Psychology of education

Front matter

hip

THE

CHARLES MYERS LIBRARY

Preface

This book is a systematic treatise neither on psychology nor on education. It endeavours to set forth the relation between them. This relation must be found in the actual lives of individual children, and it is to help people engaged in education to study those lives that I have written. I have endeavoured to keep as free as possible from technicalities, and throughout to deal with life as a developing whole. Though the treatment is psychological, the selection of topics has been determined by educational considerations. The end sought is a presentation of the general form in which efficiency of life develops through ever-extending purposes. The various human faculties are regarded as factors inter-mingled, in an indefinitely large variety of ways, in every piece of life, and are, therefore, not considered apart and in themselves. Similarly, little or nothing is said of elements of experience which are merely constituent of fuller forms of life.

That a much more extensive and exact knowledge of facts must be attained before the course of mental development can be set forth with scientific precision and completeness is certain. But for the purpose here in view this is not altogether a disadvantage. The main lines are, I believe, sound, and the reader is, by the very generality of the treatment, forced to recognize vm

PREFACE that he cannot get all he wants by reading, but that a substantial part of the work is left for him to do. Moreover, if a detailed chart of life could be laid down the temptation to forget that it could be only an abstraction, and to consider it as a kind of biography of every child would be one which many would be unable to resist. Then the study of psychology would tend to make educative work unpsychological. For it is individual lives with which the educator has to deal, not generalized averages. Still, more detailed knowledge is wanted. But it is knowledge of concrete pieces of life, not of isolated facts torn from their vital context. If, to any degree, this book should inspire those who find it helpful to publish precise records of careful observations on points which especially interest them it will be of some service to the cause of psychology as well as to that of education.

J. W.

The University, Leeds,

February , 1911.

Chapter I Page

Many teachers contemn psychology, ..... i

but are good practical psychologists ; . . . . 2

educative power is dependent on psychology ; . . 4

generalization of practical psychology needs guidance and

verification. ....... 5

Current theoretical psychology is too intellectualistic : . . 7

its unrecognized influence on education ; . . . 8

the hypothesis of independent faculties ; 9

the Herbartian psychology. . . . . . 12

Psychology of the adult and of the child : . . . . 13

nature of child-experience ; . . . . . 15

nature and extent of mental advance ; . . . . 15

need for understanding one’s own life ; . . . 17

recognition of social character of experience. . . . 21

Education is more than applied psychology ; . . . 23

for psychology cannot decide its purpose, . . . 23

nor evaluate its means, whether of matter or method ; . 26

teaching method is both psychological and logical ; . 26

education uses psychology but is not limited by it. . 28

Chapter II The Study Of Mental Life

Books are helpful as guides and commentaries, ... 29

but the real material of study is experience, ... 30

which should be traced in retrospect. . . . . ? x

X

Rational regulation of life is characteristically human ; skill in action becomes largely automatic ; value of automatism and routine ; nature of intellectual regulation of life ; -

development of purposes.

Nature of impulsive actions ;

the inhibition of impulses. .

Nature of instincts ; .

control of instincts ; .

the search for primary emotions. .

Function of knowledge in the direction of conduct ; the growth of knowledge ; . personal differences in mode of learning ; dependence of learning on interest.

Kind of introspection needed for educational psychology • its difficulty, incompleteness, and necessity. .

Chapter III

Connexion between mind and body, and its educational importance ; . . . .

hygienic conditions of mental work ; .

bodily activity necessary for intellectual growth ; .

body and mind develop together.

The nervous system :

its general structure ;

its functions ; .

its organization through establishment of connexions. Individual variations : . . .

physique and intelligence are not uniformly combined ; . vitality and intelligence are generally related.

Defects of sense organs colour-blindness tone-deafness ; . defects of other senses.

CONTENTS xi

Chapter IV Page

General function of instinct. ...... 64

Instinct in the lower animals. ...... 65

Instinct is not mere behaviour, ...... 66

but includes mental prompting. ..... 67

Human instincts are proclivities to classes of actions, . . 68

develop in experience, ...... 69

are brought under the direction of intelligence, . . 69

and may be modified by education, .... 70

but are operative throughout life. . . . . 71

Instincts show adaptation by increased range of origin, . . 71

and modification of reaction ;..... 72

and become fused. ....... 73

The number of human instincts must be determined by the

number of primary emotions ; .... 73

for instincts are complete mental processes. ... 74

The human instincts :

hunger and thirst 76 pugnacity; 81

self-assertion and self-abasement ; . . . . . 84

tender emotion 86 gregariousness ; . 90

curiosity; 92

acquisitiveness ;..... ... 96

constructiveness ; ....... 98

General innate tendencies.. ..... 100

CHAPTER V Differences of race

developed by heredity ; ...... 101

and by constancy of environment ; . . . .102 xii CONTENTS

PAGE

Differences of race — continued :

national differences ; . . . . . . .103

English national characteristics ; . . . . . io^

bearing of national differences on education. . . 107

Differences of individuals. .......

Classification by temperament : . . . . . .no

Galen’s classification ; . . . . . . .111

temperaments to some extent appear consecutively in life ; 1 12

modern physiology can give no certain basis for temperathe volatile, or sanguine, temperament ; . . .114

the practical, or active, temperament ; . . . .114

the emotional, sensitive, or nervous temperament ; . 118

the contemplative, or thoughtful, temperament ; . . 120

the apathetic temperament ; . . . . .123

the classification is only suggestive. . . . . 125

Characteristic mental qualities. . . . . . .125

Differences of disposition. . . . . . . .126

Differences of sex : . . . . . , . .127

comparison of men and women ; . . . . . 128

comparison of boys and girls ; . . . . .132

bearing of sex-differences on education. . . . 135

CHAPTER VI NATURE OF EXPERIENCE Inadequate hypotheses to explain experience : . . . 138

that of inner development ; . . . . . 139

that of outer formation. . . . . , .141

Experience is interaction of nature and environment. . . 143

The beginnings of experience. . . . . . .144

Clear and dim consciousness : . . . . .145

examination of the background of consciousness ; . . 147

cumulative influence of customary surroundings. . . 148

Surroundings and education : . . . . .150

influence of public opinion ; . . . . .151

influence of social conditions ; . . . . .152

town and country environments. . . . . . 153

Tendency to assimilation to surroundings : . this does not imply imitation emotional unison intellectual assimilation suggestion of ideas negative suggestibility

suggestibility and initiative. .....

Imitation is intentional copying ; . . . . .

direct imitation copies the process, indirect imitation copies the product ;......

imitation and suggestion ; .

imitation and assimilation ; .....

functions of imitation in the acquirement of skill ; place of imitation in education. .....

Development of experience :......

implies increase in differentiation and in complexity, and involves habituation ; .

mechanical habits are of small and conventional importance;

habituation and development of skill ; .

this illustrated by learning to write ; . . . .

interaction of habit and adaptation ; . . .

habitudes are directive habituations ; . .

danger of over-habituation ; .....

purposive habitudes ; .

relation of dynamic to static habitudes ; . . .

general habits of behaviour ;.....

change of habituation ;......

experience is organization of life. ....

Chapter VII

Inadequacy of doctrine that bodily sensibility is the sole cause of human actions. .....

Nature and function of interest : .....

not a quality of objects, ......

but found in relation of objects to ourselves ; . .

a feeling of worth ; . . .

felt in everything which raises emotion ;

xiii

PAGE

1 59

160 162

165 167 167

178 178

188 191 191

XIV

PAGE

Nature and function of interest — continued :

therefore connected with desire and purpose ; . .193

attached to everything bearing on purpose ; . . . 194

continued interest develops habitude ; . . . . 19-

direct and indirect interest ; . . . . .195

importance of indirect interest ; . . . . .196

indirect interest and habit 196

Interests relate to men and to things; and are practical, intellectual, and emotional. . . . . .198

Practical interests take knowledge as auxiliary to doing ; . 199

socially fixed on relations of others to the self ; . . 202

characteristic of childhood ; ..... 202

instrumental in learning 203

can be indirect. . . . . . . .205

Intellectual interests take doing as auxiliary to knowing ; . 206

not strong in childhood 207

develop from practical interests, . . ... . 207

socially fixed on general human relations ; . . . 208

relation to practical interests. ..... 209

Emotional interests refer to value for feeling ; . . . 210

relation to intellectual interests, . . . . .210

exemplified in the teaching of literature ; . . . 21 1

relation to practical interests ; . . . . .212

socially fixed on moral qualities and relations ; . . 213

development and value. . . . . . .214.

Education should develop every type of interest, . . . 215

and enlarge and systematize them ; . . . . 216

need for fuller knowledge of succession of natural interests ; 217

this cannot be deduced from development of race, . . 217

nor averaged from answers to questions, . . . 218

must be sought in personal study ; . . . .219

such knowledge should influence choice of lessons. . 219

General form of interest shown by kind of activity : . . 221 transition from childhood ; . . . . • • 223

early boyhood and girlhood ; . . . . .225

later boyhood and girlhood ;..... 228

youth.

CONTENTS xv

Chapter VIII Direction Of Activity Page

The school rightly assumes that attention is under control. . 234

Attention is absent in proportion as the stream of ideas is

determined from without : . . . . . 235

absorption and attention ; . . . . . .236

growth of attention out of absorption ; . . .239

the test of attention ; . . . . . . .241

absorption and attention in the teaching of literature ; . 242

general results of confusing absorption and attention. . 244

In reverie and conversation : attention is sporadic, . . 244

the stream of ideas is unbroken but rambling, . . 245

and may be diverted by unnoticed impressions ; . . 249

influence of mood on suggestion of ideas. . . . 250

Attention directs trains of ideas spontaneously formed ; . . 251

such direction works by inhibition through purpose. . 252

Power of attention depends on strength of purpose and interest, 253 and on formation of habits ; . . . . .254

attention and fatigue ; . . . . . .255

flow and ebb of attention ; . . . . , . 256

attention in children ; . . . . . .256 thinking is only learnt in relation to purpose ; . . 258

attention is difficult when interest is indirect, . . 259

but it is frequently necessary, . . . . .260

and is facilitated by habituation ; .... 263

attention and distractions. ...... 264

Summary of doctrine of attention 267

Attention needs to be trained. ...... 267

The current doctrine treats attention as cognition : . . 268

this abolishes distinction between attention and inattention ; 269 objections to classification into ‘ involuntary,’ 4 non-voluntary ’ and ‘ voluntary ’ attention ; . . . . 270

educational effects of the doctrine. .274 b

XVI

Chapter IX Pagk

Learning is constant in life, . . . . . .275

and is guided by the doings and the speech of others ; . 275

dangers of neglecting either personal experience or instruction 277

all learning should promote efficiency, .... 277

and should, therefore, be the outcome of effort, . . 279

to which teaching prompts ; . . . , .280

teaching both follows and guides natural development. . 282

The natural process of learning is the basis of teaching : . 283

it does not build wholes out of elements, . . . 283

but analyses apprehended wholes, . . . .284

and forms habits — or organs — of knowing. . . . 285

Recognition is interpretation of signs, . . . . .286

involving implicit expectations, . . . . .288

and taking for granted results of experience ; . .289

organs of knowledge are effective in proportion to fullness ; 289

the test is power to use. ...... 290

All knowledge contains perceptual and conceptual material ; . 292

teaching helps to make the latter explicit ; . . . 293

early apprehension of causality, space, time, number ; . 294

facts are of value only as related, ..... 295

and relations without facts are useless ; . . . . 296

relations implicit before they are explicit. . . . 297

Growth of perceptual knowledge :..... 299

involves acquired limitation of attention ; . . . 299

pleasure of acquiring perceptual knowledge ; . . 301

clear percepts necessary to intelligent concepts ; . . 303

perceptual knowledge results from doing and is tested by

doing 304

examples from drawing and painting ; . . . • 3°4

need for training in discriminative observation. . . 3°S

Growth of conceptual knowledge 3°7

relation to perceptual knowledge ; .... 3°8

function of language in conceptual thought ; . . 3°9

conceptual thought a mode of thinking perceptual experience ; . . . . . . . .310

CONTENTS xvii

PAGE

Growth of conceptual knowledge — continued :

conception and generalization ; . . . . • 3 10

definition inadequate to expression of meaning ; . . 3 1 1

conceptual knowledge of relations ; . . . . 312

laboratory work often only perceptual ; . . • 3 1 3

use of scientific apparatus. . . . . . .314

Summary of nature of learning. . . . . . .315

Retentiveness implies growth of organs of knowledge : . . 315

recall of the past largely inferential, . . . . 317

and partly imaginative ; . . . . . .317

value of past is to give power to deal with present ; . 318

definite recall may, or may not, involve mental imagery; 319

individual variations i n power to recall specific experiences ; 320

a trivial memory wastes life ; . . . . . 322

importance of forgetting ; . . . . . .325

specific recall depends on interest in the past, . . 325

pertinence to the present topic, . . . . .325

and congruence with emotional tone ; . . . . 326

memory only a general term for modes of recall ; . . 327

the training of memory. . . . . . .327

Chapter X Learning Through Communicated Experience

Learning to talk involves learning about people and things. . 329

Direct communication extends the range of knowledge ; . 330

such communications must be assimilated. . . -33°

Selection of knowledge for communication : . , , 3 3 1

the classical tradition ; . . . . . .332

the tradition of remembering facts ; . . . . 333

the principle of promoting efficiency. . . . . 334

Mental process of acquiring knowledge from others : . . 335

interpretation of actions and forms of expression ; . . 335

drama without speech ; . . . . . .336

interpretation of pictures ; . . . . , *336

function of language ; ...... 340

acquirement of language ; ...... 340

interpretation of speech ; . . . . . .341

suggestions for teaching. ...... 33.6 xvm

Communication of new knowledge :

suggest*on °f new mental constructions ; need for clearness and vividness ; . function of detail ;

appeal to experience ; ...

meaning and imagery ; speech and emotion ; . use of pictures in teaching. .

Reading is the gathering of knowledge from visible lan guage :

how to master a book ; reading and grasp of meaning ; .

understanding and anticipation ; . perceptual and conceptual processes in reading ; relation of reading aloud to reading.

Knowledge worth communicating :

geography ;

history, involving apprehension of time-relations ; grammar ; .....

foreign languages. ....

Retention of matter learnt enriches experience : learning by rote ;

learning by heart with understanding ; verbal and real retention ; .

memory, as enrichment of experience, improves with life ; .

recollection is not wholly under control.

Chapter XI

Sound judgement means skill in living : implies knowledge and intelligence ; deliberation

activity of intelligence ;......

variety of interests demands wide possibilities of learning ;

growth of intelligence in guiding life ; .

increase in critical power. ......

PAGE

349 35° 353

354 354

359 362 362

3% xix

Stupidity may be cultivated

by disregard of natural development, . by the learning of unrelated facts, . by failure to call forth effort, .

by disproportion between strength and effort demanded, by too dogmatic teaching. ......

Formal reasoning in life, . . . . . . .

and in teaching

Reasoning in concrete matters in life, . and in teaching critical thinking of books ; .

examples from history, ......

recognition of defects of testimony ; . . . .

examples from other subjects ;.....

Training in precision of language :.....

loose language and loose thought ; superficial thought a mark of stupidity.

Summary of connexion between teaching, stupidity, and intelligence. ......

PAGE

39°

4°7

CHAPTER XII Hope and life

Imagination related to knowledge, belief, and reality. Imagination of ideals natural to mankind, and should, therefore, be educated ; it inspires effort ; ideals and mere imaginings :

The great ideals of life ;

their relation to education ; the contagion of ideals.

Materials of ideals : literature ; music ; nature ; art ; .

influence of surroundings.

417 419 421

427 429

XX

PAGB of moral relations ; . . . . . . .431 of practical inventiveness ; . . . . . . 434

of increase in knowledge ; . . . . . .435

artistic ideals. . . . . . . . .437

Schools should train artistic appreciation : . . . .438

drawing and painting 440

composition 44°

taste must be spontaneous. ...... 443

Literary appreciation :....... 44^

development from simple directness to complex suggestiveness ; . . . . . • -447

alliteration 44^

rhyme 449

rhythm 45°

recitation and reading aloud of poetry ; . . .451

metaphor and simile ; . . • • • *453

Humour : 45& the ludicrous ; . . - • • • • -459

parody. 4^°

General relation of education to ideals. .... 462

CHAPTER XIII CHARACTER Ambiguous use of ‘ character ’ in writings on education. . 4^*3

‘ Character ’ in common speech implies : 4^4

kind of moral value ; . . . • • • • 4^4

extent of outlook, or practical knowledge of life, . . 465

but not amount of information ; . • • • • 4^5

strength and stability of purpose ; . • • • 4^7

causes of weakness of character ; . . • • • 4^9

gradual formation of character ; . • • • * 47°

the essence of character is organization of life, . • 47 1

but this does not imply uniformity 47 2

at which education should not aim. . • • • 47 2 xxi

Development of character :

limited by nature and by training ; possible only through purposive activity ; becomes a system of habitudes, . which may stiffen into prejudices.

Society and character :

influence of the individual on others ; . influence of society on character ; some present-day tendencies.

PAGE

• 473

• 474

• 477

. 478

• 479

. 480

. 482

Chapter I

A schoolmaster once caustically described psychology as “putting what everybody knows in language which nobody can understand.” Although it cannot be granted that this somewhat cynical estimate is “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” yet it must be confessed that it has a specious plausibility. For the whole subject-matter of psychology is our own inner experience, than which nothing can be more familiar, and it is as natural as it is mistaken to assume that the familiar is always understood. Yet, in truth, most people are so engrossed in living that they find no time to understand life.

The tyro in psychology, then, finding that the topics discussed are old acquaintances, is apt to think that there is nothing new except the names by which these old friends are called. Here he finds some familiar terms used in ways not so familiar and generally with a stringency to which he is unaccustomed, and some strange terms which seem to him only to express facts about which he has been accustomed to think and speak without their help. By each use he is more or less repelled.

This is, no doubt, an attitude not uncommonly taken by students who are required to read psychology as part of their training for the work of teaching. The very fact that they approach the subject, not as one of which their own experience has made them feel the need but simply as one required for a certain examination, tends to make them regard it as matter to be understood and remembered indeed, not to be practised. As well might one attempt to become a botanist from the study of books alone. The result is apt to show itself in a greater or less facility of writing and talking empty verbosity adorned with tags of psychological nomenclature. In a practical mind this breeds disgust. Doubtless, the culmination of such an experience was marked by the heartfelt exclamation of a student at the close of his course of training: “Thank heavens! I’ve done with psychology at last.”

Of course there is an obvious retort. When such a person affirms in after life that he has never found the psychology he studied as a student of any use to him in his professional work, it would be both true and pertinent — if impolite — to reply “But you never did study psychology, and the fact that you speak of your study as in the past proves it.” Yet, to point out that many have made a particular mistake does not prevent others from falling into the same error.

I by no means wish to imply, however, that all teachers who contemn psychology do so because they have never really approached it. Some of those, indeed, of whom we have just been speaking become good psychologists, despite themselves and without recognizing it. Often, no doubt, the term carries for them such unpleasant associations, as denoting an empty and soul-deadening verbalism, that they would repudiate with scorn and indignation the charge of being psychologists. Psychology to them still means analyses and tabulations of certain abstractions, and they seldom bridge the chasm which stretches between that pedantic erudition, as it is to them, and the living knowledge of the children they teach which has been attained by constant sympathetic intercourse. Yet this is the real psychology which alone is of worth to the practical educator.

Despite their outspoken attitude of contempt towards theoretical psychology, probably no teachers in the world take more personal interest in their pupils, and gain a more real and intimate knowledge of them, than do many in our own country. Boys and girls are to them not merely pupils, not simply pegs to be fitted with more or less violence into more or less wrongly shaped holes ; they remain throughout and under all the school routine just boys and girls. And the aim of the master or mistress, like that of the parent, is first and foremost to make out of those boys and girls men and women who will live noble and useful lives in their various callings. To secure this all kinds of influences are brought to bear ; and many an hour does the good teacher, like the good parent, spend in thinking how Tommy is going wrong, and how best to lead him back to the right way ; how Jack is falling off in enthusiasm for sport or lessons, the reasons for this declension, and the course which in view of those reasons it will be wise to adopt : for what kind of occupation Harry is showing most aptitude. Such problems as these loom at least as large in the mind of every true educator as do those of instruction. Even in the latter the good teacher is always seeking fresh ways to evoke the desire for knowledge, to stimulate and encourage effort, to cultivate taste, to direct and strengthen purpose. These are all psychological problems, for they all involve meditation on the nature of the child’s experience, and on how the teacher, by regulating his own actions, can modify that experience.

In such ways experienced teachers often attain a very remarkable amount of pertinent psychological knowledge and insight, and are, indeed, among our best practical psychologists. They can teach the beginner much, even though they may never have heard such blessed words as psychosis and apperception, or have made experiments with chronoscopes, kinetoscopes, and ergographs. Nor can any beginner in teaching ever be so good a child-psychologist as are these veterans, even though he may have mastered all the text-books on the subject that have ever been written.

Yet these experts in child life are often the very people who assert most strongly that they find no help in the books. To advance against their position the argument that as psychology is the study of experience it must help those whose work it is to mould and direct experience is obviously beside the mark and has more than a suspicion of begging the question. For it assumes that the psychology which is helpful is the psychology which they reject. Really it is not so at all. The psychology which is useful to them they have studied — as only can it be truly studied — by direct, sympathetic and intimate observation of the young. True, they do not call it psychology, but it is psychology all the same, for it is an understanding of mental life.

When due weight is given to such considerations as these it will, 1 think, be evident that no one can educate without a real practical psychology, that is, a true knowledge of his pupils. Teachers and parents in so far as they lack this are nothing better than external forces which define more or less narrowly the course of the child’s life ; they are not, and never can be, agents influencing that course of life from within so as to make it richer and fuller. Such practical psychology can be gained only through that real sympathy with the young which involves not only kindly feeling but power to understand, which is an insight into the child’s desires, his plans, his thoughts — an insight which grows by successful practice till at times it becomes almost uncanny. Some people have such insight by natural gift, others have not ; the majority have a little of it which can either be cherished or smothered. The first are the heaven-born teachers ; and they are few\ The second are people — also few, but by no means unknown — who never can become educators nor ever learn to teach well. These ought never to enter, or if they have unwittingly entered should leave as quickly as possible, the profession of schoolmaster, for no amount of training or experience can fit them to do their work with satisfaction to themselves or with profit to their pupils. For the great majority the primary duty is to cherish and foster that innate divine spark of sympathetic insight which alone will enable them to become “artists in the souls of children.”

We seem, then, to have come to this : that the heaven-born teacher becomes a psychologist because he cannot help it ; that the average teacher can only develop into the good teacher by becoming a psychologist ; that the person who cannot by any means become a psychologist must always be lamentably out of place in school.

There is little doubt that the many practical psychologists among our teachers will grant freely the value heie claimed for a knowledge and understanding of children’s lives. They know that all their successful work is built up on such insight. Will they not follow us a step further and grant that from much specific knowledge of individuals they draw more or less wide-reaching generalizations ? But these are of the nature of science. Psychology as a science must, like every other science, rest upon careful examination of facts, and consist of valid inductions from them. Really, each true educator has formed his own science of child-experience ; he not only knows his own children but he has, more or less consciously, generalized from them. This is, however, a slow process to most, and one attended by many mistakes. In teaching and in influencing and guiding others the ordinary man or woman often goes wrong before learning to go right. Life must have brought home to all of us the truth which Roger Ascham long ago pointed out : “Learning teacheth more in one yeare