The following additional examples as to the mode and form of the step of
preparation may be considered by the student-teacher:
In a lesson in phonic reading in a primary class, the preparation should
consist of a review of those sounds and those words which the pupil
already knows that are to be used in the new lesson. In a nature study
lesson on "The Rabbit," in a Form II class, the preparation should
include a recall of any observations the pupils may have made regarding
the wild rabbit. They may have observed its timidity, its manner of
running, what it feeds upon, where it makes its home, its colour during
the winter and during the summer, the kind of tracks it makes in the
snow, etc. All these facts will be useful in interpreting the new
observations and in assisting the pupils to make new inferences. In a
lesson in a Form III class on "Ottawa as a Commercial Centre," the
preparation consists of a recall of the pupil's knowledge regarding the
position of the city; the adjacent rivers, the Ottawa, Gatineau,
Rideau, Lièvre, Madawaska; the waterfalls of the Rideau and Chaudière;
the forests to the north and west, with their immense supplies of pine,
spruce, and hemlock; and the fact that it is the Dominion capital. All
these facts are necessary in inferring the causes of the importance of
Ottawa. In a literature lesson in a Form III class on _The Charge of the
Light Brigade_, the preparation would involve a recall of some deed of
personal heroism with which the pupils are familiar, such as that of
John Maynard, Grace Darling, or any similar one nearer home. Recall how
such a deed is admired and praised, and the memory of the doer is
cherished and revered. Then the teacher should tell the story of
Balaklava with all the dramatic intensity he is master of, in order that
the pupils may be in a proper mood to approach the study of the poem. In
a grammar lesson on "The Adverbial Objective" the preparation should
consist of a review of the functions of the adverb as modifying a verb,
an adjective, and sometimes another adverb. Upon this knowledge alone
can a rational idea of the adverbial objective be built. In an
arithmetic lesson on "Multiplication of Decimals," in a Form IV class,
the preparation should involve a review of the meaning of decimals, of
the interconversion of decimals and fractions (for example, .05 = 5
hundredths; 27 ten-thousandths = .0027, etc.); and of the multiplication
of fractions. Unless the pupil can do these operations, it is obviously
impossible to make his knowledge of multiplication of decimals anything
more than a merely mechanical process.
PREPARATION MERELY AIDS SELECTION
Before closing our consideration of preparation as a stage of method, it
will be well again to call attention to the fact that this is not one
of the four recognized stages of the learning process, but rather a
subsidiary feature of the second, or apperceptive stage. In other words,
actual advance is made by the pupil toward the control of a new
experience, not through a review of former experience, but by an active
relating of elements selected from past experience to the interpretation
of the new problem.
CHAPTER XI
LEARNING AS A RELATING ACTIVITY
OR
PROCESS OF SYNTHESIS
=Learning a Unifying Process.=--It has been seen that the learner, in
gaining control of new knowledge, must organize into the new experience
elements selected from former experiences. For instance, when a person
gains a knowledge of a new fruit (guava), he not only brings forward in
consciousness from his former knowledge the ideas--rind, flesh, seed,
etc.,--to interpret the strange object, but also associates these into a
single experience, a new fruit. So long also as the person referred to
in an earlier chapter retained in his consciousness as distinct factors
three experiences--seeing a boy at the fence, seeing the vineyard, and
finally, seeing the boy eating grapes--these would not, as three such
distinct experiences, constitute a knowledge of grape-stealing. On the
other hand, as soon as these are combined, or associated by a relating
act of thought, the different factors are organized into a new idea
symbolized by the expression, _grape-stealing_.
=Examples From School-room Procedure.=--A similar relating process is
involved when the learner faces a definite school problem. When, for
instance, the pupil gains a knowledge of the sign ÷, he must not only
bring forward in consciousness from his former knowledge distinct ideas
of a line, of two dots, and of a certain mathematical process, but must
also associate these into a new idea, division-sign. So also a person
may know that air takes up more moisture as it becomes warmer, that the
north-east trade-winds blow over the Sahara from land areas, and that
the Sahara is situated just north of the equator. But the mind must
unify these into a single experience in order to gain a knowledge of the
condition of the rainfall in that quarter.
NATURE OF SYNTHESIS
=Deals with Former Experiences.=--This mental organizing, or unifying,
of the elements of past experiences to secure control of the new
experience, is usually spoken of as a process of synthesis. The term
synthesis, however, must be used with the same care as was noted in
regard to the term analysis. Synthesis does not mean that totally _new_
elements are being unified, but merely that whatever selected elements
of old knowledge the mind is able to read into a presented problem, are
built, or organized, into a new system; and constitute, for the time
being, one's knowledge and control of that problem. This is well
exemplified by noting the growth of a person's knowledge of any object
or topic. Thus, so long as the child is able to apperceive only the
three sides and three angles of a triangle, his idea of triangle
includes a synthesis of these. When later, through the building up of
his geometric knowledge, he is able to apperceive that the interior
angles equal two right angles, his knowledge of a triangle expands
through the synthesis of this with the former knowledge.
=All Knowledge a Synthesis.=--The fact that all knowledge is an
organization from earlier experiences becomes evident by looking at the
process from the other direction. The adult who has complete knowledge
of an orange has it as a single experience. This experience is found,
however, to represent a co-ordination of other experiences, as touch,
taste, colour, etc. Moreover, each of these separate characteristics is
an association of simpler experiences. Experiencing the touch of the
orange, for instance, is itself a complex made up of certain muscular,
touch, and temperature sensations. From this it is evident that the
knowledge of an orange, although a unity of experience in adult life, is
really a complex, or synthesis, made up of a large number of different
elements.
What is true of our idea of an orange is true of every other idea.
Whether it be the understanding of a plant, an animal, a city, a
picture, a poem, an historical event, an arithmetical problem, or a
scientific experiment, the process is always the same. The apperceptive
process of interpreting the new by selecting and relating elements of
former experience, or the process of analysis-synthesis, is universal in
learning. Expressed in another form, what is at first indistinct and
indefinite becomes clear and defined through attention selecting, for
the interpretation of the new presentation, suitable old ideas and
setting up relationships among them. Analysis, or selection, is
incomplete without an accompanying unification, or synthesis; synthesis,
or organization, is impossible without analysis, or selection. It is on
account of the mind's ability to unify a number of mental factors into a
single experience, that the process of unification, or synthesis, is
said to imply economy within our experiences. This fact will become even
more evident, however, when later we study such mental processes as
sense perception and conception.
INTERACTION OF PROCESSES
It is to be noted, however, that the selecting and the relating of the
different interpreting ideas during the learning process are not
necessarily separate and distinct parts of the lesson. In other words,
the mind does not first select out of its former knowledge a whole mass
of disconnected elements, and then later build them up into a new
organic experience. There is, rather, in almost every case, a continual
interplay between the selecting and relating activity, or between
analysis and synthesis, throughout the whole learning process. As soon,
for instance, as a certain feature, or characteristic, is noted, this
naturally relates itself to the central problem. When later, another
characteristic is noted, this may relate itself at once both with the
topic and with the formerly observed characteristic into a more complete
knowledge of the object. Thus during a lesson we find a gradual growth
of knowledge similar to that illustrated in the case of the scholar's
knowledge of the triangle, involving a continual interplay of analysis
and synthesis, or of selecting and relating different groups of ideas
relative to the topic. This would he illustrated by noting a pupil's
study of the cat. The child may first note that the cat catches and eats
rats and mice, and picks meat from bones. These facts will at once
relate themselves into a certain measure of knowledge regarding the food
of the animal. Later he may note that the cat has sharp claws, padded
feet, long pointed canines, and a rough tongue; these facts being also
related as knowledge concerning the mouth and feet of the animal. In
addition to this, however, the latter facts will further relate
themselves to the former as cases of adaptation, when the child notes
that the teeth and tongue are suited to tearing food and cleaning it
from the bones, and that its claws and padded feet are suited to
surprising and seizing its living prey.
=Example from Study of Conjunctive Pronoun.=--This continuous selecting
and relating throughout a process of learning is also well illustrated
in the pupil's process of learning the _conjunctive pronoun_. By
bringing his old knowledge to bear on such a sentence as "The men _who_
brought it returned at once"; the pupil may be asked first to apperceive
the subordinate clause, _who brought it_. This will not likely be
connected by the pupil at first with the problem of the value of _who_.
From this, however, he passes to a consideration of the value of the
clause and its relation. Hereupon, these various ideas at once
co-ordinate themselves into the larger idea that _who_ is conjunctive.
Next, he may be called upon to analyse the subordinate clause. This, at
first, also may seem to the child a disconnected experience. From this,
however, he passes to the idea of _who_ as subject, and thence to the
fact that it signifies man. Thereupon these ideas unify themselves with
the word _who_ under the idea _pronoun_. Thereupon a still higher
synthesis combines these two co-ordinated systems into the more complex
system, or idea--_conjunctive pronoun_.
[Illustration]
This progressive interaction of analysis and synthesis is illustrated by
the accompanying figure, in which the word _who_ represents the
presented unknown problem; _a_, _b_, and _c_, the selecting and relating
process which results in the knowledge, _conjunction_; _a'_, _b'_, and
_c'_, the building up of the _pronoun_ notion; and the circle, the final
organization of these two smaller systems into a single notion,
_conjunctive pronoun_.
The learning of any fact in history, the mastery of a poem, the study of
a plant or animal, will furnish excellent examples of these subordinate
stages of analysis and synthesis within a lesson. It is to be noted
further that this feature of the learning process causes many lessons to
fall into certain well marked sub-divisions. Each of these minor
co-ordinations clustering around a sub-topic of the larger problem, the
whole lesson separates itself into a number of more or less distinct
parts. Moreover, the child's knowledge of the whole lesson will largely
depend upon the extent to which he realizes these parts both as separate
co-ordinations and also as related parts of the whole lesson problem.
ALL KNOWLEDGE UNIFIED
Nor does this relating activity of mind confine itself within the single
lesson. As each lesson is organized, it will, if fully apprehended, be
more or less directly related with former lessons in the same subject.
In this way the student should discover a unity within the lessons of a
single subject, such as arithmetic or grammar. In like manner, various
groups of lessons organize themselves into larger divisions within the
subject, in accordance with important relations which the pupil may read
into their data. Thus, in grammar, one sequence of lessons is organized
into a complete knowledge of sentences; another group, into a complete
knowledge of inflection; a smaller group within the latter, into a
complete knowledge of tense or mood. It is thus that the mind is able to
construct its mass of knowledge into organized groups known as sciences,
and the various smaller divisions into topics.
CHAPTER XII
APPLICATION OF KNOWLEDGE
OR
LAW OF EXPRESSION
=Practical Significance of Knowledge.=--In our consideration of the
fourth phase of the learning process, or the law of expression, it is
necessary at the outset to recall what has already been noted regarding
the correlation of knowledge and action. In this connection it was
learned that knowledge arises naturally as man faces a difficulty, or
problem, and that it finds significance and value in so far as it
enables him to meet the practical and theoretical difficulties with
which he may be confronted. In other words, man is primarily a doer, and
knowledge is intended to guide the conduct of the individual along
certain recognized lines. This being the case, while instruction aims to
control the process by which the child is to acquire valuable social
experience, or knowledge, it is equally important that it should promote
skill by correlating that knowledge with expression, or should strive to
influence action while forming character. To apperceive, for instance,
the rules of government and agreement in grammar will have a very
limited value if the student is not able to give expression to these in
his own conversation. It becomes imperative, therefore, that as far as
possible, expression should enter as a factor in the learning process.
=Examples of Expression.=--Man's expressive acts are found, however, to
differ greatly in their form. When one is hurt, he distorts his face
and cries aloud; when he hears a good speech he claps his hands and
shouts approval; when he reads an amusing story he laughs; when he
learns of the death of a friend he sheds tears; when he is affronted his
face grows red, his muscles tense, and he strikes a blow or breaks into
a torrent of words; when he has seen a striking incident he tells some
one about it or writes an account to a distant friend. When his feelings
are stirred by a patriotic address, he springs to his feet and sings,
"God Save the King." The desire that his team should carry the foot-ball
to the southern goal causes the spectator to lean and push in that
direction. When he conceives how he may launch a successful venture, the
business man at once proceeds to carry it into effect. These are all
examples of _expression_. Every impression, idea, or thought, tends
sooner or later to work itself out in some form of motor expression.
TYPES OF ACTION
=A. Uncontrolled Actions.=--Passing to an examination of such physical,
or motor, activities, we find that man's expressive acts fall into three
somewhat distinct classes. A young child is found to engage in many
movements which seem destitute of any conscious direction. Some of these
movements, such as breathing, sneezing, winking, etc., are found to be
useful to the child, and imply what might be termed inherited control of
conduct, though they do not give expression to any consciously organized
knowledge, or experience. At other times, his bodily movements seem to
be mere random, or impulsive, actions. These latter actions at times
arise in a spontaneous way as a result of native bodily vigour, as, for
instance, stretching, kicking, etc., as seen in a baby. At other times
these uncontrolled acts have their origin in the various impressions
which the child is receiving from his surroundings, or environment, as
when the babe impulsively grasps the object coming in contact with his
hand. Although, moreover, these instinctive movements may come in time
under conscious control, such actions do not in themselves imply
conscious control or give expression to organized knowledge.
=B. Actions Subject to Intelligent Control.=--To a second class of
actions belong the orderly movements which are both produced and
directed by consciousness. When, in distinction to the movements
referred to above, a child pries open the lid to see what is in the box,
or waves his hand to gain the attention of a companion, a conscious aim,
or intention, produces the act, and conscious effort sustains it until
the aim is reached. The distinction between mere impulsive and
instinctive actions on the one hand, and guided effort on the other,
will be considered more fully in Chapter XXX.
=C. Habitual Actions.=--Thirdly, as has been noted in Chapter II, both
consciously directed and uncontrolled action may, by repetition, become
so fixed that it practically ceases to be directed by consciousness, or
becomes habitual.
Our expressive actions may be classified, therefore, into three
important groups as follows:
1. Instinctive, reflex, and impulsive action
2. Consciously controlled, or directed action
3. Habitual action.
NATURE OF EXPRESSION
=Implies Intelligent Control.=--It is evident that as a stage in the
learning process, expression must deal primarily with the second class
of actions, since its real purpose is to correlate the new conscious
knowledge with action. Expression in education, therefore, must
represent largely consciously produced and consciously directed action.
=Conscious Expression may Modify A. Instinctive Acts.=--While this is
true, however, expression, as a stage in the educative process, will
also have a relation to the other types of action. As previously noted,
the expression stage of the learning process may be used as a means to
bring instinctive and impulsive acts under conscious control. This is
indeed an important part of a child's education. For instance, it is
only by forming ideas of muscular movements and striving to express them
that the child can bring his muscular movements under control. It is
evident, therefore, that the expressive stage of the lesson can be made
to play an important part in bringing many instinctive and impulsive
acts under conscious direction. By expressing himself in the games of
the kindergarten, the child's social instinct will come under conscious
control. By directing his muscular movements in art and constructive
work, he gains the control which will in part enable him to check the
impulse to strike the angry blow. These points will, however, be
considered more fully in a study of the inherited tendencies in Chapter
XXI.
=B. Habits.=--Further, many of our consciously directed acts are of so
great value that they should be made more permanent through habituation.
Expression must, therefore, in many lessons be emphasized, not merely to
test and render clear present conscious knowledge, but also to lead to
habitual control of action, or to create skill. This would be especially
true in having a child practise the formation of figures and letters.
Although at the outset we must have him form the letter to see that he
really knows the outline, the ultimate aim is to enable him to form
these practically without conscious direction. In language work, also,
the child must acquire many idiomatic expressions as habitual modes of
speech.
TYPES OF EXPRESSION
Since the tendency to express our impressions in a motor way is a law of
our being, it follows that the school, which is constantly seeking to
give the pupil intelligent impressions, or valuable knowledge, should
also provide opportunity for adequate expression of the same. The forms
most frequently adopted in schools are speech and writing. Pupils are
required to answer questions orally or in writing in almost every school
subject, and in doing so they are given an opportunity for expression of
a very valuable kind. In fact, it would often be much more economical to
try to give pupils fewer impressions and to give them more opportunities
for expression in language. But written or spoken language is not the
only means of expression that the school can utilize. Pupils can
frequently be required to express themselves by means of manual
activity. In art, they represent objects and scenes by means of brush
and colour, or pencil, or crayon; in manual training, they construct
objects in cardboard and wood; in domestic science, they cook and sew.
The primary object of these so-called "new" subjects of the school
programme is not to make the pupils artists, carpenters, or
house-keepers, but partly to acquaint them with typical forms of human
activity and partly to give them means of expression having an educative
value. In arithmetic, the pupils express numerical facts by
manipulating blocks and splints, and measure quantities, distances,
surfaces, and solids. In geography, they draw maps of countries, model
them in sand or clay, and make collections to illustrate manufactures at
various stages of the process. In literature, they dramatize stories and
illustrate scenes and situations by a sketch with pencil or brush. In
nature study, they illustrate by drawings and make mounted collections
of plants and insects.
VALUE OF EXPRESSION
=A. Influences Conduct.=--In nature study, history, and literature, the
most valuable kind of expression is that which comes through some
modification of future conduct. That pupil has studied the birds and
animals to little purpose who needlessly destroys their lives or causes
them pain. He has studied the reign of King John to little purpose if he
is not more considerate of the rights of others on the playground. He
has gained little from the life of Robert Bruce, Columbus, or La Salle,
if he does not manfully attack difficulties again and again until he has
overcome them. He has not read _The Heroine of Verchères_, or _The
Little Hero of Haarlem_ aright, if he does not act promptly in a
situation demanding courage. He has learned little from the story of
Damon and Pythias if he is not true to his friends under trying
circumstances, and he has not imbibed the spirit of _The Christmas
Carol_ if he is not sympathetic and kindly toward those less fortunate
than himself. From the standpoint of the moral life, therefore, right
knowledge is valuable only as it expresses itself in right action.
=B. Aids Impression.=--Apart from the fact that it satisfies a demand of
our being, expression is most important in that it tests the clearness
of the applied knowledge. We often think that our impression is clear,
only to discover its vagueness when we attempt to express it in some
form. People often say that they understand a fact thoroughly, but they
cannot exactly express it. Such a statement is usually incorrect. If the
impression were clear, the expression under ordinary circumstances would
also be clear. In this connection a danger should be pointed out. Pupils
sometimes express themselves in language with apparent clearness, when
in reality they are merely repeating words that they have memorized and
that are quite meaningless to them. The alert teacher can, however, by
judicious questioning, avoid being deceived in this regard.
=C. Adds to Clearness of Knowledge.=--Not only does expression test the
clearness of the apperceived new knowledge, but at the same time it
gives the knowledge greater clearness. We learn to know by doing. A
pupil realizes a story more fully when he has reproduced it for somebody
else. He images a scene described in a poem more clearly when he has
drawn it. He has a clearer idea of the volume of a cord when he has
actually measured out a cord of wood. He has a more accurate conception
of the difficulties attending the discoveries of La Salle when he has
drawn a map and traced the routes of his various expeditions. There is
much truth in the statement that one never fully knows some things until
he has taught them to somebody else. The teacher in grammar and
geography will often have occasion to realize this. Greater clearness of
impression means, of course, greater permanence. We remember best those
facts of which our impression was most vivid.
DANGERS OF OMITTING EXPRESSION
=A. Knowledge not Practical.=--It is apparent, then, that if the pupil
is not given opportunity for expression, his ideas are vague and
evanescent. Further than this, his capacities for _knowing_ will be
developed but his capacities for _doing_ ignored. His _intellectual_
powers will be exercised and his _volitional_ powers neglected. The
pupil is thus likely to develop into a mere _theorist_; and as the
tendencies of childhood are accentuated in later life, he becomes an
_impractical_ man. There are many men in the world who apparently know a
great deal, but who, through inability to make practical application of
their knowledge, are unsuccessful in life. It is, however, seriously to
be doubted whether knowledge is ever _real_ until it has been worked out
in practice and conduct. To avoid the danger of becoming impractical, a
pupil should have every opportunity for expression.
=B. Feelings Weakened.=--A second serious danger of neglecting
expression lies in the field of the emotions. To have generous emotions
continually aroused and never to act upon them, to have one's sympathies
frequently stirred and never to perform a kindly act, to experience
feelings of love and never to express them in acts of service, is to
cultivate a weakness of character. A classic instance of this is that of
the lady who wept bitterly over the imaginary sorrows of the heroine in
the play while her coachman was freezing to death outside the theatre.
If worthy emotions are ever to be of the slightest moral value to us,
they must be expressed in action. The pupil frequently has his emotions
stirred in the lessons in literature, history, and nature study, and
there are situations constantly arising in the school room, on the
playground, on the street, and in the home, that afford opportunity for
expression. To give a single instance, there is a story in the _Ontario
Third Reader_ by Elizabeth Phelps Ward, called "Mary Elizabeth." No
pupil could read that story without being stirred with a deep pity and
yet profound admiration for the pathetic figure of poor little Mary
Elizabeth. The natural expression for such emotions would be a more
kindly and sympathetic attitude towards some unfortunate child in the
school.
RELATION OF EXPRESSION TO IMPRESSION
=Knowledge Tends Toward Expression.=--On account of the evident
connection between knowledge and action, the law of expression has
formulated itself into a well-known pedagogical law of method--no
impression without expression. Like many other educational maxims,
however, this law may be interpreted in too wide a sense. The law of
expression in education claims only that valuable experiences, or
valuable forms of new knowledge, should not be built up in the child's
mind without adequate accompanying expression. In the first case, as
already seen, many impressions come to us which are never seized upon
sufficiently by our consciousness to become intelligent rules for
conduct, or action. It is true, of course that, so far as such
impressions stimulate us, they tend toward expression, and to that
extent the maxim is true. For instance, when a child is impressed, say,
by a sudden strange sound, he has a tendency to express himself by
straining his attention, and when the man imagines an enemy is before
him, he finds his arms and fists assuming the fighting attitude.
=Expression at Times Inhibited.=--It is to be noted that the child
should early learn to form intelligent plans of action and postpone or
even condemn them as forms of expression. In other words, a child
should early learn to select and co-ordinate ideas into an orderly
system independently of their actual expression in physical action.
Without this power to suppress, or inhibit, expression, the child would
be unable adequately to weigh and compare alternative courses of action
and suppress such as seem undesirable. Such indeed is the weakness of
the man who possesses an impulsive nature. Although, therefore, it is
true that all knowledge is intended to serve in meeting actual needs, or
to function in the control of expression, it is equally true that not
every organized experience should find expression in action. Part at
least of man's efficiency must consist in his ability to organize a new
experience in an indirect way and condemn it as a rule of action. While,
therefore, we emphasize the importance, under ordinary conditions, of
having the child's knowledge function as directly as possible in some
form of actual expression, it is equally important to recognize that in
actual life many organized plans should not find expression in outer
physical action. This being the case, the divorce between organized
experience, or knowledge, and practical expression, which at times takes
place in school work, is not necessarily unsound, since it tends to make
the child proficient in separating the mental organizing of experience
from its immediate expression, and must, therefore, tend to make him
more capable of weighing plans before putting them into execution. This
will in turn habituate the child to taking the necessary time for
reflection between "the acting of a thing and the first purpose." This
question will be considered more fully in Chapter XXX, which treats of
the development of voluntary control.
It should be noted in conclusion that the law of expression as a fourth
stage of the learning process differs in purpose from the use of
physical action as a means of creating interest in the problem, as
referred to on page 62. When, for instance, we set a pupil who has no
knowledge of long measure to use the inch in interpreting the yard
stick, expressive action is merely a means of putting the problem before
the child in an interesting form on account of his liking for physical
action. When, on the other hand, the child later uses the foot or yard
as a unit to measure the perimeter of the school-room, he is applying
his knowledge of long measure, which has been acquired previously to
this expressive act.
CHAPTER XIII
FORMS OF LESSON PRESENTATION
The chief office of the teacher, in controlling the pupils' process of
learning, being to direct their self-activity in making a selection of
ideas from their former knowledge which shall stand in vital connection
with the problem, and lead finally to its solution, the question arises
in what form the teacher is to conduct the process in order to obtain
this desired result. Three different modes of directing the selecting
activity of the student are recognized and more or less practised by
teachers. These are usually designated the lecture method, the text-book
method, and the developing method.
THE LECTURE METHOD
=Example of Lecture Method.=--In the lecture method so-called, the
teacher tells the students in direct words the facts involved in the new
problem, and expects these words to enable the pupils to call up from
their old knowledge the ideas which will give the teacher's words
meaning, and thus lead to a solution of the problem. For example, in
teaching the meaning of alluvial fans in geography, a teacher might seek
to awaken the interpreting ideas by merely stating in words the
characteristic of a fan. This would involve telling the pupils that an
alluvial fan is a formation on the floor of a main river valley,
resulting from the depositing of detritus carried down the steep side of
the valley by a tributary stream and deposited in the form of a fan,
when the force of the water is weakened as it enters the more level
floor of the valley. To interpret this verbal description, however, the
pupil must first interpret the words of the teacher as sounds, and then
convert these into ideas by bringing his former knowledge to bear upon
the word symbols. If we could take it for granted that the pupil will
readily grasp the ideas here signified by such words as, formation, main
river valley, depositing, detritus, steep side, etc., and at once feel
the relation of these several ideas to the more or less unknown
object--alluvial fan--this method would undoubtedly give the pupil the
knowledge required.
=The Method Difficult.=--To expect of young children a ready ability in
thus interpreting words would, however, be an evident mistake. To
translate such sound symbols into ideas, and immediately adjust them to
the problem, demands a power of language interpretation and of
reflection not usually found in school children. The purely lecture
method, therefore, has very small place with young children, whatever
may be its value with advanced students. Pupils in the primary grades
have not sufficient power of attention to listen to a long lecture on
any subject, and no teacher should think of conducting a lesson by that
method alone. The purpose of the lecture is merely to give information,
and that is seldom the sole purpose of a lesson in elementary classes.
There the more important purposes are to train pupils to acquire
knowledge by thinking for themselves, and to express themselves, both of
which are well-nigh impossible if the purely lecture method is followed.
=Does not Insure Selection.=--The weakness of such a method is well
illustrated in the case of the young teacher who, in giving her class a
conception of the equator, followed the above method, and carefully
explained to the pupils that the equator is an imaginary line running
around the earth equally distant from the two poles. When the teacher
came later to review the work with the class, one bright lad described
the equator as a menagerie lion running around the earth. Here evidently
the child, true to the law of apperception, had interpreted, or rather
misinterpreted, the words of the teacher, by means of the only ideas in
his possession which seemed to fit the uttered sounds. It is evident,
therefore, that too often in this method the pupils will either thus
misinterpret the meaning of the teacher's words, or else fail to
interpret them at all, because they are not able to call up any definite
images from what the teacher may be telling them.
=When to be Used.=--It may be noted, however, that there is some place
for the method in teaching. For example, when young children are
presented with a suitable story, they will usually have no difficulty in
fitting ideas to words, and thus building up the story. It requires, in
fact, the continuity found in the telling method to keep the children's
attention on the story, the tone of voice and gesture of the reciter
going a long way in helping the child to call up the ideas which enable
him to construct the story plot. Moreover, some telling must be done by
the teacher in every lesson. Everything cannot be discovered by the
pupils themselves. Even if it were possible, it would often be
undesirable. Some facts are relatively unimportant, and it is much
better to tell these outright than to spend a long time in trying to
lead pupils to discover them. The lecture method, or telling method,
should be used, then, to supply pupils with information they could not
find out for themselves, or which they could find out only by spending
an amount of time disproportionate to the importance of the facts. The
teacher must use good judgment in discriminating between those facts
which the pupils may reasonably be expected to find out for themselves
and those facts which had better be told. Many teachers tell too much
and do not throw the pupils sufficiently on their own resources. On the
other hand, many teachers tell too little and waste valuable time in
trying to "draw" from the pupils what they do not know, with the result
that the pupils fall back upon the pernicious practice of guessing. The
teacher needs to be on his guard against "the toil of dropping buckets
into empty wells, and growing old in drawing nothing up."
It may be added further that, in practical life, man is constantly
required to interpret through spoken language. For this reason,
therefore, all children should become proficient in securing knowledge
through spoken language, that is, by means of the lecture, or telling,
method.
THE TEXT-BOOK METHOD
=Nature of Text-book Method.=--In the text-book method, in place of
listening to the words of the teacher, the pupil is expected to read in
a text-book, in connection with each lesson problem, a series of facts
which will aid him in calling up, or selecting, the ideas essential to
the mastery of the new knowledge. This method is similar, therefore, in
a general way, to the lecture method; since it implies ability in the
pupil to interpret language, and thus recall the ideas bearing upon the
topic being presented. Although the text-book method lacks the
interpretation which may come through gesture and tone of voice, it
nevertheless gives the pupil abundance of time for reflecting upon the
meaning of the language without the danger of losing the succeeding
context, as would be almost sure to happen in the lecture method.
Moreover, the language and mode of presentation of the writer of the
text-book is likely to be more effective in awakening the necessary old
knowledge, than would be the less perfect descriptions of the ordinary
teacher. On the whole, therefore, the text-book seems more likely to
meet the conditions of the laws of apperception and self-activity, than
would the lecture method.
=Method Difficult for Young Children.=--The words of the text-book,
however, like the words of the teacher, are often open to
misinterpretation, especially in the case of young pupils. This may be
illustrated by the case of the student, who upon reading in her history
of the mettle of the defenders of Lacolle Mill, interpreted it as the
possession on their part of superior arms. An amusing illustration of
the same tendency to misinterpret printed language, in spite of the time
and opportunity for studying the text, is seen in the case of the
student who, after reading the song entitled "The Old Oaken Bucket," was
called upon to illustrate in a drawing his interpretation of the scene.
His picture displayed three buckets arranged in a row. On being called
upon for an explanation, he stated that the first represented "The old
oaken bucket"; the second, "The iron-bound bucket"; and the third, "The
moss-covered bucket." Another student, when called upon to express in
art his conception of the well-known lines:
All at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze;
represented on his paper a bed of daffodils blooming in front of a
platform, upon which a number of female figures were actively engaged in
the terpsichorean art.
=Pupil's Mind Often Passive.=--As in the lecture method, also, the pupil
may often go over the language of the text in a passive way without
attempting actively to call up old knowledge and relate it to the
problem before him. It is evident, therefore, that without further aid
from a teacher, the text-book could not be depended upon to guide the
pupil in selecting the necessary interpreting ideas. As with the lecture
method, however, it is to be recognized that, both in the school and in
after life, the student must secure much information by reading, and
that he should at some time gain the power of gathering information from
books. The use of the text-book in school should assist in the
acquisition of this power. The teacher must, therefore, distinguish
between the proper _use_ of the text-book and the _abuse_ of it. There
are several ways in which the text-book may be effectively used.
USES OF TEXT-BOOK
1. After a lesson has been taught, the pupils may be required by way of
review to read the matter covered by the lesson as stated by the
text-book. This plan is particularly useful in history and geography
lessons. The text-book strengthens and clarifies the impression made by
the lesson.
2. Before assigning the portion to be read in the text-book, the teacher
may prepare the way by presenting or reviewing any matter upon which the
interpretation of the text depends. This preparatory work should be just
sufficient to put the pupils in a position to read intelligently the
portion assigned, and to give them a zest for the reading. Sometimes in
this assignment, it is well to indicate definitely what facts are
sufficiently important to be learned, and where these are discussed in
the text-book.
3. The mastery of the text by the pupils may sometimes be aided by a
series of questions for which answers are to be found by a careful
reading. Such questions give the pupils a definite purpose. They
constitute a set of problems which are to be solved. They are likely to
be interesting, because problems within the range of the pupils'
capacity are a challenge to their intelligence. Further, these questions
will emphasize the things that are essential, and the pupils will be
enabled to grasp the main points of the lesson assigned. Occasionally,
to avoid monotony, the pupils should be required, as a variation of this
plan, to make such a series of questions themselves. In these cases, the
pupil with the best list might be permitted, as a reward for his effort,
to "put" his questions to the class.
4. In the more advanced classes, the pupils should frequently be
required to make a topical outline of a section or chapter of the
text-book. This demands considerable analytic power, and the pupil who
can do it successfully has mastered the art of reading. The ability is
acquired slowly, and the teacher must use discretion in what he exacts
from the pupil in this regard. If the plan were followed persistently,
there would be less time wasted in cursory reading, the results of which
are fleeting. What is read in this careful way will become the real
possession of the mind and, even if less material is read, more will be
permanently retained.
The facts thus learned from the text-book should be discussed by the
teacher and pupils in a subsequent recitation period. This may be done
by the question and answer method, the teacher asking questions to which
the pupils give brief answers; or by the topical recitation method, the
pupils reporting in connected form the facts under topics suggested by
the teacher. The teacher has thus an opportunity of emphasizing the
important facts, of correcting misconceptions, and of amplifying and
illustrating the facts given in the text-book. Further, the pupils are
given an opportunity of expressing themselves, and have thus an exercise
in language which is a valuable means of clarifying their impressions.
ABUSE OF TEXT-BOOK
As instances of the abuse of the text-book, the following might be
cited:
1. The memorization by the pupils of the words of the text-book without
any understanding of the meaning.
2. The assignment of a certain number of pages or sections to be learned
by the pupils without any preliminary preparation for the study.
3. The employment of the text-book by the teacher during the recitation
as a means of guiding him in the questions he is to ask--a confession
that he does not know what he requires the pupils to know.
=Limitation of Text-book.=--The chief limitation of the text-book method
of teaching is that the pupil makes few discoveries on his own account,
and is, therefore, not trained to think for himself. The problems being
largely solved for him by the writer, the knowledge is not valued as
highly as it would be if it came as an original discovery. We always
place a higher estimation on that knowledge which we discover for
ourselves than on that which somebody else gives us.
THE DEVELOPING METHOD
=Characteristics of the Method.=--The third, or developing, method of
directing the selecting activity of the learner, is so called because
in this method the teacher as an instructor aims to keep the child's
mind actively engaged throughout each step of the learning process. He
sees, in other words, that step by step the pupil brings forward
whatever old knowledge is necessary to the problem, and that he relates
it in a definite way to this problem. Instead of telling the pupils
directly, for instance, the teacher may question them upon certain known
facts in such a way that they are able themselves to discover the new
truth. In teaching alluvial fans, for example, the teacher would begin
questioning the pupil regarding his knowledge of river valleys,
tributary streams, the relation of the force of the tributary water to
the steepness of the side of the river valley, the presence of detritus,
etc., and thus lead the pupil to form his own conclusion as to the
collecting of detritus at the entrance to the level valley and the
probable shape of the deposit. So also in teaching the conjunctive
pronoun from such an example as:
He gave it to a boy _who_ stood near him;
the teacher brings forward, one by one, the elements of old knowledge
necessary to a full understanding of the new word, and tests at each
step whether the pupil is himself apprehending the new presentation in
terms of his former grammatical knowledge. Beginning with the clause
"who stood near him," the teacher may, by question and answer, assure
himself that the pupil, through his former knowledge of subordinate
clauses, apprehends that the clause is joined adjectively to _boy_, by
the word _who_. Next, he assures himself that the pupil, through his
former knowledge of the conjunction, apprehends clearly the consequent
_conjunctive_ force of the word _who_. Finally, by means of the pupil's
former knowledge of the subjective and pronoun functions, the teacher
assures himself that the pupil appreciates clearly the _pronoun_
function of the word _who_. Thus, step by step, throughout the learning
process, the teacher makes certain that he has awakened in the mind of
the learner the exact old knowledge which will unify into a clearly
understood and adequately controlled new experience, as signified by the
term _conjunctive pronoun_.
=Question and Answer.=--On account of the large use of questioning as a
means of directing and testing the pupils' selecting of old knowledge,
or interpreting ideas, the developing method is often identified with
the question and answer method. But the real mark of the developing
method of teaching is the effort of an instructor to assure himself
that, step by step, throughout the learning process, the pupil himself
is actively apprehending the significance of the new problem by a use of
his own previous experience. It is true, however, that the method of
interrogation is the most universal, and perhaps the most effective,
mode by which a teacher is able to assure himself that the learner's
mind is really active throughout each step of the learning process.
Moreover, as will be seen later, the other subsidiary methods of the
developing method usually involve an accompanying use of question and
answer for their successful operation. It is for this reason that the
question is sometimes termed the teacher's best instrument of
instruction. For the same reason, also, the young teacher should early
aim to secure facility in the art of questioning. An outline of the
leading principles of questioning will, therefore, be given in Chapter
XVIII.
=Other Forms of Development.=--Notwithstanding the large part played by
question and answer in the developing method, it must be observed that
there are other important means which the teacher at times may use in
the learning process in order to awaken clear interpreting ideas in the
mind of the learner. In so far, moreover, as any such methods on the
part of the teacher quicken the apperceptive process in the child, or
cause him to apply his former knowledge in a more active and definite
way to the problem in hand, they must be classified as phases of the
developing method. Two of these subsidiary methods will now be
considered.
THE OBJECTIVE METHOD
=Characteristics of the Objective Method.=--One important sub-section of
the developing method is known as the objective method. In this method
the teacher seeks, as far as possible, (1) to present the lesson problem
through the use of concrete materials, and (2) to have the child
interpret the problem by examining this concrete material. A child's
interest and knowledge being largely centred in objects and their
qualities and uses, many truths can best be presented to children
through the medium of objective teaching. For example, in arithmetic,
weights and measures should be taught by actually handling weights and
measures and building up the various tables by experiment. Tables of
lengths, areas, and volumes may be taught by measurements of lines,
surfaces, and solids. Geographical facts are taught by actual contact
with the neighbouring hills, streams, and ponds; and by visits to
markets and manufacturing plants. In nature study, plants and animals
are studied in their natural habitat or by bringing them into the
class-room.
=Advantages of the Objective Method.=--The advantages of this method in
such cases are readily manifest. Although, for instance, the pupil who
knows in a general way an inch space and the numbers 144, 9, 30-1/4, 40,
and 4, might be supposed to be able to organize out of his former
experiences a perfect knowledge of surface measure, yet it will be found
that compared with that of the pupil who has worked out the measure
concretely in the school garden, the control of the former student over
this knowledge will be very weak indeed. In like manner, when a student
gains from a verbal description a knowledge of a plant or an animal, not
only does he find it much more difficult to apply his old knowledge in
interpreting the word description than he would in interpreting a
concrete example, but his knowledge of the plant or animal is likely to
be imperfect. Objective teaching is important, therefore, for two
reasons:
1. It makes an appeal to the mind through the senses, the avenue through
which the most vivid images come. Frequently several senses are brought
to bear and the impressions thereby multiplied.
2. On account of his interest in objects, the young child's store of old
experiences is mainly of objects and of their sensuous qualities and
uses. To teach the abstract and unfamiliar through these, therefore, is
an application of the law of apperception, since the object makes it
easier for the child's former knowledge to be related to the presented
problem.
=Limitations of Objective Method.=--It must be recognized, however, that
objective teaching is only a means to a higher end. The concrete is
valuable very often only as a means of grasping the abstract. The
progress of humanity has ever been from the sensuous and concrete to the
ideal and abstract. Not the objects themselves, but what the objects
symbolize is the important thing. It would be a pedagogical mistake,
then, to make instruction begin, continue, and end in the concrete. It
is evident, moreover, that no progress could be made through
object-teaching, unless the question and answer method is used in
conjunction.
THE ILLUSTRATIVE METHOD
=Characteristics of the Illustrative Method.=--In many cases it is
impossible or impracticable to bring the concrete object into the
school-room, or to take the pupils to see it outside. In such cases,
somewhat the same result may be obtained by means of some form of
graphic illustration of the object, as a picture, sketch, diagram, map,
model, lantern slide, etc. The graphic representation of an object may
present to the eye most of the characteristics that the actual object
would. For this reason pictures are being more and more used in
teaching, though it is a question whether teachers make as good use of
the pictures of the text-book, in geography for instance, as might be
made.
=Illustrative Method Involves Imagination.=--In the illustrative method,
however, the pupil, instead of being able to apply directly former
knowledge obtained through the senses, in interpreting the actual
object, must make use of his imagination to bridge over the gulf between
the actual object and the representation. When, for example, the child
is called upon to form his conception of the earth with its two
hemispheres through its representation on a globe, the knowledge will
become adequate only as the child's imagination is able to picture in
his mind the actual object out of his own experience of land, water,
form, and space, in harmony with the mere suggestions offered by the
model. It is evident, for the above reason, that the illustrative method
often demands more from the pupil than does the more concrete objective
method. For instance, the child who is able to see an actual mountain,
lake, canal, etc., is far more likely to obtain an accurate idea of
these, than the student who learns them by means of illustrations. The
cause for this lies mainly in the failure of the child to form a perfect
image of the real object through the exercise of his imagination. In
fact it sometimes happens that he makes very little use of his
imagination, his mental picture of the real object differing little from
the model placed before him. The writer was informed of a case in which
a teacher endeavoured to give some young pupils a knowledge of the earth
by means of a large school globe. When later the children were
questioned thereon, it was discovered that their earth corresponded in
almost every particular with the large globe in the school. The
successful use of the illustrative method, therefore, demands from the
teacher a careful test by the question and answer method, to see that
the learner has properly bridged over, through his imagination, the gulf
separating the actual object from its illustration. For this reason an
acquaintance with the mental process of imagination is of great value to
the teacher. The leading facts connected with this process will be set
forth in Chapter XXVII.
PRECAUTIONS IN USE OF MATERIALS
In the use of objective and illustrative materials the following
precautions are advisable:
1. Their use in the lesson should not be continued too long. It should
be remembered that their office is illustrative, and the aim of the
teacher should be to have the pupils think in the abstract as soon as
possible. To make pupils constantly dependent on the concrete is to make
their thinking weak.
2. The pupils must be mentally active while the concrete object or
illustrative material is being used, and not merely gaze in a passive
way upon the objects. It requires mental activity to grasp the abstract
facts that the objects or illustrations typify. A tellurion will not
teach the changes of the seasons; bundles of splints, notation; nor
black-board examples, the law of agreement; unless these are brought
under the child's mental apprehension. The sole purpose of such
materials is, therefore, to start a flow of imagery or ideas which bear
upon the presented problem.
3. The objects should not be so intrinsically interesting that they
distract the attention from what they are intended to illustrate. It
would be injudicious to use candies or other inherently attractive
objects to illustrate number facts in primary arithmetic. The objects,
not the number facts, would be of supreme interest. The teacher who used
a heap of sand and some gunpowder to teach what a volcano is, found his
pupils anxious for "fireworks" in subsequent geography classes. The
science teacher may make his experiments so interesting that his
students neglect to grasp what the experiments illustrate. The preacher
who uses a large number of anecdotes to illustrate the points of his
sermon, would be probably disappointed to know that the only part of his
discourse remembered by the majority of his hearers was these very
anecdotes. In his enthusiasm for objective teaching, the teacher may
easily make the objects so attractive that the pupils fail altogether to
grasp what they signify.
4. In the case of pictures, maps, and sketches, it is well to present
those that are not too detailed. A map drawn on the black-board by the
teacher is usually better for purposes of illustration than a printed
wall map. The latter shows so many details that it is often difficult
for the pupil to single out those required in the lesson. The
black-board map, on the other hand, will emphasize just those details
that are necessary. For the same reason the sketch is often better than
the printed picture or photograph. Any one who can sketch rapidly and
accurately has at his disposal a valuable means of communicating
knowledge, and every teacher should strive to cultivate this power.
MODES OF PRESENTATION COMPARED
The relative clearness of different modes of presenting knowledge may be
seen from the following:
If a teacher stated to his pupils that he saw a guava yesterday,
possibly no information would be conveyed to them other than that some
unknown object has been referred to. Merely to name any object of
thought, therefore, does not guarantee any real understanding in the
mind of the pupil. If the teacher describes the object as a fruit,
fragrant, yellow, fleshy, and pear-shaped, the mental picture of the
pupil is likely to be much more definite. If, on the other hand, a
picture of the fruit is shown, it is likely that the pupil will more
fully realize at least some of the features of the fruit. If the pupil
is given the object and allowed to bring all his senses to bear upon it,
his knowledge will become both more full and more definite. If he were
allowed to express himself through drawing and modelling, his knowledge
would become still more thorough, while if he grew, marketed, and
manufactured the fruit into jelly, his knowledge of the fruit might be
considered complete.
CHAPTER XIV
CLASSIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE
Before passing to a consideration of the various types or classes into
which school lessons may be divided, it is necessary to note a certain
distinction in the way the mind thinks of objects, or two classes into
which our experiences are said to divide themselves. When the mind
experiences, or is conscious of, this particular chair on the platform,
that tree outside the window, the size of this piece of stone, or the
colour and shape of this bonnet, it is said to be occupied with a
particular experience, or to be gaining particular knowledge.
ACQUISITION OF PARTICULAR KNOWLEDGE
=A. Through the Senses.=--These particular experiences may arise through
the actual presentation of a thing to the senses. I _see_ this chair;
_taste_ this sugar; _smell_ this rose; _hear_ this bell; etc. As will be
seen later, the senses provide the primary conditions for revealing to
the mind the presence of particular things, that is, for building up
particular ideas, or, as they are frequently called, particular notions.
Neither does a particular experience, or notion, necessarily represent a
particular concrete object. It may be an idea of some particular state
of anger or joy being experienced by an individual of the beauty
embodied in this particular painting, etc.
=B. Through the Imagination.=--Secondly, by an act of constructive
imagination, one may image a picture of a particular object as present
here and now. Although never having had the actual particular
experience, a person can, with the eye of the imagination, picture as
now present before him any particular object or event, real or
imaginary, such as King Arthur's round table; the death scene of Sir
Isaac Brock or Captain Scott; the sinking of the _Titanic_; the Heroine
of Verchères; or the many-headed Hydra.
=C. By Inference, or Deduction.=--Again, knowledge about a particular
individual, or particular knowledge, may be gained in what seems a yet
more indirect way. For instance, instead of standing beside Socrates and
seeing him drink the hemlock and die, and thus, by actual sense
observation, learn that Socrates is mortal; we may, by a previous series
of experiences, have gained the knowledge that all men are mortal. For
that reason, even while he yet lives, we may know the particular fact
that Socrates, being a man, is also mortal. In this process the person
is supposed to start with the known general truth, "All men are mortal";
next, to call to mind the fact that Socrates is a man; and finally, by a
comparison of these statements or thoughts, reason out, or deduce, the
inference that therefore Socrates is mortal. This process is, therefore,
usually illustrated in what is called the syllogistic form, thus:
All men are mortal.
Socrates is a man.
Socrates is mortal.
When particular knowledge about an individual thing or event is thus
inferred by comparing two known statements, it is said to be secured by
a process of _deduction_, or by inference.
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
In all of the above examples, whether experienced through the senses,
built up by an act of imagination, or gained by inference, the
knowledge is of a single thing, fact, organism, or unity, possessing a
real or imaginary existence. In addition to possessing its own
individual unity, however, a thing will stand in a more or less close
relation with many other things. Various individuals, therefore, enter
into larger relations constituting groups, or classes, of objects. In
addition, therefore, to recognizing the object as a particular
experience, the mind is able, by examining certain individuals, to
select and relate the common characteristics of such classes, or groups,
and build up a general, or class, idea, which is representative of any
member of the class. Thus arise such general ideas as book, man, island,
county, etc. These are known as universal, or class, notions. Moreover,
such rules, or definitions, as, "A noun is the name of anything"; "A
fraction is a number which expresses one or more equal parts of a
whole," are general truths, because they express in the form of a
statement the general qualities which have been read into the ideas,
noun and fraction. When the mind, from a study of particulars, thus
either forms a class notion as noun, triangle, hepatica, etc., or draws
a general conclusion as, "Air has weight," "Any two sides of a triangle
are together greater than the third side," it is said to gain general
knowledge.
ACQUISITION OF GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
=A. Conception.=--In describing the method of attaining general
knowledge, it is customary to divide such knowledge into two slightly
different types, or classes, and also to distinguish between the
processes by which each type is attained. When the mind, through having
experienced particular dogs, cows, chairs, books, etc., is able to form
such a general, or class, idea as, dog, cow, chair, or book, it is said
to gain a class notion, or concept; and the method by which these ideas
are gained is called _conception_.
=B. Induction.=--When the mind, on the basis of particular experiences,
arrives at some general law, or truth, as, "Any two sides of a triangle
are together greater than the third side"; "Air has weight"; "Man is
mortal"; "Honesty is the best policy"; etc., it is said to form a
universal judgment, and the process by which the judgment is formed is
called a process of _induction_.
=Examples of General and Particular Knowledge.=--When a pupil learns the
St. Lawrence River system as such, he gains a particular experience, or
notion; when he learns of river basins, he obtains a general notion. In
like manner, for the child to realize that here are eight blocks
containing two groups of four blocks, is a particular experience; but
that 4 + 4 = 8, is a general, or universal, truth. To notice this water
rising in a tube as heat is being applied, is a particular experience;
to know that liquids are expanded by heat is a general truth. _The air
above this radiator is rising_ is a particular truth, but _heated air
rises_ is a general truth. _The English people plunged into excesses in
Charles II's reign after the removal of the stern Puritan rule_ is
particular, but a _period of license follows a period of repression_ is
general.
=Distinction is in Ideas, not Things.=--It is to be noted further that
the same object may be treated at one time as a particular individual,
at another time as a member of a class, and at still another time as a
part of a larger individual. Thus the large peninsula on the east of
North America may be thought of now, as the individual, Nova Scotia; at
another time, as a member of the class, province; and at still another
time, as a part of the larger particular individual, Canada.
=Only Two Types of Knowledge.=--It is evident from the foregoing that no
matter what subject is being taught, so far as any person may aim _to
develop a new experience_ in the mind of the pupil, that experience will
be one or other of the two classes mentioned above. If the aim of our
lesson is to have the pupils know the facts of the War of 1812-14, to
study the rainfall of British Columbia, to master the spelling of a
particular word, or to image the pictures contained in the story _Mary
Elizabeth_, then it aims primarily to have pupils come into possession
of a particular fact, or a number of particular facts. On the other
hand, if the lesson aims to teach the pupils the nature of an
infinitive, the rule for extracting square root, the law of gravity, the
classes of nouns, etc., then the aim of the lesson is to convey some
general idea or truth.
APPLIED KNOWLEDGE GENERAL
Before proceeding to a special consideration of such type lessons, it
will be well to note that the mind always applies general knowledge in
the learning process. That is, the application of old knowledge to the
new presentation is possible only because this knowledge has taken on a
general character, or has become a general way of thinking. The tendency
for every new experience, whether particular or general, to pass into a
general attitude, or to become a standard for interpreting other
presentations, is always present, at least after the very early
impressions of infancy. When, for instance, a child observes a strange
object, dog, and perceives its four feet, this idea does not remain
wholly confined to the particular object, but tends to take on a general
character. This consists in the fact that the characteristic perceived
is vaguely thought of as a quality distinct from the dog. This quality,
_four-footedness_, therefore, is at least in some measure recognized as
a quality that may occur in other objects. In other words, it takes on a
general character, and will likely be applied in interpreting the next
four-footed object which comes under the child's attention. So also when
an adult first meets a strange fruit, guava, he observes perhaps that it
is _pear-shaped, yellow-skinned, soft-pulped_, of _sweet taste_, and
_aromatic flavour_. All such quality ideas as pear-shaped, yellow, soft,
etc., as here applied, are general ideas of quality taken on from
earlier experiences. Even in interpreting the qualities of particular
objects, therefore, as this rose, this machine, or this animal, we apply
to its interpretation general ideas, or general forms of thought, taken
on from earlier experiences.
The same fact is even more evident when the mind attempts to build up
the idea of a particular object by an act of imagination. One may
conceive as present, a sphere, red in colour, with smooth surface, and
two feet in diameter. Now this particular object is defined through the
qualities spherical, red, smooth, etc. But these notions of quality are
all general, although here applied to building up the image of a
particular thing.
PROCESSES OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE SIMILAR
If what has already been noted concerning the law of universal method is
correct, and if all learning is a process of building up a new
experience in accordance with the law of apperception, then all of the
above modes of gaining either particular or general knowledge must
ultimately conform to the laws of general method. Keeping in view the
fact that applied knowledge is always general in character, it will not
be difficult to demonstrate that these various processes do not differ
in their essential characteristics; but that any process of acquiring
either particular or general knowledge conforms to the method of
selection and relation, or of analysis-synthesis, as already described
in our study of the learning process. To demonstrate this, however, it
will be necessary to examine and illustrate the different modes of
learning in the light of the principles of general method already laid
down in the text.
CHAPTER XV
MODES OF LEARNING
DEVELOPMENT OF PARTICULAR KNOWLEDGE
A. LEARNING THROUGH THE SENSES
In many lessons in nature study, elementary science, etc., pupils are
led to acquire new knowledge by having placed before them some
particular object which they may examine through the senses. The
knowledge thus gained through the direct observation of some individual
thing, since it is primarily knowledge about a particular individual, is
to be classified as particular knowledge. As an example of the process
by which a pupil may gain particular knowledge through the senses, a
nature lesson may be taken in which he would, by actual observation,
become acquainted with one of the constellations, say the Great Dipper.
Here the learner first receives through his senses certain impressions
of colour and form. Next he proceeds to read into these impressions
definite meanings, as stars, four, corners, bowl, three, curve, handle,
etc. In such a process of acquiring knowledge about a particular thing,
it is to be noted that the acquisition depends upon two important
conditions:
1. The senses receive impressions from a particular thing.
2. The mind reacts upon these impressions with certain phases of its old
knowledge, here represented by such words as four, corner, bowl, etc.
=Analysis of Process.=--When the mind thus gains knowledge of a
particular object through sense perception, the process is found to
conform exactly to the general method already laid down; for there is
involved:
1. _The Motive._--To read meaning into the strange thing which is placed
before the pupil as a problem to stimulate his senses.
_2. Selection, or Analysis._--Bringing selected elements of former
knowledge to interpret the unknown impressions, the elements of his
former knowledge being represented in the above example by such words
as, four, bowl, curve, handle, etc.
3. _Unification, or Synthesis._--A continuous relating of these
interpreting factors into the unity of a newly interpreted object, the
Dipper.
SENSE PERCEPTION IN EDUCATION
=A. Gives Knowledge of Things.=--In many lessons in biology, botany,
etc., although the chief aim of the lesson is to acquire a correct class
notion, yet the learning process is in large part the gaining of
particular knowledge through the senses. In a nature lesson, for
instance, the pupil may be presented with an insect which he has never
previously met. When the pupil interprets the object as six-legged, with
hard shell-like wing covers, under wings membranous, etc., he is able to
gain knowledge about this particular thing:
1. Because the thing manifests itself to him through the senses of sight
and touch.
2. Because he is able to bring to bear upon these sense impressions his
old knowledge, represented by such words as six, wing, shell, hard,
membranous, etc. So far, therefore, as the process ends with knowledge
of the particular object presented, the learning process conforms
exactly to that laid down above, for there is involved:
1. _The Motive._--To read meaning into the new thing which is placed
before the pupil as a problem to stimulate his senses.
2. _Selection, or Analysis._--Bringing selected elements of former
knowledge to interpret the unknown problem, the elements of his former
knowledge being represented above by such words as six, leg, wing, hard,
shell, membranous, etc.
3. _Unification, or Synthesis._--A continuous relating of these
interpreting factors into the unity of a better known object, the
insect.
=B. Is a Basis for Generalization.=--It is to be noted, however, that in
any such lesson, although the pupil gains through his senses a knowledge
of a particular individual only, yet he may at once accept this
individual as a sign, or type, of a class of objects, and can readily
apply the new knowledge in interpreting other similar things. Although,
for example, the pupil has experienced but one such object, he does not
necessarily think of it as a mere individual--this thing--but as a
representative of a possible class of objects, a beetle. In other words
the new particular notion tends to pass directly into a general, or
class, notion.
B. LEARNING THROUGH IMAGINATION
As an example of a lesson in which the pupil secures knowledge through
the use of his imagination, may be taken first the case of one called
upon to image some single object of which he may have had no actual
experience, as a desert, London Tower, the sphinx, etc. Taking the last
named as an example, the learner must select certain characteristics as,
woman, head, lion, body, etc., all of which are qualities which have
been learned in other past experiences. Moreover, the mind must
organize these several qualities into the representation of a single
object, the sphinx. Here, evidently, the pupil follows fully the normal
process of learning.
1. The term--the sphinx--suggests a problem, or felt need, namely, to
read meaning into the vaguely realized term.
2. Under the direction of the instructor or the text-book, the pupil
selects, or analyses out of past experience, such ideas as, woman, head,
body, lion, which are felt to have a value in interpreting the present
problem.
3. A synthetic, or relating, activity of mind unifies the selected ideas
into an ideally constructed object which is accepted by the learner as a
particular object, although never directly known through the senses.
Nor is the method different in more complex imagination processes. In
literary interpretation, for instance, when the reader meets such
expressions as:
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way
And leaves the world to darkness and to me;
the words of the author suggest a problem to the mind of the reader.
This problem then calls up in the mind of the student a set of images
out of earlier experience, as bell, evening, herd, ploughman, lea, etc.,
which the mind unifies into the representation of the particular scene
depicted in the lines. It is in this way that much of our knowledge of
various objects and scenes in nature, of historical events and
characters, and of spiritual beings is obtained.
=Imagination Gives Basis for Generalization.=--It should be noted by the
student-teacher that in many lessons we aim to give the child a notion
of a class of objects, though he may in actual experience never have
met any representatives of the class. In geography, for instance, the
child learns of deserts, volcanoes, etc., without having experienced
these objects through the senses. It has been seen, however, that our
general knowledge always develops from particular experience. For this
reason the pupil who has never seen a volcano, in order to gain a
general notion of a volcano, must first, by an act of constructive
imagination, image a definite picture of a particular volcano. The
importance of using in such a lesson a picture or a representation on a
sand-board, lies in the fact that this furnishes the necessary stimulus
to the child's imagination, which will cause him to image a particular
individual as a basis for the required general, or class, notion. Too
often, however, the child is expected in such lessons to form the class
notion directly, that is, without the intervention of a particular
experience. This question will be considered more fully in Chapter
XXVII, which treats of the process of imagination.
C. LEARNING BY INFERENCE, OR DEDUCTION
Instead of placing himself in British Columbia, and noting by actual
experience that there is a large rainfall there, a person may discover
the same by what is called a process of inference. For example, one may
have learned from an examination of other particular instances that air
takes up moisture in passing over water; that warm air absorbs large
quantities of moisture; that air becomes cool as it rises; and that
warm, moist air deposits its moisture as rain when it is cooled. Knowing
this and knowing a number of particular facts about British Columbia,
namely that warm winds pass over it from the Pacific and must rise owing
to the presence of mountains, we may infer of British Columbia that it
has an abundant rainfall. When we thus discover a truth in relation to
any particular thing by inference, we are said to go through a process
of deduction. A more particular study of this process will be made in
Chapter XXVIII, but certain facts may here be noted in reference to the
process as a mode of acquiring knowledge. An examination will show that
the deductive process follows the ordinary process of learning, or of
selecting certain elements of old knowledge, and organizing them into a
new particular experience in order to meet a certain problem.
=Deduction as Formal Reasoning.=--It is usually stated by psychologists
and logicians that in this process the person starts with the general
truth and ends with the particular inference, or conclusion, for
example:
Winds coming from the ocean are saturated with moisture.
The prevailing winds in British Columbia come from the Pacific.
Therefore these winds are saturated with moisture.
All winds become colder as they rise.
The winds of British Columbia rise as they go inland.
Therefore, the winds (atmosphere) in British Columbia become colder
as they go inland.
The atmosphere gives out moisture as it becomes colder.
The atmosphere in British Columbia becomes colder as it goes
inland.
Therefore, the atmosphere gives out moisture in British Columbia.
=Steps in Process.=--The various elements involved in a deductive
process are often analysed into four parts in the following order:
1. _Principles._ The general laws which are to be applied in the
solution of the problem. These, in the above deductions, constitute the
first sentence in each, as,
The air becomes colder as it rises.
Air gives out its moisture as it becomes colder, etc.
2. _Data._ This includes the particular facts already known relative to
the problem. In this lesson, the data are set forth in the second
sentences, as follows:
The prevailing winds in British Columbia come from the Pacific; the
wind rises as it goes inland, etc.
3. _Inferences._ These are the conclusions arrived at as a result of
noting relations between data and principles. In the above lesson, the
inferences are:
The atmosphere, or trade-winds, coming from the Pacific rise,
become colder, and give out much moisture.
4. _Verification._ In some cases at least the learner may use other
means to verify his conclusions. In the above lesson, for example, he
may look it up in the geography or ask some one who has had actual
experience.
=Deduction Involves a Problem.=--It is to be noted, however, that in a
deductive learning process, the young child does not really begin with
the general principle. On the contrary, as noted in the study of the
learning process, the child always begins with a particular unsolved
problem. In the case just cited, for instance, the child starts with the
problem, "What is the condition of the rainfall in British Columbia?" It
is owing to the presence of this problem, moreover, that the mind calls
up the principles and data. These, of course, are already possessed as
old knowledge, and are called up because the mind feels a connection
between them and the problem with which it is confronted. The principles
and data are thus both involved in the selecting process, or step of
analysis. What the learner really does, therefore, in a deductive
lesson is to interpret a new problem by selecting as interpreting ideas
the principles and data. The third division, inference, is in reality
the third step of our learning process, since the inference is a new
experience organized out of the selected principles and data. Moreover,
the verification is often found to take the form of ordinary expression.
As a process of learning, therefore, deduction does not exactly follow
the formal outline of the psychologists and logicians of (1) principles,
(2) data, (3) inference, and (_4_) verification; but rather that of the
learning process, namely, (1) problem, (2) selecting activity, including
principles and data, (3) relating activity=inference, (4)
expression=verification.
=Example of Deduction as Learning Process.=--A simple and interesting
lesson, showing how the pupil actually goes through the deductive
process, is found in paper cutting of forms balanced about a centre, say
the letter X.
1. _Problem._ The pupil starts with the problem of discovering a way of
cutting this letter by balancing about a centre.
2. _Selection._ Principles and Data. The pupil calls up as data what he
knows of this letter, and as principles, the laws of balance he has
learned from such letters as, A, B, etc.
3. _Organization or Inference._ The pupil infers from the principle
involved in cutting the letter A, that the letter X (Fig. A) may be
balanced about a vertical diameter, as in Fig. B.
Repeating the process, he infers further from the principle involved in
cutting the letter B, that this result may again be balanced about a
horizontal diameter, as in Fig. C.
[Illustration]
4. _Expression or Verification._ By cutting Figure D and unfolding
Figures E and F, he is able to verify his conclusion by noting the shape
of the form as it unfolds, thus:
[Illustration]
FURTHER EXAMPLES FOR STUDY
The following are given as further examples of deductive processes.
The materials are here arranged in the formal or logical way. The
student-teacher should rearrange them as they would occur in the child's
learning process.
I. DIVISION OF DECIMALS
1. _Principles_:
(_a_) Multiplying the dividend and divisor by the same number does not
alter the quotient.
(_b_) To multiply a decimal by 10, 100, 1000, etc., move the decimal
point 1, 2, 3, etc., places respectively to the right.
2. _Data_:
Present knowledge of facts contained in such an example as .0027 divided
by .05.
3. _Inferences_:
(_a_) The divisor (.05) may be converted into a whole number by
multiplying it by 100.
(_b_) If the divisor is multiplied by 100, the dividend must also be
multiplied by 100 if the quotient is to be unchanged.
(_c_) The problem thus becomes .27 divided by 5, for which the answer is
.054.
4. _Verification_:
Check the work to see that no mistakes have been made in the
calculation. Multiply the quotient by the divisor to see if the result
is equal to the dividend.
II. TRADE-WINDS
1. _Principles_:
(_a_) Heated air expands, becomes lighter, and is pushed upward by
cooler and heavier currents of air.
(_b_) Air currents travelling towards a region of more rapid motion have
a tendency to "lag behind," and so appear to travel in a direction
opposite to that of the earth's rotation.
2. _Data_:
(_a_) The most heated portion of the earth is the tropical region.
(_b_) The rapidity of the earth's motion is greatest at the equator and
least at the poles.
(_c_) The earth rotates on its axis from west to east.
3. _Inferences_:
(_a_) The heated air in equatorial regions will be constantly rising.
(_b_) It will be pushed upward by colder and heavier currents of air
from the north and south.
(_c_) If the earth did not rotate, there would be constant winds towards
the south, north of the equator; and towards the north, south of the
equator.
(_d_) These currents of air are travelling from a region of less motion
to a region of greater motion, and have a tendency to lag behind the
earth's motion as they approach the equator.
(_e_) Hence they will seem to blow in a direction contrary to the
earth's rotation, namely, towards the west.
(_f_) These two movements, towards the equator and towards the west,
combine to give the currents of air a direction towards the south-west
north of the equator, and towards the north-west south of the equator.
4. _Verification_:
Read the geography text to see if our inferences are correct.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
=The Conceptual Lesson.=--As an example of a lesson involving a process
of conception, or classification, may be taken one in which the pupil
might gain the class notion _noun_. The pupil would first be presented
with particular examples through sentences containing such words as
John, Mary, Toronto, desk, boy, etc. Thereupon the pupil is led to
examine these in order, noting certain characteristics in each.
Examining the word _John_, for instance, he notes that it is a word;
that it is used to name and also, perhaps, that it names a person, and
is written with a capital letter. Of the word _Toronto_, he may note
much the same except that it names a place; of the word _desk_, he may
note especially that it is used to name a thing and is written without a
capital letter. By comparing any and all the qualities thus noted, he
is supposed, finally, by noting what characteristics are common to all,
to form a notion of a class of words used to name.
=The Inductive Lesson.=--To exemplify an inductive lesson, there may be
noted the process of learning the rule that to multiply the numerator
and denominator of any fraction by the same number does not alter the
value of the fraction.
_Conversion of fractions to equivalent fractions with different
denominators_
The teacher draws on the black-board a series of squares, each
representing a square foot. These are divided by vertical lines into a
number of equal parts. One or more of these parts are shaded, and pupils
are asked to state what fraction of the whole square has been shaded.
The same squares are then further divided into smaller equal parts by
horizontal lines, and the pupils are led to discover how many of the
smaller equal parts are contained in the shaded parts.
[Illustration: 1/2=3/6 2/3=8/12 3/4=15/20 3/5=18/30]
Examine these equations one by one, treating each after some such manner
as follows:
How might we obtain the numerator 18 from the numerator 3? (Multiply by
6.)
The denominator 30 from the denominator 5? (Multiply by 6.)
1×3 3 2×4 8 3×5 15 3×6 18
--- = -; --- = --; --- = --; --- = --.
2×3 6 3×4 12 4×5 20 5×6 30
If we multiply both the numerator and the denominator of the fraction
3/5 by 6, what will be the effect upon the value of the fraction? (It
will be unchanged.)
What have we done with the numerator and denominator in every case? How
has the fraction been affected? What rule may we infer from these
examples? (Multiplying the numerator and denominator by the same number
does not alter the value of the fraction.)
THE FORMAL STEPS
In describing the process of acquiring either a general notion or a
general truth, the psychologist and logician usually divide it into four
parts as follows:
1. The person is said to analyse a number of particular cases. In the
above examples this would mean, in the conceptual lesson, noting the
various characteristics of the several words, John, Toronto, desk, etc.;
and in the second lesson, noting the facts involved in the several cases
of shading.
2. The mind is said to compare the characteristics of the several
particular cases, noting any likenesses and unlikenesses.
3. The mind is said to pick out, or abstract, any quality or quantities
common to all the particular cases.
4. Finally the mind is supposed to synthesise these common
characteristics into a general notion, or concept, in the conceptual
process, and into a general truth if the process is inductive.
Thus the conceptual and inductive processes are both said to involve the
same four steps of:
1. _Analysis._--Interpreting a number of individual cases.
2. _Comparison._--Noting likenesses and differences between the several
individual examples.
3. _Abstraction._--Selecting the common characteristics.
4. _Generalization._--Synthesis of common characteristics into a general
truth or a general notion, as the case may be.
=Criticism.=--Here again it will be found, however, that the steps of
the logician do not fully represent what takes place in the pupil's mind
as he goes through the learning process in a conceptual or inductive
lesson. It is to be noted first that the above outline does not signify
the presence of any problem to cause the child to proceed with the
analysis of the several particular cases. Assuming the existence of the
problem, unless this problem involves all the particular examples, the
question arises whether the learner will suspend coming to any
conclusion until he has analysed and compared all the particular cases
before him. It is here that the actual learning process is found to vary
somewhat from the outline of the psychologist and logician. As will be
seen below, the child really finds his problem in the first particular
case presented to him. Moreover, as he analyses out the characteristics
of this case, he does not really suspend fully the generalizing process
until he has examined a number of other cases, but, as the teacher is
fully aware, is much more likely to jump at once to a more or less
correct conclusion from the one example. It is true, of course, that it
is only by going on to compare this with other cases that he assures
himself that this first conclusion is correct. This slight variation of
the actual learning process from the formal outline will become evident
if one considers how a child builds up any general notion in ordinary
life.
CONCEPTION AS A LEARNING PROCESS
=A. In Ordinary Life.=--Suppose a young child has received a vague
impression of a cow from meeting a first and only example; we find that
by accepting this as a problem and by applying to it such experience as
he then possesses, he is able to read some meaning into it, for
instance, that it is a brown, four-footed, hairy object. This idea, once
formed, does not remain a mere particular idea, but becomes a general
means for interpreting other experiences. At first, indeed, the idea may
serve to read meaning, not only into another cow, but also into a horse
or a buffalo. In course of time, however, as this first imperfect
concept of the animal is used in interpreting cows and perhaps other
animals, the first crude concept may in time, by comparison, develop
into a relatively true, or logical, concept, applicable to only the
actual members of the class. Now here, the child did not wait to
generalize until such time as the several really essential
characteristics were decided upon, but in each succeeding case applied
his present knowledge to the particular thing presented. It was, in
other words, by a series of regular selecting and relating processes,
that his general notion was finally clarified.
=B. In the School.=--Practically the same conditions are noted in the
child's study of particular examples in an inductive or conceptual
lesson in the school, although the process is much more rapid on account
of its being controlled by the teacher. In the lesson outlined above,
the pupil finds a problem in the very first word _John_, and adjusts
himself thereto in a more or less perfect way by an apperceptive process
involving both a selecting and a relating of ideas. With this first more
or less perfect notion as a working hypothesis, the pupil goes on to
examine the next word. If he gains the true notion from the first
example, he merely verifies this through the other particular examples.
If his first notion is not correct, however, he is able to correct it by
a further process of analysis and synthesis in connection with other
examples. Throughout the formal stages, therefore, the pupil is merely
applying his growing general knowledge in a selective, or analytic, way
to the interpreting of several particular examples, until such time as a
perfect general, or class, notion is obtained and verified. It is,
indeed, on account of this immediate tendency of the mind to generalize,
that care must be taken to present the children with typical examples.
To make them examine a sufficient number of examples is to ensure the
correcting of crude notions that may be formed by any of the pupils
through their generalizing perhaps from a single particular.
INDUCTION AS A LEARNING PROCESS
In like manner, in an inductive lesson, although the results of the
process of the development of a general principle may for convenience be
arranged logically under the above four heads, it is evident that the
child could not wholly suspend his conclusions until a number of
particular cases had been examined and compared. In the lesson on the
rule for conversion of fractions to equivalent fractions with different
denominators, the pupils could not possibly apperceive, or analyse, the
examples as suggested under the head of selection, or analysis, without
at the same time implicitly abstracting and generalizing. Also in the
lesson below on the predicate adjective, the pupils could not note, in
all the examples, all the features given under analysis and fail at the
same time to abstract and generalize. The fact is that in such lessons,
if the selection, or analysis, is completed in only one example,
abstraction and generalization implicitly unfold themselves at the same
time and constitute a relating, or synthetic, act of the mind. The
fourfold arrangement of the matter, however, may let the teacher see
more fully the children's mental attitude, and thus enable him to direct
them intelligently through the apperceptive process. It will undoubtedly
also impress on the teacher's mind the need of having the pupils compare
particular cases until a correct notion is fully organized in
experience.
TWO PROCESSES SIMILAR
Notwithstanding the distinction drawn by psychologists between
conception as a process of gaining a general notion, and induction as a
process of arriving at a general truth, it is evident from the above
that the two processes have much in common. In the development of many
lesson topics, in fact, the lesson may be viewed as involving both a
conceptual and an inductive process. In the subject of grammar, for
instance, a first lesson on the pronoun may be viewed as a conceptual
lesson, since the child gains an idea of a class of words, as indicated
by the new general term pronoun, this term representing the result of a
conceptual process. It may equally be viewed as an inductive lesson,
since the child gains from the lesson a general truth, or judgment, as
expressed in his new definition--"A pronoun is a word that represents an
object without naming it," the definition representing the result of an
inductive process. This fact will be considered more fully, however, in
Chapter XXVIII.
FURTHER EXAMPLES OF INDUCTIVE LESSONS
As further illustrations of an inductive process, the following outlines
of lessons might be noted. The processes are outlined according to the
formal steps. The student-teacher should consider how the children are
to approach each problem and to what extent they are likely to
generalize as the various examples are being interpreted during the
analytic stage.
1. THE SUBJECTIVE PREDICATE ADJECTIVE
_Analysis, or selection:_
Divide the following sentences into subject and predicate:
The man was old.
The weather turned cold.
The day grew stormy.
The boy became ill.
The concert proved successful.
What kind of man is referred to in the first sentence? What part of
speech is "old"? What part of the sentence does it modify? In what
part of the sentence does it stand? Could it be omitted? What then
is its duty with reference to the verb? What are its two duties?
(It completes the verb "was" and modifies the subject "man.")
Lead the pupils to deal similarly with "cold," "stormy," "ill,"
"successful."
_Comparison, Abstraction, and Generalization, or Organization:_
What two duties has each of these italicized words? Each is called
a "Subjective Predicate Adjective." What is a Subjective Predicate
Adjective? (A Subjective Predicate Adjective is an adjective that
completes the verb and modifies the subject.)
2. CONDENSATION OF VAPOUR
_Analysis, or selection:_
The pupils should be asked to report observations they have made
concerning some familiar occurrences like the following:
(1) Breathe upon a cold glass and upon a warm glass. What do you
notice in each case? Where must the drops of water have come from?
Can you see this water ordinarily? In what form must the water have
been before it formed in drops on the cold glass?
(2) What have you often noticed on the window of the kitchen on
cool days? From where did these drops of water come? Could you see
the vapour in the air? How did the temperature of the window panes
compare with the temperature of the room?
(3) When the water in a tea-kettle is boiling rapidly, what do you
see between the mouth of the spout and the cloud of steam? What
must have come through that clear space? Is the steam then at first
visible or invisible?
The pupils should be further asked to report observations and make
correct inferences concerning such things as:
(4) The deposit of moisture on the outside surface of a pitcher of
ice-water on a warm summer day.
(5) The clouded condition of one's eye-glasses on coming from the
cold outside air into a warm room.
_Comparison, Abstraction, and Generalization, or Organization:_
In all these cases you have reported what there has been in the
air. Was this vapour visible or invisible? Under what condition did
it become visible?
The pupils should be led to sum up their observations in some such way
as the following:
Air often contains much water vapour. When this comes in contact with
cooler bodies, it condenses into minute particles of water. In other
words, the two conditions of condensation are (1) a considerable
quantity of water vapour in the air, and (2) contact with cooler
bodies.
It must be borne in mind that in a conceptual or an inductive lesson
care is to be taken by the teacher to see that the particulars are
sufficient in number and representative in character. As already pointed
out, crude notions often arise through generalizing from too few
particulars or from particulars that are not typical of the whole class.
Induction can be most frequently employed in elementary school work in
the subjects of grammar, arithmetic, and nature study.
INDUCTIVE-DEDUCTIVE LESSONS
Before we leave this division of general method, it should be noted that
many lessons combine in a somewhat formal way two or more of the
foregoing lesson types.
In many inductive lessons the step of application really involves a
process of deduction. For example, after teaching the definition of a
noun by a process of induction as outlined above, we may, in the same
lesson, seek to have the pupil use his new knowledge in pointing out
particular nouns in a set of given sentences. Here, however, the pupil
is evidently called upon to discover the value of particular words by
the use of the newly learned general principle. When, therefore, he
discovers the grammatical value of the particular word "Provender" in
the sentence "Provender is dear," the pupil's process of learning can be
represented in the deductive form as follows:
All naming words are nouns.
_Provender_ is a naming word.
_Provender_ is a noun.
Although in these exercises the real aim is not to have the pupil learn
the value of the individual word, but to test his mastery of the general
principle, such application undoubtedly corresponds with the deductive
learning process previously outlined. Any inductive lesson, therefore,
which includes the above type of application may rightly be described as
an inductive-deductive lesson. A great many lessons in grammar and
arithmetic are of this type.
CHAPTER XVI
THE LESSON UNIT
=What Constitutes a Lesson Problem.=--The foregoing analysis and
description of the learning process has shown that the ordinary school
lesson is designed to lead the pupil to build up, or organize, a new
experience, or, as it is sometimes expressed, to gain control of a unit
of valuable knowledge, presented as a single problem. From what has been
learned concerning the relating activity of mind, however, it is evident
that the teacher may face a difficulty when he is called upon to decide
what extent of knowledge, or experience, is to be accepted as a
knowledge unit. It was noted, for example, that many topics regularly
treated in a single lesson fall into quite distinct sub-divisions, each
of which represents to a certain extent a separate group of related
ideas and, therefore, a single problem. On the other hand, many
different lesson experiences, or topics, although taught as separate
units, are seen to stand so closely related, that in the end they
naturally organize themselves into a larger single unit of knowledge,
representing a division, of the subject of study. From this it is
evident that situations may arise, as in teaching the classes of
sentences in grammar, in which the teacher must ask himself whether it
will be possible to take up the whole topic with its important
sub-divisions in a single lesson, or whether each sub-division should be
treated in a single lesson.
=How to Approach Associated Problems.=--Even when it is realized that
the related matter is too large for a single lesson, it must be decided
whether it will be better to bring on each sub-division as a separate
topic, and later let these sub-divisions synthesise into a new unity; or
whether the larger topic should be taken up first in a general way, and
the sub-divisions made topics of succeeding lessons. In the study of
mood in grammar, for example, shall we introduce each mood separately,
and finally have the child synthesise the separate facts; or shall we
begin with a lesson on mood in general, and follow this with a study of
the separate moods? In like manner, in the study of winds in geography,
shall we study in order land and sea breezes, trade-winds, and monsoons,
and have the child synthesise these facts at the end of the series; or
shall we begin with a study of winds in general, and follow this with a
more detailed study of the three classes of winds?
WHOLE TO PARTS
=Advantages.=--The second of these methods, which is often called the
method of proceeding from whole to parts, should, whenever possible, be
followed. For instance, in a study of such a lesson as _Dickens in the
Camp_, the detailed study of the various stanzas should be preceded by
an introductory lesson, bringing out the leading thought of the poem,
and noting the sub-topics. When, in an introductory lesson, the pupil is
able to gain control of a large topic, and see the relation to it of a
given number of sub-topics, he is selecting and relating the parts of
the whole topic by the normal analytic-synthetic method. Moreover, in
the following lessons, he is much more likely to appreciate the relation
of the various sub-topics to the central topic, and the inter-relations
between these various sub-topics. For this reason, in such subjects as
history, literature, geography, etc., pupils are often introduced to
these large divisions, or complex lesson units, and given a vague
knowledge of the whole topic, the detailed study of the parts being made
in subsequent lessons.
=Examples.=--The following outlines will further illustrate how a series
of lessons (numbered I, II, III, etc.) may thus proceed from a first
study of the larger whole to a more detailed study of a number of
subordinate parts.
THE ST. LAWRENCE RIVER SYSTEM
_I. Topic.--The St. Lawrence River:_
Position, size, extent of system, other characteristics.
Importance--historical, commercial, industrial.
_II. Sub-topic 1.--Importance historically:_
Open mouth to Europe; Open door to continent; Cartier, Champlain.
System of lakes and rivers large and small gave lines of
communication, inviting discovery and subsequent development and
settlement.
_III. Sub-topic 2.--Importance commercially:_
Large tracts of valuable land, timber, etc., made available.
Highway--need of such between East and West. Difficulties to be
overcome, canal, ships. Competition of railways, How? Classes of
goods back and forth. Avenue to and from the wheat land.
_IV. Sub-topic 3.--Importance industrially:_
Great commercial centres--where located and why? Water powers,
elevators, manufacturing of raw materials made available in the
large areas; Immigration; Fishing.
STUDY OF BACTERIA
_I. Topic.--Bacteria:_
What they are; relations, comparisons; other plants in same class,
or those of higher orders; size, shape; where found; conditions of
growth; propagation; modes of distribution; etc.
_II. Sub-topic 1.--Our interest in bacteria, arising out of the injury
or good they do:_
(_a_) Injury: Decay of fruits, trees, tissues, etc.,
diseases--diphtheria, typhoid, tuberculosis; how developed,
conditions, favourable toxins.
(_b_) Benefits: In soil, cheese, butter, etc.; chemical action,
building new compounds and breaking up other compounds.
_III. Sub-topic 2.--Our interest in controlling them; the methods based
on mode and conditions of growth, etc.:_
(_a_) Prevention: Eliminating favourable conditions; low
temperature, high temperatures, cleanliness; sewerage disposal;
clean cow-stables, cellars, kitchens, etc.; antiseptics--carbolic,
formalin, sugar for fruit, sealing up; quarantine, vaccination,
antitoxin.
(_b_) Cultures,--alfalfa, cheese, butter, under control.
GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE
_I. Topic.--Europe:_
What interest to us; why we study it; position, latitude, near
water, boundaries, size; Surface features--highlands, lowlands,
drainage rivers, coast-line, etc. Climate--temperature (means,
Jan., July), wind, moisture.
_II. Sub-topic 1.--Products (based on above conditions):_
Vegetation, animal, mineral; vary over area according to physical
climatic, and geological conditions; Kinds of products of each
class, in each area, etc.
_III. Sub-topic 2.--Occupations (based on Lesson II):_
Study of operations and conditions favourable and unfavourable
under which each product is produced, gathered, and manufactured.
Industries, arising from work on the raw materials.
_IV. Sub-topic 3.--Trade and Commerce (based on Lessons II and III):_
Transportation, producers selling and manufacturers buying raw
material, distributed to homes in country and city, to factories
within the region itself, to regions beyond, across oceans, etc.
Manufactured products sent out, exports and imports.
_V. Sub-topic 4.--Civil advantages (based on Lessons I, III, and IV):_
Conditions of living--homes, dress, work and pleasure; trades,
education, government, social, religious, etc.
PARTS TO WHOLE
The method of whole to parts cannot be followed in all cases even where
a number of lesson units may possess important points of inter-relation.
Although, for instance, simple and compound addition and addition of
fractions are only different phases of one process, no one would
advocate the combining of these into such a unified lesson series. In
Canadian History, also, although the conditions of the Quebec Act, the
coming of the United Empire Loyalists, and the passing of the
Constitutional Act, have definite points of inter-relation, it would
nevertheless be unwise to attempt to evolve these out of a single
complex lesson unit. In such cases, therefore, the synthesis of the
various parts must be made as the lessons proceed. Moreover, it is well
to ensure the complete organization of the elements by means of an
outline review at the end of the lesson series. The student-teacher will
meet an example of this process under the topical lesson in Chapter
XVII.
PRECAUTIONS
It is evident from the above considerations, that certain precautions
should be observed in deciding upon the particular subject-matter to be
included in each lesson topic.
1. A just balance should be maintained between the difficulty of each
lesson unit and the ability of the class. Matter that is too easy
requires no effort in its mastery and hence is uninteresting. Matter
that is too difficult discourages effort, and is, therefore, equally
uninteresting. It should be sufficiently easy for every pupil to master,
and sufficiently difficult to require real effort.
2. The amount of matter included should be carefully adjusted to the
length of time taken for the lesson and to the attainments of the class.
If too much is attempted, there will be insufficient time for adequate
drill and review, and hence there will be lack of thoroughness. If too
little is attempted, time will be wasted in needless repetition.
3. Each unit of instruction in any subject should, in general, grow out
of the preceding unit taken in that subject, and be closely connected
with it. It is in this way that a pupil's interest is aroused for the
new problem and his knowledge becomes organized. Neglect in this regard
results in the possession of disconnected and unsystematized facts.
Each lesson should contain one or more central facts around which the
other facts are grouped. This permits easy organization of the material
of the lesson, and ensures its retention by the pupils. Further, the
pupils are by this means trained to discriminate between the essential
and the non-essential.
CHAPTER XVII
LESSON TYPES
=The Developing Lesson.=--In the various lesson plans already
considered, the aim has always appeared as an attempt to direct the
learning process so that the pupil may both build up a new experience
and also gain such control over it as will enable him to turn it to
practical use. Because in all such lessons the teacher is supposed to
direct the pupils through the four steps of the learning process in such
a way that they discover for themselves some important new experience,
or develop it out of their own present knowledge, the lessons are spoken
of as developing lessons. Moreover, the two parts of the lesson in which
the new experience is especially gained by the pupils, namely the
selecting and relating processes, are often spoken of as a single step
and called the step of _development,_ the lesson then being treated
under four heads: Problem, preparation, development, and application.
=Auxiliary Lessons.=--It is evident, however, that there may be lessons
in which this direct attempt to have the pupils build up some wholly new
experience through a regularly controlled learning process, will not
appear as the chief purpose of the lesson. In the previous consideration
of the deductive lesson, it was pointed out that this type may be used
to give a further mastery of general rules previously learned, rather
than a knowledge of particular examples. Such would be the case in an
ordinary parsing and analysis lesson in grammar. Here the primary
purpose is, evidently, not to give the pupils a grammatical knowledge
of the particular words and sentences which are being parsed and
analysed, but rather to give them better control of certain general
rules of language which they have partially mastered in previous
lessons. So also a lesson in writing may seek, not to teach the form of
some new letter, but to give skill in writing a letter form which the
pupils have already learned. In an exercise in addition of fractions,
also, the aim is not so much to have the pupil know these particular
questions, as to have him gain a more complete control of the previously
learned rule. In other lessons the pupils may be left to secure new
knowledge largely for themselves, and the recitation be devoted to
testing whether they have been able to accomplish this successfully. In
still other lessons the teacher may merely outline a certain topic or
certain topics, preparatory to such independent study by the pupils.
The following outlines will explain and exemplify these auxiliary lesson
types.
THE STUDY LESSON
=Purpose of Study Lesson.=--The purpose of the Study Lesson is the
mastery by the pupils of a stated portion of the text-book. Ultimately,
however it is the cultivation of the power of gleaning information from
the printed page, of selecting essential features, and of arranging
these in their proper relationships.
The main difficulty in connection with the study lesson is the
adaptation of the matter to the interests of the pupils. This difficulty
is sometimes due to their inability to interpret the language of the
book, and to the difficulty of their distinguishing the salient features
from the non-essential. The trouble in this regard is accentuated when
they approach the lesson with an inadequate preparation of mind.
The study lesson falls naturally into two parts, the assignment and the
seat work.
=The Assignment.=--The object of the assignment is to put the pupils in
an attitude of inquiry toward the new matter. It corresponds to the
conception of the problem and the step of preparation in the development
lesson. The most successful assignment is one in which the interest of
the pupils is aroused to such a pitch that they are anxious to read more
about the subject. In general it will consist of a recall of those
ideas, or a statement of those facts upon which the interpretation of
the new matter depends. Most of the unsuccessful study lessons are due
to insufficient care in the assignment. Often pupils are told to read so
many pages of the book, without any preliminary preparation and without
any idea of what facts they are to learn. Under such conditions, the
result is usually a very slight interest in the lesson, and consequently
an unsatisfactory grasp of it.
=Examples of Assignment.=--A few examples will serve to illustrate what
is meant by an adequate assignment. When a new reading lesson is to be
prepared, the assignment should include the pronunciation and meaning of
the different words, and a general understanding of the passage to be
read. For a new spelling lesson, the assignment should include the
pronunciation and meaning of the words, and any special difficulties
that may appear in them. In assigning a history lesson on, say, the
Capture of Quebec, the teacher should discuss with the class the
position of Quebec, the difficulties that would present themselves to a
besieging army, the character and personal appearance of Wolfe (making
him stand out as vividly as possible), and the position seized by the
British army, illustrating as far as possible by maps and diagrams.
Then the class will be in a mental attitude to read with interest the
dramatic story of the taking of the fortress. If the pupils were about
to study the geography of British Columbia, the teacher might, in the
assignment, ask them to note from the map of Canada the position of the
province and the direction of the mountain ranges; to infer the
character and direction of the rivers and their value for navigation; to
infer the nature of the climate, knowing the direction of the prevailing
winds; to infer the character of the chief industries, knowing the
physical features and climate. With these facts in mind the class will
be able to read intelligently what the text-book says about British
Columbia.
=The Seat Work.=--However good the assignment may be, there is always a
danger that there will be much waste of time in connection with the seat
work. The tendency to mind-wandering is always so great that the time
devoted to the preparation of lessons at seats may to a large extent be
lost, unless special precautions are taken in that regard. Unfortunately
every lesson cannot be made so enthralling that the pupil's mind is kept
upon it in spite of distractions. To prevent this possible waste of
time, suggestions have already been made in another connection (page 112
above). These will bear repetition here. Questions upon the matter to be
studied might be placed on the black-board and pupils asked to prepare
answers for these. The difficulty with this plan is, that, unless the
questions are carefully thought out by the teacher, the pupils may get
from their reading only a few disconnected facts instead of organized
knowledge. The pupils might be asked to prepare lists of questions for
themselves, and the one who had the best list might be permitted to put
his questions to the rest of the class. The difficulty here is that
most pupils have a tendency to question about what is unimportant and
to neglect the important. In the higher classes, the pupils might be
required to make a topical outline of the lesson studied. This requires
considerable analytic ability, and the results at first are likely to be
disappointing. However, it is an ability worth striving for. The
individual who can readily outline what he has read has mastered the art
of reading.
=Use of Study Lessons.=--There is a danger that the study lesson may be
used too much or too little. In an ungraded school containing many
classes, the teacher may be tempted to rely solely upon the study lesson
as a means of intellectual advancement. Used exclusively it becomes
monotonous, and the pupils grow weary of the constant effort required.
On the other hand, in the graded school, where a teacher has charge of
only one class, there will be a tendency to depend entirely on the oral
presentation of lessons, to the exclusion of the text-book altogether.
The result is that pupils do not cultivate the power to obtain knowledge
from books. The study lesson should alternate with the oral lesson, so
that monotony may be avoided, and the pupils will reap the undoubted
benefits of both methods.
THE RECITATION LESSON
=Purpose of the Recitation Lesson.=--The recitation lesson is the
complement of the study lesson. Its purpose is to test the pupil's grasp
of the facts he has read during the study period. Incidentally the
teacher clears up difficulties and corrects misconceptions on the part
of the pupil. The facts of the text-book may be amplified from the
teacher's stock of information. Abstract facts may be illustrated in a
concrete way. The important facts may be emphasized and the unimportant
ones lightly passed over. The ultimate aim of the recitation lesson is
to add something to the pupil's power of interpreting and organizing
facts.
=Precautions.=--Some precautions are to be noted in connection with the
recitation lesson. (1) Care must be exercised that the pupils are not
reciting mere words that have no solid basis of ideas. Young children
are particularly expert at verbalizing. (2) Care must also be taken that
the pupils have not merely scrappy information, but have the ideas
thoroughly organized. (3) The teacher must know the facts to be recited
well enough to be independent of the text-book during the recitation. To
conduct the lesson with an open book before him is a confession of
weakness on the part of the teacher.
CONDUCTING THE RECITATION LESSON
There are two methods of conducting the recitation lesson, namely, the
question and answer method and the topical method.
=A. The Question and Answer Method.=--This is the easier method for the
pupil, as he is called upon to answer only in a brief form detailed
questions asked by the teacher. The onus of the analysis of the lesson
rests largely upon the teacher. He must ask the questions in a proper
sequence so that, if the answers of the pupils were written out, they
would form a connected account of the matter. He must be able to detect
from the pupils' answers whether they have real knowledge or are merely
masquerading with words. To be able to question well is one of the most
valuable accomplishments that a teacher can possess. The whole problem
of the art of questioning will be considered in the next Chapter.
=B. The Topical Method.=--The topical recitation consists in the pupil's
reporting the facts of the study lesson with a minimum of questioning on
the part of the teacher. Two advantages are apparent: (1) It gives the
pupil an excellent training in organizing his materials, and (2) it
develops his language power. It is to be feared that the topical
recitation is not so frequently used as its value warrants. The reason
is probably that it is a difficult method to follow. Poor results are
usually secured at first, teachers grow discouraged, they stop trying
it, and thereafter put their whole faith in the question and answer
recitation. This is unfortunate, for however good the latter may be, it
is greatly inferior to the topical recitation in helping the pupil to
institute relations among his facts, and in improving his power to use
his mother-tongue effectively. Successful topical recitations can be
secured only at the price of long, patient, and persistent effort. The
teacher can gradually work towards them from detailed questions to
questions requiring the combination of a few sentences in answer, and
thence to the complete outline. In almost every lesson the pupils may be
called upon to summarize some topic after it has been gone over by means
of detailed questions. In such answers the pupils may reasonably be
expected to state the facts in their proper connection and in good
language form. In reviews, also, in such subjects as history and
geography, the pupils should be frequently called upon to recite
topically.
THE DRILL LESSON
=Purpose of Drill Lesson.=--The Drill Lesson involves the repetition of
matter in the same form as it was originally learned, in order to fix it
in the mind so firmly that its recall will eventually become automatic.
In other words, the function of this type of lesson is habit-formation.
It is necessary in those subjects that are more or less mechanical in
nature, and that can be reduced to the plane of habit. The field of the
drill lesson will, therefore, be largely restricted to spelling,
writing, language, and the mechanical phases of art and arithmetic.
=The Method.=--As the purpose of the drill lesson is the formation of
habit, the method will involve the application of the principles that
lie at the basis of habit-formation. These are, (1) attention to the
thing to be done so as to obtain a vivid picture or a clear
understanding of it, and (2) repetition with attention. For instance, if
the writing lesson is the formation of the capital E, the class will
examine carefully a model form, note the parts of which it is composed,
the relative size and position of the parts, how they are connected,
etc. Then will follow the repetition of the form by the pupils, each
time with careful attention to the method of making it, comparison with
the model, and the noting of defects in their work. This will continue
until the letter can be made correctly without attention, that is, until
the method of making it has been reduced to a habit. If the lesson is on
the spelling of difficult words, the first step will be to observe the
pronunciation of each, the division into syllables, the difficult part
of the word, and the order of the letters. Then the word will be
repeated attentively until it can be spelled without effort. In a
language lesson on the correct use, say, of "lie" and "lay," the pupils
will first be called upon to observe the forms of each, "lie, lay, lain,
lying," and "lay, laid, laying"--as used in sentences on the
black-board, and the meaning of each group--"lie" meaning "to recline"
and "lay" meaning "to place." The pupils will then repeat attentively
the correct forms of the words in sentences, until they finally reach
the stage when they unconsciously use the words correctly, or as habits
of speech. The same principles apply in learning the addition and
multiplication tables, and the tables of weights and measures in
arithmetic; in the memorization of gems of poetry and prose; in the
learning of dates, lists of events, and important provisions of acts in
history; and in the memorization of lists of places and products in
geography, where this is desirable. In all the cases mentioned, it must
not be supposed that a single drill lesson will be sufficient for the
fixing of the desired knowledge or skill. Before instant and unconscious
reaction can be depended upon, repetition will be needed at intervals
for some time.
=Danger in Mere Repetition.=--In connection with the repetition
necessary in the second stage of the drill lesson, an important
precaution should be noted. It is impossible for anybody to repeat
anything _attentively_ many times in succession unless there is some new
element noted in each repetition. When there is no longer a new element,
the repetition becomes mechanical, and hence comparatively useless so
far as acquisition of knowledge or even habit is concerned. To ask a
pupil who has difficulty with a combination in addition, or a product in
multiplication, or the spelling of a word, to repeat it many times in
succession, may be not only waste of time, but even worse, because a
tendency toward mind-wandering may be encouraged. The practice of
requiring pupils to write out new words, or words that have been
mis-spelled in the dictation lesson, five, ten, or twenty times
successively, cannot be too strongly condemned. The attention cannot
possibly be concentrated upon the work beyond two or three repetitions,
and the fact that pupils frequently make mistakes two or three words
down the column and repeat this mistake to the end, is sufficient proof
of the mechanical nature of the process. The little boy who had
difficulty with the use of "went" and "gone," and was commanded by his
teacher to write "I have gone" a hundred times on his slate, illustrates
this principle exactly. He had been left to finish his task alone and,
after writing "I have gone" faithfully forty or fifty times, grew tired
of the monotony of the process. Turning the slate over, he wrote on the
other side, "I have went home" and left it on the desk for the teacher's
approval.
=How to Overcome Dangers.=--To avoid this difficulty, some device must
be adopted to secure attention to each repetition until the knowledge is
firmly fixed. For instance, instead of asking the pupil many times one
after the other, what seven times six are, it would be better to
introduce other combinations and come back frequently to seven times
six. In that way the pupil would have to attend to it every time it came
up. Similarly, in learning to spell a troublesome word like "separate,"
the best plan would be to mix it up with other words and come back to it
often. Repetition is always necessary in the drill lesson, but it should
always be _repetition with attention_.
THE REVIEW LESSON
=Purpose of Review Lesson.=--As the name implies, a review is a new view
of old knowledge. While the drill lesson repeats the matter in the same
form as it was originally learned, the review lesson repeats the matter
from another standpoint or in new relations. The function of the review
lesson is the organization of the material of a series of lessons into
an inter-connected whole, and incidentally the fixing of these facts in
the mind by the additional repetitions.
=Kinds of Review.=--Almost every lesson gives opportunities for
incidental reviews. The step of preparation recalls old ideas in new
connections, and may be properly considered a review. A lesson on the
"gerund" in grammar would require a recall of the various relations in
which a noun may stand, and the various ways in which a verb may be
completed. It is quite probable that the pupils have never before
brought these facts together in an organized way. Similarly, the step of
expression affords opportunity for review. The solution of problems in
simple interest confronts the pupils with new situations in which this
principle can be applied. The reproduction of the matter of the history
lesson requires the selection of the important facts from the mass of
details given and the placing of these in their proper relationship to
one another.
But besides the incidental reviews which form a part of nearly all
lessons, there must be lessons which are purely reviews. Without these,
the pupil, because of insufficient repetition, would rapidly forget the
facts he had once learned or would never really know the facts at all,
because he had not seen them in all their connections. There are two
methods of conducting these reviews: (1) by means of the topical
outline, (2) by means of the method of comparison.
THE TOPICAL REVIEW
=Purpose of Topical Outlines.=--By this method the pupil gets a
bird's-eye view of a whole field. In learning the matter originally, his
attention was largely concentrated upon the individual facts, and it is
quite probable that he has since lost sight of some of the threads of
unity running through them. The topical outline will bring these into
prominence. It will enable the pupil to keep in his mind the most
important headings of a subject, the sub-headings, and the individual
facts coming under these. Whatever may be said against the practice of
memorizing topical outlines, it must be acknowledged that unless it is
done the pupil's knowledge of the subject is likely to be very hazy,
indefinite, and disconnected.
=Illustrations from History.=--As an illustration of the review lesson
by means of the topical outline, take the history of the Hudson's Bay
Company. If the pupil has followed the order of the text-book, he has
probably learned this subject in pieces--a bit here, another some pages
later, and still another a few chapters farther on. In the multiplicity
of other events, he has probably missed the connections among the facts,
and a topical review will be necessary to establish these. He may be
required to go through his history text-book, reading all the parts
relating to the Hudson's Bay Company. He will thus get a grasp of the
relationships among the facts, and this will be made firmer if an
outline such as the following is worked out with the assistance of the
teacher.
THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY
I. EARLY HISTORY:
1. Groseilliers and Radisson interest Prince Rupert in
possibilities of trade in North-Western Canada. Two vessels fitted
out for Hudson's Bay. Report favourable.
2. Charter granted Hudson's Bay Company by Charles II, 1670.
3. Forts Nelson, Albany, Rupert, and Hayes attacked and captured by
DeTroyes and D'Iberville, 1686. Restored by Treaty of Utrecht,
1713.
II. NATURE OF FUR-TRADE:
1. Furs gathered by Indians in winter.
2. Conveyed to forts in summer, after incredible difficulties.
3. Ceremonies on arrival of Indians at forts.
4. Articles exchanged for furs at first showy and worthless, but
later more useful and valuable, for example, guns, hatchets,
powder, shot, blankets, etc.
III. RIVALS OF HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY:
1. Coureurs-de-bois.
2. Scottish traders--ranged from Michilimackinac to Saskatchewan.
H.B. Co. built Cumberland House on Saskatchewan to compete for
interior trade.
3. North-West Company, 1783-4--at first friendly to H.B. Co., but
later bitter enemies.
IV. THE SELKIRK SETTLEMENT:
1. _Establishment._--Lord Selkirk, a Scottish philanthropist, and a
shareholder in the Hudson's Bay Co., purchased from the Company
70,000 square miles of land around Red River for Scotch colonies,
1811. About three hundred settlers came within three years. Miles
Macdonell at head of the colony.
2. _Trouble with North-West Company._--
(_a_) Suspicion of N.W. Co. that colony was established by H.B. Co.
to compete for fur trade.
(_b_) Proclamation of Macdonell that food should not be taken out
of settlement. Attack on colony by Metis Indians encouraged by N.W.
Co. Withdrawal of colonists to Lake Winnipeg.
(_c_) Return with reinforcements under Semple. Skirmish at Seven
Oaks, 1816. Semple with twenty others killed.
(_d_) Selkirk's descent upon Fort William. Arrest of several
Nor'Westers. Colony at Red River restored.
(_e_) Nor'Westers acquitted of murder of Semple. Selkirk convicted
and heavily fined for acts of violence. Selkirk withdrew from
Canada in disappointment and disgust.
3. _Later Progress._--
(_a_) Hardships of pioneer life like those of Ontario.
(_b_) A series of disasters--grasshoppers, floods.
(_c_) Prosperity finally came.
(_d_) Government at first administered by governor of H.B. Co.,
later assisted by Council of fourteen members.
V. AMALGAMATION OF RIVAL COMPANIES:
1. _Union._--
After withdrawal of Selkirk, the H.B. Co. and the N.W. Co. united
in 1821, under name of former.
2. _Subsequent Progress._--
(_a_) Governor Sir George Simpson extended posts westward to
Pacific.
(_b_) Through his energy Britain was able to retain possession of
Western Canada in spite of aggression of United States and Russia.
VI. RELINQUISHMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS:
1. Canadian Government claimed that the rule of the Company
hindered development of Western Canada because it was interested
only in trade.
2. _Agreement with Canadian Government._--
(_a_) Company sold Prince Rupert's Land and gave up its trade
monopoly.
(_b_) In return.--
(i) Received £300,000.
(ii) Retained one twentieth of land south of the Saskatchewan.
(iii) Retained its posts and trading privileges.
3. Company still exists as a trading organization with many posts in the
West and large stores in many cities.
VII. SERVICES OF H.B. CO. TO CANADA AND THE EMPIRE:
1. Opened up a valuable trade in Western Canada.
2. Explored and opened up the West for settlement.
3. Retained for Britain the territory west of Rockies when it was
in danger of falling into other hands.
The subjects of the Public and Separate School Course where topical
reviews are most necessary are history and geography.
THE COMPARATIVE REVIEW
A thing always stands out most vividly in the mind when the relations of
similarity and difference are perceived between it and other things.
When we compare and contrast two things, certain features of each that
would otherwise escape our attention are brought to light. We get a
clearer idea of both the rabbit and the squirrel when we compare their
various characteristics. Great Britain and Germany are each better
understood geographically, when we set up comparisons between them; Pitt
and Walpole stand out more clearly as statesmen when we compare and
contrast them. One of the most effective forms of review is that in
which the relations of likeness and difference are set up between
subjects that have already been studied. For instance, the geographical
features of Manitoba and British Columbia may be effectively reviewed by
instituting comparisons between them in regard to (1) position and size,
(2) physical features, (3) climate, (4) industries, (5) products, (6)
commercial centres. The careers of Walpole and Pitt might be reviewed by
comparing and contrasting them with regard to (1) circumstances under
which each became Prime Minister, (2) domestic policy, (3) foreign
policy, (4) circumstances surrounding the resignation of each, (5)
personal character.
Whatever form the review lesson may take, the teacher should always keep
in mind its two main purposes, namely, (1) the organization of knowledge
which comes through the apprehension of new relationships, and (2) the
deeper impression of facts on the mind which comes through attentive
repetition.
CHAPTER XVIII
QUESTIONING
=Importance.=--As a teaching device, questioning must always occupy a
place of the highest importance. While it may not be always true that
good questioning is synonymous with good teaching, there can be no doubt
that the good teacher must have, as one of his qualifications, the
ability to question well. A good question is a problem to solve. A
stimulating problem arouses and directs mental activity. Well-directed
mental activity is the prime requisite of all learning and one of the
ends which all effective teaching endeavours to realize. Questioning is
one of the best means of securing that desirable activity of mind
without which intellectual progress is impossible. The teacher who would
master the technique of his art must study to attain skill in
questioning.
QUALIFICATIONS OF THE GOOD QUESTIONER
=A. Knowledge of Subject and of Mind.=--The most obvious essentials are
familiarity with the subject-matter and a knowledge of the mental
processes of the child. Without the first, the questions will be
pointless, haphazard, and unsystematic; without the second, they will be
ill-adjusted to the interests and attainments of the pupils. A thorough
knowledge of the facts of the lesson and a keen insight into the
workings of the child mind are indispensable.
=B. Analytic Ability.=--As an accompaniment of the first of these
qualifications, the good questioner must have analytic ability. The
material of the lesson must be analysed into its elements and the
relations of these must be clearly perceived if it is to be effectively
presented to the pupils. The teacher must further have the power to
discriminate between the important and the unimportant. The ability to
seize upon the essential features and to give due prominence to these is
one of the most valuable accomplishments a teacher can have.
=C. Knowledge of Pupils' Experiences.=--As an accompaniment of the
second qualification, the good questioner must have a knowledge of the
previous experience and of the capacities of the pupils. Good teaching
consists largely in the skilful adjustment of the new to the old. The
teacher must ascertain what the pupils already know, what their
interests are, and what matter they may reasonably be expected to
apprehend, if he is to have them assimilate properly the facts of the
lesson. He must further show sympathy and tact in order to inspire the
pupils to their best effort. He must be able to detect unerringly the
symptoms of inattention, listlessness, and misbehaviour, and by a
well-directed question to bring back the wandering attention to the
subject in hand.
=Faults in Questioning.=--There are two serious weaknesses that many
young teachers exhibit, namely, questioning when they ought to tell and
telling when they ought to question. To tell pupils what they might
easily discover for themselves is to deprive them of the joy of conquest
and to miss an opportunity of exercising and strengthening their mental
powers. On the other hand, to question upon matter which the pupils
cannot reasonably be expected to know or discover is to discourage
effort and encourage guessing. To know just when to question and when
to tell requires considerable discrimination and insight on the part of
the teacher.
PURPOSES OF QUESTIONING
Questioning has three main purposes, namely:
1. To determine the limits of the pupil's present knowledge in order
that the teacher may have a definite basis upon which to build the new
material;
2. To direct the pupil's thought along a prescribed channel to a
definite end, to lead him to make discoveries and form conclusions on
his own account;
3. To ascertain how far he has grasped the meaning of the new material
that has been presented.
=A. Preparatory.=--The first of these purposes may be designated as
preparatory. Here the teacher clears the ground for the presentation of
the new matter by recalling the old related facts necessary to the
interpretation of the new. In thus sounding the depths of the pupil's
previous knowledge, the teacher should usually ask questions that demand
fairly long answers instead of those which may be answered briefly. The
onus of the recall should be placed largely upon the pupil. The teacher
will do comparatively little talking; the pupil will do much.
=B. Developing.=--The second purpose may be described as developing. The
pupil is led step by step to a conclusion. Each question grows naturally
out of the preceding question, the responsibility for this logical
connection falling upon the teacher. The pupil has before him a certain
set of conditions, and he is asked to infer the logical result of such
conditions. He forms inferences, makes new discoveries, sets up new
relationships, and formulates definitions and laws. It should be noted
that this form of questioning gives no entirely new information to the
pupil. It merely classifies and organizes what is already in his mind in
a more or less indistinct and nebulous form. New information cannot be
questioned out of a pupil; it must be given to him directly.
=C. Recapitulation.=--The third purpose of questioning may be described
as recapitulatory. The pupil is asked to reproduce what he has learned
during the progress of the lesson. At convenient intervals during the
presentation and at the close, he should be asked to summarize in a
connected manner the main points already covered. Thus the teacher tests
the pupil's comprehension of the facts of the lesson. The pupil, on his
side, as a result of such reproduction, has the facts more clearly fixed
in his mind. As in the first stage of the lesson, the answers should be
of considerable length, logically connected, and expressed in good
language. The responsibility for this is again thrown largely upon the
pupil. He does most of the talking; the teacher does little.
=How Employed in Lesson.=--It will thus be recognized that questioning
is employed for different purposes at the three different stages of the
lesson. At the opening of the lesson it prepares the mind of the pupil
for what is to follow. During the presentation it leads the pupil to
form his own inferences. At the close of the lesson it tests his grasp
of the facts and gives these greater clearness and fixity in his mind.
The first and third might both be designated as _testing_ purposes, and
the second _training_.
SOCRATIC QUESTIONING
=Its Characteristics.=--Developing, or training, questions, are
sometimes referred to as Socratic questions. The terms are, however, not
altogether synonymous. The method of Socrates had two divisions, known
as _irony_ and _maieutics_. The former consisted in leading the pupil
to express an opinion on some subject of current interest, an opinion
that was apparently accepted by Socrates. Then, by a series of questions
adroitly put, he drove his pupil into a contradiction or an absurd
position, thus revealing the inadequacy of the answer. This phase of the
Socratic method is rarely applicable with young children. Occasionally,
in grammar or arithmetic, for instance, an incorrect answer may properly
be followed up so as to lead the pupil into a contradiction, but it is
usually not desirable to embarrass him unnecessarily. It is never
agreeable to be covered with the confusion which such a situation
usually brings about. The other phase of the Socratic method, the
_maieutics_, consisted in leading the pupil, by a further series of
questions, to formulate the correct opinion of which the first
hastily-given answer was only a fragment. This coincides with the
developing method and may sometimes be profitably employed with young
children.
EXAMPLE OF SOCRATIC QUESTIONING.--As an example of Socratic
questioning may be noted the following taken from Plato's _Minos_.
Socrates has questioned his companion concerning the nature of Law and
has received the answer, "Law is the decree of the city." To show his
companion the inadequacy of this definition, Socrates engages with him
in the following dialogue:
_Socrates_: Justice and law, are highly honourable; injustice and
lawlessness, highly dishonourable; the former preserves cities, the
latter ruins them?
_Pupil_: Yes, it does.
_Socrates_: Well, then! we must consider law as something
honourable; and seek after it, under the assumption that it is a
good thing. You defined law to be the decree of the city: Are not
some decrees good, others evil?
_Pupil_: Unquestionably.
_Socrates_: But we have already said that law is not evil?
_Pupil_: I admit it.
_Socrates_: It is incorrect therefore to answer, as you did
broadly, that law is the decree of the city. An evil decree cannot
be law.
_Pupil_: I see that it is incorrect.
Having shown his pupil the fallacy of his first definition, Socrates
proceeds to teach him that only what is right is lawful. This part of
the dialogue proceeds as follows:
_Socrates_: Those who know, must of necessity hold the same opinion
with each other, on matters which they know: always and everywhere?
_Pupil_: Yes--always and everywhere.
_Socrates_: Physicians write respecting matters of health what they
account to be true, and these writings of theirs are the medical
laws?
_Pupil_: Certainly they are.
_Socrates_: The like is true respecting the laws of farming, the
laws of gardening, the laws of cookery. All these are the writings
of persons, knowing in each of the respective pursuits?
_Pupil_: Yes.
_Socrates_: In like manner, what are the laws respecting the
government of a city? Are they not the writings of those who know
how to govern--kings, statesmen, and men of superior excellence?
_Pupil_: Truly so.
_Socrates_: Knowing men like these will not write differently from
each other about the same things, nor change what they have once
written. If, then, we see some doing this, are we to declare them
knowing or ignorant?
_Pupil_: Ignorant, undoubtedly.
_Socrates_: Whatever is right, therefore, we may pronounce to be
lawful in medicine, gardening, or cookery; whatever is not right,
not to be lawful but lawless. And the like in treatises respecting
just and unjust, prescribing how the city is to be administered.
That which is right, is the regal law; that which is not right, is
not so, but only seems to be law in the eyes of the ignorant, being
in truth lawless.
_Pupil_: Yes.
It will be seen from the above examples, that much of the Socratic
questioning is really explanatory; the questions, though interrogative
in form, being often rhetorical, and therefore assertive in value.
THE QUESTION
=Characteristics of a Good Question.=--Good questions should seize upon
the important features and emphasize these. Unimportant details, though
useful in giving vividness to a narrative and enabling the pupil to
build up a clear picture of the scene or incident, may well be ignored
in questioning. The teacher must see that the pupil grasps the
essentials and must direct his questions towards the attainment of that
end. The questions should be arranged in logical sequence, so that the
answers, if written out in the order given, would form a connected
account of the topic under discussion. Further, the questions should
require the expression of a judgment on the part of the pupil. In the
main they should not be answerable by a single word or a brief phrase.
One of the greatest weaknesses in the answers of pupils is the tendency
_to_ extreme brevity. As a result, it is difficult to get pupils to give
a connected and continuous narration, description, or exposition in any
subject. The remedy for this defect is to ask questions which demand
answers of considerable length, and to avoid those which require only a
scrappy answer.
=Form of the Question.=--It should ever be borne in mind that the
teacher's language influences the language habits of his pupils.
Carelessly worded, poorly constructed questions are likely to result in
answers having similar characteristics. On the other hand, correctness
in the form of the questions asked, accuracy in the use of words,
simple, straightforward statements of the thing wanted, will be
reflected, dimly perhaps, in the form of the pupils' answers. Care must,
therefore, be exercised as to the form in which questions are asked.
They should be stripped of all superfluous introductory words, such as,
"Who can tell?" "How many of you know?" etc. Such prefaces are not only
useless and a waste of time, but they also put before pupils a bad model
if we are to expect concise and direct statements from them. The
questions should be so clear and definite in meaning as to admit of only
one interpretation. Questions such as, "What happened after this?" "What
did Cromwell become?" "What about the rivers of Germany?" "What might we
say of this word?" are objectionable on the score of indefiniteness.
Many correct answers might be given for each and the pupils can only
guess at what is required. If the question cannot be so stated as to
make what is desired unmistakable, the information had better be given
outright. Questions should be brief and usually deal with only one
point, except, perhaps in asking for summaries of what has been covered
in the lesson. In the latter case it is frequently desirable to put a
question involving several points in order to ensure definiteness,
conciseness, and connectedness in the answer; for example, "For what is
Alexander Mackenzie noted? State his great aim and describe his two most
important undertakings connected therewith." But in dealing with matter
taken up for the first time or involving original thought, this type of
question, demanding as it does attention to several points, would put
too great a demand upon the powers of young children. Under such
conditions it is best to ask questions requiring only one point in
answer.
THE ANSWER
=Form of Answers.=--The possibility of improving the pupil's language
power through his answers has already been referred to. To secure the
best results in this regard, the teacher should insist on answers that
are grammatically correct and, usually, in complete sentences. It would
be pedantic, however, to insist always upon the latter condition. For
such questions as, "What British officer was killed at Queenston
Heights?" or "What province lies west of Manitoba?" the natural answers
are "General Brock," or "Saskatchewan." To require pupils to say, "The
British officer killed at Queenston Heights was General Brock," or "The
province west of Manitoba is Saskatchewan," would be to make the
recitation unnatural and formal. When answers are a mere echo of the
question, with some slight inversion or addition, they become
exceedingly mechanical, and useless from the point of view of language
training. While it is desirable to avoid, as far as possible, questions
that admit of answers of a single word or short phrase, such questions
are sometimes necessary and are not objectionable. Questions should not
be thrown into the form of an elliptical statement in which the pupil
merely fills a blank, for example, "The capital of Ontario is...?" "The
first English parliament was called by...?" Nor should they be given in
inverted form, as, "Montreal is situated where?" "The Great Charter was
signed by what king?" Alternative questions such as, "Is this a noun or
an adjective?" "Was Charles I willing or unwilling to sign the Petition
of Right?" as well as those questions that are answerable by "Yes" or
"No," require little thought to answer and should be avoided if
possible. When they are used, the pupil should at once be required to
give reasons for his answer. Neither the form of the question nor the
teacher's tone of voice or manner should afford any inkling as to the
answer expected.
=Calling for Answers.=--In order that the attention of the whole class
may be maintained, the question should be proposed before the pupil who
is to answer is indicated. No fixed order in calling upon the pupils
should be adopted. If the pupils are never certain beforehand who is to
be named to answer the question, they are more likely to be kept
constantly on the alert. The questions should be carefully distributed
among the class, the duller pupils being given rather more and easier
questions than the brighter ones. One of the temptations that the
teacher has to overcome is that of giving the clever and willing pupils
the majority of the questions. The question should seldom be repeated
unless the first wording is so unfortunate that the meaning is not clear
and it is found necessary to recast it. To repeat questions habitually
is to put a premium on inattention on the part of the pupils. A bad
habit often noted among teachers is that of wording the question in
several ways before any one is asked to answer it.
=Methods of Dealing with Answers.=--As has been already indicated in
another connection, the answers of the pupils should be generally in
complete sentences and frequently should be in the form of a continuous
paragraph or series of paragraphs, especially in summaries and reviews.
The continuous answer should be cultivated much more than it is, as a
means of training pupils to organize their information and to express
themselves in clear and connected discourse. On the other hand, however,
children should be discouraged from giving more information than is
demanded by the question. While it is desirable that the correctness of
an answer should be indicated in some way, the teacher should guard
against forming the habit of indicating every correct answer by a
stereotyped word or phrase, such as, "Yes" or "That's right." Answers
should seldom be repeated by the teacher, unless it is desirable to
re-word them for purposes of emphasis. Repetition of answers encourages
careless articulation on the part of the pupil answering and inattention
on the part of the others. One of the worst habits a teacher can
contract is the "gramophonic" repetition of pupils' answers. The answers
given by the pupils should almost invariably be individual, not
collective. Simultaneous answering makes a noisy class-room, cultivates
a monotonous and measured method of speaking, and encourages the habit
of relying on others. There are always a few leaders in the class that
are willing to take the initiative in answering, and the others merely
chime in with them. The method is not suitable for the expression of
individual opinion, for all pupils must answer alike. There is, further,
the possibility that absurd blunders may pass uncorrected, because in
the general repetition the teacher cannot detect them.
LIMITATIONS
Though questioning is the most valuable of teaching devices, it is quite
susceptible of being overworked. There is quite as much danger of using
it too extensively as there is of using it too little. Frequently,
teachers try to question from pupils what they could not be expected to
know. Further, it is possible by too much questioning to cover up the
point of the lesson rather than reveal it, and to mystify the pupils
rather than clarify their ideas. These are the two main abuses of the
device. After all, it should be remembered that, important as good
questioning undoubtedly is, it is not the only thing in lesson
technique. In teaching, as elsewhere, variety is the spice of life.
Sympathy, sincerity, enthusiasm in the teacher will do more to secure
mental activity in the pupils than mere excellence in questioning. The
energetic, enthusiastic, sympathetic teacher may secure better results
than the teacher whose ability in questioning is well-nigh perfect, but
who lacks these other qualities. If, however, to these qualities he adds
a high degree of efficiency in questioning, his success in teaching is
so much the more assured.
PART III. EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
CHAPTER XIX
CONSCIOUSNESS
=Data of Psychology.=--Throughout the earlier parts of the text,
occasional reference has been made to various classes of mental states,
and to psychology, as the science which treats of these mental states,
under the assumption that such references would be understood in a
general way by the student-teacher. At the outset of a study of
psychology as the science of mind, however, it becomes necessary to
inquire somewhat more fully into the nature of the data with which the
science is to deal. Mind is usually defined either by contrasting it
with the concrete world of matter, or by describing its activities. It
is said, for instance, that mind is that which feels and knows, which
hopes, fears, determines, etc. By some, indeed, mind is described as
merely the sum of these states of knowing and feeling and willing. The
practical man says, however, _I_ know and feel so-and-so, and _my_ wish
is so-and-so. Here an evident distinction is drawn between the knower,
or conscious self, and his conscious activities. While, however, we may
agree with the practical man that there is a mind, or self, that knows
and wills and feels; yet it is evident that the self, or knower, can
know himself only through his conscious states. It must be understood,
therefore, that mind in its ultimate sense cannot be studied directly,
but only the conscious states, or conditions of mind. Thus psychology
becomes a study of mental states, or states of consciousness; and it
is, in fact, frequently described as the science of consciousness.
=Nature of Consciousness.=--Our previous study of the nature of
experience has shown that various kinds of conscious states may arise in
the mind, now the smell of burning cloth, now the sound of a ringing
bell, now the feeling of bodily pain, now a remembered joy, now a future
expectation or a resolution. Such a conscious state was seen, moreover,
to represent on the part of the mind, not a mere passive impression
coming from some external source, but an active attitude resulting in
definite experience. It signifies, in other words, a power to react in a
fixed way toward impressions, and direct our conduct in accordance with
the resulting states of consciousness. Consciousness in the individual
implies, therefore, that he is aware of phenomena as they are
experienced, and is able to modify his behaviour accordingly.
=Types of Consciousness.=--Although allowable, from the standpoint of
the learning process, to describe a conscious state as an attitude of
awareness in which the individual grasps the significance of an
experience in relation to his own needs; it must be recognized that not
all consciousness manifests this meaningful quality, or this relation to
a felt aim, or end. While lying, for instance, in a vague, half-awake
state, although one is conscious, the mental condition is quite devoid
of the meaningful quality referred to, and entirely lacks the feeling of
reaction, or of mental effort. In this case there is no distinct
reference to the needs of the self, and a lack of that focusing of
attention necessary to give the consciousness a meaning and purpose in
the life of the individual. All such passive, or effortless, states of
consciousness, which make up those portions of mental existence in
which no definite presentation seems to hold the attention, although
falling within the sphere of the scientific psychologist, may
nevertheless be left out of consideration in a study of educational
psychology. Learning involves apperception, and apperception is always
giving a meaning to new presentations by actively bringing old knowledge
to bear upon them. For the educator, therefore, psychology may be
limited to a study of the definite states of consciousness which arise
through an apperceiving act of attention, that is, to our states of
experience and the processes connected therewith. For this reason,
psychology is by some appropriately enough defined as the science of
experience.
=Consciousness a Stream.=--Although we describe the data of psychology
as facts, or states, of consciousness, a moment's reflection will show
that our conscious life is not made up of a number of mental states, or
experiences, completely separated one from the other. Our consciousness
is rather a unified whole, in which seemingly disconnected states blend
into one continuous flow of conscious life. For this reason,
consciousness is frequently compared to a stream, or river, moving
onward in an unbroken course. This stream of consciousness appears as
disjointed mental states, simply because the attention discriminates
within this stream, and thus in a sense detaches different portions one
from the other, or, as sometimes figuratively put, it creates successive
waves on the stream of consciousness. A mental state, or experience,
so-called, is such a discriminated portion of this stream of
consciousness, and is, therefore, itself a process, the different
processes blending in a continuous succession or relation to make up the
unbroken flow of conscious life. For this reason psychology is
frequently described as a study of conscious processes.
VALUE OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
Within the school the child secures a control of experience only by
passing through a process of mental reconstruction, or of changes in
consciousness. Moreover, to bring about these mental changes, it is
found necessary for the teacher's effort to conform as far as possible
to the interests and tendencies of the child. So far, therefore, as the
teacher's office is to direct and control the children's effort during
the learning process, he must approach them primarily as mental, or
conscious, beings. For this reason the educator should at least not
violate the general principles governing all mental activity. By giving
him an insight into the general principles underlying conscious
processes, psychology should aid the teacher to control the learning
process in the child.
LIMITATIONS OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
=Psychology Cannot Give: A. Knowledge of Subject-matter.=--It must not
be assumed, however, that knowledge of psychology will necessarily imply
a corresponding ability to teach. Psychology, for instance, cannot
decide what should be taught to the child. This, as we have seen, is a
problem of social experience, and must be decided by considering the
types of experience which will add to the social efficiency of the
individual, or which will enable him best to do his duty to himself and
to others. All, therefore, that psychology can do here is to explain the
process by which experience is acquired, leaving to social ethics the
problem of deciding what knowledge is of most worth.
=B. Love for Children.=--Again, psychology will not necessarily furnish
that largeness of heart and sympathy for childhood, without which no
teacher can be successful. Indeed, it is felt by many that making
children objects of psychological analysis will rather tend to destroy
that more spiritual conception of their personality which should
constitute the teacher's attitude toward his pupils. While this is no
doubt true of the teacher who looks upon children merely as subjects for
psychological analysis and experimentation, it is equally true that a
knowledge of psychology will enable even the sympathetic teacher to
realize more fully and deal more successfully with the difficulties of
the pupil.
=C. Acquaintance with the Individual Child.=--Again, the teacher's
problem in dealing with the mental attitude of the particular child
cannot always be interpreted through general principles. The general
principle would be supposed to have an application to every child in a
large class. It is often found, however, that the character and
disposition of the particular child demands, not general, but special
treatment. Here, what is termed the knack of the sympathetic teacher is
often more effective than the general principle of the psychologist.
Admitting so much, however, it yet may be argued that a knowledge of
psychology will not hinder, but rather assist the sympathetic teacher in
dealing even with special cases.
METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY
=A. Introspection.=--A unique characteristic of mind is its ability to
turn attention inward and make an object of study of its own states, or
processes. For instance, the mind is able to make its present sensation,
its remembered state of anger, its idea of a triangle, etc., stand out
in consciousness as a subject of study for conscious attention. On
account of this ability to give attention to his own states of
consciousness, man is said both to know and to know that he knows. This
reflective method of studying our own mental states is known as the
method of _Introspection_.
=B. Objective Method.=--Facts of mind may, however, be examined
objectively. As previously noted, man, by his words, acts, and works,
gives expression to his conscious states. These different forms of
expression are accepted, therefore, as external indications of
corresponding states of mind, and afford the psychologist certain data
for developing his science. One of the most important of these objective
methods is known as Child Study. Here, by the method of observing the
acts and language of very young children, data are obtained concerning
the native instincts of the child, concerning the genesis and
development of the different mental processes, and the relation of these
to physical development. A brief statement of the leading principles of
Child Study will be found in Chapter XXXI.
=C. Experimental Method.=--A third method of studying mind is known as
the _Experimental_ method. Here, as in the case of the ordinary physical
experimenter, the psychologist seeks to control certain mental processes
by isolating them and regulating their action. This may be effectively
done in the study of certain processes. For instance, by passing the two
points of a pair of compasses over different parts of the body, the
tactile sensibility of the skin may be compared at these different
parts. By this means it may be shown that the tip of the finger can
detect the two points when only one twelfth of an inch apart, while on
the middle of the back they may require to be two and a half inches
apart to give a double impression. The experimental method is often
used in connection with the objective method in Child Study.
PHASES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
=A. Knowledge.=--Although, as previously stated, the stream of
consciousness must at all times be looked upon as a unity, it will be
found upon analysis to present three more or less distinct phases. A
state of consciousness implies, in the first place, being aware of
something as an object of attention. In other words, something is seized
upon by consciousness as a presentation, and to the extent to which one
is aware of this object of consciousness, he is said to recognize, or to
know it. A state of consciousness is always, therefore, a state of
knowledge, or of intelligence. Thus, whether we perceive this chair,
imagine a mermaid, recall the looks of an absent friend, experience the
toothache, judge the weight of this book, or become angry, our conscious
state is a state of _knowledge_.
=B. Feeling.=--A conscious state is also a state of feeling. Every
conscious state has its feeling side, since it is a personal state, or
since the mind itself is affected toward its own state. Two men, for
instance, may know equally well the taste of a particular food, but the
taste may affect each one quite differently. To one the experience is
pleasant, to the other it may be even painful. Two boys may know equally
that a point has been scored by the visiting team, but the personal
attitude of each toward the experience may be quite different. The one
finds in it a quality of joy; the other a quality of sorrow. In the same
way the mind always feels more or less pleased or displeased in its
present state of consciousness. To speak of any particular experience as
painful, joyous, sorrowful, etc., is, therefore, to refer to it as a
state of _feeling_.
=C. Will.=--Consciousness is a state of effort, or will. It was
especially pointed out above, that the purposeful consciousness always
implies a straining or focusing of consciousness in order to attain a
fuller control of the experience. This element of exertion manifest in
consciousness may appear as a directing of attention, as the making of a
choice, as determining upon a certain action, etc. This aspect of any
conscious state is spoken of as a state of _will_, or volition.
In the unity of the conscious life, therefore, there are three attitudes
from which consciousness may be viewed:
1. It is a state of Knowledge, or of Intelligence.
2. It is a state of Feeling.
3. It is a state of Will.
On account of this threefold aspect of mental states, consciousness has
been represented in the following form:
[Illustration]
The significance of comparing the threefold aspect of consciousness to
the three sides of a triangle consists in the fact that if any side of a
triangle is removed no triangle remains. In like manner, none of the
three attributes of consciousness could be wanting without the conscious
state ceasing to exist as such. No one, for instance, could feel the
pressure of a tight shoe without at the same time knowing it, and fixing
his attention upon it. Neither could a person at any particular time
know that the shoe was pinching him unless he was also attending to and
feeling the experience.
CHAPTER XX
MIND AND BODY
=Relation of Mind to Bodily Organism.=--Notwithstanding the antithesis
which has been affirmed to exist between mind and matter, yet a very
close relation exists between mind and the material organism known as
the body. There are many ways in which this intimate connection
manifests itself. Mental excitement is always accompanied with agitation
of the body and a disturbance of such bodily processes as breathing, the
beating of the heart, digestion, etc. Such mental processes as seeing,
hearing, tasting, etc., are found also to depend upon the use of a
bodily organ, as the eye, the ear, the tongue, without which it is quite
impossible for the mind to come into relation with outside things.
Moreover, disease or injury, especially to the organs of sense or to the
brain, weakens or destroys mental power. The size of the brain, also, is
found to bear a certain relation to mental capacity; the weight of the
average brain being about 48 ounces, while the brain of an idiot often
weighs only from 20 to 30 ounces.
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
[Illustration: Brain and Spinal Cord]
=Divisions of Nervous System.=--This intimate connection between mind
and body is provided for through the existence of that part of the
bodily organism known as the nervous system, and it is this part,
together with its associated organs of sense, that chiefly interests the
student of psychology. A study of the character and functions of the
various parts of the nervous system, and of the nervous substance of
which these parts are composed, belongs to physiology rather than to
psychology. As the student-teacher is given a general knowledge of the
structure of the nervous system in his study of physiology, a brief
description will suffice for the present purpose. The nervous system
consists of two parts, (1) the central part, or cerebro-spinal centre,
and (2) an outer part--the spinal nerves. The central part, or
cerebro-spinal centre, includes the spinal cord, passing upward through
the vertebrae of the spinal column and the brain. The brain consists of
three parts: The cerebrum, or great brain, consisting of two
hemispheres, which, though connected, are divided in great part by a
longitudinal fissure; the cerebellum, or little brain; and the medulla
oblongata, or bulb. The spinal nerves consist of thirty-one pairs, which
branch out from the spinal cord. Each pair of nerves contains a right
and left member, distributed to the right and the left side of the body
respectively. These nerves are of two kinds, sensory, or afferent,
(in-carrying) nerves, which carry inward impressions from the outside
world, and motor, or efferent, (out-carrying) nerves, which convey
impulses outward to the muscles and cause them to contract. There are
also twelve pairs of nerves connected with the eye, ear, nose, tongue,
and face, which, instead of projecting from the spinal cord, proceed at
once from the brain through openings in the cranium. These are,
therefore, known as cerebral nerves. In their general character,
however, they do not differ from the projection fibres.
[Illustration: Pair of Spinal Nerves]
=Nervous Substance.=--Nervous substance is divided into two kinds--grey,
or cellular, substance and white, or fibrous, substance. The greater
part of the grey matter is situated as a layer on the outside of the
cerebrum, or great brain, where it forms a rind from one twelfth to one
eighth of an inch in thickness, known as the cortex. It is also found on
the surface of the cerebellum. Diffuse masses of grey matter are
likewise met in the other parts of the brain, and extending downward
through the centre of the spinal cord. The function of the grey matter
is to form centres to which the nerve fibres tend and carry in
stimulations, or from which they commence and carry out impulses.
=The Neuron.=--The centres of grey matter are composed of aggregations,
or masses, of very small nerve cells called neurons. A neuron may range
from 1/300 to 1/3000 of an inch in diameter, and there are several
thousand millions of these cells in the nervous system. A developed
neuron consists of a cell body with numerous prolongations in the form
of white, thread-like fibres. The neuron with its outgoing fibres is the
unit of the nervous system. Neurons are supposed to be of three classes,
sensory to receive stimulations, motor to send out impulses to the
muscles, and association to connect sensory and motor centres.
[Illustration: A Neuron in Stages of Development]
These neurons, as already noted, are collected into centres, and the
outgoing fibres give connection to the cells, the number of connections
for each neuron depending upon its outgoing fibres. Some of these
connections are already established within the system at birth, while
others, as we shall see more fully later, are formed whenever the
organism is brought into action in our thinking and doing. To speak of
such connections being formed between nerve centres by means of their
outgoing fibres does not necessarily mean a direct connection, but may
imply only that the fibres of one cell approach nearly enough to those
of another to admit of a nervous impulse passing from the one cell to
the other. This is often spoken of as the establishment of a path
between the centres.
=The Nerve Fibres.=--The nerve fibres which transmit impressions to and
from the centres of grey matter average about 1/6000 of an inch in
thickness, but are often of great length, some extending perhaps half
the length of the body. Large numbers of these fibres unite into a
sheath or single nerve. It is estimated that the number of fibres in a
single nerve number in most cases several thousand, those in the nerve
of sight being estimated at about one hundred thousand. The fibres in
the white substance of the brain are estimated at several hundred
million.
=Classes of Fibres.=--These fibres are supposed to be of four classes,
as follows:
1. _Sensory Cerebral and Spinal Fibres_
These have already been referred to as spreading outward from the brain
and spinal cord to different parts of the body. Their office is,
therefore, to carry inward to the centres of grey matter impressions
received from the outside world, thus setting up a connection between
the various senses and the cortex of the brain.
2. _Motor Cerebral and Spinal Fibres_
These fibres connect the centres of grey matter directly with the
muscles, and thus provide a means of communication between these muscles
and the cortex of the brain.
3. _Association Fibres_
These connect one part of the cortex with another within the same
hemisphere.
4. _Commissural Fibres_
These connect corresponding centres of the two hemispheres of the
cerebrum.
[Illustration]
=Function of Parts.=--Because the various cells are thus brought into
relation, the whole nervous system combines into a single organism,
which is able to receive impressions and provides conditions for the
mind to interpret these impressions and, if necessary, react thereon.
When, for instance, a stimulus is received by an end organ (the eye), it
will be transmitted by a sensory nerve directly inward to a sensory
centre, or cell, in the cortex of the brain. In such a case it may be
interpreted by the mind and a line of action decided upon. Then by means
of associating cells and fibres a motor centre may be stimulated and an
impulse transmitted along an outgoing motor nerve to a muscle, whereupon
the necessary motor reaction will take place. A pupil may, for instance,
receive the impression of a word through the ear or through the eye and
thereupon make a motor response by writing the word. The arrows in the
accompanying figure indicate the course of the stimulus and the response
in such cases.
THE CORTEX
=Cortex the Seat of Consciousness.=--Experiments in connection with the
different nerve cords and centres have demonstrated that intelligent
consciousness depends upon the nerve centres situated in the cortex of
the cerebrum. For instance, a sensory impulse may be carried inward to
the cells of the spinal cord and upward to the cerebellum without any
resulting consciousness. When, however, the stimulus reaches a higher
centre in the cortex of the brain, the mind becomes conscious, or
interprets the impression, and any resulting action will be controlled
by consciousness, through impulses given to the motor nerves. It is for
this reason that the cortex is called the seat of consciousness, and
that mind is said to reside in the brain.
=Localization of Function.=--In addition, however, to placing the seat
of consciousness in the cortex of the brain, psychologists also claim
that different parts of the cortex are involved in different types of
conscious activity. Sensations of sight, for instance, involve certain
centres in the cortex, sensations of sound other centres, the movements
of the organs of speech still other centres. Some go so far as to claim
that each one of the higher intellectual processes, as memory,
imagination, judgment, reasoning, love, anger, etc., involves neural
activity in its own special section of the cortex. There seems no good
evidence, however, to support this view. The fact seems rather that in
all these higher processes, quite numerous centres of the cortex may be
involved. The following figure indicates the main conclusions of the
psychologists in reference to the localization of certain important
functions in distinct areas of the cortex.
[Illustration: REFLEX ACTS]
=Nature of Reflex Action.=--While a lower nerve centre is not a seat for
purposeful consciousness, these centres may, in addition to serving as
transmission points for cortical messages, perform a special function
by immediately receiving sensory impressions and transmitting motor
impulses. A person, for instance, whose mind is occupied with a problem,
may move a limb to relieve a cramp, wink the eye, etc., without any
conscious control of the action. In such a case the sensory impression
was reported to a lower sensory centre, directly carried to a lower
motor centre, and the motor impulse given to perform the movement. In
the same way, after one has acquired the habit of walking, although it
usually requires conscious effort to initiate the movements, yet the
person may continue walking in an almost unconscious manner, his mind
being fully occupied with other matters. Here, also, the complex actions
involved in walking are controlled and regulated by lower centres
situated in the cerebellum. In like manner a person will unconsciously
close the eyelid under the stimulus of strong light. Here the impression
caused by the light stimulus, upon reaching the medulla along an
afferent nerve, is deflected to a motor nerve and, without any conscious
control of the movements, the muscles of the eyelid receive the
necessary impulse to close. Actions which are thus directed from a lower
centre without conscious control, are usually spoken of as reflex acts.
Acts directed by consciousness are, on the other hand, known as
voluntary acts. The difference in the working of the nervous mechanism
in consciously controlled and in reflex action may be illustrated by
means of the accompanying figures.
[Illustration: FIG 1]
[Illustration: FIG 2]
The heavy lines in Figure 1 on the opposite page show that the
sensory-motor arc is made through the cortex, and that the mind is,
therefore, conscious both of the sense stimulus and also of the
resulting action. Figure 2 shows the same arc through a lower centre, in
which case the mind is not directly attending to the impression or the
resulting action.
=Function of Consciousness.=--The facts set forth above serve further to
illustrate the purposeful character of consciousness as man interprets
and adjusts himself to his surroundings. So long, for instance, as the
individual walks onward without disturbance, his mind is free to dwell
upon other matters, cortical activity not being necessary to control the
process of walking. If, however, he steps upon anything which perhaps
threatens him with a fall, the rhythmic interplay between sensory and
motor activity going on in the lower centres is at once disturbed, and a
message is flashed along the sensory nerve to the higher, or cortical,
centres. This at once arouses consciousness, and the disturbing factor
becomes an object of attention. Consciousness thus appears as a means of
adaptation to the new and varying conditions with which the organism is
confronted.
CHARACTERISTICS OF NERVOUS MATTER
=A. Plasticity.=--One striking characteristic of nervous matter is its
plasticity. The nature of the connections within the nervous system have
already been referred to. Mention has also been made of the fact that
numerous connections are established within the nervous system as a
result of movements taking place within the organism during life. In
other words, the movements within the nervous system which accompany
stimulations and responses bring about changes in the structure of the
organism. The cause for these changes seems to be that the neurons which
chance to work together during any experience form connections with one
another by means of their outgrowing fibres. By this means, traces of
past experiences are in a sense stored up within the organism, and it is
for this reason that our experiences are said to be recorded within the
nervous system.
=B. Retentiveness.=--A second characteristic of nervous matter is its
retentive power. In other words, the modifications which accompany any
experience, besides taking on the permanent character referred to above,
pre-dispose the system to transmit impulses again through the same
centres. Moreover, with each repetition of the nervous activity, there
develops a still greater tendency for the movements to re-establish
themselves. This power possessed by nervous tissue to establish certain
modes of action carries with it also an increase in the ease and
accuracy with which the movements are performed. For example, the
impressions and impulses involved in the first attempts of the child to
control the clasping of an object, are performed with effort and in an
ineffective manner. The cause for this seems to be largely the absence
of proper connections between the centres involved, as referred to
above. This absence causes a certain resistance within the system to the
nervous movements. When, however, the various centres involved in the
movements establish the proper connections with one another, the act
will be performed in a much more effective and easy manner. From this
it is evident that the nervous system, as the result of former
experiences, always retains a certain potential, or power, to repeat the
act with greater ease, and thus improve conduct, or behaviour. This
property of nervous matter will hereafter be referred to as its power of
retention.
=C. Energy.=--Another quality of nervous matter is its energy. By this
is meant that the cells are endowed with a certain potential, or power,
which enables them to transmit impressions and impulses and overcome any
resistance offered. Different explanations are given as to the nature of
this energy, or force, with which nervous matter is endowed, but any
study of these theories is unnecessary here.
=D. Resistance.=--A fourth characteristic to be noted regarding nervous
matter is that a nervous impulse, or current, as it is transmitted
through the system, encounters _resistance_, or consumes an amount of
nervous energy. Moreover, when the nervous current, whether sensory or
motor, involves the establishment of new connections between cells, as
when one first learns combinations of numbers or the movements involved
in forming a new letter, a relatively greater amount of resistance is
met or, in other words, a greater amount of nervous energy is expended.
On the other hand, when an impulse has been transmitted a number of
times through a given arc, the resistance is greatly lessened, or less
energy is expended; as indicated by the ease with which an habitual act
is performed.
=Education and Nervous Energy.=--It is evident from the foregoing, that
the forming of new ideas or of new modes of action tends to use up a
large share of nervous energy. For this reason, the learning of new and
difficult things should not be undertaken when the body is in a tired
or exhausted condition; for the resistance which must be overcome, and
the changes which must take place in the nervous tissue during the
learning process, are not likely to be effectively accomplished under
such conditions. Moreover, the energy thus lost must be restored through
the blood, and therefore demands proper food, rest, and sleep on the
part of the individual. It should be noted further that nervous tissue
is more plastic during the early years of life. This renders it
imperative, therefore, that knowledge and skill should be gained, as far
as possible, during the plastic years. The person who wishes to become a
great violinist must acquire skill to finger and handle the bow early in
life. The person who desires to become a great linguist, if he allows
his early years to pass without acquiring the necessary skill, cannot
expect in middle life to train his vocal organs to articulate a number
of different languages.
=Cortical Habit.=--In the light of what has been seen regarding the
character and function of the nervous system, it will now be possible to
understand more fully two important forms of adjustment already referred
to. When nervous movements are transmitted to the cortex of the brain,
they not only awaken consciousness, or make the individual aware of
something, but the present impression also leaves certain permanent
effects in the nervous tissue of the cortex itself. Since, however,
cortical activity implies consciousness, the retention of such a
tendency within the cortical centres will imply, not an habitual act in
the ordinary sense, but a tendency on the part of a conscious experience
to repeat itself. This at once implies an ability to retain and recall
past experiences, or endows the individual with power of memory.
Cortical habit, therefore, or the establishment of permanent
connections within the cortical centres, with their accompanying dynamic
tendency to repeat themselves, will furnish the physiological conditions
for a revival of former experience in memory, or will enable the
individual to turn the past to the service of the present.
=Physical Habits.=--The basis for the formation of physical habits
appears also in this retentive power of nervous tissue. When the young
boy, for instance, first mounts his new bicycle, he is unable, except
with the most attentive effort and in a most laboured and awkward
manner, either to keep his feet on the pedals, or make the handle-bars
respond to the balancing of the wheel. In a short time, however, all
these movements take place in an effective and graceful manner without
any apparent attention being given to them. This efficiency is
conditioned by the fact that all these movements have become habitual,
or take place largely as reflex acts.
In school also, when the child learns to perform such an act as making
the figure 2, the same changes take place. Here an impression must first
proceed from the given copy to a sensory centre in the cortex. As yet,
however, there is no vital connection established between the sensory
centres and the motor centres which must direct the muscles in making
the movement. As the movement is attempted, however, faint connections
are set up between different centres. With each repetition the
connection is made stronger, and the formation of the figure rendered
less difficult. So long, however, as the connection is established
within the cortex, the movement will not take place except under
conscious direction. Ultimately, however, similar connections between
sensory and motor neurons may be established in lower centres, whereupon
the action will be performed as a reflex act, or without the
intervention of a directing act of consciousness. This evidently takes
place when a student, in working a problem, can form the figures, while
his consciousness is fully occupied with the thought phases of the
problem. Thus the neural condition of physical habit is the
establishment of easy passages between sensory and motor nerves in
centres lower than the cortex.
CHAPTER XXI
INSTINCT
=Definition of Instinct.=--In a foregoing section, it was seen that our
bodily movements divide into different classes according to their
source, or origin. Among them were noted certain inherited spontaneous,
but useful, complex movements which follow, in a more or less uniform
way, definite types of stimuli presented to the organism. Such an
inherited tendency on the part of an organism to react in an effective
manner, but without any definite purpose in view, whenever a particular
stimulus presents itself, is known as instinct, and the resulting action
is described as an instinctive act. As an example of purely instinctive
action may be taken the maternal instinct of insects whose larvæ require
live prey when they are born. To provide this the mother administers
sufficient poison to a spider or a caterpillar to stupefy it, and then
bears it to her nest. Placing the victim close to her eggs, she incloses
the two together, thus providing food for her future offspring. This
complex series of acts, so essential to the continuance of the species,
and seemingly so full of purpose, is nevertheless conducted throughout
without reference to past experience, and without any future end in
view. Instinct may, therefore, be defined as the ability of an organism
to react upon a particular situation so as to gain a desirable end, yet
without any purpose in view or any previous training.
=Characteristics of Instinct.=--An instinctive act, it may be noted, is
distinguished by certain well marked characteristics:
1. The action is not brought about by experience or guided by
intelligence, but is a direct reaction on the part of the organism to
definite stimulation.
2. Although not the result of reason, instinctive action is purposeful
to the extent that it shows a predisposition on the part of the organism
to react in an effective manner to a particular situation.
3. An instinctive movement is a response in which the whole organism is
concerned. It is the discomfort of the whole organism, for instance,
that causes the bird to migrate or the child to seek food. In this
respect it differs from a mere reflex action such as the winking of the
eye, breathing, coughing, etc., which involves only some particular part
of the organism.
4. Although not a consciously purposed action, instinct nevertheless
involves consciousness. In sucking, for instance, sensation accompanies
both the discomfort of the organism giving rise to the movements and
also the instinctive act itself. In this respect it differs from such
automatic actions as breathing, the circulation of the blood, and the
beating of the heart.
=Origin of Instinct.=--The various instinctive movements with which an
organism is endowed, not being a result of experience or education, a
question at once arises as to their source, or origin. Instinct has its
origin in the fact that certain movements which have proved beneficial
in the ancestral experience of the race have become established as
permanent modes of reaction, and are transmitted to each succeeding
generation. The explanation of this transmission of tendencies is, that
beneficial movements are retained as permanent modifications of the
nervous system of the animal, and are transmitted to the offspring as a
_reactive tendency_ toward definite stimuli. The partridge family, for
instance, has preserved its offspring from the attacks of foxes, dogs,
and other enemies only by the male taking flight and dragging itself
along the ground, thus attracting the enemy away from the direction of
the nest. The complex movements involved in such an act, becoming
established as permanent motor connections within the system, are
transmitted to the offspring as predispositions. Instinct would thus
seem a physiological habit, or hereditary tendency, within the nervous
system to react in a fixed manner under certain conditions. In many
respects, however, instincts seem to depend more largely upon bodily
development than upon nervous structure. While the babe will at first
instinctively suck; yet as soon as teeth appear, the sucking at once
gives way to the biting instinct. The sucking instinct then disappears
so completely that only a process of education will re-establish it
later. Birds also show no instinctive tendency to fly until their wings
are developed, while the young of even the fiercest animals will flee
from danger, until such time as their bodily organism is properly
developed for attack. From this it would seem that instinctive action
depends even more upon general bodily structure and development than
upon fixed co-ordinations within the nervous system.
HUMAN INSTINCTS
On account of the apparently intelligent character of human actions, it
is often stated that man is a creature largely devoid of instincts. The
fact is, however, that he is endowed with a large number of impulsive or
instinctive tendencies to act in definite ways, when in particular
situations. Man has a tendency, under the proper conditions, to be
fearful, bashful, angry, curious, sympathetic, grasping, etc. It is
only, moreover, because experience finally gives man ideas of these
instinctive movements, that they may in time be controlled by reason,
and developed into orderly habits.
=Classification of Human Instincts.=--Various attempts have been made to
classify human instincts. For educational purposes, perhaps the most
satisfactory method is that which classifies them according to their
relation to the direct welfare of the individual organism. Being
inherited tendencies on the part of the organism to react in definite
ways to definite stimuli, all instinctive acts should naturally tend to
promote the good of the particular individual. Different instincts will
be found to differ, however, in the degree in which they involve the
immediate good of the individual organism. On this basis the various
human instincts may be divided into the following classes:
1. _Individualistic Instincts._--Some instincts gain their significance
because they tend solely to meet the needs of the individual. Examples
of these would be the instincts involved in securing food, as biting,
chewing, carrying objects to the mouth; such instinctive expressions as
crying, smiling, and uttering articulate sounds; rhythmical bodily
movements; bodily expression of fear, etc.
2. _Racial Instincts._--These include such instinctive acts as make for
the preservation of the species, as the sexual and parental instincts,
jealousy, etc. The constructive instinct in man, also, may be considered
parallel to the nesting instinct in birds and animals.
3. _Social Instincts._--Among these are placed such instinctive
tendencies as bashfulness, sympathy, the gregarious instinct, or love of
companionship, anger, self-assertion, combativeness, etc.
4. _Instincts of Adjustment._--Included among man's native tendencies
are a number of complex responses which manifest themselves in his
efforts to adjust himself to his surroundings. These may be called
instinctive so far as concerns their mere impulsive tendency, which is
no doubt inherited. In the operation of these so-called instincts,
however, there is not seen that definite mode of response to a
particular stimulus which is found in a pure instinct. Since, however,
these are important human tendencies, and since they deal specifically
with the child's attitude in adapting himself to his environment, they
rank from an educational standpoint among the most important of human
instincts. These include such tendencies as curiosity, imitation, play,
constructiveness and acquisitiveness.
=Human Instincts Modified by Experience.=--Although instinctive acts are
performed without forethought or conscious purpose, yet in man they may
be modified by experience. This is true to a degree even in the case of
the instincts of the lower animals. Young spiders, for instance,
construct their webs in a manner inferior to that of their elders. In
the case of birds, also, the first nest is usually inferior in structure
to those of later date. In certain cases, indeed, if accounts are to be
accepted, animals are able to vary considerably their instinctive
movements according to the particular conditions. It is reported that a
swallow had selected a place for her nest between two walls, the
surfaces of which were so smooth that she could find no foundation for
her nest. Thereupon she fixed a bit of clay to each wall, laid a piece
of light wood upon the clay supports, and with the stick as a foundation
proceeded to construct her nest. On the whole, however, there seems
little variation in animal instincts. The fish will come a second time
to take food off the hook, the moth will fly again into the flame, and
the spider will again and again build his web over the opening, only to
have it again and again torn away. But whatever may be the amount of
variation within the instincts of the lower animals, in the case of man
instinctive action is so modified by experience that his instincts soon
develop into personal habits. The reason for this is quite evident. As
previously pointed out, an instinctive act, though not originally
purposeful, is in man accompanied with a consciousness of both the
bodily discomfort and the resulting movements. Although, therefore, the
child instinctively sucks, grasps at objects, or is convulsed with fear,
these acts cannot take place without his gradually understanding their
significance as states of experience. In this way he soon learns that
the indiscriminate performance of an instinctive act may give quite
different results, some being much more valuable to the individual than
others. The young child, for instance, may instinctively bite whatever
enters his mouth, but the older child has learned that this is not
always desirable, and therefore exercises a voluntary control over the
movement.
=Instincts Differ in Value.=--The fact that man's instinctive tendencies
thus come within the range of experience, not only renders them amenable
to reason, but also leaves the question of their ultimate outcome
extremely indefinite. For this reason many instincts may appear in man
in forms that seem undesirable. The instinct to seek food is a natural
one, yet will be condemned when it causes the child to take fruit from
the neighbour's garden. In like manner, the instinct to know his
surroundings is natural to man, but will be condemned when it causes him
to place his ear to the keyhole. The tendency to imitate is not in
itself evil, yet the child must learn to weigh the value of what he
imitates. One important reason, therefore, why the teacher should
understand the native tendencies of the child is that he may direct
their development into moral habits and suppress any tendencies which
are socially undesirable.
=Education of Instincts.=--In dealing with the moral aspects of the
child's instinctive tendencies, the educator must bear in mind that one
tendency may come in conflict with another. The individualistic instinct
of feeding or ownership may conflict with the social instinct of
companionship; the instinct of egoism, with that of imitation; and the
instinct of fear, with that of curiosity. To establish satisfactory
moral habits on the basis of instinct, therefore, it is often possible
to proceed by a method of substitution. The child who shows a tendency
to destroy school furniture can best be cured by having constructive
exercises. The boy who shows a natural tendency to destroy animal life
may have the same arrested by being given the care of animals and thus
having his sympathy developed. In other cases, the removal of stimuli,
or conditions, for awaking the instinctive tendency will be found
effective in checking the development of an undesirable instinct into a
habit. The boy who shows a spirit of combativeness may be cured by
having a generous and congenial boy as his chum. The pupil whose social
tendencies are so strong that he cannot refrain from talking may be
cured by isolation.
=Instincts May Disappear.=--In dealing with the instinctive tendencies
of the child, it is important for the educator to remember that many of
these are transitory in character and, if not utilized at the proper
time, will perish for want of exercise. Even in the case of animals,
natural instincts will not develop unless the opportunity for exercise
is provided at the time. Birds shut up in a cage lose the instinct to
fly; while ducks, after being kept a certain time from water, will not
readily acquire the habit of swimming. In the same way, the child who
is not given opportunity to associate with others will likely grow up a
recluse. All work for a few years, and it will be impossible for Jack to
learn later how to play. The girl who during her childhood has no
opportunity to display any pride through neatness in dress will grow up
untidy and careless as to her personal appearance. In like manner, it is
only the child whose constructive tendency is early given an opportunity
to express itself who is likely to develop into an expert workman; while
one who has no opportunity to give expression to his æsthetic instinct
in early life will not later develop into an artist.
CURIOSITY
=Curiosity as Motive.=--An important bearing of instinct upon the work
of education is found in the fact that an instinctive tendency may add
much to the force of the motive, or end, in any educative process. This
is especially true in the case of such adaptive instincts as curiosity,
imitation, and play. Curiosity is the inquisitive attitude, or appetite,
of the mind which causes it to seek out what is strange in its
surroundings and make it an object of attention. As an instinctive
tendency, its significance consists in the fact that it leads the
individual to interpret his surroundings. A creature devoid of
curiosity, therefore, would not discover either the benefits to be
derived from his surroundings or the dangers to be avoided. In addition
to its direct practical value in leading the individual to study his
environment in order to meet actual needs, curiosity often seeks a more
theoretic end, appearing merely as a feeling of wonder or a thirst for
knowledge.
=Use and Abuse of Curiosity.=--While curiosity is needful for the
welfare of the individual, an inordinate development of this instinct is
both intellectually and morally undesirable. Since curiosity directs
attention to the novel in our surroundings, over-curiosity is likely to
keep the mind wandering from one novelty to another, and thus interfere
with the fixing of attention for a sufficient time to give definiteness
to particular impressions. The virtue of curiosity is, therefore, to
direct attention to the novel until it is made familiar. There is a type
of curiosity, however, which craves for mere astonishment and not for
understanding. It is such curiosity that causes children to pry into
other people's belongings, and men into other people's affairs.
=Sensuous and Apperceptive Curiosity.=--Curiosity may be considered of
two kinds also from the standpoint of its origin. In early life,
curiosity must rest largely upon sense perception, being essentially an
appetite of the senses to meet and interpret the objective surroundings.
A bright light, a loud noise, a moving object, at once awakens
curiosity. At this stage, curiosity serves as a counteracting influence
to the instinct of fear, the one leading the child to use his senses
upon his surroundings, and the other causing him to use them in a
careful and judicious manner. As the child grows in experience, however,
his curiosity limits itself more and more in accordance with the law of
apperception. Here the object attracts attention not merely because of
its sensuous properties, but because it suggests novel relations within
the elements of past experience. The young child's curiosity, for
instance, is aroused toward a strange plant simply because of its form
and colour, that of the student of botany, because the plant presents
features that do not relate themselves at once to his botanical
experience. The first curiosity may be called objective, or sensuous,
the second subjective, or apperceptive.
=Relation of Two Types.=--The distinction between sensuous and
apperceptive curiosity is, of course, one of degree rather than one of
kind. A novel object could not be an object of attention unless it bore
some relation to the present mental content. The young child, however,
seeks mainly to give meaning to novel sense impressions, and is not
attracted to the more hidden relations in which objects may stand one to
another. He is attracted, for instance, to the colour, scent, and
general form of the flower, rather than to its structure. On the other
hand, it is found that at a later stage curiosity is usually aroused
toward a novel problem, to the extent to which the problem finds a
setting in previous experience. This is seen in the fact that the young
child takes no interest in having lessons grow out of each other in a
connected manner, but must have his curiosity aroused to the present
situation through its own intrinsic appeal. For this reason, young
children are mainly interested in a lesson which deals with particular
elements in a concrete manner, such as coloured blocks, bright pictures,
and stories of action; while the older pupil seeks out the new problem
because it stands in definite relation to what is already known.
=Importance of Apperceptive Curiosity.=--Since curiosity depends upon
novelty, it is evident that sensuous should ultimately give place to
apperceptive curiosity. Although objects first impress the senses with a
degree of freshness and vigour, this freshness must disappear as the
novelty of the impression wears off. When sensuous curiosity thus
disappears, it is only by seeing in the world of sensuous objects other
relations with their larger meaning, that healthy curiosity is likely
to be maintained. Thus it is that the curiosity of the student is
attracted to the more hidden qualities of objects, to the tracing of
cause and effect, and to the discovery of scientific truth in general.
=Novelty versus Variety.=--While the familiar must lose something of its
freshness through its very familiarity, it is to be noted that to remit
any experience for a time will add something to the freshness of its
revival. Persons and places, for instance, when revisited after a period
of absence, gain something of the charm of novelty. Variety is,
therefore, a means by which the effect of curiosity may be sustained,
even after the original novelty has disappeared. This fact should be
especially remembered in dealing with the studies of young children.
Without being constantly fed upon the novel, the child may yet avoid
monotony by having a measure of variety within a reasonable number of
interests. It is in this way, in fact, that permanent centres of
interest can best be established. To keep a child's attention
continually upon one line of experiences would destroy both curiosity
and interest. To keep him ever attending to the novel would prevent the
building up of any centres of interest. By variety within a reasonable
number of subjects, both depth of interest and reasonable variety in
interests will be obtained. This is, therefore, another reason why the
school curriculum should show a reasonable number of subjects and
reasonable variety in the presentation of these subjects.
IMITATION
=Nature of Imitation.=--In our study of the nervous system, attention
was called to the close connection existing between sensory impulse and
action. It may be noted further that, whenever the young child gains an
idea of an action, he tends at once to express that idea in action. On
account of this immediate connection between thought and expression, due
to an inability to inhibit the motor discharge, a child, as soon as he
is able to form ideas of the acts of others, must necessarily show a
tendency to repeat, or reproduce, such acts. Granting that this
immediate connection between sensory impulse and motor response is an
inherited capacity, the tendency of the young child to imitate the acts
of others may be classified as an instinct.
=Imitation a Complex.=--On closer examination, however, it will be found
that imitation is really a complex of several tendencies. The nervous
organism of the healthy young child is usually supercharged with nervous
energy. This energy, like a swollen stream, seems ever striving to sweep
away any resistance to the motor discharge of sensory impulses, and must
necessarily reinforce the natural tendency to give immediate expression
to ideas of action. Moreover, the social instincts of the child, his
sympathy, etc., give him a special interest in human beings and in their
acts. These tendencies, therefore, focus his attention upon human
action, and cause his ideas of such acts to become more vivid and
interesting. For this reason, observation of human acts is more likely
to lead to motor expression. That the social instincts of the child
reinforce the tendency to imitate is indicated by the fact that his
early imitations are of human acts especially, as yawning, smiling,
crying, etc. The same is further evidenced in that, at a later stage,
when ordinary objects enter into his imitative acts, the imitation is
largely symbolic, and objects are endowed with living attributes. Here
blocks become men; sticks, horses, etc.
=Kinds of. A. Spontaneous Imitation.=--In its simplest form, imitation
seems to follow directly upon the perception of a given act. As the
child attends, now to the nod of the head, now to the shaking of the
rattle, now to an uttered sound, he spontaneously reproduces these
perceived acts. Because in such cases the imitative act follows directly
upon the perception of the copy, without the intervention of any
determination to imitate, it is termed spontaneous, or unconscious,
imitation. It is by spontaneous imitation that the child gains so much
knowledge of the world about him, and so much power over the movements
of his own body. The occupations and language of the home, the
operations of the workman, the movements and gestures of the older
children in their games, all these are spontaneously reproduced through
imitation. This enables the child to participate largely in the social
life about him. It is for this reason that he should observe only good
models of language and conduct during his early years.
=B. Symbolic Imitation.=--If we note the imitative acts of a child of
from four to six years of age, we may find that a new factor is often
entering into the process. At this stage the child, instead of merely
copying the acts of others, further clothes objects and persons with
fancied attributes through a process of imagination. By this means, the
little child becomes a mother and the doll a baby; one boy becomes a
teacher or captain, the others become pupils or soldiers. This form has
already been referred to as symbolic imitation. Frequent use is made of
this type of imitation in education, especially in the kindergarten.
Through the gifts, plays, etc., of the kindergarten, the child in
imagination exemplifies numberless relations and processes of the home
and community life. The educative value of this type consists in the
fact that the child, by acting out in a symbolic, or make-believe, way
valuable social processes, though doing them only in an imaginative way,
comes to know them better by the doing.
=C. Voluntary Imitation.=--As the child's increasing power of attention
gives him larger control of his experiences, he becomes able, not only
to distinguish between the idea of an action and its reproduction by
imitation, but also to associate some further end, or purpose, with the
imitative process. The little child imitates the language of his fellows
spontaneously; the mimic, for the purpose of bringing out certain
peculiarities in their speech. When first imitating his elder painting
with a brush, the child imitates merely in a spontaneous or unconscious
way the act of brushing. When later, however, he tries to secure the
delicate touch of his art teacher, he will imitate the teacher's
movements for the definite purpose of adding to his own skill. Because
in this type the imitator first conceives in idea the particular act to
be imitated, and then consciously strives to reproduce the act in like
manner, it is classified as conscious, or voluntary, imitation.
=Use of Voluntary Imitation.=--Teachers differ widely concerning the
educational value of voluntary imitation. It is evident, however, that
in certain cases, as learning correct forms of speech, in physical and
manual exercises, in conduct and manners, etc., good models for
imitation count for more than rules and precepts. On the other hand, to
endeavour to teach a child by imitation to read intelligently could only
result in failure. In such a case, the pupil, by attempting to analyse
out and set up as models the different features of the teachers reading,
would have his attention directed from the thought of the sentence. But
without grasping the meaning, the pupil cannot make his reading
intelligent. In like manner, to have a child learn a rule in arithmetic
by merely imitating the process from type examples worked by the
teacher, would be worse than useless, since it would prevent independent
thinking on the child's part. The purpose here is not to gain skill in a
mechanical process, but to gain knowledge of an intelligent principle.
PLAY
=Nature of Play Impulse.=--Another tendency of early childhood utilized
by the modern educator is the so-called instinct of play. According to
some, the impulse to play represents merely the tendency of the surplus
energy stored up within the nervous organism to express itself in
physical action. According to this view, play would represent, not any
inherited tendency, but a condition of the nervous organism. It is to be
noted, however, that this activity spends itself largely in what seems
instinctive tendencies. The boy, in playing hide-and-seek, in chasing,
and the like, seems to express the hunting and fleeing instincts of his
ancestors. Playing with the doll is evidently suggested and influenced
by the parental instinct, while in all games, the activity is evidently
determined largely by social instincts. Like imitation, therefore, play
seems a complex, involving a number of instinctive tendencies.
=Play versus Work.=--An essential characteristic of the play impulse is
its freedom. By this is meant that the acts are performed, not to gain
some further end, but merely for the sake of the activity itself. The
impulse to play, therefore, must find its initiative within the child,
and must give expression merely to some inner tendency. So long, for
example, as the boy shovels the sand or piles the stones merely to
exercise his physical powers, or to satisfy an inner tendency to
imitate the actions of others, the operation is one of play. When, on
the other hand, these acts are performed in order to clean up the yard,
or because they have been ordered to be done by a parent, the process is
one of work, for the impulse to act now lies in something outside the
act itself. To compel a child to play, therefore, would be to compel him
to work.
=Value of Play: A. Physical.=--Play is one of the most effective means
for promoting the physical development of the child. This result follows
naturally from the free character of the play activity. Since the
impulse to act is found in the activity itself, the child always has a
strong motive for carrying on the activity. On the other hand, when
somewhat similar activities are carried on as a task set by others, the
end is too remote from the child's present interests and tendencies to
supply him with an immediate motive for the activity. Play, therefore,
causes the young child to express himself physically to a degree that
tasks set by others can never do, and thus aids him largely in securing
control of bodily movements.
=B. Intellectual and Moral.=--In play, however, the child not only
secures physical development and a control of bodily movements, but also
exercises and develops other tendencies and powers. Many plays and
games, for instance, involve the use of the senses. Whether the young
child is shaking his rattle, rolling the ball, pounding with the spoon,
piling up blocks and knocking them over, or playing his regular guessing
games in the kindergarten, he is constantly stimulating his senses, and
giving his sensory nerves their needed development. As imitation and
imagination, by their co-operation, later enable the child to symbolize
his play, such games as keeping store, playing carpenter, farmer, baker,
etc., both enlarge the child's knowledge of his surroundings, and also
awaken his interest and sympathy toward these occupations. Other games,
such as beans-in-the-bag, involve counting, and thus furnish the child
incidental lessons in number under most interesting conditions. In games
involving co-operation and competition, as the bowing game, the
windmill, fill the gap, chase ball in ring, etc., the social tendencies
of the child are developed, and such individual instincts as rivalry,
emulation, and combativeness are brought under proper control.
PLAY IN EDUCATION
=Assigning Play.=--In adapting play to the formal education of the
child, a difficulty seems at once to present itself. If the teacher
endeavours to provide the child with games that possess an educative
value, physical, intellectual, or moral, how can she give such games to
the children, and at the same time avoid setting the game as a task?
That such a result might follow is evident from our ordinary observation
of young children. To the boy interested in a game of ball, the request
to come and join his sister in playing housekeeping would, more than
likely, be positive drudgery. May it not follow therefore, that a trade
or guessing game given by the kindergarten director will fail to call
forth the free activity of the child? One of the arguments of the
advocates of the Montessori Method in favour of that system is, that the
specially prepared apparatus of that system is itself suggestive of play
exercises; and that, by having access to the apparatus, the child may
choose the particular exercise which appeals to his free activity at the
moment. This supposed superiority of the Montessori apparatus over the
kindergarten games is, however, more apparent than real. What the
skilful kindergarten teacher does is, through her knowledge of the
interests and tendencies of the children, to suggest games that will be
likely to appeal to their free activity, and at the same time have
educative value along physical, intellectual, and moral lines. In this
way, she does no more than children do among themselves, when one
suggests a suitable game to his companions. In such a case, no one would
argue, surely, that the leader is the only child to show free activity
in the play.
=Stages in Play.=--In the selecting of games, plays, etc., it is to be
noted that these may be divided into at least three classes, according
as they appeal to children at different ages. The very young child
prefers merely to play with somewhat simple objects that can make an
appeal to his senses, as the rattle, the doll, the pail and shovel,
hammer, crayon, etc. This preference depends, on the one hand, upon his
early individualistic nature, which would object to share the play with
another; and, on the other hand, upon the natural hunger of his senses
for varied stimulations. At about five years of age, owing to the growth
of the child's imagination, symbolism begins to enter largely into his
games. At this age the children love to play church, school, soldier,
scavenger man, hen and chickens, keeping store, etc. At from ten to
twelve years of age, co-operative and competitive games are preferred;
and with boys, those games especially which demand an amount of strength
and skill. This preference is to be accounted for through the marked
development of the social instincts at this age and, in the case of
boys, through increase in strength and will power.
=Limitations of Play.=--Notwithstanding the value of play as an agent in
education, it is evident that its application in the school-room is
limited. Social efficiency demands that the child shall learn to
appreciate the joy of work even more than the joy of play. Moreover, as
noted in the early part of our work, the acquisition of race experience
demands that its problems be presented to the child in definite and
logical order. This can be accomplished only by having them presented to
the pupil by an educative agent and therefore set as a problem or a task
to be mastered. This, of course, does not deny that the teacher should
strive to have the pupil express himself as freely as possible as he
works at his school problem. It does necessitate, however, that the
child should find in his lesson some conscious end, or aim, to be
reached beyond the mere activity of the learning process. This in itself
stamps the ordinary learning process of the school as more than mere
play.
CHAPTER XXII
HABIT
=Nature of Habit.=--When an action, whether performed under the full
direction, or control, of attention and with a sense of effort, or
merely as an instinctive or impulsive act, comes by repetition to be
performed with such ease that consciousness may be largely diverted from
the act itself and given to other matters, the action is said to have
become habitual. For example, if a person attempts a new manner of
putting on a tie, it is first necessary for him to stand before a glass
and follow attentively every movement. In a short time, however, he
finds himself able to perform the act easily and skilfully both without
the use of a glass and almost without conscious direction. Moreover if
the person should chance in his first efforts to hold his arms and head
in a certain way in order to watch the process more easily in the glass,
it is found that when later he does the act even without the use of a
glass, he must still hold his arms and head in this manner.
=Basis of Habits.=--The ability of the organism to habituate an action,
or make it a reflex is found to depend upon certain properties of
nervous matter which have already been considered.
These facts are:
1. Nervous matter is composed of countless numbers of individual cells
brought into relation with one another through their outgoing fibres.
2. This tissue is so plastic that whenever it reacts upon an impression
a permanent modification is made in its structure.
3. Not only are such modifications retained permanently, but they give a
tendency to repeat the act in the same way; while every such repetition
makes the structural modification stronger, and this renders further
repetition of the act both easier and more effective.
4. The connections between the various nervous centres thus become so
permanent that the action may run its course with a minimum of
resistance within the nervous system.
5. In time the movements are so fixed within the system that connections
are formed between sensory and motor centres at points lower than the
cortex--that is, the stimulus and response become reflex.
=An Example.=--When a child strives to acquire the movements necessary
in making a new capital letter, his eye receives an impression of the
letter which passes along the sensory system to the cortex and, usually
with much effort, finds an outlet in a motor attempt to form the letter.
Thus a permanent trace, or course, is established in the nervous system,
which will be somewhat more easily taken on a future occasion. After a
number of repetitions, the child, by giving his attention fully to the
act, is able to form the letter with relative ease. As these movements
are repeated, however, the nervous system, as already noted, may shorten
the circuit between the point of sensory impression and motor discharge
by establishing associations in centres lower than those situated in the
cortex. Whenever any act is repeated a great number of times, therefore,
these lower associations are established with a resulting diminution of
the impression upward through the cortex of the brain. This results also
in a lessening of the amount of attention given the movement, until
finally the act can be performed in a perfectly regular way with
practically no conscious, or attentive, effort.
=Habit and Consciousness.=--While saying that such habitual action may
be performed with facility in the absence of conscious direction, it
must not be understood that conscious attention is necessarily entirely
absent during the performance of an habitual act. In many of these acts,
as for instance, lacing and tieing a shoe, signing one's name, etc.,
conscious effort usually gives the first impulse to perform the act.
There may be cases, however, in which one finds himself engaged in some
customary act without any seeming initial conscious suggestion. This
would be noted, for instance, where a person starts for the customary
clothes closet, perhaps to obtain something from a pocket, and suddenly
finds himself hanging on a hook the coat he has unconsciously removed
from his shoulders. Here the initial movement for removing the coat may
have been suggested by the sight of the customary closet, or by the
movement involved in opening the closet door, these impressions being
closely co-ordinated through past experiences with those of removing the
coat. When, also, a woman is sewing or kneading bread, although she
seems to be able to give her attention fully to the conversation in
which she may be engaged, yet no doubt a slight trace of conscious
control is still exercised over the other movements. This is seen in the
fact that, whenever the conversation becomes so absorbing that it takes
a very strong hold on the attention, the habitual movements may cease
without the person being at first aware that she has ceased working.
=Habit and Nervous Action.=--The general flow of the nervous energy
during such processes as the above, in which there is an interchange
between conscious and habitual control, may be illustrated by the
following figures. In these figures the heavy lines indicate the process
actually going on, while the broken lines indicate that although such
nerve courses are established, they are not being brought into active
operation in the particular case.
[Illustration: FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3
A. Sensory Stimulus
B. Lower Sensory Centre
C. Higher Sensory Centre
A' Higher Motor Centre
B' Lower Motor Centre
C' Motor Response]
The arrows in Figure 1 indicate the course of sensory stimulation and
motor response during the first efforts to acquire skill in any
movement. No connections are yet set up between lower centres and the
acts are under conscious control.
The arrows in Figure 2 indicate the course of sensory stimulus and motor
response in an ordinary habitual act, as when an expert fingers the
piano keys or controls a bicycle while his mind is occupied with other
matters.
The arrows in Figure 3 indicate how, even in performing what is
ordinarily an habitual act, the mind may at any time assume control of
the movement. This is illustrated in the case of a person who, when
unconsciously directing his bicycle along the road, comes to a narrow
plank over a culvert. Hereupon full attention may be given to the
movements, that is, the acts may come under conscious control.
FORMATION OF HABITS
It is evident from the nature of the structure and properties of the
nervous system, that man cannot possibly avoid the formation of habits.
Any act once performed will not only leave an indelible trace within the
nervous system, but will also set up in the system a tendency to repeat
the act. It is this fact that always makes the first false step
exceedingly dangerous. Moreover, every repetition further breaks down
the present resistance and, therefore, in a sense further enslaves the
individual to that mode of action. The word poorly articulated for the
first time, the letter incorrectly formed, the impatient shrug of the
shoulder--these set up their various tracks, create a tendency, and
soon, through the establishment of lower connections, become unconscious
habits. Thus it is that every one soon becomes a bundle of habits.
=Precautions to be Taken.=--A most important problem in relation to the
life of the young child is that he should at the outset form right
habits. This includes not only doing the right thing, but also doing it
in the right way. For this he must have the right impression, make the
right response, and continue this response until the proper paths are
established in the nervous system, or, in other words, until practically
all resistance within the system is overcome. It is here that teachers
are often very lax in dealing with the pupil in his various forms of
expressive work. They may indeed give the child the proper impression,
for example, the correct form of the letter, the correct pronunciation
of the new word, the correct position for the pen and the body, but too
often they do not exercise the vigilance necessary to have the first
responses develop into well-fixed habits. But it must be remembered that
the child's first response is necessarily crude; for as already seen,
there is always at first a certain resistance to the co-ordinated
movements, on account of the tracks within the nervous system not yet
being surely established. The result is that during the time this
resistance is being overcome, there is constant danger of variations
creeping into the child's responses. Unless, therefore, he is constantly
watched during this practice period, his response may fall much below
the model, or standard, set by the teacher. Take, for instance, the
child's mode of forming a letter. At the outset he is given the correct
forms for _g_ and _m_, but on account of the resistance met in
performing these movements he may, if left without proper supervision,
soon fall into such movements as [symbol] and [symbol]. The chief value
of the Montessori sandpaper letters consists in the fact that they
enable the child to continue a correct movement without variation until
all resistance within the nervous organism has been overcome. Two facts
should, therefore, be kept prominently in view by the teacher concerning
the child's efforts to secure skill. First, the learner's early attempts
must be necessarily crude, both through the resistance at first offered
by the nervous system on account of the proper paths not being laid in
the system, and also through the image of the movement not being clearly
conceived. Secondly, there is constant danger of variations from the
proper standard establishing themselves during this period of
resistance.
VALUE OF HABITS
=Habits Promote Efficiency.=--But notwithstanding the dangers which seem
to attend the formation of habits, it is only through this inevitable
reduction of his more customary acts to unconscious habit that man
attains to proficiency. Only by relieving conscious attention from the
ordinary mechanical processes in any occupation, is the artist able to
attend to the special features of the work. Unless, for instance, the
scholar possesses as an unconscious habit the ability to hold the pen
and form and join the various letters, he could never devote his
attention to evolving the thoughts composing his essay. In like manner,
without an habitual control of the chisel, the carver could not possibly
give an absorbing attention to the delicate outlines of the particular
model. It is only because the rider has habituated himself to the
control of the handles, etc., that he can give his attention to the
street traffic before him and guide the bicycle or automobile through
the ever varying passages. The first condition of efficiency, therefore,
in any pursuit, is to reduce any general movements involved in the
process to unconscious habits, and thus leave the conscious judgment
free to deal with the changeable features of the work.
=Habit Conserves Energy.=--Another advantage of habit is that it adds to
the individual's capacity for work. When any movements are novel and
require our full attention, a greater nervous resistance is met on
account of the laying down of new paths in the nerve centres. Moreover
longer nervous currents are produced through the cortex of the brain,
because conscious attention is being called into play. These conditions
necessarily consume a greater amount of nerve energy. The result is that
man is able to continue for a longer time with less nervous exhaustion
any series of activities after they have developed into habits. This can
be seen by noting the ease with which one can perform any physical
exercise after habituating himself to the movements, compared with the
evident strain experienced when the exercise is first undertaken.
=Makes the Disagreeable Easy.=--Another, though more incidental,
advantage of the formation of habits, is that occupations in themselves
uninteresting or even distasteful may, through habit, be performed at
least without mental revulsion. This results largely from the fact that
the growth of habit decreases the resistance, and thus lessens or
destroys the disagreeable feeling. Moreover, when such acts are reduced
to mechanical habits, the mind is largely free to consider other things.
In this way the individual, even in the midst of his drudgery, may enjoy
the pleasures of memory or imagination. Although, therefore, in going
through some customary act, one may still dislike the occupation, the
fact that he can do much of it habitually, leaves him free to enjoy a
certain amount of mental pleasure in other ways.
=Aids Morality.=--The formation of habits also has an important bearing
on the moral life. By habituating ourselves to right forms of action, we
no doubt make in a sense moral machines of ourselves, since the right
action is the one that will meet the least nervous resistance, while the
doing of the wrong action would necessitate the establishing of new
co-ordinations in the nervous system. It is no doubt partly owing to
this, that one whose habits are formed can so easily resist temptations;
for to ask him to act other than in the old way is to ask him to make,
not the easy, but the hard reaction. While this is true, however, it
must not be supposed that in such cases the choice of the right thing
involves only a question of customary nervous reaction. When we choose
to do our duty, we make a conscious choice, and although earlier right
action has set up certain nerve co-ordinations which render it now easy
to choose the right, yet it must be remembered that _conscious judgment_
is also involved. In such cases man does the right mainly because his
judgment tells him that it is right. If, therefore, he is in a situation
where he must act in a totally different way from what is customary, as
when a quiet, peace-loving man sees a ruffian assaulting a helpless
person, a moral man does not hesitate to change his habitual modes of
physical action.
IMPROVEMENT OF HABITUAL REACTIONS
=To Eliminate a Habit.=--From what has been learned concerning the
permanency of our habits, it is evident that only special effort will
enable us to make any change in an habitual mode of reaction. In at
least two cases, however, changes may be necessary. The fact that many
of our early habits are formed either unconsciously, or in ignorance of
their evil character, finds us, perhaps, as we come to years of
discretion, in possession of certain habits from which we would gladly
be freed. Such habits may range from relatively unimportant personal
peculiarities to impolite and even immoral modes of conduct. In
attempting to free ourselves from such acts, we must bear in mind what
has been noted concerning the basis of retention. To repeat an act at
frequent intervals is an important condition of retaining it as a habit.
On the other hand, the absence of such repetition is almost sure, in due
time, to obliterate the nervous tendency to repeat the act. To free
one's self from an undesirable habit, therefore, the great essential is
to avoid resolutely, for a reasonable time, any recurrence of the banned
habit. While this can be accomplished only by conscious effort and
watchfulness, yet each day passed without the repetition of the act
weakens by so much the old nerve co-ordinations. To attempt to break an
old habit, gradually, however, as some would prefer, can result only in
still keeping the habitual tendency relatively strong.
=To Modify a Habit.=--At other times, however, we may desire not to
eliminate an habitual co-ordination _in toto_, but rather to modify only
certain phases of the reaction. In writing, for instance, a pupil may be
holding his pen correctly and also using the proper muscular movements,
but may have developed a habit of forming certain letters incorrectly,
as [symbol] and [symbol]. In any attempt to correct such forms, a
special difficulty is met in the fact that the incorrect movements are
now closely co-ordinated with a number of correct movements, which must
necessarily be retained while the other portions of the process are
being modified. To effect such a modification, it is necessary for
attention to focus itself upon the incorrect elements, and form a clear
idea of the changes desired. With this idea as a conscious aim, the
pupil must have abundant practice in writing the new forms, and avoid
any recurrence of the old incorrect movements. This fact emphasizes the
importance of attending to the beginning of any habit. In teaching
writing, for instance, the teacher might first give attention only to
the form of the letter and then later seek to have the child acquire the
muscular movement. In the meantime, however, the child, while learning
to form the letters, may have been allowed to acquire the finger
movement, and to break this habit both teacher and pupil find much
difficulty. By limiting the child to the use of a black-board or a large
pencil and tablet, and having him make only relatively large letters
while he is learning to form them, the teacher could have the pupil
avoid this early formation of the habit of writing with the finger
movement.
=Limitations of Habit.=--From what has here been learned concerning the
formation of physical habits, it becomes evident that there are
limitations to these as forms of reaction. Since any habit is largely
an unconscious reaction to a particular situation, its value will be
conditional upon the nature of the circumstances which call forth the
reaction. These circumstances must occur quite often under almost
identical conditions, otherwise the habit can have no value in directing
our social conduct. On the contrary, it may seriously interfere with
successful effort. For the player to habituate his hands to fingering
the violin is very important, because this is a case where such constant
conditions are to be met. For a salesman to habituate himself to one
mode of presenting goods to his customers would be fatal, since both the
character and the needs of the customers are so varied that no permanent
form of approach could be effective in all cases. To habituate ourselves
to some narrow automatic line of action and follow it even under varying
circumstances, therefore, might prevent the mind from properly weighing
these varying conditions, and thus deaden initiative. It is for this
reason that experience is so valuable in directing life action. By the
use of past experience, the mind is able to analyse each situation
calling for reaction and, by noting any unusual circumstances it
presents, may adapt even our habitual reactions to the particular
conditions.
The relation of habit to interest and attention is treated in Chapter
XXIV.
CHAPTER XXIII
ATTENTION
=Nature of Attention.=--In our study of the principles of general
method, it was noted that the mind is able to set up and hold before
itself as a problem any partially realized experience. From what has
been said concerning nervous stimulation and the passing inward of
sensuous impression, it might be thought that the mind is for the most
part a somewhat passive recipient of conscious states as they chance to
arise through the stimulations of the particular moment. Further
consideration will show, however, that, at least after very early
childhood, the mind usually exercises a strong selective control over
what shall occupy consciousness at any particular time. In the case of a
student striving to unravel the mazes of his mathematical problem,
countless impressions of sight, sound, touch, etc., may be stimulating
him from all sides, yet he refuses in a sense to attend to any of them.
The singing of the maid, the chilliness of the room as the fire dies
out, even the pain in the limb, all fail to make themselves known in
consciousness, until such time as the successful solution causes the
person to direct his attention from the work in hand. In like manner,
the traveller at the busy station, when intent upon catching his train,
is perhaps totally unconscious of the impressions being received from
the passing throngs, the calling newsboys, the shunting engines, and the
malodorous cattle cars. This ability of the mind to focus itself upon
certain experiences to the exclusion of other possible experiences is
known as _attention_.
=Degree of Attention.=--Mention has already been made of states of
consciousness in which the mind seems in a passive state of reverie.
Although the mind, even in such sub-conscious states, would seem to
exercise some slight attention, it is yet evident that it does not
exercise a definite selective control during such passive states of
consciousness. Attention proper, on the other hand, may be described as
a state in which the mind focuses itself upon some particular
impression, and thus makes it stand out more clearly in consciousness as
a definite experience. From this standpoint it may be assumed that, in a
state of waking reverie, the attention is so scattered that no
impression is made to stand out clearly in consciousness. On the other
hand, as soon as the mind focuses itself on a certain impression, for
example, the report of a gun, the relation of two angles, or the image
of a centaur, this stands out so clearly that it occupies the whole
foreground of consciousness, while all other impressions hide themselves
in the background. This single focal state of consciousness is,
therefore, pre-eminently a state of attention while the former state of
reverie, on account of its diffuse character, may be said to be
relatively devoid of attention.
=Physical Illustrations of Attention.=--To furnish a physical
illustration of the working of attention, some writers describe the
stream of our conscious life as presenting a series of waves, the
successive waves representing the impressions or ideas upon which
attention is focused at successive moments. When attention is in a
diffuse state, consciousness is likened to a comparatively level stream.
The focusing of attention upon particular impressions and thus making
them stand out as distinct states of consciousness is said to break the
surface of the stream into waves. This may be illustrated as follows:
[Illustration: FIG. 1--Consciousness in a state of passive reverie.
FIG. 2--Active consciousness. Attention focussed on the
definite experiences _a, b, c, d, e, f, g_.]
By others, consciousness is described as a field of vision, in which the
centre of vision represents the focal point of attention. For instance,
if the student intent upon his problem in analysis does not notice the
flickering light, the playing of the piano, or the smell of the burning
meat breaking in upon him, it is because this problem occupies the
centre of the attentive field. The other impressions, on the contrary,
lie so far on the outside of the field that they fail to stand out in
consciousness. This may be represented by the following diagram:
[Illustration: P represents the problem on which attention is fixed. A,
B, C, D, E, represent impressions which, though stimulating the
organism, do not attract definite attention.]
It must be understood, however, that these are merely mechanical devices
to illustrate the fact that when the mind selects, or attends to, any
impression, this impression is made to stand out clearly as an object in
consciousness; or, in other words, the particular impression becomes a
clear-cut and definite experience.
[Illustration: Probable adjusting of nerve ends during active attention]
=Neural Basis of Attention.=--The neural conditions under which the mind
exercises such active attention seem to be that during the attentive
state the nervous energy concentrates itself upon the paths and centres
involved in the particular experience, the resistance being decreased in
the paths connecting the cells traversed by the impulse. Moreover, any
nervous energy tending to escape in other channels is checked and the
movements hindered, thus shutting off attention from other possible
experiences. For instance, a person with little interest in horticulture
might pass a flowering shrub, the colour, form, and scent making only a
faint impression upon him. If, however, his companion should say, "What
a lovely colour," his attention will direct itself to this quality, with
the result that the colour stands out much more clearly in
consciousness, and the other features practically escape his notice.
Here the suggestion of the companion focuses attention upon the colour,
this being accompanied with a lessening of the resistance between the
centres involved in interpreting the colour sensations. At the same time
resistance in the arcs involving form and smell is increased, and the
energy diverted from these arcs into that of colour.
ATTENTION SELECTIVE
=Attention and Interest.=--At this point a question naturally arises why
the mind, since it is continually subject to the influence of
impressions from without and of reviving ideas from within, should
select and focus attention upon certain of these to the exclusion of
others. The answer usually given is that the mind feels in each case, at
least vaguely, a personal interest in some change or adjustment to be
wrought either in or through the impression which it makes an object of
attention. When, for instance, the reader diverts his attention from the
interesting story to the loud talking outside the window, he evidently
desires to adjust his understanding more fully to the new and strange
impression. So, also, when the spectator rivets his attention upon the
flying ball, it is because he associates with this the interesting
possibility of a change in the score. In like manner, the student in
geometry fixes his attention upon the line joining the points of
bisection of the sides, because he desires to change his present mental
state of uncertainty as to its parallelism with the base into one of
certainty. He further fixes his attention upon the qualities of certain
bases and triangles, because through attending to these, he hopes to
gain the desired experience concerning the parallelism of the two
lines.
=Attention and the Question.=--The general conditions for determining
the course of attention will be further understood by a reference to two
facts already established in connection with general method. It has been
seen that the question and answer method is usually a successful mode of
conducting the learning process. The reason for this is that the
question is a most effective means of directing a selective act of
attention. For instance, in an elementary science lesson on the candle
flame, although the child, if left to himself, might observe the flame,
he would not, in all probability, notice particularly the luminous part.
Or again, if a dry glass is simply held over the flame and then removed
by the demonstrator, although the pupil may have watched the experiment
in a general way, it is doubtful whether he would notice particularly
the moisture deposited upon the glass. A question from the demonstrator,
however, awakens interest, causes the mind to focus in a special
direction, and banishes from consciousness features which might
otherwise occupy attention. This is because the question suggests a
problem, and thus awakens an expectant or unsatisfied state of mind,
which is likely to be satisfied only by attending to what the question
suggests as an object of attention.
=Attention and Motive.=--It has already been noted that any process of
learning is likely to be more effective when the child realizes a
distinct problem, or aim, in the lesson, or feels a need for going
through the learning process. The cause of this is that the aim, by
awaking curiosity, etc., is an effective means of securing attention.
When, for example, the pupil, in learning that 3 × 4 = 12, begins with
the problem of finding out how many threes are contained in his twelve
blocks, his curiosity can be satisfied only by grasping certain
significant relations. In approaching the lesson, therefore, with such
an actual problem before him, the child feels a desire to change, or
alter, his present mental relation to the problem. In other words, he
wishes to gain something involved in the problem which he does not now
know or is not yet able to do. His desire to bring about this change or
to reach this end not only holds his attention upon the problem, but
also adjusts it to whatever ideas are likely to assist in solving the
problem. When, therefore, pupils approach a lesson with an interesting
problem in mind, the teacher finds it much easier to centre their
attention upon those factors which make for the acquisition of the new
experience.
INVOLUNTARY ATTENTION
=Nature of Involuntary Attention.=--Attention is met in its simplest
form when the mind spontaneously focuses itself upon any strong stimulus
received through the senses, as a flashing light, a loud crash, a bitter
taste, or a violent pressure. As already noted, the significance of this
type of attention lies in the fact that the mind seeks to adjust itself
intelligently to a new condition in its surroundings which has been
suggested to it through the violent stimulus. The ability to attend to
such stimuli is evidently an inherited capacity, and is possessed by
animals as well as by children. It is also the only form of attention
exercised by very young children, and for some time the child seems to
have little choice but to attend to the ever varying stimuli, the
attention being drawn now to a bright light, now to a loud voice,
according to the violence of the impressions. On account of the apparent
lack of control over the direction of attention, this type is spoken of
as spontaneous, or involuntary, attention.
=Place and Value.=--It is only, however, during his very early years
that man lacks a reasonable control even over relatively strong
stimulations. As noted above, the mind acquires an ability to
concentrate itself upon a single problem in the midst of relatively
violent stimulations. Moreover, in the midst of various strong
stimulations, it is able to select the one which it desires, to the
exclusion of all others. At a relatively early age, for instance, the
youth is able, in his games, to focus his attention upon the ball, and
pays little attention to the shouts and movements of the spectators. On
the other hand, however, it is also true that man never loses this
characteristic of attending in an involuntary, or reflex, way to any
strong stimulus. Indeed, without the possession of this hereditary
tendency, it is hard to see how he could escape any dangers with which
his body might be threatened while his attention is strongly engaged an
another problem.
=Educational Precautions.=--That young children naturally tend to give
their attention to strong stimuli, is a matter of considerable moment to
the primary teacher. It is for this cause, among others, that reasonable
quiet and order should prevail in the class-room during the recitation.
When the pupil is endeavouring to fix his attention upon a selected
problem, say the relation of the square foot to the square yard, any
undue stimulation of his senses from the school-room environment could
not fail to distract his attention from the problem before him. For the
same reason, the external conditions should be such as are not likely to
furnish unusual stimulations, as will be the case if the class-room is
on a busy street and must be ventilated by means of open windows.
Finally, in the use of illustrative materials, the teacher should see
that the concrete matter will not stimulate the child unduly in ways
foreign to the lesson topic. For example, in teaching a nature lesson on
the crow, the teacher would find great difficulty in keeping the
children's attention on the various topics of the lesson, if he had
before the class a live crow that kept cawing throughout the whole
lesson period. Nor would it seem a very effective method of attracting
attention to the problem of a lesson, if the teacher were continually
shouting and waving his arms at the pupils.
NON-VOLUNTARY ATTENTION
=Nature of Non-voluntary Attention.=--On account of the part played by
interest in the focusing of attention, it is possible to distinguish a
second type of spontaneous attention in which the mind seems directly
attracted to an object of thought because of a natural satisfaction
gained from contemplating the subject. The lover, apparently without any
determination, and without any external stimulus to suggest the topic,
finds his attention ever centring itself upon the image of his fair
lady. The young lad, also, without any apparent cause, turns his
thoughts constantly to his favourite game. Here the impulse to attend is
evidently from within, rather than from without, and arises from the
interest that the mind has in the particular experience. This type of
attention is especially manifest when trains of ideas pass through the
mind without any apparent end in view, one idea suggesting another in
accordance with the prevailing mood. The mind, in a half passive state,
thinks of last evening, then of the house of a friend, then of the
persons met there, then of the game played, etc. In the same way the
attention of the student turns without effort to his favourite school
subject, and its various aspects may pass in view before him without
any effort or determination on his part. Because in this type of
attention the different thoughts stand out in consciousness without any
apparent choice, or selection, on the part of the mind, it is described
as non-voluntary attention.
VOLUNTARY ATTENTION
=Nature of Voluntary Attention.=--The most important form of attention,
however, is that in which the mind focuses itself upon an idea, not as a
result of outside stimulation, but with some further purpose in view.
For instance, when a person enters a room in which a strange object
seems to be giving out musical notes automatically, he may at first give
spontaneous attention to the sounds coming from the instrument. When,
however, he approaches the object later with a desire to discover the
nature of its mechanism, his attention is focused upon the object with a
more remote aim, or end, in view, to discover where the music comes
from. So also, when the lad mentioned in Chapter II fixed his attention
on the lost coin, he set this object before his attention with a further
end in view--how to regain it. Because the person here _determines_ to
attend to, or think about, a certain problem, in order that he may reach
a certain consciously set end, this form of attention is described as
voluntary, or active, attention.
=Near and Remote Ends.=--It is to be noted, however, that the
interesting end toward which the mind strives in voluntary attention may
be relatively near or remote. A child examining an automatic toy does it
for the sake of discovering what is in the toy itself; an adult in order
to see whether it is likely to interest his child. A student gives
attention to the problem of the length of the hypotenuse because he is
interested in the mathematical problem itself, the contractor because he
desires to know how much material will be necessary for the roof of the
building. One child may apply himself to mastering a reading lesson
because the subject itself is interesting to him, another because he
desires to take home a perfect report at the end of the week, and a
third because a sense of obligation tells him that teacher and parents
will expect him to study it.
=How we Attend to a Problem.=--Since voluntary attention implies mental
movement directed to the attainment of some end, the mind does not
simply keep itself focused on the particular problem. For instance, in
attempting to solve the problem that the exterior angle of a triangle
equals the sum of the two interior and opposite angles, no progress
toward the attainment of the end in view could be made by merely holding
before the mind the idea of their equality. It is, in fact, impossible
for the attention to be held for any length of time on a single topic.
This will be readily seen if one tries to hold his attention
continuously upon, say, the tip of a pencil. When this is attempted,
other ideas constantly crowd out the selected idea. The only sense,
therefore, in which one holds his attention upon the problem in an act
of voluntary attention is, that his attention passes forward and back
between the problem and ideas felt to be associated with it. Voluntary
attention is, therefore, a mental process in which the mind shifts from
one idea to another in attaining to a desired end, or problem. In this
shifting, or movement, of voluntary attention, however, two significant
features manifest themselves. First, in working forward and back from
the problem as a controlling centre, attention brings into consciousness
ideas more or less relevant to the problem. Secondly, it selects and
adjusts to the problem those that actually make for its solution, and
banishes from consciousness whatever is felt to be foreign to obtaining
the desired end.
=Example of Controlled Attention.=--To exemplify a process of voluntary
attention we may notice the action of the mind in solving such a problem
as:
Two trains started at the same moment from Toronto and Hamilton
respectively, one going at the rate of thirty miles an hour and the
other at the rate of forty miles an hour. Supposing the distance
between Toronto and Hamilton to be forty miles, in how many minutes
will the trains meet?
Here the pupil must first fix his attention upon the problem--the number
of minutes before the trains will meet. This at once forms both a centre
and a standard for measuring other related ideas. In this way his
attention passes to the respective rates of the two trains, thirty and
forty miles per hour. Then perhaps he fixes attention on the thought
that one goes a mile in two minutes and the other a mile in 1-1/2
minutes. But as he recognizes that this is leading him away from the
problem, resistance is offered to the flow of attention in this
direction, and he passes to the thought that in a _minute_ the former
goes 1/2 mile and the later 2/3 of a mile. From this he passes to the
thought that in one minute they together go 1-1/6 miles. Hereupon
perhaps the idea comes to his mind to see how many miles they would go
in an hour. This, however, is soon felt to be foreign to the problem,
and resistance being set up in this direction, the attention turns to
consider in what time the two together cover 40 miles. Now by dividing
40 miles by 1-1/6, he obtains the number 34-2/7 and is satisfied that
his answer is 34-2/7 minutes. The process by which the attention here
selected and adjusted the proper ideas to the problem might be
illustrated by the following Figure:
[Illustration]
Here "P" represents the problem; a, b, c, d, and e, ideas accepted as
relevant to the problem; and b', d' ideas suggested by b and d, but
rejected as not adjustable to the problem.
=Factors in Process.=--The above facts demonstrate, however, that the
mind can take this attitude toward any problem only if it has a certain
store of old knowledge relative to it. Two important conditions of
voluntary attention are therefore, first, that the mind should have the
necessary ideas, or knowledge, with which to attend and, secondly, that
it would select and adjust these to the purpose in view. Here the
intimate connection of voluntary attention to the normal learning
process is apparent. The step of preparation, for instance, is merely
putting the mind in the proper attitude to attend voluntarily to an end
in view, namely the lesson problem; while the so-called
analytic-synthetic process of learning involves the selecting and
adjusting movements of voluntary attention.
=Spontaneous and Voluntary Attention Distinguished.=--In describing
voluntary attention as an active form of attention, psychologists assume
that since the mind here wills, or resolves, to attend, in order to gain
a certain end in view; therefore voluntary attention must imply a much
greater degree of effort, or strain, than other types. That such is
always the case, however, is at times not very apparent. If one may
judge by the straining of eye or ear, the poise of the body, the holding
of the breath, etc., when a person gives involuntary attention to any
sudden impression, as a strange noise at night, it is evident that the
difference of effort, or strain, in attending to this and some selected
problem may not, during the time it continues, be very marked.
It is of course true that in voluntary attention the mind must choose
its own object of attention as an end, or aim, while in the involuntary
type the problem seems thrust upon us. This certainly does imply a
deliberate choice in the former, and to that extent may be said to
involve an effort not found in the latter. In like manner, when seeking
to attain the end which has been set up, the mind must select the
related ideas which will solve its problem. This in turn may demand the
grasping of a number of complex relations. To say, however, that all
striving to attain an end is lacking in a case of involuntary attention
would evidently be fallacious. When the mind is startled by a strange
noise, the mind evidently does go out, though in a less formal way, to
interpret a problem involuntarily thrust upon it. When, for instance, we
receive the violent impression, the mind may be said to ask itself,
"What strange impression is this?" and to that extent, even here, faces
a selected problem. The distinguishing feature of voluntary attention,
therefore, is the presence of a consciously conceived end, or aim, upon
which the mind deliberately sets its attention as something to be
thought _about_.
ATTENTION IN EDUCATION
=Voluntary Attention and Learning.=--From what has been seen, it is
evident that, when a pupil in his school approaches any particular
problem, the learning process will represent a process of voluntary
attention. This form of attention is, therefore, one of special
significance to the teacher, since a knowledge of the process will cast
additional light upon the learning process. The first condition of
voluntary attention is the power to select some idea as an end, or
problem, for attention. It was seen, however, that the focusing of
attention upon any problem depends upon some form of desirable change to
be effected in and through the set problem. For instance, unless the
recovery of the coin is conceived as producing a desirable change, it
would not become a deliberately set problem for attention. It is
essential, therefore, that the end which the child is to choose as an
object of attention should be one conceived as demanding a desired
change, or adjustment. For instance, to ask a child to focus his
attention upon two pieces of wood merely as pieces of wood is not likely
to call forth an active effort of attention. To direct his attention to
them to find out how many times the one is contained in the other, on
the other hand, focuses his attention more strongly upon them; since the
end to be reached will awaken his curiosity and set an interesting
problem.
=Non-voluntary Attention in Education.=--On account of the ease with
which attention seems to centre itself upon its object in non-voluntary
attention, it is sometimes erroneously claimed that this is the type of
attention to be aimed at in the educative process, especially with young
children. Such a view is, however, a fallacious one, and results from a
false notion of the real character of both non-voluntary and voluntary
attention. In a clear example of non-voluntary attention, the mind
dwells upon the ideas merely on account of their inherent
attractiveness, and passes from one idea to its associated idea without
any purposeful end in view. This at once shows its ineffectiveness as a
process of learning. When the young lover's thoughts revert in a
non-voluntary way to the fair one, he perhaps passes into a state of
mere reminiscence, or at best of idle fancy. Even the student whose
thoughts run on in a purposeless manner over his favourite subject, will
merely revive old associations, or at best make a chance discovery of
some new knowledge. In the same way, the child who delights in musical
sounds may be satisfied to drum the piano by the hour, but this is
likely to give little real advance, unless definite problems are set up
and their attainment striven for in a purposeful way.
=Voluntary Attention and Interest.=--A corollary of the fallacy
mentioned above is the assumption that voluntary attention necessarily
implies some conflict with the mind's present desire or interest. It is
sometimes said, for instance, that in voluntary attention, we compel our
mind to attend, while our interest would naturally direct our attention
elsewhere. But without a desire to effect some change in or through the
problem being attended to, the mind would not voluntarily make it an
object of attention. The misconception as to the relation of voluntary
attention to interest is seen in an illustration often given as an
example of non-voluntary attention. It is said, rightly enough, that if
a child is reading an interesting story, and is just at the point where
the plot is about to unravel itself, there will be difficulty in
diverting his attention to other matters. This, it is claimed, furnishes
a good example of the power of non-voluntary attention. But quite the
opposite may be the case. When called upon, say by his parent, to lay
aside the book and attend to some other problem, the child, it is true,
shows a desire to continue reading. But this may be because he has a
definite aim of his own in view--to find out the fate of his hero. This
is a strongly felt need on his part, and his mind refuses to be
satisfied until, by further attention to the problem before him, he has
attained to this end. The only element of truth in the illustration is
that the child's attention is strongly reinforced through the intense
feeling tone associated with the selected, or determined, aim--the fate
of his hero. The fact is, therefore, that a process of voluntary
attention may have associated with its problem as strong an interest as
is found in the non-voluntary type.
=Voluntary Attention Depends on Problem.=--It is evident from the
foregoing that the characteristic of voluntary attention is not the
absence or the presence of any special degree of interest, but rather
the conception of some end, or purpose, to be reached in and through the
attentive process. In other words, voluntary attention is a state of
mind in which the mental movements are not drifting without a chart, but
are seeking to reach a set haven. A person who is greatly interested in
automobiles, for instance, on seeing a new machine, may allow his
attention to run now to this part of the machine, now to that, as each
attracts him in turn. Here no fixed purpose is being served by the
attentive process, and attention may pass from part to part in a
non-voluntary way, the person's general interest in automobiles being
sufficient to keep the attention upon the subject. Suddenly, however, he
may notice something apparently new in the mechanism of the machine, and
a desire arises to understand its significance. This at once becomes an
end to which the mind desires to attain, and voluntary attention
proceeds to direct the mental movements toward its attainment. To
suppose, however, that the interest, manifest in the former mental
movements, is now absent, would evidently be fallacious. The difference
lies in this, that at first the attention seemed fixed on the object
through a general interest only, and drifted from point to point in a
purposeless way, while in the second case an interesting end, or
purpose, controlled the mental movements, and therefore made each
movement significant in relation to the whole conscious process.
=Attention and Knowledge.=--Mention has already been made of the
relation of attention to interest. It should be noted, further, that the
difference in our attention under different circumstances is largely
dependent upon our knowledge. The stonecutter, as he passes the fine
mansion, gives attention to the fretted cornice; the glazier, to the
beautiful windows; the gardener, to the well-kept lawn and beds. Even
the present content of the mind has its influence upon attention. The
student on his way to school, if busy with his spelling lesson, is
attracted to the words and letters on posters and signs. If he is
reviewing his botany, he notes especially the weeds along the walk; if
carrying to his art teacher, with a feeling of pride, the finished
landscape drawing, his attention goes out to the shade and colour of
field and sky. That such a connection must exist between knowledge and
attention is apparent from what has been already noted concerning the
working of the law of apperception.
=Physical Conditions of Attention.=--From what was learned above
regarding the relation of nervous energy to active attention, it is
evident that the ability to attend to a problem at any given time will
depend in part upon the physical condition of the organism. If,
therefore, the nervous energy is lowered through fatigue or sickness,
the attention will be weakened. For this reason the teaching of
subjects, such as arithmetic, grammar, etc., which present difficult
problems, and therefore make large demands upon the attention of the
scholars, should not be undertaken when the pupils' energy is likely to
be at a minimum. Similarly, unsatisfactory conditions in the
school-room, such as poor ventilation, uncomfortable seats, excessive
heat or cold, all tend to lower the nervous energy and thus prevent a
proper concentration of attention upon the regular school work.
=Precautions Relating to Voluntary Attention.=--Although voluntary
attention is evidently the form of attention possessing real educational
value, certain precautions would seem necessary concerning its use. With
very young children the aim for attending should evidently not be too
remote. In other words, the problem should involve matter in which the
children have a direct interest. For this reason it is sometimes said
that young children should set their own problems. This is of course a
paradox so far as the regular school work is concerned, though it does
apply to the pre-school period, and also justifies the claim that with
young children the lesson problem should be closely connected with some
vital interest. It would be useless, for instance, to try to interest
young children in the British North America Act by telling them that the
knowledge will be useful when they come to write on their entrance
examinations. The story of Sir Isaac Brock, on the other hand, wins
attention for itself through the child's patriotism and love of story.
Again, the problem demanding attention should not, in the case of young
children, be too long or complex. For example, a young child might
easily attend to the separate problems of finding out, (1) how many
marbles he must have to give four to James and three to William; (2) how
many times seven can be taken from twenty-eight; (3) how many marbles
James would have if he received four marbles four times; and (4) how
many James would have if he received three marbles three times. But if
given the problem "to divide twenty-eight marbles between James and
William, giving James four every time he gives William three," the
problem may be too complex for his present power of attention. A young
child has not the control over his knowledge necessary to continue any
long process of selecting attention. A relatively short period of
attention to any problem, therefore, exhausts the nervous energy in the
centres connected with a particular set of experiences. It is for this
reason that the lessons in primary classes should be short and varied.
One of the objections, therefore, to a narrow curriculum is that
attention would not obtain needed variety, and that a narrowness in
interest and application may result. On the other hand, it is well to
note that the child must in time learn to concentrate his attention for
longer periods and upon topics possessing only remote, or indirect,
interest.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE FEELING OF INTEREST
=Nature of Feeling.=--Feeling has already been described (Chapter XIX)
as the pleasurable or painful side of any state of consciousness. We
may recall how it was there found that any conscious state, or
experience, for instance, being conscious of the prick of a pin, of
success at an examination, or of the loss of a friend, is not merely a
state of knowledge, or awareness, but is also a state of feeling. It is
a state of feeling because it _affects_ us, that is, because being a
state of _our_ consciousness, it appeals to us pleasurably or painfully
in a way that it can to no one else.
=Neural Conditions of Feeling.=--It has been seen that every conscious
state, or experience, has its affective, or feeling, tone, and also that
every experience involves the transmission of nervous energy through a
number of connected brain cells. On this basis it is thought that the
feeling side of any conscious state is conditioned by the degree of the
resistance encountered as the nervous energy is transmitted. If the
centres involved in the experience are not yet properly organized, or if
the stimulation is strong, the resistance is greater and the feeling
more intense. A new movement of the limbs in physical training, for
example, may at first prove intensely painful, because the centres
involved in the exercise are not yet organized. So also, because a very
bright light stimulates the nerves violently, it causes a painful
feeling. That morphine deadens pain is to be explained on the
assumption that it decreases nervous energy, and thus lessens the
resistance being encountered between the nervous centres affected at the
time.
=Feeling and Habit.=--That the intensity of a feeling is conditioned by
the amount of the resistance seems evident, if we note the relation of
feeling to habit. The first time the nurse-in-training attends a wounded
patient, the experience is marked by intense feeling. After a number of
such experiences, however, this feeling becomes much less. In like
manner, the child who at first finds the physical exercise painful, as
he becomes accustomed to the movements, finds the pain becoming less and
less intense. In such cases it is evident that practice, by organizing
the centres involved in the experience, decreases the resistance between
them, and thus gradually decreases the intensity of the feeling. When
finally the act becomes habitual, the nervous impulse traverses only
lower centres, and therefore all feeling and indeed all consciousness
will disappear, as happens in the habitual movements of the limbs in
walking and of the arms during walking.
CLASSES OF FEELINGS
=Sensuous Feeling.=--As already noted, while feelings vary in intensity
according to the strength of the resistance, they also differ in kind
according to the arcs traversed by the impulse. Experiencing a burn on
the hand would involve nervous impulses, or currents, other than those
involved in hearing of the death of a friend. The one experience also
differs in feeling from the other. Our feeling states are thus able to
be divided into certain important classes with more or less distinct
characteristics for each. In one class are placed those feelings which
accompany sensory impulses. The sensations arising from the
stimulations of the sense organs, as a sweet or bitter taste, a strong
smell, the touch of a hot, sharp, rough, or smooth object, etc., all
present an affective, or feeling, side. So also feeling enters into the
general or organic sensations arising from the conditions of the bodily
organs; as breathing, the circulation of the blood, digestion, the
tension of the muscles, hunger, thirst, etc. The feeling which thus
enters as a factor into any sensation is known as sensuous feeling.
=Ideal Feeling.=--Other feelings enter into our ideas and thoughts. The
perception or imagination of an accident is accompanied with a painful
feeling, the memory or anticipation of success with a feeling of joy,
the thought of some particular person with a thrill of love. Such
feelings are known as ideal feelings. When a child tears his flesh on a
nail, he experiences sensuous feeling, when he shrinks away, as he
perceives the teeth of a snarling dog, he experiences an ideal feeling,
known as the emotion of fear.
=Interest.=--A third type of feeling especially accompanies an active
process of attention. In our study of attention, it was seen that any
process of attention is accompanied by a concentration of nervous energy
upon the paths or centres involved in the experience, thus organizing
the paths more completely and thereby decreasing the resistance. The
impulse to attend to any experience is, therefore, accompanied with a
desirable feeling, because a new adjustment between nerve centres is
taking place and resistance being overcome. This affective, or feeling,
tone which accompanies a process of attention is known as the feeling of
interest.
=Interest and Attention.=--In discussions upon educational method, it is
usually affirmed that the attention will focus upon a problem to the
extent to which the mind is interested. While this statement may be
accepted in ordinary language, it is not psychologically true that I
first become interested in a strange presentation, and then attend to it
afterwards. In such a case it is no more true to say that I attend
because I am interested, than to say that I am interested because I
attend. In other words, interest and attention are not successive but
simultaneous, or, as sometimes stated, they are back and front of the
same mental state. This becomes evident by noting the nervous conditions
which must accompany interest and attention. When one is attending to
any strange phenomenon, say a botanist to the structure of a rare plant,
it is evident that there are not only new groupings of ideas in the
mind, but also new adjustments being set up between the brain centres.
This implies in turn a lessening of resistance between the cells, and
therefore the presence of the feeling tone known as interest.
=Interest, Attention, and Habit.=--Since the impulse to attend to a
presentation is conditioned by a process of adjustment, or organization,
between brain centres, it is evident that, while the novel presentations
call forth interest and attention, repetition, by habituating the
nervous arcs, will tend to deaden interest and attention. For this
reason the story, first heard with interest and attention, becomes stale
by too much repetition. The new toy fails to interest the child after
the novelty has worn off. It must be noted, however, that while
repetition usually lessens interest, yet when any set of experiences are
repeated many times, instead of lessening interest the repetition may
develop a new interest known as the interest of custom. Thus it is that
by repeating the experience the man is finally compelled to visit his
club every evening, and the boy to play his favourite game every day.
This secondary interest of custom arises because repetition has finally
established such strong associations within the nervous system that they
now have become a part of our nature and are thus able to make a new
demand upon interest and attention.
INTEREST IN EDUCATION
=Uses of Term: A. Subjective; B. Objective.=--That the educator
describes interest as something that causes the mind to give attention
to what is before it, when in fact interest and attention are
psychologically merely two sides of a single process, is accounted for
by the fact that the term "interest" may be used with two quite
different meanings. Psychologically, interest is evidently a feeling
state, that is, it represents a phase of consciousness. My _interest_ in
football, for instance, represents the _feeling_ of worth which
accompanies attention to such experiences. In this sense interest and
attention are but two sides of the single experience, interest
representing the feeling, and attention the effort side of the
experience. As thus applied, the term interest is said to be used
subjectively. More, often, however, the term is applied rather to the
thing toward which the mind directs its attention, the object being said
to possess interest for the person. In this sense the rattle is said to
have interest for the babe; baseball, for the young boy; and the latest
fashions, for the young lady. Since the interest is here assumed to
reside in the object, it seems reasonable to say that our attention is
attracted through interest, that is, through an interesting
presentation. As thus applied, the term interest is said to be used
objectively.
=Types of Objective Interest.=--The interest which various objects and
occupations thus possess for the mind may be of two somewhat different
types. In some cases the object possesses a direct, or intrinsic,
interest for the mind. The young child, for instance, is spontaneously
attracted to bright colours, the boy to stories of adventure, and the
sentimental youth or maiden to the romance. In the case of any such
direct interests, however, the feeling with which the mind contemplates
the object may transfer itself at least partly to other objects
associated more or less closely with the direct object of interest. It
is thus that the child becomes interested in the cup from which his food
is taken, and the lover in the lap dog which his fair one fondles. As
opposed to the _direct interest_ which an object may have for the mind,
this transferred type is known as _indirect interest_.
=Importance of Transference of Interest.=--The ability of the mind thus
to transfer its interests to associated objects is often of great
pedagogical value. Abstract forms of knowledge become more interesting
to young children through being associated with something possessing
natural interest. A pupil who seems to take little interest in
arithmetic may take great delight in manual training. By associating
various mathematical problems with his constructive exercises, the
teacher can frequently cause the pupil to transfer in some degree his
primary interest in manual training to the associated work in
arithmetic. In the same way the child in the primary grade may take more
delight in the alphabet when he is able to make the letters in sand or
by stick-laying. It may be said, in fact, that much of man's effort is a
result of indirect interest. What is called doing a thing from a sense
of duty is often a case of applying ourselves to a certain thing because
we are interested in avoiding the disapproval of others. The child also
often applies himself to his tasks, not so much because he takes a
direct interest in them, but because he wishes to gain the approval and
avoid the censure of teacher and parents.
=Native and Acquired Interest.=--Interest may also be distinguished on
the basis of its origin. As noted above, certain impressions seem to
demand a spontaneous interest from the individual. For this cause the
child finds his attention going out immediately to bright colours, to
objects which give pleasure, such as candy, etc., or to that which
causes personal pain. On the other hand, objects and occupations which
at first seem devoid of interest may, after a certain amount of
experience has been gained, become important centres of interest. A
young child may at first show no interest in insects unless it be a
feeling of revulsion. Through the visit of an entomologist to his home,
however, he may gain some knowledge of insects. This knowledge, by
arousing an apperceptive tendency in the direction of insect study,
gradually develops in him a new interest which lasts throughout his
whole life. It is in this way that the various school subjects widen the
narrow interests of the child. By giving him an insight into various
phases of his social environment, the school curriculum awakens in him
different centres of interest, and thus causes him to become in the
truest sense a part of the social life about him. This fact is one of
the strongest arguments, also, against a narrow public school course of
study in a society which is itself a complex of diversified interests.
=Interest versus Interests.=--On account of the evident connection of
interest and attention, the teacher may easily err in dealing with the
young pupil. It is allowable, as pointed out above, that the teacher
should take advantage of any native interest to secure the attention
and effort of the child in his school work. This does not mean, however,
that children are to be given only problems in which they are naturally
interested. It must be remembered, as seen in a former paragraph, that,
according to the interest of custom, any line of school work, when
intelligently followed, may soon build up a centre of interest for
itself. For this reason a proper study of arithmetic should develop an
interest in arithmetic; a study of history, an interest in history; and
a study of geography, an interest in geography. The saying that school
work should follow a child's interest might, therefore, be better
expressed by saying that the child's interests should follow the school
work. It is only, in fact, as any one becomes directly interested in his
pursuits, that the highest achievement can be reached. It is not the
workman who is always looking forward to pay-day, who develops into an
artist, or the teacher who is waiting for the summer holiday, who is a
real inspiration to her pupils. In like manner, it is only as the child
forms centres of interest in connection with his school work, that his
life and character are likely to be affected permanently thereby.
=Development of Interests.=--The problem for the educator is, therefore,
not so much to follow the interest of the child, as it is to develop in
him permanent centres of interest. For this reason the following facts
concerning the origin and development of interests should be understood
by the practical educator. First among these is the fact that certain
instinctive tendencies of early childhood may be made a starting-point
for the development of permanent valuable interest. The young child has
a tendency to collect or an instinct of ownership, which may be taken
advantage of in directing him to make collections of insects, plants,
coins, stamps, and thus prove of permanent educative value. His
constructive tendencies, or desire to do with what comes into his hand,
as well as his imitative instincts, may be turned to account in building
up an interest in various occupations. His social instinct, also,
provides a means for developing permanent emotional interests as
sympathy, etc. In like manner, the character of the child's surroundings
tends to create in him various centres of interest. The young child, for
instance, who is surrounded with beautiful objects, is almost sure to
develop an interest in works of art, while the child who is early
provided with fable and story will develop an interest in history.
=When to Develop Interests.=--It is to be noted further concerning many
of these forms of interest, that youth is the special period for their
development. The child who does not, during his early years, have an
opportunity to develop his social tendencies, is not likely later in
life to acquire an interest in his fellow-men. In the same manner, if
youth is spent in surroundings void of æsthetic elements, manhood will
be lacking in artistic interests. It is in youth also that our
intellectual interests, such as love of reading, of the study of nature,
of mathematics, must be laid.
=Interests Must be Limited.=--While emphasizing the importance of
establishing a wide range of interests when educating a child, the
teacher must remember that there is danger in a child acquiring too wide
a range. This can result only in a dissipation of effort over many
fields. While this prevents narrowness of vision and gives versatility
of disposition, it may prevent the attainment of efficiency in any
department, and make of the youth the proverbial "Jack-of-all-trades."
A study of the feeling of interest has been made at this stage on
account of its close connection with the problem of attention, and in
fact with the whole learning process. An examination of the other
classes of feeling will be made at a later stage in the course.
CHAPTER XXV
SENSE PERCEPTION
=Sensation and Perception Distinguished.=--Sensation and perception are
two terms applied usually without much distinction of meaning to our
recognition of the world of objects. When, for instance, a man draws
near to a stove, he may say that it gives him a _sensation_ of heat, or
perhaps that he _perceives_ it to be hot. In psychology, however, the
term sensation has been used in two somewhat different meanings. By some
the term is used to signify a state of consciousness conditioned merely
upon the stimulation of a sense organ, as the eye, ear, etc., by its
appropriate stimulus. To others, however, sensation signifies rather a
mental image experienced by the mind as it reacts upon and interprets
any sensory impression. Perception, on the other hand, signifies the
recognition of an external object as presented to the mind here and now.
=Sensation Implies Externality.=--When, however, a sensory image, such
as smooth, yellow, cold, etc., arises in consciousness as a result of
the mind reacting when an external stimulus is applied to some sense
organ, it is evident that, at least after very early infancy, one never
has the image without at once referring it to some external cause. If,
for instance, a person is but half awake and receives a sound sensation,
he does not ask himself, "What mental state is _this_?" but rather,
"What is _that_?" This shows an evident tendency to refer our sensations
at once to an external cause, or indicates that our sensations always
carry with them an implicit reference to an external object. Leaving,
therefore, to the scientific psychologist to consider whether it is
possible to have a pure sensation, we shall treat sensation as the
recognition of a quality which is at least vaguely referred to an
external object. In other words, sensation is a medium by which we are
brought into relation with real things existing independently of our
sensations.
=Perception Involves Sensation Element.=--Moreover, an object is
perceived as present here and now only because it is revealed to us
through one or more of the senses. When, for instance, I reach out my
hand in the dark room and receive a sensation of touch, I perceive the
table as present before me. When I receive a sensation of sound as I
pass by the church, I perceive that the organ is being played. When I
receive a colour sensation from the store window, I say that I perceive
oranges. Perception, therefore, involves the referring of the sensuous
state, or image, to an external thing, while in adult life sensation is
never accepted by our attention as satisfactory unless it is referred to
something we regard as immediately presenting itself to us by means of
the sensation. It is on account of this evident interrelation of the two
that we speak of a process of sense perception.
=Perception an Acquired Power.=--On the other hand, however,
investigation will show that this power to recognize explicitly the
existence of an external object through the presentation of a sensation,
was not at first possessed by the mind. The ability thus to perceive
objects represents, therefore, an acquirement on the part of the
individual. If a person, although receiving merely sensations of colour
and light, is able to say, "Yonder is an orange," he is evidently
interpreting, or giving meaning to, the present sensations largely
through past experience; for the images of colour and light are
accepted by the mind as an indication of the presence of an external
thing from which could be derived other images of taste, smell, etc.,
all of which go to make up the idea "orange." An ordinary act of
perception, therefore, must involve not merely sensation, but also an
interpretation of sensation through past experience. It is, in fact,
because the recognition of an external object involves this conscious
interpretation of the sensuous impressions, that people often suffer
delusion. When the traveller passing by a lone graveyard interprets the
tall and slender shrub laden with white blossoms as a swaying ghost, the
misconception does not arise from any fault of mere vision, but from the
type of former knowledge which the other surroundings of the moment call
up, these evidently giving the mind a certain bias in its interpretation
of the sensuous, or colour, impressions.
=Perception in Adult Life.=--In our study of general method, sense
perception was referred to as the most common mode of acquiring
particular knowledge. A description of the development of this power to
perceive objects through the senses should, therefore, prove of
pedagogical value. But to understand how an individual acquires the
ability to perceive objects, it is well to notice first what takes place
in an ordinary adult act of perception, as for instance, when a man
receives and interprets a colour stimulus and says that he perceives an
orange. If we analyse the person's idea of an orange we find that it is
made up of a number of different quality images--colour, taste, smell,
touch, etc., organized into a single experience, or idea, and accepted
as a mental representation of an object existing in space. When,
therefore, the person referred to above says that he perceives an
orange, what really happens is that he accepts the immediate colour and
light sensation as a sign of the whole group of qualities which make up
his notion of the external object, orange, the other qualities essential
to the notion coming back from past experience to unite with the
presented qualities. Owing to this fact, any ordinary act of perception
is said to contain both presentative and representative elements. In the
above example, for instance, the colour would be spoken of as a
presentative element, because it is immediately presented to the mind in
sensuous terms, or through the senses. Anything beyond this which goes
to make up the individual's notion orange, and is revived from past
experience, is spoken of as representative. For the same reason, the
sensuous elements involved in an ordinary act of perception are often
spoken of as immediate, and the others as mediate elements of knowledge.
=Genesis of Perception.=--To trace the development of this ability to
mingle both presentative and representative elements of knowledge into a
mental representation, or idea, of an external object, it is necessary
to recall what has been noted regarding the relation of the nervous
system to our conscious acts. When the young child first comes in
contact with the world of strange objects with which he is surrounded,
the impressions he receives therefrom will not at first have either the
definite quality or the relation to an external thing which they later
secure. As a being, however, whose first tendencies are those of
movement, he grasps, bites, strokes, smells, etc., and thus goes out to
meet whatever his surroundings thrust upon him. Gradually he finds
himself expand to take in the existence of a something external to
himself, and is finally able, as the necessary paths are laid down in
his nervous system, to differentiate various quality images one from the
other; as, touch, weight, temperature, light, sound, etc. This will at
once involve, however, a corresponding relating, or synthetic, attitude
of mind, in which different quality images, when experienced together as
qualities of some vaguely felt thing, will be organized into a more or
less definite knowledge, or idea, of that object, as illustrated in the
figure below. As the child in time gains the ability to _attend_ to the
sensuous presentations which come to him, and to discriminate one
sensation from another, he discovers in the vaguely known thing the
images of touch, colour, taste, smell, etc., and finally associates them
into the idea of a better known object, orange.
[Illustration: A. Unknown thing. B. Sensory stimuli. C. Sensory images.
D. Idea of object.]
=Control of Sensory Image as Sign.=--Since the various sense impressions
are carried to the higher centres of the brain, they will not only be
interpreted as sensory images and organized into a knowledge of external
objects, but, owing to the retentive power of the nervous tissue, will
also be subject to recall. As the child thus gains more and more the
ability to organize and relate various sensory images into mental
representations, or ideas, of external objects, he soon acquires such
control over these organized groups, that when any particular sensation
image out of a group is presented to the mind, it will be sufficient to
call up the other qualities, or will be accepted as a sign of the
presence of the object. When this stage of perceptual power is reached,
an odour coming from the oven enables a person to perceive that a
certain kind of meat is within, or a noise proceeding from the tower is
sufficient to make known the presence of a bell. To possess the ability
thus to refer one's sensations to an external object is to be able to
perceive objects.
=Fulness of Perception Based on Sensation.=--From the foregoing account
of the development of our perception of the external world, it becomes
evident that our immediate knowledge, or idea, of an individual object
will consist only of the images our senses have been able to discover
either in that or other similar objects. To the person born without the
sense of sight, for instance, the flower-bed can never be known as an
object of tints and colours. To the person born deaf, the violin cannot
really be known as a _musical_ instrument. Moreover, only the person
whose senses distinguish adequately variations in colour, sound, form,
etc., is able to perceive fully the objects which present themselves to
his senses. Even when the physical senses seem equally perfect, one man,
through greater power of discrimination, perceives in the world of
objects much that totally escapes the observation of another. The result
is that few of us enter as fully as we might into the rich world of
sights, sounds, etc., with which we are surrounded, because we fail to
gain the abundant images that we might through certain of our senses.
FACTORS INVOLVED IN SENSATION
Passing to a consideration of the senses as organs through which the
mind is made aware of the concrete world, it is to be noted that a
number of factors precede the image, or mental interpretation, of the
impression. When, for instance, the mind becomes cognizant of a musical
note, an analysis of the whole process reveals the following factors:
1. The concrete object, as the vibrating string of a violin.
2. Sound waves proceeding from the vibrating object to the sense organ.
3. The organ of sense--the ear.
[Illustration]
4. The nerves--cells and fibres involved in receiving and conveying the
sense stimulus.
5. The interpreting cells.
6. The reacting mind, which interprets the impression as an image of
sound.
The different factors are somewhat arbitrarily illustrated in the
accompanying diagram, the arrows indicating the physical stimulation and
the conscious response:
Of the six factors involved in the sensation, 1 and 2 are purely
physical and belong to the science of acoustics; 3, 4, and 5 are
physiological; 6 is conscious, or psychological. It is because they
always involve the immediate presence of some physical object, that the
sensation elements involved in ordinary perception are spoken of as
immediate, or presentative, elements of knowledge.
CLASSIFICATION OF SENSATIONS
Our various sensations are usually divided into three classes as
follows:
1. Sensations of the special senses, including: sight, sound, touch
(including temperature), taste, and smell.
2. Motor, or muscular, sensations.
3. Organic sensations.
=Sensations of the Special Senses.=--As a study of the five special
senses has been made by the student-teacher under the heading of
physiology, no attempt will be made to explain the structure of these
organs. It must be noted, however, that not all senses are equally
capable of distinguishing differences in quality. For example, it seems
quite beyond our power to recall the tastes and odours of the various
dishes of which we may have partaken at a banquet, while on the other
hand we may recall distinctly the visual appearance of the room and the
table. It is worthy of note, also, that in the case of smell, animals
are usually much more discriminative than man. Certain of our senses
are, therefore, much more intellectual than others. By this is meant
that for purposes of distinguishing the objects themselves, and for
providing the mind with available images as materials for further
thought, our senses are by no means equally effective. Under this
heading the special senses are classified as follows:
Higher Intellectual Senses: sight, hearing, touch.
Lower Intellectual Senses: taste and smell.
=Muscular Sensations.=--Under motor, or muscular, sensations are
included the feelings which accompany consciousness of muscular
exertion, or movement. In distinction from the other sense organs, the
muscles are stimulated by having nervous energy pass outward over the
motor nerves to the muscles. As the muscles are thus stimulated to
movement, sensory nerves in turn convey inward from the muscles sensory
impressions resulting from these movements. The important sensations
connected with muscular action are those of strain, force, and
resistance, as in lifting or pushing. By means of these motor
sensations, joined with the sense of touch, the individual is able to
distinguish especially weight, position, and change of position. In
connection with the muscular sense, may be recalled that portion of the
Montessori apparatus known as the weight tablets. These wooden tablets,
it will be noted, are designed to educate the muscular sense to
distinguish slight differences in weight. The muscular sense is chiefly
important, however, in that delicate distinctions of pressure, movement,
and resistance must be made in many forms of manual expression. The
interrelation between sensory impression and motor impulse within the
nervous system, as illustrated in the figures on page 200, is already
understood by the reader. For an adequate conscious control of
movements, especially when one is engaged in delicate handwork, as
painting, modelling, wood-work, etc., there must be an ability to
perceive slight differences in strain, pressure, and movement. Moreover,
the most effective means for developing the muscular sense is through
the expressive exercises referred to above.
=Organic Sensations.=--The organic sensations are those states of
consciousness that arise in connection with the processes going on
within the organism, as circulation of the blood, digestion; breathing,
or respiration; hunger; thirst; etc. The significance of these
sensations lies in the fact that they reveal to consciousness any
disturbances in connection with the vital processes, and thus enable the
individual to provide for the preservation of the organism.
EDUCATION OF THE SENSES
=Importance.=--When it is considered that our general knowledge must be
based on a knowledge of individuals, it becomes apparent that children
should, through sense observation, learn as fully as possible the
various qualities of the concrete world. Only on this basis can they
build their more general and abstract forms of knowledge. For this
reason the child in his study of objects should, so far as safety
permits, bring all of his senses to bear upon them and distinguish as
clearly as possible all their properties. By this means only can he
really know the attributes of the objects constituting his environment.
Moreover, without such a full knowledge of the various properties and
qualities of concrete objects, he is not in a position to turn them
fully to his own service. It is by distinguishing the feeling of the
flour, that the cook discovers whether it is suited for bread-making or
pastry. It is by noting the texture of the wood, that the artisan can
decide its suitability for the work in hand. In fine, it was only by
noting the properties of various natural objects that man discovered
their social uses.
=How to be Effected.=--One of the chief defects of primary education in
the past has been a tendency to overlook the importance of giving the
child an opportunity to exercise his senses in discovering the
properties of the objects constituting his environment. The introduction
of the kindergarten, objective methods of teaching, nature study, school
gardening, and constructive occupations have done much, however, to
remedy this defect. One of the chief claims in favour of the so-called
Montessori Method is that it provides especially for an education of the
senses. In doing this, however, it makes use of arbitrarily prepared
materials instead of the ordinary objects constituting the child's
natural environment. The one advantage in this is that it enables the
teacher to grade the stimulations and thus exercise the child in making
series of discriminations, for instance, a series of colours, sounds,
weights, sizes, etc. Notwithstanding this advantage, however, it seems
more pedagogical that the child should receive this needful exercise of
the senses by being brought into contact with the actual objects
constituting his environment, as is done in nature study, constructive
exercises, art, etc.
=Dangers of Neglecting the Senses.=--The former neglect of an adequate
exercise of the senses during the early education of the child was
evidently unpedagogical for various reasons. As already noted, other
forms of acquiring knowledge, such as constructive imagination,
induction, and deduction, must rest primarily upon the acquisitions of
sense perception. Moreover, it is during the early years of life that
the plasticity and retentive power of the nervous system will enable the
various sense impressions to be recorded for the future use of the mind.
Further, the senses themselves during these early years show what may be
termed a hunger for contact with the world of concrete objects, and a
corresponding distaste for more abstract types of experience.
=Learning Through all the Senses.=--In recognizing that the process of
sense perception constitutes a learning process, or is one of the modes
by which man enters into new experience, the teacher should further
understand that the same object may be interpreted through different
senses. For example, when a child studies a new bird, he may note its
form and colour through the eye, he may recognize the feeling and the
outline through muscular and touch sensations, he may discover its song
through the ear, and may give muscular expression to its form in
painting or modelling. In the same way, in learning a figure or letter,
he may see its form through the eye, hear its sound through the ear,
make the sound and trace the form by calling various muscles into play,
and thus secure a number of muscular sensations relative to the figure
or letter. Since all these various experiences will be co-ordinated and
retained within the nervous system, the child will not only know the
object better, but will also be able to recall more easily any items of
knowledge concerning it, on account of the larger number of connections
established within the nervous system. One chief fact to be kept in mind
by the teacher, therefore, in using the method of sense perception, is
to have the pupil study the object through as many different senses as
possible, and especially through those senses in which his power of
discrimination and recall seems greatest.
=Use of Different Images in Teaching.=--The importance to the teacher of
an intimate knowledge of different types of imagery and of a further
acquaintance with the more prevailing images of particular pupils, is
evident in various ways. In the first place, different school subjects
may appeal more especially to different types of imagery. Thus a study
of plants especially involves visual, or sight, images; a study of
birds, visual and auditory images; oral reading and music, auditory
images; physical training, motor images; constructive work, visual,
tactile, and motor images; a knowledge of weights and measures, tactile
and motor images. On account of a native difference in forming images,
also, one pupil may best learn through the eye, another through the ear,
a third through the muscles, etc. In learning the spelling of words, for
example, one pupil may require especially to visualize the word, another
to hear the letters repeated in their order, and a third to articulate
the letters by the movement of the organs of speech, or to trace them in
writing. In choosing illustrations, also, the teacher will find that one
pupil best appreciates a visual illustration, a second an auditory
illustration, etc. Some young pupils, for instance, might best
appreciate a pathetic situation through an appeal to such sensory images
as hunger and thirst.
=An Illustration.=--The wide difference in people's ability to interpret
sensuous impressions is well exemplified in the case of sound stimuli.
Every one whose ear is physically perfect seems able to interpret a
sound so far as its mere quality and quantity are concerned. In the case
of musical notes, however, the very greatest difference is found in the
ability of different individuals to distinguish pitch. So also the
distinguishing of distance and direction in relation to sound is an
acquired ability, in which different people will greatly differ.
Finally, to interpret the external relations involved in the sound, that
is, whether the cry is that of an insect or a bird, or, if it is the
former, from what kind of bird the sound is proceeding, this evidently
is a phase of sense interpretation in which individuals differ very
greatly. Yet an adequate development of the sense of hearing might be
supposed to give the individual an ability to interpret his surroundings
in all these ways.
=Power of Sense Perception Limited: A. By Interest.=--It should be
noted, however, that so far as our actual life needs are concerned,
there is no large demand for an all-round ability to interpret sensuous
impressions. For practical purposes, men are interested in different
objects in quite different ways. One is interested in the colour of a
certain wood, another in its smoothness, a third in its ability to
withstand strain, while a fourth may even be interested in more hidden
relations, not visible to the ordinary sense. This will justify one in
ignoring entirely qualities in the object which are of the utmost
importance to others. From such a practical standpoint, it is evidently
a decided gain that a person is not compelled to see everything in an
object which its sensuous attributes might permit one to discover in it.
In the case of the man with the so-called untrained sense, therefore, it
is questionable whether the failure to see, hear, etc., is in many cases
so much a lack of ability to use the particular sense, as it is a lack
of practical interest in this phase of the objective world. In such
processes as induction and deduction, also, it is often the external
relations of objects rather than their sensory qualities that chiefly
interest us. Indeed, it is sometimes claimed that an excessive amount of
mere training in sense discrimination might interfere with a proper
development of the higher mental processes.
=B. By Knowledge.=--From what has been discovered regarding the learning
process, it is evident that the development of any sense, as sight,
sound, touch, etc., is not brought about merely by exercising the
particular organ. It has been learned, for instance, that the person who
is able to observe readily the plant and animal life as he walks through
the forest, possesses this skill, not because his physical eye, but
because his mind, has been prepared to see these objects. In other
words, it is because his knowledge is active along such lines that his
eye beholds these particular things. The chief reason, therefore, why
the exercise of any sense organ develops a power to perceive through
that sense, is that the exercise tends to develop in the individual the
knowledge and interest which will cause the mind to react easily and
effectively on that particular class of impressions. A sense may be
considered trained, therefore, to the extent to which the mind acquires
knowledge of, and interest in, the objective elements.
CHAPTER XXVI
MEMORY AND APPERCEPTION
=Nature of Memory.=--Mention has been made of the retentive power of the
nervous system, and of a consequent tendency for mental images to
revive, or _re-present_, themselves in consciousness. It must now be
noted that such a re-presentation of former experiences is frequently
accompanied with a distinct recognition that the present image or images
have a definite reference to past time. In other words, the present
mental fact is able to be placed in the midst of other events believed
to make up some portion of our past experience. Such an ideal revival of
a past experience, together with a recognition of the fact that it
formerly occurred within our experience, is known as an act of memory.
=Neural Conditions of Memory.=--When any experience is thus reproduced,
and recognized as a reproduction of a previous experience, there is
physiologically a transmission of nervous energy through the same brain
centres as were involved in the original experience. The mental
reproduction of any image is conditioned, therefore, by the physical
reproduction of a nervous impulse through a formerly established path.
That this is possible is owing to the susceptibility of nervous tissue
to take on habit, or to retain as permanent modifications, all
impressions received. From this it is evident that when we say we retain
certain facts in our mind, the statement is not in a sense true; for
there is no knowledge stored up in consciousness as so many ideas. The
statement is true, therefore, only in the sense that the mind is able
to bring into consciousness a former experience by reinstating the
necessary nervous impulses through the proper nervous arcs. What is
actually retained, however, is the tendency to reinstate nervous
movements through the same paths as were involved in the original
experience. Although, therefore, retention is usually treated as a
factor in memory, its basis is, in reality, physiological.
=Memory Distinguished from Apperception.=--The distinguishing
characteristics of memory as a re-presentation in the mind of a former
experience is evidently the mental attitude known as recognition.
Memory, in other words, always implies a belief that the present mental
state really represents a fact, or event, which formed a part of our
past experience. In the apperceptive process as seen in an ordinary
process of learning, on the other hand, although it seems to involve a
re-presentation of former mental images in consciousness, this distinct
reference of the revived imagery to past time is evidently wanting.
When, for instance, the mind interprets a strange object as a
pear-shaped, thin-rinded, many-seeded fruit, all these interpreting
ideas are, in a sense, revivals of past experience; yet none carry with
them any distinct reference to past time. In like manner, when I look at
an object of a certain form and colour and say that it is a sweet apple,
it is evidently owing to past experience that I can declare that
particular object to be sweet. It is quite clear, however, that in such
a case there is no distinct reference of the revived image of sweetness
to any definite occurrence in one's former experience. Such an
apperceptive revival, or re-presentation of past experience, because it
includes merely a representation of mental images, but fails to relate
them to the past, cannot be classed as an act of memory.
=But Involves Apperceptive Process.=--While, however, the mere revival
of old knowledge in the apperceptive process does not constitute an act
of memory, memory is itself only a special phase of the apperceptive
process. When I think of a particular anecdote to-day, and say I
remember having the same experience on Sunday evening last, the present
mental images cannot be the very same images as were then experienced.
The former images belonged to the past, while those at present in
consciousness are a new creation, although dependent, as we have seen,
upon certain physiological conditions established in the past. In an act
of memory, therefore, the new presentation, like all new presentations,
must be interpreted in terms of past experience, or by an apperceiving
act of attention. Whenever in this apperceptive act there is, in
addition to the interpretation, a further feeling, or sense, of
familiarity, the presentation is accepted by the mind as a reproduction
from past experience, or is recognized as belonging to the past. When,
on the way down the street, for instance, impressions are received from
a passing form, and a resulting act of apperceiving attention, besides
reading meaning into them, awakens a sense of familiarity, the face is
recognized as one seen on a former occasion. Memory, therefore, is a
special mode of the apperceptive process of learning, and includes, in
addition to the interpreting of the new through the old, a belief that
there is an identity between the old and the new.
FACTORS OF MEMORY
In a complete example of memory the following factors may be noted:
1. The original presentation--as the first perception of an object or
scene, the reading of a new story, the hearing of a particular voice,
etc.
2. Retention--this involves the permanent changes wrought in the nervous
tissue as a result of the presentation or learning process and, as
mentioned above, is really physiological.
3. Recall--this implies the re-establishment of the nervous movements
involved in the original experiences and an accompanying revival of the
mental imagery.
4. Recognition--under this heading is included the sense of familiarity
experienced in consciousness, and the consequent belief that the present
experience actually occurred at some certain time as an element in our
past experience.
CONDITIONS OF MEMORY
=A. Physical Conditions.=--One of the first conditions for an effective
recollection of any particular experience will be, evidently, the
strength of the co-ordinations set up in the nervous system during the
learning process. The permanent changes brought about in the nervous
tissue as a result of conscious experience is often spoken of as the
physical basis of memory. The first consideration, therefore, relative
to the memorizing of knowledge is to decide the conditions favourable to
establishing such nervous paths during the learning process. First among
these may be mentioned the condition of the nervous tissue itself. As
already seen, the more plastic and active the condition of this tissue,
the more susceptible it is to receive and retain impressions. For this
reason anything studied when the body is tired and the mind exhausted is
not likely to be remembered. It is for the same reason, also, that
knowledge acquired in youth is much more likely to be remembered than
things learned late in life. The intensity and the clearness of the
presentation also cause it to make a stronger impression upon the system
and thus render its retention more permanent. This demands in turn that
attention should be strongly focused upon the presentations during any
learning process. By adding to the clearness and intensity of any
impressions, attention adds to the likelihood of their retention. The
evident cause of the scholar's ability to learn even relatively late in
life is the fact that he brings a much greater concentration of
attention to the process than is usually found in others. Repetition
also, since it tends to break down any resistance to the paths which are
being established in the nervous system during the learning process, is
a distinct aid to retention. For this reason any knowledge acquired
should be revived at intervals. This is especially true of the school
knowledge being acquired by young children, and their acquisitions must
be occasionally reviewed and used in various ways, if the knowledge is
to become a permanent possession. A special application of the law of
repetition may be noted in the fact that we remember better any topic
learned, say, in four half-hours put upon it at different intervals,
than we should by spending the whole two hours upon it at one time.
Another condition favourable to recall is the recency of the original
experience. Anything is more easily recalled, the more recently it has
been learned. The physiological cause for this seems to be that the
nervous co-ordinations being recent, they are much more likely to
re-establish themselves, not having yet been effaced or weakened through
the lapse of time.
=B. Mental Conditions.=--It must be noted, however, that although there
is evidently the above neural concomitant of recall, yet it is not the
nervous system, but the mind, that actually recalls and remembers. The
real condition of recall, therefore, is mental, and depends largely
upon the number of associations formed between the ideas themselves in
the original presentation. According to the law of association,
different ideas arise in the mind in virtue of certain connections
existing between the ideas themselves. It would be quite foreign to our
present purpose to examine the theories held among philosophic
psychologists regarding the principle of the association of ideas. It is
evident, however, that ideas often come to our minds in consequence of
the presence in consciousness of a prior idea. When we see the name
"Queenston Heights," it suggests to us Sir Isaac Brock; when we see a
certain house, it calls to mind the pleasant evening spent there; and
when we hear the strains of solemn music, it brings to mind the memories
of the dead. Equally evident is the fact that anything experienced in
isolation is much harder to remember than one experienced in such a way
that it may enter into a larger train of ideas. If, for instance, any
one is told to call up in half an hour telephone 3827, it is more than
likely that the number will be forgotten, if the person goes on with
other work and depends only on the mere impression to recall the number
at the proper time. This would be the case also in spite of the most
vivid presentation of the number by the one giving the order or the
repetition of it by the person himself. If, however, the person says,
even in a casual way, "Call up 1867," and the person addressed
associates the number with the Confederation of the Dominion, there is
practically no possibility of the number going out of his mind. An
important mental condition for recall, therefore, is that ideas should
be learned in as large associations, or groups, as possible. It is for
the above reason that the logical and orderly presentation of the topics
in any subject and their thorough understanding by the pupil give more
complete control over the subject-matter. When each lesson is taught as
a disconnected item of knowledge, there seems nothing to which the ideas
are anchored, and recall is relatively difficult. When, on the other
hand, points of connection are established between succeeding lessons,
and the pupil understands these, one topic suggests another, and the
mind finds it relatively easy to recall any particular part of the
related ideas.
TYPES OF RECALL
=A. Involuntary.=--In connection with the working of the principle of
association, it is interesting to note that practically two types of
recall manifest themselves. As a result of their suggestive tendency,
the ideas before consciousness at any particular time have a tendency to
revive old experiences which the mind may recognize as such. Here there
is no effort on the part of the voluntary attention to recall the
experience from the past, the operation of the law of association being,
as it were, sufficient to thrust the revived image into the centre of
the field of consciousness, as when the sight of a train recalls a
recent trip.
=B. Voluntary.=--At times the mind may set out with the deliberate aim,
or purpose, of reviving some forgotten experience. This is because
attention is at the time engaged upon a definite problem, as when the
student writing on his examination paper strives to recall the
conditions of the Constitutional Act. This type is known as voluntary
memory. Such a voluntary attempt at recall is, however, of the same
character as the involuntary type in that both involve association. What
the mind really strives for is to start a train of ideas which shall
suggest the illusive ideas involved in the desired answer. Such a
process of recall might be illustrated as follows:
[Illustration]
Here a, b, c, d, e represent the forgotten series of ideas to be
recalled. A, B, C, D, E represent other better known ideas, some of
which are associated with the desired ones. By having the mind course
over the better known facts--A, B, C, D, E, attention may finally focus
upon the relation A, a, B, and thus start up the necessary revival of a,
b, c, d, e.
=Attention May Hinder Memory.=--While active attention is thus able
under proper conditions to reinforce memory, yet occasionally attention
seems detrimental to memory. That such is the case will become evident
from the preceding figure. If the experience a, b, c, d, e, is directly
associated only with A, B, but the mind believes the association to
centre in C, D, E, attention is certain to keep focused upon the
sub-group--C, D, E. At an examination in history, for example, we may
desire to recall the circumstances associated with the topic, "The Grand
Remonstrance," and feel vaguely that this is connected with a
revolutionary movement. This may cause us, however, to fix attention,
not upon the civil war, but upon the revolution of 1688. In this case,
instead of forcing a nervous impulse into the proper centres, attention
is in reality diverting it into other channels. When, a few minutes
later, we have perhaps ceased our effort to remember, the impulse seems
of itself to stimulate the proper centres, and the necessary facts come
to us apparently without any attentive effort.
LOCALIZATION IN TIME
It has been pointed out that in an act of memory there must be a
recognition of the present experience as one which has occurred in a
series of past events. The definite reference of a memory image to a
past series is sometimes spoken of as localization. The degree to which
a memory image is localized in the past differs greatly, however, in
different cases. Your recollection of some interesting personal event in
your past school history may be very definitely located as to time,
image after image reinstating themselves in memory in the order of their
actual occurrence. Such a similar series of events must have taken place
when, by means of handling a number of objects, you learned different
number and quantity relations or, by drawing certain figures, discovered
certain geometrical relations. At the present time, however, although
you remember clearly the general relations, you are utterly unable to
recall the more incidental facts connected with their original
presentation, or even localize the remembered knowledge at all
definitely in past time. Nothing, in fact, remains as a permanent
possession except the general, or scientific, truth involved in the
experience.
CLASSIFICATION OF MEMORIES
=A. Mechanical.=--The above facts would indicate that in many cases the
mind would find it more effective to omit from conscious recall what may
appear irrelevant in the original presentation, and fix attention upon
only the essential features. From this standpoint, two somewhat
different types of memory are to be found among individuals. With many
people, it seems as if a past experience must be revived in every
detail. If such a one sets out to report a simple experience, such as
seeing a policeman arrest a man on the street, he must bring in every
collateral circumstance, no matter how foreign to the incident. He must
mention, for example, that he himself had on a new straw hat, that his
companion was smoking a cigar, was accompanied by his dog, and was
talking about his crops, at the time they observed the arrest. This type
is known as a mechanical memory. Very good examples of such will be seen
in the persons of "Farmer Philip" in Tennyson's _Brook_ and the
"landlady" in Shakespeare's _King Henry IV_.
=B. Logical.=--In another type of memory, the mind does not thus
associate into the memory experience every little detail of the original
experience. The outstanding facts, especially those which are bound by
some logical sequence, are the only ones which enter into permanent
association. Such a type of mind, therefore, in recalling the past,
selects out of the mass of experiences the incidents which will
constitute a logical revival, and leaves out the trivial and incidental.
This type is usually spoken of as a logical memory. This type of memory
would, in the above incident, recall only the essential facts connected
with the arrest, as the cause, the incidents, and the result.
MEMORY IN EDUCATION
=Value of Memory.=--It is evident that without the ability to reinstate
past experiences in our conscious life, such experiences could not serve
as intelligent guides for our present conduct. Each day, in fact, we
should begin life anew so far as concerns intelligent adaptation, our
acquired aptitude being at best only physical. It will be understood,
therefore, why the ability to recall past experiences is accepted as an
essential factor in the educative process. It will be noted, indeed, in
our study of the history of education, that, at certain periods, the
whole problem of education seemed to be to memorize knowledge so
thoroughly that it might readily be reinstated in consciousness. Modern
education, however, has thrown emphasis upon two additional facts
regarding knowledge. These are, first, that the ability to use past
knowledge, and not the mere ability to recall it, is the mark of a truly
educated man. The second fact is that, when any experience is clearly
understood at the time of its presentation, the problem of remembering
it will largely take care of itself. For these reasons, modern education
emphasizes clearness of presentation and ability to apply, rather than
the mere memorizing of knowledge. It is a question, however, whether the
modern educator may not often be too negligent concerning the direct
problem of the ability to recall knowledge. For this reason, the
student-teacher may profitably make himself acquainted with the main
conditions of retention and recall.
=The Training of Memory.=--An important problem for the educator is to
ascertain whether it is possible to develop in the pupil a general power
of memory. In other words, will the memorizing of any set of facts
strengthen the mind to remember more easily any other facts whatsoever?
From what has been noted regarding memory, it is evident that, leaving
out of consideration the physical condition of the organism, the most
important conditions for memory at the time are attention to, and a
thorough understanding of, the facts to be remembered. From this it
must appear that a person's ability to remember any facts depends
primarily, not upon the mere amount of memorizing he has done in the
past, but upon the extent to which his interests and old knowledge cause
him to attend to, understand, and associate the facts to be remembered.
There seems no justification, therefore, for the method of the teacher
who expected to strengthen the memories of her pupils for their school
work by having them walk quickly past the store windows and then attempt
to recall at school what they had seen. In such cases the boys are found
to remember certain objects, because their interests and knowledge
enable them to notice these more distinctly at the time of the
presentation. The girls, on the other hand, remember other objects,
because their interests and knowledge cause them to apprehend these
rather than the others.
APPERCEPTION
=Apperception a Law of Learning.=--In the study of the lesson process,
Chapter III, attention was called to the fact that the interpretation
which the mind places upon any presentation depends in large measure
upon the mind's present content and interest. It is an essential
characteristic of mind that it always attempts to give meaning to any
new impression, no matter how strange that impression may be. This end
is reached, however, only as the mind is able to apply to the
presentation certain elements of former experience. Even in earliest
infancy, impressions do not come to the organism as total strangers; for
the organism is already endowed with instinctive tendencies to react in
a definite manner to certain stimuli. As these reactions continue to
repeat themselves, however, permanent modifications, as previously
noted, are established in the nervous system, including both sensory and
motor adjustments. Since, moreover, these sensory and motor adjustments
give rise to ideas, they result in corresponding associations of mental
imagery. As these neural and mental elements are thus organized into
more and more complex masses, the recurrence of any element within an
associated mass is able to reinstate the other elements. The result is
that when a certain sensation is received, as, for instance, a sound
stimulus, it reinstates sensory impressions and motor reactions together
with their associated mental images, thus enabling the mind to assert
that a dog is barking in the distance. In such a case, the present
impression is evidently joined with, and interpreted through, what has
already formed a part of our experience. What is true of this particular
case is true of all cases. New presentations are always met and
interpreted by some complex experiences with which they have something
in common, otherwise the stimuli could not be attended to at all. This
ability of the mind to interpret new presentations in terms of old
knowledge on account of some connection they bear to that content, is
known as _apperception_. In other words, apperception is the law of the
mind to attend to such elements in a new presentation as possess some
degree of _familiarity_ with the already assimilated experience,
although there may be no distinct recognition of this familiarity.
CONDITIONS OF APPERCEPTION
=A. Present Knowledge.=--Since the mind can apperceive only that for
which it is prepared through former experience, the interpretation of
the same presentations will be likely to differ greatly in different
individuals. The book lying before him is to the young child a place in
which to find pictures, to the ignorant man a source of mysterious
information, and to the scholar a symbolic representation of certain
mathematical knowledge. In the same manner, the object outside the
window is a noxious weed to the farmer, a flower to the naturalist, and
a medicinal plant to the physician or the druggist. From this it is
clear that the interpretation of the impressions must differ according
to the character of our present knowledge. In other words, the more
important the aspects read into any presentation, the more valuable will
be the present experience. Although when the child apperceives a stick
as a horse, and the mechanic apperceives it as a lever, each
interpretation is valuable within its own sphere, yet there is evidently
a marked difference in the ultimate significance of the two
interpretations. Education is especially valuable, in fact, in that it
so adds to the experience of the child that he may more fully apperceive
his surroundings.
=B. Present Interests and Needs.=--But apperception is not solely
dependent upon present knowledge. The interests and needs of the
individual reflect themselves largely in his apperceptive tendencies.
While the boy sees a tent in the folded paper, the girl is more likely
to find in it a screen. To the little boy the lath is a horse, to the
older boy it becomes a sword. Feelings and interest, therefore, as well
as knowledge, dominate the apperceptive process. Nor should this fact be
overlooked by the teacher. The study of a poem would be very incomplete
and unsatisfactory if it stopped with the apprehension of the ideas.
There must be emotional appreciation as well; otherwise the study will
result in entire indifference to it. In introducing, for instance, the
sonnet, "Mysterious Night" (page 394, _Ontario Reader, Book IV_), the
teacher might ask: "Why can we not see the stars during the day?" The
answer to this question would put the pupils in the proper intellectual
attitude to interpret the ideas of the poem, but that is not enough. A
recall of such an experience as his contemplation of the starry sky on a
clear night will put the pupil in a suitable emotional attitude. He is a
rare pupil who has not at some time gazed in wonder at the immense
number and magnificence of the stars, or who has not thought with awe
and reverence of the infinite power of the Creator of "such countless
orbs." A recall of these feelings of wonder, awe, and reverence will
place the pupil in a suitable mood for the emotional appreciation of the
poem. It is in the teaching of literature that the importance of a
proper feeling attitude on the part of the pupil is particularly great.
Without it the pupil is coldly indifferent toward literature and will
never cultivate an enthusiasm for it.
FACTORS IN APPERCEPTION
=Retention and Recall.=--The facts already noted make it plain that
apperception involves two important factors. First, apperception implies
retention and recall. Unless our various experiences left behind them
the permanent effects already noted in describing the retentive power of
the nervous organism and the consequent possibility of recall, there
could be no adjustment to new impressions on the basis of earlier
experiences.
=Attention.=--Secondly, apperception involves attention. Since to
apperceive is to bring the results of earlier experience to bear
actively upon the new impression, it must involve a reactive, or
attentive, state of consciousness; for, as noted in our study of the
learning process, it is only by selecting elements out of former
experience that the new impression is given definite meaning in
consciousness. For the child to apperceive the strange object as a
"bug-in-a-basket," demands from him therefore a process of attention in
which the ideas "bug" and "basket" are selected from former experience
and read into the new impression, thereby giving it a meaning in
consciousness. A reference to any of the lesson topics previously
considered will provide further examples of these apperceptive factors.
CHAPTER XXVII
IMAGINATION
=Nature of.=--In our study of the various modes of acquiring individual
notions, attention was called to the fact that knowledge of a particular
object may be gained through a process of imagination. Like memory,
imagination is a process of re-presentation, though differing from it in
certain important regards.
1. Although imagination depends on past experiences for its images,
these images are used to build up ideal representations of objects
without any reference to past time.
2. In imagination the associated elements of past experience may be
completely dissociated. Thus a bird may be imagined without wings, or a
stone column without weight.
3. The dissociated elements may be re-combined in various ways to
represent objects never actually experienced, as a man with wings, or a
horse with a man's head.
Imagination is thus an apperceptive process by which we construct a
mental representation of an object without any necessary reference to
its actual existence in time.
=Product of Imagination, Particular.=--It is to be noted that in a
process of imagination the mind always constructs in idea a
representation of a _particular_ object or individual. For instance, the
ideal picture of the house I imagine situated on the hill before me is
that of a particular house, possessing definite qualities as to height,
size, colour, etc. In like manner, the future visit to Toronto, as it
is being run over ideally, is constructed of particular persons, places,
and events. So also when reading such a stanza as:
The milk-white blossoms of the thorn
Are waving o'er the pool,
Moved by the wind that breathes along,
So sweetly and so cool;
if the mind is able to combine into a definite outline of a particular
situation the various elements depicted, then the mental process of the
reader is one of imagination. It is not true, of course, that the
particular elements which enter into such an ideal representation are
always equally vivid. Yet one test of a person's power of imagination is
the definiteness with which the mind makes an ideal representation stand
out in consciousness as a distinct individual.
TYPES OF IMAGINATION
=A. Passive.=--In dissociating the elements of past experience and
combining them into new particular forms, the mind may proceed in two
quite different ways. In some cases the mind seemingly allows itself to
drift without purpose and almost without sense, building up fantastic
representations of imaginary objects or events. This happens especially
in our periods of day-dreaming. Here various images, evidently drawn
from past experience, come before consciousness in a spontaneous way and
enter into most unusual forms of combination, with little regard even to
probability. In these moods the timid lad becomes a strong hero, and his
rustic Audrey, a fair lady, for whose sake he is ever performing untold
feats of valour. Here the ideas, instead of being selected and combined
for a definite purpose through an act of voluntary attention, are
suggested one after the other by the mere law of association. Because
in such fantastic products of the imagination the various images appear
in consciousness and combine themselves without any apparent control or
purpose, the process is known as passive imagination, or phantasy. Such
a type, it is evident, will have little significance as an actual
process of learning.
=B. Active, or Constructive.=--Opposed to the above type is that form of
imagination in which the mind proceeds to build up a particular ideal
representation with some definite purpose, or end, in view. A student,
for example, who has never seen an aeroplane and has no direct knowledge
of the course to be traversed, may be called upon in his composition
work to describe an imaginary voyage through the air from Toronto to
Winnipeg. In such an act of imagination, the selecting of elements to
enter into the ideal picture must be chosen with an eye to their
suitability to the end in view. When also a child is called upon in
school to form an ideal representation of some object of which he has
had no direct experience, as for instance, a mental picture of a
volcano, he must in the same way, under the guidance of the teacher,
select and combine elements of his actual experience which are adapted
to the building up of a correct mental representation of an actual
volcano. This type of imagination is known as active, or constructive,
imagination.
=Factors in Constructive Imagination.=--In such a purposeful, or active,
process of imagination the following factors may be noticed:
1. The purpose, end, or problem calling for the exercise of the
imagination.
2. A selective act of attention, in which the fitness or unfitness of
elements of past experience, or their adaptability to the ideal
creation, is realized.
3. A relating, or synthetic, activity combining the selected elements
into a new ideal representation.
USES OF IMAGINATION
=Imagination in Education.=--One important application of imagination in
school work is found in connection with the various forms of
constructive occupation. In such exercises, it is possible to have the
child first build up ideally the picture of a particular object and then
have him produce it through actual expression. For example, a class
which has been taught certain principles of cutting may be called upon
to conceive an original design for some object, say a valentine. Here
the child, before proceeding to produce the actual object, must select
from his knowledge of valentines certain elements and interpret them in
relation to his principles of cutting. This ideal representation of the
intended object is, therefore, a process of active, or constructive,
imagination. In composition, also, the various events and situations
depicted may be ideal creations to which the child gives expression in
language. In geography and nature study likewise, constant use must be
made of the imagination in gaining a knowledge of objects which have
never come within the actual experience of the child. In science there
is a further appeal to the child's imagination. When, for instance, he
studies such topics as the law of gravity, chemical affinity, etc., the
imagination must fill in much that falls outside the sphere of actual
observation. In history and literature, also, the student can enter into
the life and action of the various scenes and events only by building up
ideal representations of what is depicted through the words of the
author.
=Imagination in Practical Life.=--In addition to the large use of
constructive imagination in school work, this process will be found
equally important in the after affairs of life. It is by use of the
imagination that the workman is able to see the changes we desire made
in the decoration of the room or in the shape of the flower-beds. It is
by the use of imagination, also, that the general is able to outline the
plan of campaign that shall lead his army to victory. Without
imagination, therefore, the mind could not set up those practical aims
toward the attainment of which most of life's effort is directed. In the
dominion of conduct, also, imagination has its important part to play.
It is by viewing in his imagination the effect of the one course of
action as compared with the other, that man finally decides what
constitutes the proper line of conduct. Even when indifferent as to his
moral conduct, man pictures to himself what his friends may say and
think of certain lines of action. For the enjoyment of life, also, the
exercise of imagination has a place. It is by filling up the present
with ideals and hopeful anticipations for the future, that much of the
monotony of our work-a-day hours is relieved.
=Development of Imagination.=--A prime condition of a creative
imagination is evidently the possession of an abundance of mental
materials which may be dissociated and re-combined into new mental
products. These materials, of course, consist of the images and ideas
retained by the mind from former experiences. One important result,
therefore, of providing the young child with a rich store of images of
sight, sound, touch, movement, etc., is that it provides his developing
imagination with necessary materials. But the mere possession of
abundant materials in the form of past images will not in itself develop
the imagination. Here, as elsewhere, it is only by exercising
imagination that ability to imagine can be developed. Opportunity for
such an exercise of the imagination, moreover, may be given the child in
various ways. As already noted, a chief function of play is that it
stimulates the child to use his imagination in reconstructing the
objects about him and clothing them with many fancied attributes. In
supplementary reading and story work, also, the imagination is actively
exercised in constructing the ideal situations, as they are being
presented in words by the book or the teacher. Nature study, likewise,
by bringing before the child the secret processes of nature, as noting,
for instance, the life history of the butterfly, the germination of
seeds, etc., will call upon him to use his imagination in various ways.
On the other hand, to deprive a young child of all such opportunities
will usually result in preventing a proper development of the
imagination.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THINKING
=Nature of Thinking.=--In the study of general method, as well as in
that of the foregoing mental processes, it has been taken for granted
that our minds are capable of identifying different objects on the basis
of some common feature or features. This tendency of the mind to
identify objects and group individual things into classes, depends upon
its capacity to detect similarity and difference, or to make
comparisons. When the mind, in identifying objects, events, qualities,
etc., discovers certain relations between its various states, the
process is especially known as that of thinking. In its technical sense,
therefore, thought implies a more or less explicit apprehension of
relation.
=Thinking Involved in all Conscious States.=--It is evident, however,
that every mental process must involve thinking, or a grasping of
relations. When, by my merely touching an object, my mind perceives it
is an apple, this act of perception, as already seen, takes place
because elements of former experience come back as associated factors.
This implies, evidently, that the mind is here relating elements of its
past experience with the present touch sensation. Perception of external
objects, therefore, implies a grasping of relations. In the same way,
if, in having an experience to-day, one recognizes it as identical with
a former experience, he is equally grasping a relation. Every act of
memory, therefore, implies thinking. Thus in all forms of knowledge the
mind is apprehending relations; for no experience could have meaning
for the mind except as it is discriminated from other experiences. In
treating thinking as a distinct mental process, however, it is assumed
that the objects of sense perception, memory, etc., are known as such,
and that the mind here deals more directly with the relations in which
ideas stand one to another. As a mental process, thinking appears in
three somewhat distinct forms, known as conception, judgment, and
reasoning.
CONCEPTION
=The Abstract Notion.=--It was seen that at least in adult life, the
perception of any object, as this particular orange, horse, cow, etc.,
really includes a number of distinct images of quality synthesised into
the unity of a particular idea or experience. Because of this union of a
number of different sensible qualities in the notion of a single
individual, the mind may limit its attention upon a particular quality,
or characteristic, possessed by an object, and make this a distinct
problem of attention. Thus the mind is able to form such notions as
length, roundness, sweetness, heaviness, four-footedness, etc. When such
an attribute is thought of as something distinct from the object, the
mental image is especially known as an abstract idea, or notion, and the
process as one of abstraction.
=The Class Notion.=--One or more of such abstracted qualities may,
moreover, be recognized as common to an indefinite number of objects.
For instance, in addition to its ability to abstract from the perception
of a dog, the abstract notions four-footedness, hairy, barking, etc.,
the mind further gives them a general character by thinking of them as
qualities common to an indefinite number of other possible individuals,
namely, the class four-footed, hairy, barking objects. Because the idea
representing the quality or qualities is here accepted by the mind as a
means of identifying a number of objects, the idea is spoken of as a
class notion, and the process as one of classification, or
generalization. Thus it appears that, through its ability to detect
sameness and difference, or discover relations, the mind is able to form
two somewhat different notions. By mentally abstracting any quality and
regarding it as something distinct from the object, it obtains an
abstract notion, as sweetness, bravery, hardness, etc.; by synthesising
and symbolizing the images of certain qualities recognized in objects,
it obtains a general, or class, notion by which it may represent an
indefinite number of individual things as, triangle, horse, desert, etc.
Thus abstract notions are supposed to represent qualities; class
notions, things. Because of its reference to a number of objects, the
class notion is spoken of especially as a general notion, and the
process of forming the notion as one of generalization. These two types
of notions are technically known as concepts, and the process of their
formation as one of conception.
=Formal Analysis of Process.=--At this point may be recalled what was
stated in Chapter XV concerning the development of a class notion.
Mention was there made of the theory that in the formation of such
concepts, or class notions, as cow, dog, desk, chair, adjective, etc.,
the mind must proceed through certain set stages as follows:
1. Comparison: The examination of a certain number of particular
individuals in order to discover points of similarity and
difference.
2. Abstraction: The distinguishing of certain characteristics
common to the objects.
3. Generalization: The mental unification, or synthesis, of these
common characteristics noted in different individuals into a class
notion represented by a name, or general term.
=But Conception is Involved in Perception.=--From what has been seen,
however, it is evident that the development of our concepts does not
proceed in any such formal way. If the mind perceives an individual
object with any degree of clearness, it must recognize the object as
possessing certain qualities. If, therefore, the child can perceive such
an object as a dog, it implies that he recognizes it, say, as a hairy,
four-footed creature. To recognize these qualities, however, signifies
that the mind is able to think of them as something apart from the
object, and the child thus has in a sense a general notion even while
perceiving the particular dog. Whenever he passes to the perception of
another dog, he undoubtedly interprets this with the general ideas
already obtained from this earlier percept of a dog. To say, therefore,
that to gain a concept he compares the qualities found in several
individual things is not strictly true, for if his first percept becomes
a type by which he interprets other dogs, his first experience is
already a concept. What happens is that as this concept is used to
interpret other individuals, the person becomes more conscious of the
fact that his early experience is applicable to an indefinite number of
objects. So also, when an adult first perceives an individual thing, say
the fruit of the guava, he must apprehend certain qualities in relation
to the individual thing. Thereupon his idea of this particular object
becomes in itself a copy for identifying other objects, or a symbol by
which similar future impressions may be given meaning. In this sense the
individual idea, or percept, will serve to identify other particular
experiences. Such being the case, this early concept of the guava has
evidently required no abstraction of qualities beyond apprehending them
while perceiving the one example of the fruit. This, however, is but to
say that the perception of the guava really implied conception.
=Comparison of Individuals Necessary for Correct Concepts.=--It is, of
course, true that the correctness of the idea as a class symbol can be
verified only as we apply it in interpreting a number of such individual
things. As the person meets a further number of individuals, he may even
discover the presence of qualities not previously recognized. A child,
for instance, may have a notion of the class triangle long before he
discovers that all triangles have the property of containing two right
angles. When this happens, he will later modify his first concept by
synthesising into it the newly discovered quality. Moreover, if certain
features supposed to be common are later found to be accidental, if, for
instance, a child's concept of the class fish includes the quality
_always living in water_, his meeting with a flying fish will not result
in an utterly new concept, but rather in a modification of the present
one. Thus the young child, who on seeing the Chinese diplomat, wished to
know where he had his laundry, was not without a class concept, although
that concept was imperfect in at least one respect.
=Concept and Term.=--A point often discussed in connection with
conception is whether a general notion can be formed without language.
By some it is argued that no concept could exist in the mind without the
name, or general term. It was seen, however, that our first perception
of any object becomes a sort of standard by which other similar
experiences are intercepted, and is, therefore, general in character.
From this it is evident that a rudimentary type of conception exists
prior to language. In the case of the young child, as he gains a mental
image of his father, the experience evidently serves as a centre for
interpreting other similar individuals. We may notice that as soon as he
gains control of language, other men are called by the term papa. This
does not imply an actual confusion in identity, but his use of the term
shows that the child interprets the new object through a crude concept
denoted by the word papa. It is more than probable, moreover, that this
crude concept developed as he became able to recognize his father, and
had been used in interpreting other men before he obtained the term,
papa. On the other hand, it is certain that the term, or class name, is
necessary to give the notion a definite place in consciousness.
FACTORS INVOLVED IN CONCEPT
It will appear from the foregoing that a concept presents the following
factors for consideration:
1. The essential quality or qualities found in the individual things,
and supposed to be abstracted sooner or later from the individuals.
2. The concept itself, the mental image or idea representative of the
abstracted quality; or the unification of a number of abstracted
qualities, when the general notion implies a synthesis of different
qualities.
3. The general term, or name.
4. The objects themselves, which the mind can organize into a class,
because they are identified as possessing common characteristics. When,
however, a single abstracted quality is taken as a symbol of a class of
objects, for example, when the quality bitterness becomes the symbol for
the class of bitter things, there can be no real distinction between the
abstracted quality and the class concept. In other words, to fix
attention upon the quality bitterness as a quality distinct from the
object in which it is found, is at the same time to give it a general
character, recognizing it as something which may be found in a number of
objects--the class bitter things. Here the abstract term is in a sense
a general notion representative of a whole class of objects which agree
in the possession of the quality.
=Intension of Concepts.=--Certain of our general notions are, however,
much more complex than others. When a single attribute such as
four-footedness is generalized to represent the class four-footed
objects, the notion itself is relatively simple. In other words, a
single property is representative of the objects, and in apprehending
the members of the class all other properties they chance to possess may
be left out of account. In many cases, however, the class notion will
evidently be much more complex. The notion dog, for instance, in
addition to implying the characteristic four-footedness, may include
such qualities as hairy, barking, watchful, fearless, etc. This greater
or less degree of complexity of a general notion is spoken of as its
intensity. The notion dog, for instance, is more intensive than the
notion four-footed animals; the notion lawyer, than the notion man.
=Extension of Concepts.=--It is to be noted further that as a notion
increases in intension it becomes limited to a smaller class of objects.
From this standpoint, notions are said to differ in extension. The class
lawyer, for instance, is not so extensive as the class man; nor the
class dog, as the class four-footed objects. It will appear from the
above that an abstract notion viewed as a sign of a class of objects is
distinguished by its extension, while a class notion, so far as it
implies a synthesis of several abstracted qualities, is marked rather by
its intension.
AIMS OF CONCEPTUAL LESSONS
So far as school lessons aim to establish and develop correct class
notions in the minds of the pupils, three somewhat distinct types of
work may be noted:
1. TO DEFINE CLASSES
In some lessons no attempt is made to develop an utterly new class
notion, or concept; the pupils in fact may already know the class of
objects in a general way and be acquainted with many of their
characteristics. The object of the lesson is, therefore, to render the
concept more scientific by having it include the qualities which
essentially mark it as a class and especially separate it from other
co-ordinate classes. In studying the grasshopper; for instance, in
entomology, the purpose is not to give the child a notion of the insect
in the ordinary sense of the term. This the pupil may already have. The
purpose is rather to enable him to decide just what general
characteristics distinguish this from other insects. The lesson may,
therefore, leave out of consideration features which are common to all
grasshoppers, simply because they do not enter into a scientific
differentiation of the class.
2. TO ENLARGE A CONCEPT
In many lessons the aim seems to be chiefly to enlarge certain concepts
by adding to their intensiveness. The pupil, for instance, has a
scientific concept of a triangle, that is, one which enables him to
distinguish a triangle from any other geometrical figure. He may,
however, be led to see further that the three angles of every triangle
equal two right angles. This is really having him discover a further
attribute in relation to triangles, although this knowledge is not
essential to the concept as a symbol of the members of the class. In the
same way, in grammar the pupil is taught certain attributes common to
verbs, as mood and tense, although these are not essential attributes
from the standpoint of distinguishing the verb as a special class of
words.
3. TO BUILD UP NEW CONCEPTS
=A. Presentation of Unknown Individuals.=--In many lessons the chief
object seems to be, however, to build up a new concept in the mind of
the child. This would be the case when the pupil is presented with a
totally unknown object, say a platypus, and called upon to examine its
characteristics. In such lessons two important facts should be noticed.
First, the child finds seemingly little difficulty in accepting a single
individual as a type of a class, and is able to carry away from the
lesson a fairly scientific class notion through a study of the one
individual. In this regard the pupil but illustrates what has been said
of the ability of the child to use his early percepts as standards to
interpret other individuals. The pupil is able the more easily to form
this accurate notion, because he no doubt has already a store of
abstract notions with which to interpret the presentation, and also
because his interest and attention is directed into the proper channels
by the teacher.
=B. Division of Known Classes.=--A second common mode of developing new
concepts in school work is in breaking up larger classes into
co-ordinate sub-classes. This, of course, involves the developing of new
concepts to cover these sub-classes. In such cases, however, the new
notions are merely modified forms of the higher class notion. When, for
example, the pupil gains general notions representative of the classes,
proper noun and common noun, the new terms merely add something to the
intension of the more extensive term noun. This will be evident by
considering the difference between the notions noun and proper noun.
Both agree in possessing the attribute _used to name_. The latter is
more intensive, however, because it signifies _used to name a particular
object_. Although in such cases the lesson seems in a sense to develop
new general notions, they represent merely an adding to the intension
of a notion already possessed by the child.
=Use of the Term.=--A further problem regarding the process of
conception concerns the question of the significance of a name. When a
person uses such a term as dog, whale, hepatica, guava, etc., to name a
certain object, what is the exact sense, or meaning, in which the name
is to be applied? A class name, when applied scientifically to an
object, is evidently supposed to denote the presence in it of certain
essential characteristics which belong to the class. It is clear,
however, that the ordinary man rarely uses these names with any
scientific precision. A man can point to an object and say that it is a
horse, and yet be ignorant of many of the essential features of a horse.
In such cases, therefore, the use of the name merely shows that the
person considers the object to belong to a certain class, but is no
guarantee that he is thinking of the essential qualities of the class.
It might be said, therefore, that a class term is used for two somewhat
different purposes, either to denote the object merely, or to signify
scientifically the attributes possessed by the object. It is in the
second respect that danger of error in reasoning arises. So far as a
name represents the attributes of a class, it will signify for us just
those attributes which we associate with that class. So long, therefore,
as the word fish means to us an animal living in the water, we will
include in the class the whale, which really does not belong to the
class, and perhaps exclude from the class the flying fish, although it
is scientifically a member of the class.
THE DEFINITION
It has been noted that, when man discovers common characteristics in a
number of objects, he tends on this basis to unite such objects into a
class. It is to be noted in addition, however, that in the same manner
he is also able, by examining the characteristics of a large class of
objects, to divide these into smaller sub-classes. Although, for
example, we may place all three-sided figures into one class and call
them triangles, we are further able to divide these into three
sub-classes owing to certain differences that may be noted among them.
Thus an important fact regarding classification is that while a class
may possess some common quality or qualities, yet its members may be
further divided into sub-classes and each of these smaller classes
distinguished from the others by points of difference. Owing to this
fact, there are two important elements entering into a scientific
knowledge of any class, first, to know of what larger class it forms a
part, and secondly, to know what characteristics distinguish it from the
other classes which go with it to make up this larger class. To know the
class equilateral triangle, for instance, we must know, first, that it
belongs to the larger class triangle, and secondly, that it differs from
other classes of triangles by having its three sides equal. For this
reason a person is able to know a class scientifically without knowing
all of its common characteristics. For instance, the large class of
objects known as words is subdivided into smaller classes known as parts
of speech. Taking one of these classes, the verb, we find that all verbs
agree in possessing at least three common characteristics, they have
power to assert, to denote manner, and to express time. To distinguish
the verb, however, it is necessary to note only that it is a word used
to assert, since this is the only characteristic which distinguishes it
from the other classes of words. When, therefore, we describe any class
of objects by first naming the larger class to which it belongs, and
then stating the characteristics which distinguish it from the other
co-ordinate classes, we are said to give a definition of the class, or
to define it. The statement, "A trimeter is a verse of three measures,"
is a definition because it gives, first, the larger class (verse) to
which the trimeters belong, and secondly, the difference (of three
measures) which distinguishes the trimeter from all other verses. The
statement, "A binomial is an algebraic expression consisting of two
terms," is a definition, because it gives, first, the larger class
(algebraic expression) to which binomials belong, and secondly, the
difference (consisting of two terms) which distinguishes binomials from
other algebraic expressions.
JUDGMENT
=Nature of Judgment.=--A second form, or mode, of thinking is known as
judgment. Our different concepts were seen to vary in their intension,
or meaning, according to the number of attributes suggested by each. My
notion _triangle_ may denote the attributes three-sided and
three-angled; my notion _isosceles triangle_ will in that case include
at least these two qualities plus equality of two of the sides. This
indicates that various relations exist between our ideas and may be
apprehended by the mind. When a relation between two concepts is
distinctly apprehended in thought, or, in other words, when there is a
mental assertion of a union between two ideas, or objects of thought,
the process is known as _judgment_. Judgment may be defined, therefore,
as the apprehension, or mental affirmation, of a relation between two
ideas. If the idea, or concept, _heaviness_ enters as a mental element
into my idea _stone_, then the mind is able to affirm a relation between
these concepts in the form, "Stone is heavy." In like manner when the
mind asserts, "Glass is transparent" or "Horses are animals," there is
a distinct apprehension of a relation between the concepts involved.
=Judgment Distinguished from Statement.=--It should be noted that
judgment is the mental apprehension of a relation between ideas. When
this relation is expressed in actual words, it is spoken of as a
proposition, or a predication. A proposition is, therefore, the
statement of a judgment. The proposition is composed of two terms and
the copula, one term constituting the subject of the proposition and the
other the predicate. Although a judgment may often be expressed in some
other form, it can usually be converted into the above form. The
proposition, "Horses eat oats," may be expressed in the form, "Horses
are oat-eaters"; the proposition, "The sun melts the snow," into the
form, "The sun is a-thing-which-melts-snow."
=Relation of Judgment to Conception.=--It would appear from the above
examples that a judgment expresses in an explicit form the relations
involved within the concept, and is, therefore, merely a direct way of
indicating the state of development of any idea. If my concept of a dog,
for example, is a synthesis of the qualities four-footed, hairy, fierce,
and barking, then an analysis of the concept will furnish the following
judgments:
{ A four-footed thing.
{ A hairy thing.
A dog is { A fierce thing.
{ A barking thing.
Because in these cases a concept seems necessary for an act of judgment,
it is said that judgment is a more advanced form of thinking than
conception. On the other hand, however, judgment is implied in the
formation of a concept. When the child apprehends the dog as a
four-footed object, his mind has grasped four-footedness as a quality
pertaining to the strange object, and has, in a sense, brought the two
ideas into relation. But while judgment is implied in the formation of
the concept, the concept does not bring explicitly to the mind the
judgments it implies. The concept snow, for instance, implies the
property of whiteness, but whiteness must be apprehended as a distinct
idea and related mentally with the idea snow before we can be said to
have formed, or thought, the judgment, "Snow is white." Judgment is a
form of thinking separate from conception, therefore, because it does
thus bring into definite relief relations only implied in our general
notions, or concepts. One value of judgment is, in fact, that it enables
us to analyse our concepts, and thus note more explicitly the relations
included in them.
=Universal and Particular Judgments.=--Judgments are found to differ
also as to the universality of their affirmation. In such a judgment as
"Man is mortal," since mortality is viewed as a quality always joined to
manhood, the affirmation is accepted as a universal judgment. In such a
judgment as "Men strive to subdue the air," the two objects of thought
are not considered as always and necessarily joined together. The
judgment is therefore particular in character. All of our laws of
nature, as "Air has weight," "Pressure on liquids is transmitted in
every direction," or "Heat is conducted by metals," are accepted as
universal judgments.
=Errors in Judgment due to: A. Faulty Concepts.=--It may be seen from
the foregoing that our judgments, when explicitly grasped by the mind
and predicated in language, reflect the accuracy or inaccuracy of our
concepts. Whatever relations are, as it were, wrapped up in a concept
may merge at any time in the form of explicit judgments. If the fact
that the only Chinamen seen by a child are engaged in laundry work
causes this attribute to enter into his concept Chinaman, this will lead
him to affirm that the restaurant keeper, Wan Lee, is a laundry-man. The
republican who finds two or three cases of corruption among democrats,
may conceive corruption as a quality common to democrats and affirm that
honest John Smith is corrupt. Faulty concepts, therefore, are very
likely to lead to faulty judgments. A first duty in education is
evidently to see that children are forming correct class concepts. For
this it must be seen that they always distinguish the essential features
of the class of objects they are studying. They must learn, also, not to
conclude on account of superficial likeness that really unlike objects
belong to the same class. The child, for instance, in parsing the
sentence, "The swing broke down," must be taught to look for essential
characteristics, and not call the word _swing_ a gerund because it ends
in "ing"; which, though a common characteristic of gerunds, does not
differentiate it from other classes of words. So, also, when the young
nature student notes that the head of the spider is somewhat separated
from the abdomen, he must not falsely conclude that the spider belongs
to the class insects. In like manner, the pupil must not imagine, on
account of superficial differences, that objects really the same belong
to different classes, as for example, that a certain object is not a
fish, but a bird, because it is flying through the air; or that a whale
is a fish and not an animal, because it lives in water. The pupil must
also learn to distinguish carefully between the particular and universal
judgment. To affirm that "Men strive to subdue the air," does not imply
that "John Smith strives to subdue the air." The importance of this
distinction will be considered more fully in our next section.
=B. Feeling.=--Faulty concepts are not, however, the only causes for
wrong judgments. It has been noted already that feeling enters largely
as a factor in our conscious life. Man, therefore, in forming his
judgments, is always in danger of being swayed by his feelings. Our
likes and dislikes, in other words, interfere with our thinking, and
prevent us from analysing our knowledge as we should. Instead,
therefore, of striving to develop true concepts concerning men and
events and basing our judgments upon these, we are inclined in many
cases to allow our judgments to be swayed by mere feeling.
=C. Laziness.=--Indifference is likewise a common source of faulty
judgments. To attend to the concept and discover its intension as a
means for correct judgment evidently demands mental effort. Many people,
however, prefer either to jump at conclusions or let others do their
judging for them.
=Sound Judgments Based on Scientific Concepts.=--To be able to form
correct judgments regarding the members of any class, however, the child
should know, not only its common characteristics, but also the essential
features which distinguish its members from those of co-ordinate
classes. To know adequately the equilateral triangle, for instance, the
pupil must know both the features which distinguish it from other
triangles and also those in which it agrees with all triangles. To know
fully the mentha family of plants, he must know both the characteristic
qualities of the family and also those of the larger genus labiatae.
From this it will be seen that a large share of school work must be
devoted to building up scientific class notions in the minds of the
pupils. Without this, many of their judgments must necessarily be
faulty. To form such scientific concepts, however, it is necessary to
relate one concept with another in more indirect ways than is done
through the formation of judgments. This brings us to a consideration of
_reasoning_, the third and last form of thinking.
REASONING
=Nature of Reasoning.=--Reasoning is defined as a mental process in
which the mind arrives at a new judgment by comparing other judgments.
The mind, for instance, is in possession of the two judgments, "Stones
are heavy" and "Flint is a stone." By bringing these two judgments under
the eye of attention and comparing them, the mind is able to arrive at
the new judgment, "Flint is heavy." Here the new judgment, expressing a
relation between the notions, _flint_ and _heavy_, is supposed to be
arrived at, neither by direct experience, nor by an immediate analysis
of the concept _flint_, but more indirectly by comparing the other
judgments. The judgment, or conclusion, is said, therefore, to be
arrived at mediately, or by a process of reasoning. Reasoning is of two
forms, deductive, or syllogistic, reasoning, and inductive reasoning.
DEDUCTION
=Nature of Deduction.=--In deduction the mind is said to start with a
general truth, or judgment, and by a process of reasoning to arrive at a
more particular truth, or judgment, thus:
Stone is heavy;
Flint is a stone;
.'. Flint is heavy.
Expressed in this form, the reasoning process, as already mentioned, is
known as a syllogism. The whole syllogism is made up of three parts,
major premise, minor premise, and conclusion. The three concepts
involved in the syllogism are known as the major, the minor, and the
middle term. In the above syllogism, _heavy_, the predicate of the major
premise, is the major term; _flint_, the subject of the minor premise,
is the minor term; and _stone_, to which the other two are related in
the premises, is known as the middle term. Because of this previous
comparison of the major and the minor terms with the middle term,
deduction is sometimes said to be a process by which the mind discovers
a relation between two concepts by comparing them each with a third
concept.
=Purpose of Deduction.=--It is to be noted, however, as pointed out in
Chapter XV, that deductive reasoning takes place normally only when the
mind is faced with a difficulty which demands solution. Take the case of
the boy and his lost coin referred to in Chapter II. As he faces the
problem, different methods of solution may present themselves. It may
enter his mind, for instance, to tear up the grate, but this is rejected
on account of possible damage to the brickwork. Finally he thinks of the
tar and resorts to this method of recovery. In both of the above cases
the boy based his conclusions upon known principles. As he considered
the question of tearing up the grate, the thought came to his mind,
"Lifting-a-grate is a-thing-which-may-cause-damage." As he considered
the use of the tar, he had in mind the judgment, "Adhesion is a property
of tar," and at once inferred that tar would solve his problem. In such
practical cases, however, the mind seems to go directly from the problem
in hand to a conclusion by means of a general principle. When a woman
wishes to remove a stain, she at once says, "Gasoline will remove it."
Here the mind, in arriving at its conclusion, seems to apply the
principle, "Gasoline removes spots," directly to the particular
problem. Thus the reasoning might seem to run as follows:
Problem: What will remove this stain?
Principle: Gasoline will remove stains.
Conclusion: Gasoline will remove this stain.
Here the middle term of the syllogism seems to disappear. It is to be
noted, however, that our thought changes from the universal idea
"stains," mentioned in the statement of the principle, to the particular
idea "this stain" mentioned in the problem and in the conclusion. But
this implies a middle term, which could be expressed thus:
Gasoline will remove stains;
This is a stain;
.'. Gasoline will remove _this_.
The syllogism is valuable, therefore, because it displays fully and
clearly each element in the reasoning process, and thus assures the
validity of the conclusion.
=Deduction in School Recitation.=--It will be recalled from what was
noted in our study of general method, that deduction usually plays an
important part during an ordinary developing lesson. In the step of
preparation, when the pupil is given a particular example in order to
recall old knowledge, the example suggests a problem which is intended
to call up certain principles which are designed to be used during the
presentation. In a lesson on the "Conjunctive Pronoun," for instance, if
we have the pupil recall his knowledge of the conjunction by examining
the particular word "if" in such a sentence as, "I shall go if they
come," he interprets the word as a conjunction simply because he
possesses a general rule applicable to it, or is able to go through a
process of deduction. In the presentation also, when the pupil is called
on to examine the word _who_ in such a sentence as, "The man who met us
is very old," and decides that it is both a conjunction and a pronoun,
he is again making deductions, since it is by his general knowledge of
conjunctions and pronouns that he is able to interpret the two functions
of the particular word _who_. Finally, as already noted, the application
of an ordinary recitation frequently involves deductive processes.
INDUCTION
=Nature of Induction.=--Induction is described as a process of reasoning
in which the mind arrives at a conclusion by an examination of
particular cases, or judgments. A further distinguishing feature of the
inductive process is that, while the known judgments are particular in
character, the conclusion is accepted as a general law, or truth. As in
deduction, the reasoning process arises on account of some difficulty,
or problem, presented to the mind, as for example:
What is the effect of heat upon air?
Will glass conduct electricity?
Why do certain bodies refract light?
To satisfy itself upon the problem, the mind appeals to actual
experience either by ordinary observation or through experimentation.
These observations or experiments, which necessarily deal with
particular instances, are supposed to provide a number of particular
judgments, by examining which a satisfactory conclusion is ultimately
reached.
=Example of Induction.=--As an example of induction, may be taken the
solution of such a problem as, "Does air exert pressure?" To meet this
hypothesis we must evidently do more than merely abstract the manifest
properties of an object, as is done in ordinary conception, or appeal
directly to some known general principle, as is done in deduction. The
work of induction demands rather to examine the two at present known but
disconnected things, _air_ and _pressure_, and by scientific observation
seek to discover a relation between them. For this purpose the
investigator may place a card over a glass filled with water, and on
inverting it find that the card is held to the glass. Taking a glass
tube and putting one end in water, he may place his finger over the
other end and, on raising the tube, find that water remains in the tube.
Soaking a heavy piece of leather in water and pressing it upon the
smooth surface of a stone or other object, he finds the stone can be
lifted by means of the leather. Reflecting upon each of these
circumstances the mind comes to the following conclusions:
Air pressure holds this card to the glass,
Air pressure keeps the water in the tube,
Air pressure holds together the leather and the stone,
.'. Air exerts pressure.
=How Distinguished from, A. Deduction, and B. Conception.=--Such a
process as the above constitutes a process of reasoning, first, because
the conclusion gives a new affirmation, or judgment, "Air exerts
pressure," and secondly, because the judgment is supposed to be arrived
at by comparing other judgments. As a process of reasoning, however, it
differs from deduction in that the final judgment is a general judgment,
or truth, which seems to be based upon a number of particular judgments
obtained from actual experience, while in deduction the conclusion was
particular and the major premise general. It is for this reason that
induction is defined as a process of going from the particular to the
general. Moreover, since induction leads to the formation of a universal
judgment, or general truth, it differs from the generalizing process
known as conception, which leads to the formation of a concept, or
general idea. It is evident, however, that the process will enrich the
concept involved in the new judgment. When the mind is able to affirm
that air exerts pressure, the property, exerting-pressure, is at once
synthesised into the notion air. This point will again be referred to in
comparing induction and conception as generalizing processes.
In speaking of induction as a process of going from the particular to
the general, this does not signify that the process deals with
individual notions. The particulars in an inductive process are
particular cases giving rise to particular judgments, and judgments
involve concepts, or general ideas. When, in the inductive process, it
is asserted that air holds the card to the glass, the mind is seeking to
establish a relation between the notions air and pressure, and is,
therefore, thinking in concepts. For this reason, it is usually said
that induction takes for granted ordinary relations as involved in our
everyday concepts, and concerns itself only with the more hidden
relations of things. The significance of induction as a process of going
from the particular to the general, therefore, consists in the fact that
the conclusion is held to be a wider judgment than is contained in any
of the premises.
=Particular Truth Implies the General.=--Describing the premises of an
inductive process as particular truths, and the conclusion as a
universal truth, however, involves the same fiction as was noted in
separating the percept and the concept into two distinct types of
notions. In the first place, my particular judgment, that air presses
the card against the glass, is itself a deduction resting upon other
general principles. Secondly, if the judgment that air presses the card
against the glass contains no element of universal truth, then a
thousand such judgments could give no universal truth. Moreover, if the
mind approaches a process of induction with a problem, or hypothesis,
before it, the general truth is already apprehended hypothetically in
thought even before the particular instances are examined. When we set
out, for instance, to investigate whether the line joining the bisecting
points of the sides of a triangle is parallel with the base, we have
accepted hypothetically the general principle that such lines are
parallel with the base. The fact is, therefore, that when the mind
examines the particular case and finds it to agree with the hypothesis,
so far as it accepts this case as a truth, it also accepts it as a
universal truth. Although, therefore, induction may involve going from
one particular experiment or observation to another, it is in a sense a
process of going from the general to the general.
That accepting the truth of a particular judgment may imply a universal
judgment is very evident in the case of geometrical demonstrations. When
it is shown, for instance, that in the case of the particular isosceles
triangle ABC, the angles at the base are equal, the mind does not
require to examine other particular triangles for verification, but at
once asserts that in every isosceles triangle the angles at the base are
equal.
=Induction and Conception Interrelated.=--Although as a process,
induction is to be distinguished from conception, it either leads to an
enriching of some concept, or may in fact be the only means by which
certain scientific concepts are formed. While the images obtained by
ordinary sense perception will enable a child to gain a notion of water,
to add to the notion the property, boiling-at-a-certain-temperature, or
able-to-be-converted-into-two-parts-hydrogen-and-one-part-oxygen, will
demand a process of induction. The development of such scientific
notions as oxide, equation, predicate adjective, etc., is also dependent
upon a regular inductive process. For this reason many lessons may be
viewed both as conceptual and as inductive lessons. To teach the adverb
implies a conceptual process, because the child must synthesise certain
attributes into his notion adverb. It is also an inductive lesson,
because these attributes being formulated as definite judgments are,
therefore, obtained inductively. The double character of such a lesson
is fully indicated by the two results obtained. The lesson ends with the
acquisition of a new term, adverb, which represents the result of the
conceptual process. It also ends with the definition: "An adverb is a
word which modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb," which indicates
the general truth or truths resulting from the inductive process.
=Deduction and Induction Interrelated.=--In our actual teaching
processes there is a very close inter-relation between the two processes
of reasoning. We have already noted on page 322 that, in such inductive
lessons as teaching the definition of a noun or the rule for the
addition of fractions, both the preparatory step and the application
involve deduction. It is to be noted further, however, that even in the
development of an inductive lesson there is a continual interplay
between induction and deduction. This will be readily seen in the case
of a pupil seeking to discover the rule for determining the number of
repeaters in the addition of recurring decimals. When he notes that
adding three numbers with one, one, and two repeaters respectively,
gives him two repeaters in his answer, he is more than likely to infer
that the rule is to have in the answer the highest number found among
the addenda. So far as he makes this inference, he undoubtedly will
apply it in interpreting the next problem, and if the next numbers have
one, one, and three repeaters respectively, he will likely be quite
convinced that his former inference is correct. When, however, he meets
a question with one, two, and three repeaters respectively, he finds his
former inference is incorrect, and may, thereupon, draw a new inference,
which he will now proceed to apply to further examples. The general fact
to be noted here, however, is that, so far as the mind during the
examination of the particular examples reaches any conclusion in an
inductive lesson, it evidently applies this conclusion to some degree in
the study of the further examples, or thinks deductively, even during
the inductive process.
=Development of Reasoning Power.=--Since reasoning is essentially a
purposive form of thinking, it is evident that any reasoning process
will depend largely upon the presence of some problem which shall
stimulate the mind to seek out relations necessary to its solution.
Power to reason, therefore, is conditioned by the ability to attend
voluntarily to the problem and discover the necessary relations. It is
further evident that the accuracy of any reasoning process must be
dependent upon the accuracy of the judgments upon which the conclusions
are based. But these judgments in turn depend for their accuracy upon
the accuracy of the concepts involved. Correct reasoning, therefore,
must depend largely upon the accuracy of our concepts, or, in other
words, upon the old knowledge at our command. On the other hand,
however, it has been seen that both deductive and inductive reasoning
follow to some degree a systematic form. For this reason it may be
assumed that the practice of these forms should have some effect in
giving control of the processes. The child, for instance, who habituates
himself to such thought processes as AB equals BC, and AC equals BC,
therefore AB equals AC, no doubt becomes able thereby to grasp such
relations more easily. Granting so much, however, it is still evident
that close attention to, and accurate knowledge of, the various terms
involved in the reasoning process is the sure foundation of correct
reasoning.
CHAPTER XXIX
FEELING
=Sensuous and Ideal Feeling.=--We have noted (Chapter XXIV), that in
addition to the general feeling tone accompanying an act of attention,
and already described as a feeling of interest, there are two important
classes of feeling known respectively as sensuous and ideal feeling.
When a person says: "I feel tired" or "I feel hungry," he is referring
to the feeling side of certain organic sensations. When he says: "The
air feels cold" or "The paper feels smooth," he is referring to the
feeling side of temperature and touch sensations. These are, therefore,
examples of sensuous feeling. On the other hand, to say "I feel angry"
or "I feel afraid," is to refer to a feeling state which accompanies
perhaps the perception of some object, the recollection or anticipation
of some act, or the inference that something is sure to happen, etc.
These latter states are therefore known as ideal feelings.
=Quality of Feeling States.=--The qualities of our various feeling
states are distinguished under two heads, pleasure and pain. It might
seem at first sight that our feeling states will fall into a much larger
number of classes distinguished by differences in quality, or tone. The
taste of an orange, the smell of lavender, the touch of a hot stove, the
appreciation of a fine piece of music, and the appreciation of a lofty
poem, seem at first sight to yield different feelings. The supposed
difference in the quality of the feelings is due, however, to a
difference in the knowledge elements accompanying the feelings, or to
the fact that they are discriminated as different experiences. The idea
of the music or the poem is of a higher grade than the sensory image of
taste, and accordingly the feelings _appear_ to be different. The
feelings may, of course, differ in intensity, but in _quality_ they are
either pleasant or unpleasant.
CONDITIONS OF FEELING TONE
=A. Neural.=--The quality, or tone, of a feeling will vary according to
the intensity of the impression. Great heat stimulates the nerves
violently and the resultant feeling state is painful; warmth gives a
moderate stimulation and the resultant tone is pleasant. Excessive cold
also, because it stimulates violently, produces a painful feeling. Since
the intensity of a stimulus varies according to the resistance
encountered in the nervous arc, the quality of a feeling state must,
therefore, vary according to the resistance. It is for this reason that
an experience, at first very painful, may lose much of its tone by
repetition. By repetition the nerve centres are adapted to the
experience, resistance is lessened, and the accompanying pain
diminished. In this way, some work or exercise, which is at first
positively unpleasant, may at least become endurable as the organism
becomes adapted to the occupation. From this point of view, it is
sometimes said that any impressions to which we are perfectly adapted
give pleasurable feelings, while, in other cases the resultant tone will
be painful.
=B. Mental.=--The law of perfect adaptation also explains why ideal
feelings may at one time result in a pleasant, and at another time in a
painful, feeling tone. According to the principle of apperception, the
new experience must organize itself with whatever thoughts and feelings
are now occupying consciousness. It necessarily happens that a given
experience does not always equally harmonize with our present thoughts
and feelings. The recognition of a friend under ordinary circumstances
is agreeable, but amid certain associations or in a certain environment,
such recognition would be disagreeable. So, too, while an original
experience may have been agreeable, the memory of it may now be
disagreeable; and vice versa. For instance, the memory of a former
success or prosperity may, in the midst of present failure and poverty,
be disagreeable; while the recollection of former failure and defeat may
now, in the midst of success and prosperity, be agreeable. What is it
that makes a sensation, a perception, a memory, or an apprehended
relation pleasant under some circumstances and unpleasant under others?
The rule appears to be that when the experience harmonizes with our
present train of thought, when it promotes our present interests and
intentions, it is pleasant; but when, on the other hand, it does not
harmonize with our train of thought or thwarts or impedes our interests
and purposes, it is unpleasant.
=Function of Pleasure and Pain.=--From what has been noted concerning
co-ordination between the adaptation of the organism to impression and
the quality of the accompanying feeling, it is evident that pleasure and
pain each have their part to play in promoting the ultimate good of the
individual. Pain is beneficial, because it lets us know that there is
some misadjustment to our environment, and thereby warns us to remove or
cease doing what is proving injurious. In this connection, it may be
noted that no disease is so dangerous as one that fails to make its
presence known through pain. Pleasure also is valuable in so far as it
results from perfect adaptation to a perfect environment, since it
induces the individual to continue beneficial acts. It must be
remembered, however, that so far as heredity or education has adapted
our organism to improper stimuli, pleasure is no proof that the good of
the organism is being advanced. In such cases, redemption can come to
the fallen world only through suffering.
=Feeling and Knowing.=--Since the intensity of a feeling state is
conditioned by the amount of resistance, an intense state of feeling is
likely to be accompanied by a lowering of intellectual activity. For
this reason excessive hunger, heat or cold, intense joy, anger or
sorrow, are usually antagonistic to intellectual work. The explanation
for this seems to be that so much of our nervous energy is consumed in
overcoming the resistance in the centres affected, that little is left
for ordinary intellectual processes. This does not, of course, imply
that no one can do intellectual work under such conditions; nor that the
intellectual man is always devoid of strong feelings, although such is
often the case. Occasionally, however, a man is so strongly endowed with
nervous energy, that even after overcoming the resistance being
encountered, he still has a residue of energy to devote to ordinary
intellectual processes.
=Feeling and Will.=--Although, as pointed out in the last paragraph,
there is a certain antagonism between knowing and feeling, it has also
been seen that every experience has its knowing as well as its feeling
side. Because of this co-ordination, the qualities of our feeling states
become known to us, or are able to be distinguished by the mind. As a
result of this recognition of a difference in our feeling states, we
learn to seek states of pleasure and to avoid states of pain or, in
other words, our mere states of feeling become desires. This means that
we become able to contrast a present feeling with other remembered
states, and seek either to continue the present desired state or to
substitute another for the present undesirable feeling. In the form of
desire, therefore, our feelings become strong motives, which may
influence the will to certain lines of action.
SENSUOUS FEELINGS
While the sensations of the special senses, namely, sight, sound, touch,
taste, and smell, have each their affective, or feeling, side, a minute
study of these feelings is not necessary for our present purpose. It may
be noted, however, that in the more intellectual senses, namely, sight,
hearing, and touch, feeling tone is less marked, although strong feeling
may accompany certain tactile sensations. In the lower senses of taste
and smell, the feeling tone is more pronounced. Under muscular sensation
we meet such marked feeling tones as fatigue, exertion, and strain,
while associated with the organic sensations are such feelings as hunger
and thirst, and the various pains which usually accompany derangement
and disease of the bodily organs. Some of these feelings are important,
because they are likely to influence the will by developing into desires
in the form of appetites. Many sensuous feelings are important also
because they especially warn the mind regarding the condition of the
organism.
EMOTION
=Nature of Emotion.=--An emotion differs from sensuous feeling, not in
its content, but in its higher intensity, its greater complexity, and
its more elaborate motor response. It may be defined as a succession of
interconnected feelings with a more complex physical expression than a
simple feeling. On reading an account of a battle, one may feel sad and
express this sadness only in a gloomy appearance of the face. But if
one finds that in this battle a friend has been killed, the feeling is
much intensified and may become an emotion of grief, expressing itself
in some complex way, perhaps in tears, in sobbing, in wringing the
hands. Similarly, a feeling of slight irritation expressed in a frowning
face, if intensified, becomes the emotion of anger, expressed in tense
muscles, rapidly beating heart, laboured breathing, perhaps a torrent of
words or a hasty blow.
=Emotion and Instinct.=--Feeling and instinct are closely related. Every
instinct has its affective phase, that is, its satisfaction always
involves an element of pleasure or pain. The satisfaction of the
instincts of curiosity or physical activity illustrates this fact. On
the other hand, every emotion has its characteristic instinctive
response. Fear expresses itself in all persons alike in certain
characteristic ways inherited from a remote ancestry; anger expresses
itself in other instinctive reactions; grief in still others.
CONDITIONS OF EMOTION
An analysis of a typical emotion will serve to show the conditions under
which it makes its appearance. Let us take first the emotion of fear.
Suppose a person is walking alone on a dark night along a deserted
street. His nervous currents are discharging themselves uninterruptedly
over their wonted channels, his current of thought is unimpeded.
Suddenly there appears a strange and frightful object in his pathway.
His train of thought is violently checked. His nervous currents, which a
moment ago were passing out smoothly and without undue resistance into
muscles of legs, arms, body, and face, are now suddenly obstructed, or
in other words encounter violent resistance. He stands still. His heart
momentarily stops beating. A temporary paralysis seizes him. As the
nervous currents thus encounter resistance, the feeling tone known as
fear is experienced. At the same time the currents burst their barriers
and overflow into new channels that are easy of access, the motor
centres being especially of this character. Some of the currents,
therefore, run to the involuntary muscles, and in consequence the heart
beats faster, the breathing becomes heavier, the face grows pale, a cold
sweat breaks forth, the hair "stands on end." Other currents, through
hereditary influences, pass to the voluntary muscles, and the person
shrieks, and turns and flees.
Or take the emotion of anger. Some fine morning in school everything is
in good order, everybody is industriously at work, the lessons are
proceeding satisfactorily. The current of the teacher's experience is
flowing smoothly and unobstructedly. Presently a troublesome boy, who
has been repeatedly reproved for misconduct, again shows symptoms of
idleness and misbehaviour. The smooth current of experience being
checked, here also both a new feeling tone is experienced and the wonted
nerve currents flow out into other brain centres. The teacher stops his
work and gazes fixedly at the offending pupil. His heart beats rapidly,
the blood surges to his face, his breathing becomes heavy, his muscles
grow tense. In these reactions we have the nervous currents passing out
over involuntary channels. Then, perhaps, the teacher unfortunately
breaks forth into a torrent of words or lays violent hands upon the
offender. Here the nervous currents are passing outward over the
voluntary system.
These illustrations indicate that three important conditions are present
at the appearance of the emotion, namely, (1) the presence of an
unusual object in consciousness, (2) the consequent disturbance of the
smooth flow of experience or, in physiological terms, the temporary
obstruction of the ordinary pathways of nervous discharge through the
great resistance encountered, and (3) the new feeling state with its
concomitant overflow of the impulses into new motor channels, some of
which lead to the involuntary muscles and others to the voluntary. The
emotion proper consists in the feeling state which arises as a result of
the resistance encountered by the nervous impulses as the smooth flow of
experience is checked. The idea that I shall die some day arouses no
emotion in me, because it in no way affects my ordinary thought
processes, and therefore it in no way disturbs my nervous equilibrium.
The perception of a wild animal about to kill me, because it suddenly
thwarts and impedes the smooth flow of my experience through a
suggestion of danger, produces an intense feeling and a diffused and
intense derangement of the nervous equilibrium.
=Development of Emotions.=--The question of paramount importance
in connection with emotion is how to arouse and develop desirable
emotions. The close connection of the three phases of the mind's
manifestation--knowing, feeling, and willing, gives the key to the
question. Feeling cannot be developed alone apart from knowing and
willing. In fact, if we attend carefully to the knowing and willing
activities, the feelings, in one sense, take care of themselves. Two
principles, therefore, lie at the basis of proper emotional development:
1. The mind must be allowed to dwell upon only those ideas to which
worthy emotions are attached. We must refuse to think those thoughts
that are tinged with unworthy feelings. The Apostle Paul has expressed
this very eloquently when he says in his Epistle to the Philippians:
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are
honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if
there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."
2. The teacher's main duty in the above regard is to provide the pupil
with a rich fund of ideas to which desirable feelings cling. An
impressive manner, an enthusiastic attitude toward subjects of study, an
evident interest in them, and apparent appreciation of them, will also
aid much in inspiring pupils with proper feelings, for feelings are
often contagious in the absence of very definite ideas. How often have
we been deeply moved by hearing a poem impressively read even though we
have very imperfectly grasped its meaning. The feelings of the reader
have been communicated to us through the principle of contagion.
Similarly, in history, art, and nature study, emotions may be stirred,
not only through the medium of the ideas presented, but also by the
impressiveness, the enthusiasm, and the interest exhibited by the
teacher in presenting them.
3. We must give expression to these emotions we wish to develop.
Expression means the probability of the recurrence of the emotion, and
gradually an emotional habit is formed. An unselfish disposition is
cultivated by performing little acts of kindness and self-denial
whenever the opportunity offers. The expression of a desirable emotion,
moreover, should not stop merely with an experience of the organic
sensations or the reflex reactions accompanying the emotion. To listen
to a sermon and react only by an emotional thrill, a quickened heart
beat, or a few tears, is a very ineffective kind of expression. The
only kind of emotional expression that is of much consequence either to
ourselves or others is conduct. Only in so far as our emotional
experiences issue in action that is beneficial to those about us, are
they of any practical value.
=Elimination of Emotions.=--Since certain of our emotions, such as anger
and fear, are, in general, undesirable states of feeling, a question
arises how such emotions may be prevented. It is sometimes said that, if
we can inhibit the expression, the emotion will disappear, that is, if I
can prevent the trembling, I will cease to be afraid. From what has just
been learned, however, the emotion and its expression being really
concomitant results of the antecedent obstruction of ordinary nervous
discharges, emotion cannot be checked by checking the expression, but
both will be checked if the nervous impulses can be made to continue in
their wonted courses in spite of the disturbing presentations. The real
secret of emotional control lies, therefore, in the power of voluntary
attention. The effect of attention is to cause the nervous energy to be
directed without undue resistance into its wonted channels, this, in
turn, preventing its overflow into new channels. By thus directing the
energy into wonted and open channels, attention prevents both the
movements and the feeling that are concomitants of a disturbance of
nervous equilibrium. By meeting the attack of the dog in a purposeful
and attentive manner, we cause the otherwise damming-up nervous energy
to continue flowing into ordinary channels, and in this way prevent both
the feeling of fear and also the flow of the energy into the motor
centres associated with the particular emotion. But while it is not
scientifically correct in a particular case to say that we may inhibit
the feeling by inhibiting the movements, it is of course true that, by
avoiding a present emotional outburst, we are less likely in the future
to respond to situations which tend to arouse the emotional state. On
the other hand, to give way frequently to any emotional state will make
it more difficult to avoid yielding to the emotion under similar
conditions.
OTHER TYPES OF FEELING
=Mood.=--Our feelings and emotions become organized and developed in
various ways. The sum total of all the feeling tones of our sensory and
ideational processes at any particular time gives us our _mood_ at that
time. If, for instance, our organic sensations are prevailingly
pleasant, if the ideas we dwell upon are tinged with agreeable feeling,
our mood is cheerful. We can to a large extent control our current of
thought, and can as we will, except in case of serious bodily
disturbances, attend, or not attend, to our organic sensations.
Consequently we are ourselves largely responsible for the moods we
indulge.
=Disposition.=--A particular kind of mood frequently indulged in
produces a type of emotional habit, our _disposition_. For instance, the
teacher who permits the occurrences of the class-room to trouble him
unnecessarily, and who broods over these afterwards, soon develops a
worrying disposition. As we have it in our power to determine what
habits, emotional and otherwise, we form, we alone are responsible for
the dispositions we cultivate.
=Temperament.=--Some of us are provided with nervous systems that are
predisposed to particular moods. This predisposition, together with
frequent indulgence in particular types of mood, gives us our
_temperament_. The responsibility for this we share with our ancestors,
but, even though predisposed through heredity to unfortunate moods, we
can ourselves decide whether we shall give way to them. Temperaments
have been classified as _sanguine_, _melancholic_, _choleric_, and
_phlegmatic_. The sanguine type is inclined to look on the bright side
of things, to be optimistic; the melancholic tends to moodiness and
gloom; the choleric is easily irritated, quick to anger; the phlegmatic
is not easily aroused to emotion, is cold and sluggish. An individual
seldom belongs exclusively to one type.
=Sentiments.=--Certain emotional tendencies become organized about an
object and constitute a _sentiment_. The sentiment of love for our
mother had its basis in our childhood in the perception of her as the
source of numberless experiences involving pleasant feeling tones. As we
grew older, we understood better her solicitude for our welfare and her
sacrifices for our sake--further experiences involving a large feeling
element. Thus there grew up about our mother an organized system of
emotional tendencies, our sentiment of filial love. Such sentiments as
patriotism, religious faith, selfishness, sympathy, arise and develop in
the same way. Compared with moods, sentiments are more permanent in
character and involve more complex knowledge elements. Moreover, they do
not depend upon physiological conditions as do moods. One's organic
sensations may affect one's mood to a considerable extent, but will
scarcely influence one's patriotism or filial love.
CHAPTER XXX
THE WILL
VOLUNTARY CONTROL OF ACTION
=Types of Movement.=--Closely associated with the problem of voluntary
attention is that of voluntary movement, or control of action. It is an
evident fact that the infant can at first exercise no conscious control
over his bodily movements. He has, it is true, certain reflex and
instinctive tendencies which enable him to react in a definite way to
certain special stimuli. In such cases, however, there is no conscious
control of the movements, the bodily organs merely responding in a
definite way whenever the proper stimulus is present. The eye, for
instance, must wink when any foreign matter affects it; wry movements of
the face must accompany the bitter taste; and the body must start at a
sudden noise. At other times, bodily movements may be produced in a more
spontaneous way. Here the physical energy stored within the system gives
rise to bodily activity and causes those random impulsive movements so
evident during infancy and early childhood. When these movements, which
are the only ones possible to very early childhood, are compared with
the movements of a workman placing the brick in the wall or of an artist
executing a delicate piece of carving, there is found in the latter
movements the conscious idea of a definite end, or object, to be
reached. To gain control of one's movements is, therefore, to acquire an
ability to direct bodily actions toward the attainment of a given end.
Thus a question arises as to the process by which a child attains to
this bodily control.
=Ideas of Movements Acquired.=--Although, as pointed out above, a
child's early instinctive and impulsive movements are not under
conscious control, they nevertheless become conscious acts, in the sense
that the movements are soon realized in idea. The movements, in other
words, give rise to conscious states, and these in turn are retained as
portions of past experience. For instance, although the child at first
grasps the object only impulsively, he nevertheless soon obtains an
idea, or experience, of what it means to grasp with the hand. So, also,
although he may first stretch the limb impulsively or make a wry face
reflexively, he secures, in a short time, ideas representative of these
movements. As the child thus obtains ideas representative of different
bodily movements, he is able ultimately, by fixing his attention upon
any movement, to produce it in a voluntary way.
=Development of Control: A. Ideo-motor Action.=--At first, on account of
the close association between the thought centres and the motor centres
causing the act, the child seems to have little ability to check the
act, whenever its representative idea enters consciousness. It is for
this reason that young children often perform such seemingly
unreasonable acts as, for instance, slapping another person, kicking and
throwing objects, etc. In such cases, however, it must not be assumed
that these are always deliberate acts. More often the act is performed
simply because the image of the act arises in the child's mind, and his
control of the motor discharge is so weak that the act follows
immediately upon the idea. This same tendency frequently manifests
itself even in the adult. As one thinks intently of some favourite game,
he may suddenly find himself taking a bodily position used in playing
that game. It is by the same law also that the impulsive man tends to
act out in gesture any act that he may be describing in words. Such a
type of action is described as ideo-motor action.
=B. Deliberate Action.=--Because the child in time gains ideas of
various movements and an ability to fix his attention upon them, he thus
becomes able to set one motor image against another as possible lines of
action. One image may suggest to slap; the other to caress; the one to
pull the weeds in the flower bed; the other, to lie down in the hammock.
But attention is ultimately able, as noted in the last Chapter, so to
control the impulse and resistance in the proper nervous centres that
the acts themselves may be indefinitely suspended. Thus the mind becomes
able to conceive lines of action and, by controlling bodily movement,
gain time to consider the effectiveness of these toward the attainment
of any end. When a bodily movement thus takes place in relation to some
conscious end in view, it is termed a deliberate act. One important
result of physical exercises with the young child is that they develop
in him this deliberate control of bodily movements. The same may be said
also of any orderly modes of action employed in the general management
of the school. Regular forms of assembly and dismissal, of moving about
the class-room, etc., all tend to give the child this same control over
his acts.
=Action versus Result.=--As already noted, however, most of our
movements soon develop into fixed habits. For this reason our bodily
acts are usually performed more or less unconsciously, that is, without
any deliberation as to the mere act itself. For this reason, we find
that when bodily movements are held in check, or inhibited, in order to
allow time for deliberation, attention usually fixes itself, not upon
the acts themselves, but rather upon the results of these acts. For
instance, a person having an axe and a saw may wish to divide a small
board into two parts. Although the axe may be in his hand, he is
thinking, not how he is to use the axe, but how it will result if he
uses this to accomplish the end. In the same way he considers, not how
to use the saw, but the result of using the saw. By inhibiting the motor
impulses which would lead to the use of either of these, the individual
is able to note, say, that to use the axe is a quick, but inaccurate,
way of gaining the end; to use the saw, a slow, but accurate, way. The
present need being interpreted as one where only an approximate division
is necessary, attention is thereupon given wholly to the images tending
to promote this action; resistance is thus overcome in these centres,
and the necessary motor discharges for using the axe are given free
play. Here, however, the mind evidently does not deliberate on how the
hands are to use the axe or the saw, but rather upon the results
following the use of these.
VOLITION
=Nature of Will.=--When voluntary attention is fixed, as above, upon the
results of conflicting lines of action, the mind is said to experience a
conflict of desires, or motives. So long as this conflict lasts,
physical expression is inhibited, the mind deliberating upon and
comparing the conflicting motives. For instance, a pupil on his way to
school may be thrown into a conflict of motives. On the one side is a
desire to remain under the trees near the bank of the stream; on the
other a desire to obey his parents, and go to school. So long as these
desires each press themselves upon the attention, there results an
inhibiting of the nervous motor discharge with an accompanying mental
state of conflict, or indecision. This prevents, for the time being, any
action, and the youth deliberates between the two possible lines of
conduct. As he weighs the various elements of pleasure on the one hand
and of duty on the other, the one desire will finally appear the
stronger. This constitutes the person's choice, or decision, and a line
of action follows in accordance with the end, or motive, chosen. This
mental choice, or decision, is usually termed an act of will.
=Attention in Will.=--Such a choice between motives, however, evidently
involves an act of voluntary attention. What really goes on in
consciousness in such a conflict of motives is that voluntary attention
makes a single problem of the twofold situation--school versus play. To
this problem the attention marshals relative ideas and selects and
adjusts them to the complex problem. Finally these are built into an
organized experience which solves the problem as one, say, of going to
school. The so-called choice is, therefore, merely the mental solution
of the situation; the necessary bodily action follows in an habitual
manner, once the attention lessens the resistance in the appropriate
centres.
=Factors in Volitional Act.=--Such an act of volition, or will, is
usually analysed in the following steps:
1. Conflicting desires
2. Deliberation--weighing of motives
3. Choice--solving the problem
4. Expression.
As a mental process, however, an act of will does not include the fourth
step--expression. The mind has evidently willed, the moment a
conclusion, or choice, is reached in reference to the end in view. If,
therefore, I stand undecided whether to paint the house white or green,
an act of will has taken place when the conclusion, or mental decision,
has been reached to paint the house green. On the other hand, however,
only the man who forms a decision and then resolutely works out his
decision through actual expression, will be credited with a strong will
by the ordinary observer.
=Physical Conditions of Will.=--Deliberation being but a special case of
giving voluntary attention to a selected problem, it involves the same
expenditure of nervous energy in overcoming resistance within the brain
centres as was seen to accompany any act of voluntary attention. Such
being the case, our power of will at any given time is likely to vary in
accordance with our bodily condition. The will is relatively weak during
sickness, for instance, because the normal amount of nervous energy
which must accompany the mental processes of deliberation and choice is
not able to be supplied. For the same reason, lack of food and sleep,
working in bad air, etc., are found to weaken the will for facing a
difficulty, though we may nevertheless feel that it is something that
ought to be done. An added reason, therefore, why the victim of alcohol
and narcotics finds it difficult to break his habit is that the use of
these may permanently lessen the energy of the nervous organism. In
facing the difficult task of breaking an old habit, therefore, this
person has rendered the task doubly difficult, because the indulgence
has weakened his will for undertaking the struggle of breaking an old
habit. On the other hand, good food, sleep, exercise in the fresh air,
by quickening the blood and generating nervous energy, in a sense
strengthens the will in undertaking the duties and responsibilities
before it.
ABNORMAL TYPES OF WILL
=The Impulsive Will.=--One important problem in the education of the
will is found in the relation of deliberation to choice. As is the case
in a process of learning, the mind in deliberating must draw upon past
experiences, must select and weigh conflicting ideas in a more or less
intelligent manner, and upon this basis finally make its choice. A first
characteristic of a person of will, therefore, is to be able to
deliberate intelligently upon any different lines of action which may
present themselves. But in the case of many individuals, there seems a
lack of this power of deliberation. On every hand they display almost a
childlike impulsiveness, rushing blindly into action, and always
following up the word with the blow. This type, which is spoken of as an
impulsive will, is likely to prevail more or less among young children.
It is essential, therefore, that the teacher should take this into
account in dealing with the moral and the practical actions of these
children. It should be seen that such children in their various
exercises are made to inhibit their actions sufficiently to allow them
to deliberate and choose between alternative modes of action. For this
purpose typical forms of constructive work will be found of educational
value. In such exercises situations may be continually created in which
the pupil must deliberate upon alternative lines of action and make his
choice accordingly.
=The Retarded Will.=--In some cases a type of will is met in which the
attention seems unable to lead deliberation into a state of choice. Like
Hamlet, the person keeps ever weighing whether _to be or not to be_ is
the better course. Such people are necessarily lacking in achievement,
although always intending to do great things in the future. This type of
will is not so prevalent among young children; but if met, the teacher
should, as far as possible, encourage the pupil to pass more rapidly
from thought to action.
=The Sluggish Will.=--A third and quite common defect of will is seen
where the mind is either too ignorant or too lazy to do the work of
deliberating. While such characters are not impulsive, they tend to
follow lines of action merely by habit, or in accordance with the
direction of others, and do little thinking for themselves. The only
remedy for such people is, of course, to quicken their intellectual
life. Unless this can be done, the goodness of their character must
depend largely upon the nobility of those who direct the formation of
their habits and do their thinking for them.
=Development of Will.=--By recalling what has been established
concerning the learning process, we may learn that most school
exercises, when properly conducted, involve the essential facts of an
act of will. In an ordinary school exercise, the child first has before
him a certain aim, or problem, and then must select from former
experience the related ideas which will enable him to solve this
problem. So far, however, as the child is led to select and reject for
himself these interpreting ideas, he must evidently go through a process
similar to that of an ordinary act of will. When, for example, the child
faces the problem of finding out how many yards of carpet of a certain
width will cover the floor of a room, he must first decide how to find
the number of strips required. Having come to a decision on this point,
he must next give expression to his decision by actually working out
this part of the problem. In like manner, he must now decide how to
proceed with the next step in his problem and, having come to a
conclusion on this point, must also give it expression by performing
the necessary mathematical processes. It is for this reason, that the
ordinary lessons and exercises of the school, when presented to the
children as actual problems, constitute an excellent means for
developing will power.
=The Essentials of Moral Character.=--It must be noted finally, that
will power is a third essential factor in the attainment of real moral
character, or social efficiency. We have learned that man, through the
possession of an intelligent nature, is able to grasp the significance
of his experience and thus form comprehensive plans and purposes for the
regulation of his conduct. We have noted further that, through the
development of right feeling, he may come to desire and plan for the
attainment of only such ends as make for righteousness. Yet, however
noble his desires, and however intelligent and comprehensive his plans
and purposes, it is only as he develops a volitional personality, or
determination of character which impels toward the attainment of these
noble ends through intelligent plans, that man can be said to live the
truly efficient life.
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,
These three alone lead life to sovereign power.
In this connection, also, we cannot do better than quote Huxley's
description of an educated man, as given in his essay on _A Liberal
Education_, a description which may be considered to crystallize the
true conception of an efficient citizen:
That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so
trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will,
and does with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism,
it is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine,
with all its parts of equal strength, and in smooth working order;
ready, like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and
spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind; whose
mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths
of nature, and of the laws of her operations; one who, no stunted
ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained
to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender
conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of nature
or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself.
CHAPTER XXXI
CHILD STUDY
=Scope and Purpose of Child Study.=--By child study is meant the
observation of the general characteristics and the leading individual
differences exhibited by children during the periods of infancy,
childhood, and adolescence. Its purpose is to gather facts regarding
childhood and formulate them into principles that are applicable in
education. From the teacher's standpoint, the purpose is to be able to
adapt intelligently his methods in each subject to the child's mind at
the different stages of its development.
In the education of the child we have our eyes fixed, at least partly,
upon his future. The aim of education is usually stated in terms of what
the child is to _become_. He is to become a socially efficient
individual, to be fitted to live completely, to develop a good moral
character, to have his powers of mind and body harmoniously developed.
All these aims look toward the future. But what the child _becomes_
depends upon what he _is_. Education, in its broadest sense, means
taking the individual's present equipment of mind and body and so using
it as to enable him to become something else in the future. The teacher
must be concerned, therefore, not only with what he wishes the child to
_become_ in the future, but also with what he _is_, here and now.
=Importance to the Teacher.=--The adaptation of matter and method to the
child's tendencies, capacities, and interests, which all good teaching
demands, is possible only through an understanding of his nature. The
teacher must have regard, not only to the materials and the method used
in training, but also to the being who is to be trained. A knowledge of
child nature will prevent expensive mistakes and needless waste.
A few typical examples will serve to illustrate the immense importance a
knowledge of child nature is to his teacher.
1. As has been already explained, when the teacher knows something about
the instincts of children, he will utilize these tendencies in his
teaching and work with them, not against them. He will, wherever
possible, make use of the play instinct in his lessons, as for example,
when he makes the multiplication drill a matter of climbing a stairway
without stumbling or crossing a stream on stones without falling in. He
will use the instinct of physical activity in having children learn
number combinations by manipulating blocks, or square measure by
actually measuring surfaces, or fractions by using scissors and strips
of cardboard, or geographical features by modelling in sand and clay. He
will use the imitative instinct in cultivating desirable personal
habits, such as neatness, cleanliness, and order, and in modifying
conduct through the inspiring presentation of history and literature. He
will provide exercise for the instinct of curiosity by suggesting
interesting problems in geography and nature study.
2. When the teacher understands the principle of eliminating undesirable
tendencies by substitution, he will not regard as cardinal sins the
pushing, pinching, and kicking in which boys give vent to their excess
energy, but will set about directing this purposeless activity into more
profitable channels. He will thus substitute another means of
expression for the present undesirable means. He will, for instance,
give opportunity for physical exercises, paper-folding and cutting,
cardboard work, wood-work, drawing, colour work, modelling, etc., so far
as possible in all school subjects. He will try to transform the boy who
teases and bullies the smaller boys into a guardian and protector. He
will try to utilize the boy's tendency to collect useless odds and ends
by turning it into the systematic and purposeful collection of plants,
insects, specimens of soils, specimens illustrating phases of
manufactures, postage stamps, coins, etc.
3. When the teacher knows that the interests of pupils have much to do
with determining their effort, he will endeavour to seize upon these
interests when most active. He will thus be saved such blunders as
teaching in December a literature lesson on _An Apple Orchard in the
Spring_, or assigning a composition on "Tobogganing" in June, because he
realizes that the interest in these topics is not then active. Each
season, each month of the year, each festival and holiday has its own
particular interests, which may be effectively utilized by the
presentation of appropriate materials in literature, in composition, in
nature study, and in history. A current event may be taken advantage of
to teach an important lesson in history or civics. For instance, an
election may be made the occasion of a lesson on voting by ballot, a
miniature election being conducted for that purpose.
4. When the teacher appreciates the extent of the capacities of
children, he will not make too heavy demands upon their powers of
logical reasoning by introducing too soon the study of formal grammar or
the solution of difficult arithmetical problems. When he knows that the
period from eight to twelve is the habit-forming period, he will
stress, during these years such things as mechanical accuracy in the
fundamental rules in arithmetic, the memorization of gems of poetry, and
the cultivation of right physical and moral habits. When he knows the
influence of motor expression in giving definiteness, vividness, and
permanency to ideas, he will have much work in drawing, modelling,
constructive work, dramatization, and oral and written expression.
METHODS OF CHILD STUDY
=A. Observation.=--From the teacher's standpoint the method of
observation of individual children is the most practicable. He has the
material for his observations constantly before him. He soon discovers
that one pupil is clever, another dull; that one excels in arithmetic,
another in history; that one is inclined to jump to conclusions, another
is slow and deliberate. He is thus able to adapt his methods to meet
individual requirements. But however advantageous this may be from the
practical point of view, it must be noted that the facts thus secured
are individual and not universal. Such child study does not in itself
carry one very far. To be of real value to the teacher, these particular
facts must be recognized as illustrative of a general law. When the
teacher discovers, for instance, that nobody in his class responds very
heartily to an abstract discussion of the rabbit, but that everybody is
intensely interested when the actual rabbit is observed, he may regard
the facts as illustrating the general principle that children need to be
appealed to through the senses. Likewise when he obtains poor results in
composition on the topic, "How I Spent My Summer Holidays," but
excellent results on "How to Plant Bulbs," especially after the pupils
have planted a bed of tulips on the front lawn, he may infer the law,
that the best work is obtained when the matter is closely associated
with the active interests of pupils. By watching the children when they
are on the school grounds, the teacher may observe how far the
occupations of the home, or a current event, such as a circus, an
election, or a war, influences the play of the children. Thus the method
of observation requires that not only individual facts should be
obtained, but also that general principles should be inferred on the
basis of these. Care must be taken, however, that the facts observed
justify the inference.
=B. Experiment.=--An experiment in any branch of science means the
observation of results under controlled conditions. Experimental child
study must, to a large extent, therefore, be relegated to the
psychological laboratory. Such experiments as the localization of
cutaneous impressions, the influence of certain operations on fatigue,
or the discovery of the length of time necessary for a conscious
reaction, can be successfully carried out only with more or less
elaborate equipment and under favourable conditions. However, the school
offers opportunity for some simple yet practical experiments in child
study. The teacher may discover experimentally what is the most
favourable period at which to place a certain subject on the school
programme, whether, for instance, it is best to take mechanical
arithmetic when the minds of the pupils are fresh or when they are
weary, or whether the writing lesson had better be taught immediately
after the strenuous play at recess or at a time when the muscles are
rested. He may find out the response of the pupils to problems in
arithmetic closely connected with their lives (for example, in a rural
community problems relating to farm activities), as compared with their
response to problems involving more or less remote ideas. He may
discover to what extent concentration in securing neat exercises in one
subject, composition for instance, affects the exercises in other
subjects in which neatness has not been explicitly demanded. This latter
experiment might throw some light upon the much debated question of
formal discipline. In all these cases the teacher must be on his guard
not to accept as universal principles what he has found to be true of a
small group of pupils, until at least he has found his conclusions
verified by other experimenters.
=C. Direct Questions.=--This method involves the submission of questions
to pupils of a particular age or grade, collecting and classifying their
answers, and basing conclusions upon these. Much work in this direction
has been done in recent years by certain educators, and much
illuminating and more or less useful material has been collected. A good
deal of light has been thrown upon the apperceptive material that
children have possession of by noting their answers to such questions
as: "Have you ever seen the stars? A robin? A pig? Where does milk come
from? Where do potatoes come from?" etc., etc. The practical value of
this method lies in the insight it gives into the interests of children,
the kind of imagery they use, and the relationships they have set up
among their ideas. Every teacher has been surprised at times at the
absurd answers given by children. These absurdities are usually due to
the teacher's taking for granted that the pupils have possession of
certain old knowledge that is actually absent. The moral of such
occurrences is that he should examine very carefully what "mind stuff"
the pupils have for interpreting the new material.
=D. Biographical Studies of Individual Children.=--Many books have been
written describing the development of individual children. These
descriptions doubtless contain much that is typical of all children, but
one must be careful not to argue too much from an individual case. Such
records are valuable as confirmatory evidence of what has already been
observed in connection with other children, or as suggestive of what may
be looked for in them.
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT
The period covered by child study may be roughly divided into three
parts, namely, (1) infancy, extending from birth to three years of age,
(2) childhood, from three to twelve, and (3) adolescence, from twelve to
eighteen. While children during each of these periods exhibit striking
dissimilarities one from another, there are nevertheless many
characteristics that are fairly universal during each period.
1. INFANCY
=A. Physical Characteristics.=--One of the striking features of infancy
is the rapidity with which command of the bodily organs is secured.
Starting with a few inherited reflexes, the child at three years of age
has attained fairly complete control of his sense organs and bodily
movements, though he lacks that co-ordination of muscles by which
certain delicate effects of hand and voice are produced. The relative
growth is greater at this than at any subsequent period. Another
prominent characteristic is the tendency to incessant movement. The
constant handling, exploring, and analysing of objects enhances the
child's natural thirst for knowledge, and he probably obtains a larger
stock of ideas during the first three years of his life than during any
equal period subsequently.
=B. Mental Characteristics.=--A conspicuous feature of infancy is the
imitative tendency, which early manifests itself. Through this means
the child acquires many of his movements, his language power, and the
simple games he plays. Sense impressions begin to lose their fleeting
character and to become more permanent. As evidence of this, few
children remember events farther back than their third year, while many
can distinctly recall events of the third and fourth years even after
the lapse of a long period of time. The child at this period begins to
compare, classify, and generalize in an elementary way, though his ideas
are still largely of the concrete variety. His attention is almost
entirely non-voluntary; he is interested in objects and activities for
themselves alone, and not for the sake of an end. He is, as yet, unable
to conceive remote ends, the prime condition of voluntary attention. His
ideas of right and wrong conduct are associated with the approval and
disapproval of those about him.
2. CHILDHOOD
=A. Physical Characteristics.=--In the earlier period of childhood, from
three to seven years, bodily growth is very rapid. Much of the vital
force is thus consumed, and less energy is available for physical
activity. The child has also less power of resistance and is thus
susceptible to the diseases of childhood. His movements are for the same
reason lacking in co-ordination. In the later period, from seven to
twelve years, the bodily growth is less rapid, more energy is available
for physical activity, and the co-ordination of muscles is greater. The
brain has now reached its maximum size and weight, any further changes
being due to the formation of associative pathways along nerve centres.
This is, therefore, pre-eminently the habit-forming period. From the
physical standpoint this means that those activities that are
essentially habitual must have their genesis during the period between
seven and twelve if they are to function perfectly in later life. The
mastery of a musical instrument must be begun then if technique is ever
to be perfect. If a foreign language is to be acquired, it should be
begun in this period, or there will always be inaccuracies in
pronunciation and articulation.
=B. Mental Characteristics.=--The instinct of curiosity is very active
in the earlier period of childhood, and this, combined with greater
language power, leads to incessant questionings on the part of the
child. He wants to know what, where, why, and how, in regard to
everything that comes under his notice, and fortunate indeed is that
child whose parent or teacher is sufficiently long-suffering to give
satisfactory answers to his many and varied questions. To ignore the
inquiries of the child, or to return impatient or grudging answers may
inhibit the instinct and lead later to a lack of interest in the world
about him. The imitative instinct is also still active and reveals
itself particularly in the child's play, which in the main reflects the
activities of those about him. He plays horse, policeman, school,
Indian, in imitation of the occupations of others. Parents and teachers
should depend largely upon this imitative tendency to secure desirable
physical habits, such as erect and graceful carriage, cleanliness of
person, orderly arrangement of personal belongings, neatness in dress,
etc. The imagination is exceedingly active during childhood, fantastic
and unregulated in the earlier period, under better control and
direction in the later. It reveals itself in the love of hearing,
reading, or inventing stories. The imitative play mentioned above is one
phase of imaginative activity. The child's ideas of conduct, in this
earlier stage of childhood, are derived from the pleasure or pain of
their consequences. He has as yet little power of subordinating his
lower impulses to an ideal end, and hence is not properly a moral being.
Good conduct must, therefore, be secured principally through the
exercise of arbitrary authority from without.
In the later period of childhood, acquired interests begin to be formed
and, coincident with this, active attention appears. The child begins to
be interested in the product, not merely in the process. The mind at
this period is most retentive of sense impressions. This is consequently
the time to bring the child into immediate contact with his environment
through his senses, in such departments as nature study and field work
in geography. Thus is laid the basis of future potentialities of
imagery, and through it appreciation of literature. On account of the
acuteness of sense activity at this period, this is also the time for
memorization of fine passages of prose and poetry. The child's thinking
is still of the pictorial rather than of the abstract order, though the
powers of generalization and language are considerably extended. The
social interests are not yet strong, and hence co-operation for a common
purpose is largely absent. His games show a tendency toward
individualism. When co-operative games are indulged in, he is usually
willing to sacrifice the interests of his team to his own personal
glorification.
3. ADOLESCENCE
=A. Physical Characteristics.=--In early adolescence the characteristic
physical accompaniments of early childhood are repeated, namely, rapid
growth and lack of muscular co-ordination. From twelve to fifteen, girls
grow more rapidly than boys and are actually taller and heavier than
boys at corresponding ages. From fifteen onward, however, the boys
rapidly outstrip the girls in growth. Lack of muscular co-ordination is
responsible for the awkward movements, ungainly appearance, ungraceful
carriage, with their attendant self-consciousness, so characteristic of
both boys and girls in early adolescence.
=B. Mental Characteristics.=--Ideas are gradually freed from their
sensory accompaniments. The child thinks in symbols rather than in
sensory images. Consequently there is a greater power of abstraction and
reflective thought. This is therefore the period for emphasizing those
subjects requiring logical reasoning, for example, mathematics, science,
and the reflective aspects of grammar, history, and geography.
From association with others or from literature and history, ideals
begin to be formed which influence conduct. This is brought about
largely through the principle of suggestion. In the early years of
adolescence children are very susceptible to suggestions, but the
suggestive ideas must be introduced by a person who is trusted, admired,
or loved, or under circumstances inspiring these feelings; hence the
importance to the adolescent of having teachers of strong and inspiring
personality. However, if the suggestive idea is to influence action, it
must be introduced in such a way as not to set up a reaction against it.
Reaction will be set up if the idea is antagonistic to the present
ideas, feelings, or aims, or if it is so persistently thrust upon the
child that he begins to suspect that he is being unduly influenced. To
avoid reaction the parent or teacher should introduce suggestive ideas
indirectly. For instance, while the mind is concentrated upon one set of
ideas, a suggestive idea that would otherwise be distasteful may be
tolerated. It may lie latent for a time, and when it recurs it may be
regarded as original, under which condition it is likely to issue in
action.
The adolescent stage is the period of greatest emotional development,
and care should therefore be exercised to have the child's mind dwell
upon only those ideas with which worthy emotions are associated. The
emotional bent, whether good or bad, is determined to a large extent
during this period of adolescence. So far as morality is the
subordination of primitive instincts to higher ideas, the child now
becomes a moral being. His conduct is now determined by reason and by
ideals, and the primitive pleasure-pain motives disappear. It follows
that coercion and arbitrary authority have little place in discipline at
this period. Social interests are prominent, evidenced by the tendency
to co-operate with others for a common end. The games of the period are
mainly of the co-operative variety and are marked by a willingness to
sacrifice personal interests for the sake of the team, or side.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
While, as noted above, all children have certain common characteristics
at each of the three periods of development, it is even more apparent
that every child is in many respects different from every other child.
He has certain peculiarities that demand particular treatment. It is
evident that it would be impossible to enumerate all the individual
differences in children. The most that can be done is to classify the
most striking differences and endeavour to place individual children in
one or other of these classes.
=A. Differences in Thought.=--One of the obvious classifications of
pupils is that of "quick" and "slow." The former learns easily, but
often forgets quickly; the latter learns slowly, but usually retains
well. The former is keen and alert; the latter, dull and passive. The
former frequently lacks perseverance; the latter is often tenacious and
persistent. The former unjustly wins applause for his cleverness; the
latter, equally unjustly, wins contempt for his dulness. The teacher
must not be unfair to the dull plodder, who in later years may
frequently outstrip his brilliant competitor in the race of life.
Some pupils think better in the abstract, others, in the concrete. The
former will analyse and parse well in grammar, distinguish fine shades
of meaning in language, manage numbers skilfully, or work out chemical
equations accurately. The latter will be more successful in doing
things, for instance, measuring boards, planning and planting a garden
plot, making toys, designing dolls' clothes, and cooking. The schools of
the past have all emphasized the ability to think in the abstract, and
to a large extent ignored the ability to think in the concrete. This is
unfair to the one class of thinkers. From the ranks of those who think
in the abstract have come the great statesmen, poets, and philosophers;
from the ranks of those who think in the concrete have come the
carpenters, builders, and inventors. It will be admitted that the world
owes as great a debt from the practical standpoint to the latter class
as to the former. Let the school not despise or ignore the pupil who,
though unable to think well in abstract studies, is able to do things.
=B. Differences in Action.=--There is a marked difference among children
in the ability to connect an abstract direction with the required act.
This is particularly seen in writing, art, and constructive work,
subjects in which the aim is the formation of habit, and in which
success depends upon following explicitly the direction given. The
teacher will find it economical to give very definite instruction as to
what is to be done in work in these subjects. It is equally important
that instructions regarding conduct should be definite and unmistakable.
As explained in the last Chapter, there are two extreme and contrasting
types of will exhibited by children, namely, the impulsive type and the
obstructed type. In the former, action occurs without deliberation
immediately upon the appearance of the idea in consciousness. This type
is illustrated in the case of the pupil who, as soon as he hears a
question, thoughtlessly blurts out an answer without any reflection
whatever. In the adult, we find a similar illustration when, immediately
upon hearing a pitiable story from a beggar, he hands out a dollar
without stopping to investigate whether or not the action is
well-advised. It is useless to plead in extenuation of such actions that
the answer may be correct or the act noble and generous. The probability
is equally great that the opposite may be the case. The remedy for
impulsive action is patiently and persistently to encourage the pupil to
reflect a moment before acting. In the case of the obstructed type of
will, the individual ponders long over a course of action before he is
able to bring himself to a decision. Such is the child whom it is hard
to persuade to answer even easy questions, because he is unable to
decide in just what form to put his answer. On an examination paper he
proceeds slowly, not because he does not know the matter, but because he
finds it hard to decide just what facts to select and how to express
them. The bashful child belongs to this type. He would like to answer
questions asked him, to talk freely with others, to act without any
feeling of restraint, but is unable to bring himself to do so. The
obstinate child is also of this type. He knows what he ought to do, but
the opposing motives are strong enough to inhibit action in the right
direction. As already shown, the remedy for the obstructed will is to
encourage rapid deliberation and choice and then immediate action,
thrusting aside all opposing motives. Show such pupils that in cases
where the motives for and against a certain course of action are of
equal strength, it often does not matter which course is selected. One
may safely choose either and thus end the indecision. The "quick" child
usually belongs to the impulsive type; the "slow" child, to the
obstructed type. The former is apt to decide and act hastily and
frequently unwisely; the latter is more guarded and, on the whole, more
sound in his decision and action.
=C. Differences in Temperament.=--All four types of temperament given in
the formal classification are represented among children in school. The
_choleric_ type is energetic, impulsive, quick-tempered, yet forgiving,
interested in outward events. The _phlegmatic_ type is impassive,
unemotional, slow to anger, but not of great kindness, persistent in
pursuing his purposes. The _sanguine_ type is optimistic,
impressionable, enthusiastic, but unsteady. The _melancholic_ type is
pessimistic, introspective, moody, suspicious of the motives of others.
Most pupils belong to more than one class. Perhaps the two most
prominent types represented in school are (1) that variety of the
sanguine temperament which leads the individual to think himself, his
possessions, and his work superior to all others, and (2) that variety
of the melancholic temperament which leads the individual to fancy
himself constantly the victim of injustice on the part of the teacher or
the other pupils. A pupil of the first type always believes that his
work is perfectly done; he boasts that he is sure he made a hundred per
cent. on his examinations; what he has is always, in his own estimation,
better than that of others. When the teacher suggests that his work
might be better done, the pupil appears surprised and aggrieved. Such a
child should be shown that he is right in not being discouraged over his
own efforts, but wrong in thinking that his work does not admit of
improvement. A pupil of the second type is continually imagining that
the teacher treats him unjustly, that the other pupils slight or injure
him, that, in short, he is an object of persecution. Such a pupil should
be shown that nobody has a grudge against him, that the so-called
slights are entirely imaginary, and that he should take a sane view of
these things, depending more upon judgment than on feeling to estimate
the action of others toward him.
=D. Sex Differences.=--Boys differ from girls in the predominance of
certain instincts, interests, and mental powers. In boys the fighting
instinct, and capacities of leadership, initiative, and mastery are
prominent. In girls the instinct of nursing and fondling, and the
capacities to comfort and relieve are prominent. These are revealed in
the games of the playground. The interests of the two sexes are
different, since their games and later pursuits are different. In a
system of co-education it is impossible to take full cognizance of this
fact in the work of the school. Yet it is possible to make some
differentiation between the work assigned to boys and that assigned to
girls. For instance, arithmetical problems given to boys might deal with
activities interesting to boys, and those to girls might deal with
activities interesting to girls. In composition the differentiation will
be easier. Such a topic as "A Game of Baseball" would be more suitable
for boys, and on the other hand "How to Bake Bread" would make a
stronger appeal to girls. Similarly in literature, such a poem as _How
They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix_ would be particularly
interesting to boys, while _The Romance of a Swan's Nest_ would be of
greater interest to girls. As to mental capacities, boys are usually
superior in those fields where logical reasoning is demanded, while
girls usually surpass boys in those fields involving perceptive powers
and verbal memory. For instance, boys succeed better in mathematics,
science, and the reflective phases of history; girls succeed better in
spelling, in harmonizing colours in art work, in distinguishing fine
shades of meaning in language, and in memorizing poetry. The average
intellectual ability of each sex is nearly the same, but boys deviate
from the average more than girls. Thus while the most brilliant pupils
are likely to be boys, the dullest are also likely to be boys. It is a
scientific fact that there are more individuals of conspicuously clever
mind, but also more of weak intellect, among men than there are among
women.
=A Caution.=--While it has been stated that the teacher should take
notice of individual differences in his pupils, it may be advisable also
to warn the student-teacher against any extravagant tendency in the
direction of such a study. A teacher is occasionally met who seems to
act on the assumption that his chief function is not to educate but to
study children. Too much of his time may therefore be spent in the
conducting of experiments and the making of observations to that end.
While the data thus secured may be of some value, it must not be
forgotten that control of the subject-matter of education and of the
method of presenting that subject-matter to the normal child, together
with an earnest, enthusiastic, and sympathetic manner, are the prime
qualifications of the teacher as an instructor.
APPENDIX
SUGGESTED READINGS FROM BOOKS OF REFERENCE
CHAPTER I
Bagley The Educative Process, Chapter I.
Colvin The Learning Process, Chapter II.
Strayer A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, Chapter I.
Thorndike Principles of Teaching, Chapter I.
CHAPTER II
Bagley Educational Values, Chapters I, II, III.
Strayer A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, Chapter III.
Thorndike Elements of Psychology, Chapter I.
Welton The Psychology of Education, Chapter VI.
CHAPTER III
Bagley The Educative Process, Chapters IV, XIV.
Colvin The Learning Process, Chapter I.
McMurry The Method of the Recitation, Chapter I.
Raymont The Principles of Education, Chapter XI.
CHAPTER IV
Bagley The Educative Process, Chapters II, XV.
Dewey The School and Society, Part I.
Raymont The Principles of Education, Chapters VI, VII.
Strayer A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, Chapter XVIII.
CHAPTER V
Bagley The Educative Process, Chapter I.
Raymont The Principles of Education, Chapter III.
CHAPTER VI
Bagley The Educative Process, Chapter III.
Dewey The School and Society, Part II.
Raymont The Principles of Education, Chapters I, IV.
Welton The Psychology of Education, Chapter XIII.
CHAPTER VII
Landon The Principles and Practice of Teaching, Chapter I.
CHAPTER VIII
Landon The Principles and Practice of Teaching, Chapter I.
McMurry The Method of the Recitation, Chapter I.
Raymont The Principles of Education, Chapter VIII.
CHAPTER IX
Kirkpatrick Fundamentals of Child Study, Chapter IV.
Landon The Principles and Practice of Teaching, Chapter VII.
Dewey The School and Society, Part II.
Strayer A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, Chapter II.
Thorndike Principles of Teaching, Chapter III.
CHAPTER X
Betts The Mind and Its Education, Chapter VII.
McMurry The Method of the Recitation, Chapter VI.
Thorndike Principles of Teaching, Chapters IV, IX.
CHAPTER XI
Angell Psychology, Chapter VI.
Bagley The Educative Process, Chapters IV, V, IX.
Pillsbury Essentials of Psychology, Chapter V.
Raymont The Principles of Education, Chapter VIII.
CHAPTER XII
Betts Psychology, Chapter XVI.
Thorndike Principles of Teaching, Chapter XIII.
McMurry The Method of the Recitation, Chapter IX.
CHAPTER XIII
Landon The Principles and Practice of Teaching, Chapter VI.
McMurry The Method of the Recitation, Chapter VII.
Raymont The Principles of Education, Chapter XII.
CHAPTER XIV
McMurry The Method of the Recitation, Chapter III.
CHAPTER XV
Bagley The Educative Process, Chapters XIX, XX.
Colvin The Learning Process, Chapter XXII.
McMurry The Method of the Recitation, Chapters VIII, X.
Strayer A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, Chapters V, VI.
CHAPTER XVI
Landon The Principles and Practice of Teaching, Chapter III.
CHAPTER XVII
Bagley The Educative Process, Chapters XXI, XXII.
Landon The Principles and Practice of Teaching, Chapter IV.
Strayer A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, Chapters IV, VIII, X.
CHAPTER XVIII
Landon The Principles and Practice of Teaching, Chapter VI.
Raymont The Principles of Education, Chapter XII.
Strayer A Brief Course in the Educative Process, Chapter XI.
CHAPTER XIX
Betts The Mind and Its Education, Chapter I.
Pillsbury Essentials of Education, Chapter I.
Raymont The Principles of Education, Chapter II.
Welton The Psychology of Education, Chapter I.
CHAPTER XX
Angell Psychology, Chapter II.
Betts The Mind and Its Education, Chapter III.
Pillsbury Essentials of Psychology, Chapter II.
Halleck Education of the Central Nervous System.
CHAPTER XXI
Colvin The Learning Process, Chapters III, IV.
Kirkpatrick Fundamentals of Child Study, Chapter IV.
Pillsbury Essentials of Psychology, Chapter X.
Thorndike Principles of Teaching, Chapter III.
Welton The Psychology of Education, Chapter IV.
CHAPTER XXII
Angell Psychology, Chapter III.
Bagley The Educative Process, Chapter VII.
Betts The Mind and Its Education, Chapter V.
Colvin The Learning Process, Chapters III, IV.
Thorndike Principles of Teaching, Chapter VIII.
Thorndike Elements of Psychology, Chapter XIII.
CHAPTER XXIII
Angell Psychology, Chapter IV.
Betts The Mind and Its Education, Chapter II.
Pillsbury Essentials of Psychology, Chapter V.
Welton The Psychology of Education, Chapter VIII.
CHAPTER XXIV
Angell Psychology, Chapter XXI.
Betts The Mind and Its Education, Chapter XIII.
James Talks to Teachers, Chapter X.
Welton The Psychology of Education, Chapter VII.
CHAPTER XXV
Angell Psychology, Chapters V, VI.
Betts The Mind and Its Education, Chapter VI.
Pillsbury Essentials of Psychology, Chapters IV, VII.
CHAPTER XXVI
Angell Psychology, Chapter IX.
Bagley The Educative Process, Chapters IV, XI.
Betts The Mind and Its Education, Chapter VIII.
Thorndike Elements of Psychology, Chapter III.
Pillsbury Essentials of Psychology, Chapter VIII.
CHAPTER XXVII
Angell Psychology, Chapter VIII.
Betts The Mind and Its Education, Chapter IX.
Pillsbury Essentials of Psychology, Chapter VIII.
CHAPTER XXVIII
Angell Psychology, Chapters X, XII.
Bagley The Educative Process, Chapters IX, X.
Betts The Mind and Its Education, Chapter X.
Colvin The Learning Process, Chapter XXII.
Pillsbury Essentials of Psychology, Chapter IX.
Thorndike Elements of Psychology, Chapter VI.
CHAPTER XXIX
Angell Psychology, Chapters XIII, XIV.
Betts The Mind and Its Education, Chapters XII, XIV.
Pillsbury Essentials of Psychology, Chapters XI, XII.
CHAPTER XXX
Angell Psychology, Chapters XX, XXII.
Betts The Mind and Its Education, Chapter XV.
Pillsbury Essentials of Psychology, Chapter XIII.
Thorndike Elements of Psychology, Chapter VI.
CHAPTER XXXI
Bagley The Educative Process, Chapter XII.
Raymont The Principles of Education, Chapter V.
Kirkpatrick Fundamentals of Child Study.
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