Methods of teaching, developed from a functional standpoint

Preface

The point of view from which the problems of teaching are discussed in this text is a functional one. It presupposes that all subject-matter has been created and preserved by the race to satisfy needs and solve problems, and that in the schools such parts of this subject-matter as satisfy the most fundamental needs are taught to pupils. But this is not done in indiscriminate order. Rather, in the main, any unit of subject-matter is best presented when the need for whose satisfaction it is preserved is potentially or actually present in the experience of the pupils. In accordance with this view the intrinsic function and the structure of units of subject-matter become of prime importance, involving a phase of methods of teaching to which relatively little attention has been paid in pedagogical literature. To complete a practical description of this conception as applied to teachingit has been found necessary to discuss the methods of arousing the appropriate needs and the conditions under which they are found present, and to investigate the methods pursued by experience both in satisfying these needs, to the aid of which subject-matter is invoked, and in securing the maximum degree of such satisfaction.

It is to be hoped that the point of view here developed will not be confused with the problem of school discipline concerning the authority of the teacher. In answer to the

4 PEEFACE.

question, Are pupils expected to study subject-matter if they do not feel the need for it? only an affirmative answer can be given, and such answer should be given emphatically. The points to be remembered are these : Authority is the buttress of the school ; but other motives than that of mere obedience to authority may and should be used. When other motives fail recourse should be had to obedience, to the study of subject-matter merely because it is prescribed by the school authorities.

For the philosophical standpoint utilized and applied I am indebted to my instructors in the University of Chicago and particularly to Professor John Dewey, and for the psychological analogies which have steadied and illuminated the application of this standpoint I am under obligation to Professor J. K. Angell. For assistance, through criticism and suggestion, acknowledgment is made to Dr. J. H. Coursault of the University of Missouri, to Dr. I. E. Miller of the Milwaukee State Normal School, to Dr. G. M. Whipple of Cornell University, to Dr. A. W. Vining of Brandon College, to Mr. E. K. Eow of Chicago, and to my wife. For assistance in developing the standpoint and for forbearance while this was under way I am deeply grateful to my former colleagues in the Winona, Minnesota, State Normal School. For suggestions from sources too numerous to acknowledge individually I am indebted to writers upon educational problems.

w. w. c.

University of Missouri, June, 1909.

Table Of Contents

PAGE

CHAPTEE I. Standpoint of the Text 9

Sec. 1. Characteristics of the aim of education.

Section 1. Characteristics of the Aim of Education

In investigating methods of teaching it is necessary to formulate some aim of education, for methods of teachingare largely unsystematized. An employee in a shoe factory may cut out soles of shoes day after day without knowing anything about the finished product. . But methods of teaching are not and can not be so mechanically systematized. They must be fluent, not fixed and ready made. They vary with the child and with the subject-matter. Hence the student of methods of teaching must have an idea of the process as a whole, must have some objective point toward which to work in order to make such organization as is necessary for reaching that point.

Multiplicity of Aim. — But the aims of education are numerous. Eight are mentioned by two recent writers, three of them being mentioned by both. Bagley 1 includes in this list the Bread and Butter aim, the Knowledge aim, the Culture aim, the Harmonious Development of all the Powers and Faculties of Man, the Development of Moral Character, and the Development of the Socially Efficient Individual. O'Shea 2 includes the first, second, and fourth of the above, and adds the Doctrine of Formal Discipline

'"Educative Process," pp. 40-65.

2 " Education as Adjustment," Chapters 4 and 5.

and the Doctrine of Adjustment. Of statements of aims both in the past and in the present Monroe 1 mentions some fifteen or twenty. To these lists other individual statements of aim might be added.

Relativity of Aim. — Not only are the statements of the aim of education numerous, but there is no single definition which holds absolutely for all times and for all nations. Aims are relative.

First, they are relative to nationality. Each nation has problems and conditions peculiar to itself, and, hence, since it is the business of the educational system of each nation to minister particularly to the life of that nation, the aims of all the systems can never be identical to any greater degree than the lives of the nations are identical.

Second, aims are relative to the age. For the ideals and tendencies of any nation vary from age to age, changing with the shifting influences of history, and so, for any given nation the educational aim will not hold permanently to any fuller extent than we can find the same tendencies abiding permanently within the nation from age to age.

Third, they are relative to individuals in the nation. For, not all individuals in any one nation have exactly the same life to live or the same view point from which to work. Therefore, the aim of education can not be conceived to be the same for every member of the same nation. The statesman will, as a matter of course, feel that training in citizenship should be the great aim of education. But the philanthropist and social worker would hold just as strongly that social efficiency should be the supreme end. Or, again, any one individual, as for instance the

1,1 History of Education," various pages as per subject index.

STANDPOINT OF THE TEXT H

teacher, may change the emphasis from one aim to another according as he deals with different individuals. For an immoral child it seems necessary to emphasize moral training; for a selfish child, social efficiency; while for an awkward child, adjustment seems to be the desired end.

The Value of Multiplicity. — To offset the seeming loss occasioned by the uncertainty of direction just outlined, there are two values growing out of this very uncertainty which are worthy of recognition.

First, it leads to richness of aim. Whenever any individual, nation or age, adopts a paramount aim of education it develops, analyzes, and applies it to life. Then, when this aim is discarded by other individuals, nations, or ages, it is not cast aside completely. Eather, the new aim that is emphasized gathers up within it all the ideas and tendencies of permanent value that have been worked out in connection with the earlier aim. Each aim worked out adds fertility and meaning to the total complex aim.

Second, it provides for greater freedom of individual development. If in any nation a single aim of education could be successful, it would indicate a nation of one ideal. But in the nation of varied ideals, not every individual has the same kind of life to live, nor exactly the same conditions to encounter, and hence, a variety of aims makes possible a variety of types of individual.

The Aim of Education. — We come nearer to a satisfactory conception of the aim of education when we consider each of these varied aims as a phase of one great, complex aim, so complex that it is as difficult to define as

12 METHODS OE TEACHING

are the ends and purposes of society which it mirrors. The aim which any man selects is just that phase of the whole, upon which he lays most emphasis, but it contains implicit all the rest of the great complex aim. This is evident at once if we notice how advocates of any one aim try to establish its claim to solitary importance by showing that all the other aims are implied in it. For instance, the defender of the moral aim endeavors to show that an individual has to be socially efficient, well informed, cultured, well trained, able to make adjustments with facility, in order to be truly moral. And in return, the defender of the social efficiency aim endeavors to show that morality, information, training, ability to adjust, etc., are all included in his aim. Moreover, each can defend his position equally well since each has in mind about the same content and differs from his opponent only in placing stress upon a different phase of it. Hence, to repeat, the aim of education is a complex idea difficult of analysis and description, but in the main capable of being felt by the people of the nation of whose educational life it is the motive.

Requisites of a Working Aim. — However, every teacher is forced to have some working statement of aim. What this should be is determined by the relative conditions already mentioned, and by the following additional requisite. Any aim selected should be broad. Information, formal discipline, or "bread and butter," as the end of education, is too narrow in its emphasis. On the other hand, morality, or social efficiency, or citizenship is each a rich and worthy ideal toward which to strive. Hence, of the two groups the latter is likely to produce the better results since it expresses, in convenient form for thought

STANDPOINT OF THE TEXT 13

and guidance, more of the total complex aim of education than do the statements of the narrower aims. But the choice of an aim is determined by its value in the hands of the teacher using it.

Section 2. Distinctions in the Meaning of Aim

Before stating the aim that is to be the point of view of this text it is necessary to point out that there are two quite different aspects of aim which are fundamental in the consideration of problems of teaching.

Society's View of the Aim. — The school is established and conducted as an organ of society. A long time since, parents recognized their inability to properly instruct and train their offspring; consequently they organized the school, and provided for its maintenance. The school thus became an organized enterprise of society. Therefore, society possesses the right to require that the school shall educate its offspring so that they will be prepared to carry on the work of society with efficiency.

It is society's aim which we have usually in mind when we speak of the aim of education. For example, when we speak of social efficiency as an aim of education we frequently mean that it is the business of the school to train children so that when they come to take their places in adult society they may do their part in the total life of the community with efficiency. Society looks upon the school and the pupils entrusted to it in much the same light as we view the funds necessary to liquidate a promissory note. The principal is due upon the date of the graduation of the students; society is concerned only that the obligation be met at maturity: it leaves to the school the methods of raising the funds to meet the obligations at the proper time.

The Individual Aspect of the Aim. — But, to continue the illustration, there is another phase to the transaction. The teacher has immediately to set going business enterprises which will produce the principal against the time of maturity of the note.

Thus, wc are at once forced to consider the resources at his command, and so we are brought face to face with the pupils. They are the resources which must be developed to produce the quality and quantity of social commodity which will offset the claims of society upon the school.

In other words, we are compelled, as soon as we begin to discuss the problems of teaching, to consider the conscious aim of the pupil. We have to investigate the aims of the school as viewed by the pupils from day to day. It is necessary to know the end which society has in view for the product; but it is equally necessary to know the ends which the pupils have in view while in school.

Contrast Between the Aim of the Society and of the Pupil. — First, the pupil's aim is conscious to him. He is, in school or out, consciously "aiming" to do things. He has certain problems to solve, needs to satisfy, ideals to realize, hence, actions to perform. Society's aim may sometimes be consciously in the mind of the pupil. But for the most part, the realization of the social aim comes as a by-product. It is rare for the child to be conscious of duties of citizenship, or social efficiency, or other adult responsibilities for any considerable part of the time.

Second, the individual phase is immediate. What the pupil wants to do can, for the most part, be accomplished

STANDPOINT OF THE TEXT 15

soon. The social phase seems remote to him. That which it requires can wait for a long while before it need be accomplished.

Third, the pupil's aim (problem, need, or value) is an outgrowth of his own experience, and as such is full of vitality and force. Society's aim is for him an arbitrary imposition of aim from external sources, except in so far as it can be appreciated and assimilated by him.

Fourth, the pupil's aim provides a motive ("motor") for action, a necessary condition of progress. Society's aim provides a standard for action, but not a motive, except in so far as it is appreciated by the individual.

Fifth, the pupil's aims and ends are the naive beginnings out of which grows the aim as society sees it. This latter is the fruition, the final stage of development. It is the mature product of which the individual phases are the rudiments.

The Value of This Distinction for the Teacher. —

There are several suggestive pedagogical facts which follow from this distinction between the aims of society and those of the child.

First, the teacher who desires to have his pupils become all that society wishes will find in their present needs and interests his way of approach. For, if this distinction holds, he is aware of the fact that he has to begin with the aims of the children as he finds them. They already have conscious aims, and if any other aims are to be made conscious in them they have to grow out of those already present. Because of this, the teacher sees that the method by which adult aims are to be made the conscious aims of the pupils is the method of interpretation. For instance, if a pupil is to realize that good citizenship is a worthy aim it must not be presented to him as it exists in the world of legislatures, law courts, and judges, but it must be translated in terms of the pupil's world, in terms of the group to which he belongs. He must be led to see citizenship in terms of the government of the home and of the school. The sense of justice, which enables him to respect the rights of his mates must later enable him to respect the demands made upon him in the larger commonwealth of society. Only in so far as this is done can he appreciate what good citizenship means.

Second, these distinctions warn the teacher against judging pupils by adult standards. For instance, the adult standard of truthfulness can scarcely be required of a young child who is, as yet, unable to distinguish between a fact and an image. Again, that which by an adult is called stealing may not be so considered by a child.

Third, the teacher who is inclined to follow the interests and impulses of the child too far has here a standard by which to tell when they should be followed and when restrained. For obviously those interests which do not tend to the future perfection of adult aims must be restrained and those which are in line with later aims should be reinforced.

Section 3. Methodological Statement op Aim

When we are concerned with the relation of the school to society stress is laid upon the aim of society — upon such aims as social efficiency, adjustment, morality or citizenship. But as soon as we begin to consider the purely educational question of the method by which the school is to accomplish this aim. we are compelled to place society's

STANDPOINT OF THE TEXT 17

aim in the margin of attention and bring the conscious aims and ideals of the children into the focus. This necessitates a psychological or methodological line of approach, an approach by way of the processes of child life, and requires some statement of the problems of such an undertaking.

Line of Approach for Methods of Teaching. — In

accordance with what has been said, we shall consider the function of education in our discussion as this : The aim of education is to assist pupils to appreciate and control the values of life. The reason for adopting a new statement of the aim of education is chiefly that it provides a better way of approaching the problems of method, one which has not yet been worked upon to any great extent. a point of attack which seems to be rich in possibilities, and at the same time a phase of the great aim, having the other phases organically related to it.

The remainder of the text will be an attempt to interpret the teaching process in terms of values and their control, and for the present it is necessary only to make clear by illustration the meaning of the terms.

^Values of Life. — By values of life is meant those things which are felt to be "worth while." To catalogue them would be impossible; but some of the most important have already been suggested in the above mentioned aims of education. For instance: social efficiency, citizenship, culture, making a living, acquisition of knowledge, and morality, are all values of life. Every value which has gained a place as an aim of education is a value worthy of consideration.

Another hint of them may be secured by considering some of the aspects of experience. For instance, one of the chief values of life is a strong and vigorous physique. Another value of life is intellectual power. So valuable, indeed, is this latter considered that it has received the major part of the attention of school room practice (as opposed to theory) for several centuries. Still another of the values is a warm enthusiastic consciousness of the social aspect of life, sensitive to the values of service and of friendship, sensitive equally to the values of self reliance and of dependence. Still another is a rich, sensitive, aesthetic nature. Added to these we have moral, religious, and practical values.

Another way of looking at values is to connect them with problems, interests, needs, and ideals. Every problem of which the solution is attempted, every interest of which fulfillment is sought, every need for the satisfaction of which we work, every ideal which we endeavor to realize is a value. It is to us worth while. Otherwise it would not receive attention. Sometimes the value is low, but it is still a value.

Still another way of illustrating the values of life is to connect them with the conscious aims of which we have spoken above. Everything for which the child consciously works is a value. If it were not so he would not strive for it. Even where the child's conscious aim in learning the multiplication tables is to avoid a scolding, this avoidance of scolding is in itself a value. 1

Appreciation of Values. — By appreciation is meant

1 Adult standards of value differ from juvenile standards. Yet that does not exclude the juvenile values as motives. It does necessitate, however, that they be reinforced, where valuable as judged by adult standards, and depreciated where the sympathetic adult sees that they will be harmful.

STANDPOINT OF THE TEXT . ly

both intellectual appreciation, which investigates the values in order to get the perspective of things, and also that appreciation which may be described as "emotional." It is not sufficient that pupils know the values of life; they should esteem them, prize them, love them as they do personal friends.

The whole question of appreciation of values, the method of the growth and development of ideals, is one which is sadly in need of analysis and interpretation. In this text we shall consider only incidentally the methods of developing richer ideals. Chief emphasis will be laid upon methods of securing control of ideals, values, problems, and needs which are in the child's experience. The ethical, methodological question of developing them cannot be elaborately discussed.

Control of the Values. — By control of these values we mean that we emphasize the ability of the pupil to lay hold upon and to secure them. It stands for efficiency. If the. child has the capacity for aesthetic enjoyment he ought to be able to secure this aesthetic enjoyment; if he wishes to be of social service he ought to be able to be of social service; and if he has a desire for a religious life he ought to have the skill to live a religious life. When he has a scheme of values he should be able to fulfill his heart's desire in connection with any of them. This control of values lays emphasis upon discipline, upon efficient endeavor, fluency of expression, power to organize, accuracy and readiness, good judgment, and common sense.

The Standpoint of the Text.— The foregoing schematic statement of the point of view from which the problem of methods of teaching will be attacked, is probably sufficient for the reader to get his bearings in connection with what is to follow. The standpoint is a functional one, and presupposes, first, that the individual gains his education through the solution of problems, the satisfaction of needs, and the fulfillment of interests; second, that problems, needs, and interests emerge when some obstruction arises in efforts toward the securing of the values of life; and, third, that the subject-matter of the course of study is an organization of instruments which have for their function the solution of these problems, the satisfaction of these needs, and the fulfillment of these interests, and is so organized as to fulfill these functions. These three facts are sufficient to interpret a great mass of the empirical rules of teaching and to throw light upon them.

The Problems to be Discussed. — In endeavoring to attack methods of teaching from the foregoing point of view we shall discuss the following problems :

1. Subject-matter, the instruments available for the

control of values. (The methods of developing values will be discussed only incidentally.)

2. The methods by which motives for acquiring con-

trol of these instruments are secured.

3. The process by which these instruments are ac-

quired by the pupils.

4. The process by which the use of these instruments

becomes easy and accurate.

Section 1. Value of Subject-Matter

Definition of the Term. — The term subject-matter is not sufficiently technical to merit a heading in encyclopedias or in dictionaries of philosophical terms. Its significance to the popular mind may, however, be taken as stated in the Century Dictionary: "the subject or matter presented for consideration in some written or oral statement or discussion."

In accordance with the spirit of the meaning therein expressed, the term, as related to educational processes, has come to refer in general to the detailed matter which is taught in schools. We find it thus used in such terms as the subject-matter of the course of study, the subject-matter of American history, the subject-matter of physics, of arithmetic, or of grammar.

The Importance of Subject-Matter.— The fact that subject-matter is frequently discussed by educators would seem to point to its importance in the process of teaching. Nor is this appearance contrary to fact. For, although the inspiring teacher, Jacotot, has said, "Everyone can teach; and, moreover, can teach that which he does not know himself", we to-day believe that no one can teach who does not know his subject. Indeed, there are many who take a position opposite to the one just quoted, and hold that knowledge of the subject is alone essential. The truth of the matter is that subject-matter and method of teaching cannot be separated. And this is true for the reason that a method of teaching a subject is the manner of development and organization of the subject-matter in the minds of individuals. 1 Hence, in a discussion of methods of teaching, a consideration of subject-matter is of prime importance.

Inadequacy of Its Treatment. — But while it is an

obvious fact that subject-matter has every right to consideration, the treatment which it receives in educational theory is inadequate. That this is the case is due to our failing to distinguish clearly between the educational aim which society has in causing the child to be educated, and the conscious aim which the child has in studying any specific unit of subject-matter. For, while it is true that the aim of education is, for instance, to help citizens of a country to solve moral problems, it does not follow that in every situation during a pupil's life he is conscious of a moral problem in connection with every unit of subject-matter that he studies. Nor can we say that every unit of subject-matter studied has as its purpose the solution of moral problems. Hence, when we try to apply these ultimate social ends to specific, everyday assignments, the process breaks down, and society's educational aim is laid aside without being utilized for specific guidance. And, since the teacher finds it impossible to use this aim in every lesson, he is compelled to seek some other incentives for the daily assignments. These all reduce themselves in the main to this, that the assignments are made to be learned, and that, therefore, they must be learned by the

'See Chapter 7.

pupil, who, in turn, is supposed to trust to the school as the sponsor for their value.

If the teaching process is carried on under these conditions, there is no necessity for getting any definite view of the purpose of subject-matter. As a result, sometimes the teacher falls into the error of accepting the subject-matter without a question of its specific value to the child, and views it as a pre-ordained system arranged for the purpose of being acquired by the child one piece per day.

Necessity for Fuller Treatment. — But, as soon as we look at the material to be taught as either an aid to the child in the growth of ideals, or, more particularly, as an aid in getting control of values, we are compelled to scrutinize each unit of subject-matter, each idea and each principle, each fact and each rule, in order to discover its specific, intrinsic purpose. So long as we posit the fact that the child is to learn all units for the same reasons, as, for instance, because they are given him to learn, there is no necessity for such scrutiny. - But, as t soon as we consider that he is stimulated continually by a multitude of desires, problems, and motives, and when we consider further that the race has these same desires and has created these units of subject-matter to satisfy them, we are neglectful indeed if we do not endeavor to know what desires or needs any unit which is being taught satisfies or what problems it solves.

Section 2. Subject-Matter as a Wat op Acting

By viewing subject-matter as unfolding a method by which control may be secured, a unit of subject-matter is seen to be a way of acting. And the word acting as used here does not refer merely to overt and physical activity, but to the subtle psychical activities also, such as the intellectual, the emotional, and the aesthetic.

To one to whose vision the term "subject-matter" suggests merely the pages of a text-book, this definition will seem to be a purely academic one and widely separated from its usual context. But, a few illustrations chosen from quite different fields will show the pertinence of the definition.

Illustrations from Literature. — Tennyson's Crossing the Bar is a way of thinking and feeling about death. With this may be contrasted another way as presented to us in Browning's Prospice; or, still another, that portrayed by Bryant in An Old Mans Funeral. The Lord's Prayer and Now I lay me down to sleep are both ways of praying. Excelsior is a way of viewing unconquerable aspirations. Macbeth is a way of thinking and feeling about the progress of unfettered ambition. Hamlet is a way of thinking and feeling about a life of indecision. Job is a way of thinking and feeling about the significance of suffering. Every unit of poetry or prose is a way of thinking, feeling, or acting about something.

Illustrations from Arithmetic— Multiplication is a

short way of adding, as division is a short way of subtracting. Promissory notes are methods or ways of keeping permanent records of loans, and receipts are ways of keeping permanent records of commodities delivered. Common or decimal fractions are different ways of handling units smaller than the whole. Multiplication tables are ways of making easy the learning of facts of multiplication. Denominate numbers are ways of handling con-

SUBJECT-MATTEE 25

crete measures. Percentage is a way of handling quantities upon a basis of 100, and the decimal system is one more or less convenient way of recording quantity. So, also, we see that every arithmetical process is a ivay of acting.