Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education Part 8

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 a.s.signment 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 p.r.o.noun 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, a.s.sure 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 a.s.sures 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 p.r.o.noun functions, the teacher a.s.sures himself that the pupil appreciates clearly the _p.r.o.noun_ 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 p.r.o.noun_.

=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 a.s.sure 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 a.s.sure 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 cla.s.sified 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 cla.s.s-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 s.p.a.ce 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 ILl.u.s.tRATIVE METHOD

=Characteristics of the Ill.u.s.trative 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 ill.u.s.tration 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.

=Ill.u.s.trative Method Involves Imagination.=--In the ill.u.s.trative 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 s.p.a.ce, in harmony with the mere suggestions offered by the model. It is evident, for the above reason, that the ill.u.s.trative 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, ca.n.a.l, etc., is far more likely to obtain an accurate idea of these, than the student who learns them by means of ill.u.s.trations. 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 ill.u.s.trative 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 ill.u.s.tration. 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 ill.u.s.trative 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 ill.u.s.trative, 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 ill.u.s.trative material is being used, and not merely gaze in a pa.s.sive way upon the objects. It requires mental activity to grasp the abstract facts that the objects or ill.u.s.trations 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 ill.u.s.trate. It would be injudicious to use candies or other inherently attractive objects to ill.u.s.trate 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 cla.s.ses. The science teacher may make his experiments so interesting that his students neglect to grasp what the experiments ill.u.s.trate. The preacher who uses a large number of anecdotes to ill.u.s.trate 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 ill.u.s.tration 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

CLa.s.sIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE

Before pa.s.sing to a consideration of the various types or cla.s.ses 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 cla.s.ses 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 _t.i.tanic_; the Heroine of Vercheres; 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 ill.u.s.trated 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 const.i.tuting groups, or cla.s.ses, 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 cla.s.ses, or groups, and build up a general, or cla.s.s, idea, which is representative of any member of the cla.s.s. Thus arise such general ideas as book, man, island, county, etc. These are known as universal, or cla.s.s, 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 cla.s.s 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