The science and the art of teaching

Front matter

Class Book.

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PART ONE Nature of Teaching : Method and What Determines It CHAPTER PAGE

I Our Attitude toward Teaching 1 1

II The Science and the Art of Teaching . . .22

III Method and What Determines It .... 29

IV The Educational Ideal . 36

PART TWO Method as Determined by the Nature of the Child

V Physical Education 47

VI How the Mind Works 59

VII Collecting Mental Material: Perception . . 68

VIII Combining Mental Material: Association . 78

IX Remembering and Imagining 91

X Thinking 105

XI Educating the Feelings 117

XII Levels of Learning 128

XIII The Learning Process . .138

I CONTENTS

Chapter I Our Attitude Toward Teaching

"This spirit seeks only the fact, without the slightest regard to consequences; any twisting or obscuring of the fact to accommodate it to a preconceived theory, hope, or wish, any tampering with the actual result of investigation, is the unpardonable sin. It is a spirit at once humble and dauntless, patient of details, drawing indeed no distinction between great and small, but only between true and false; passionless but energetic, venturing into pathless wastes to bring back a fact, caring only for truth, candid as a still lake, expectant, unfettered, and tireless.

'"Work of his hand He nor commends nor grieves:

Pleads for itself the fact ; As unrepenting nature leaves Her every act.'" *

Exercise. — A parent asks me to tell him the best method for his child to use in committing to memory a poem of moderate length. I advise that the child learn thoroughly one line at a time, instead of taking one stanza at a time, or the whole piece as a unit. Am I right? How do you know? How can such things be found out?

You are going to teach. Naturally, you want to succeed. But whether you succeed or fail depends greatly on the regard you have for your work, your attitude toward teaching.

Every superintendent has to deal with teachers of various

* Charles William Eliot, Educational Reform. Used by permission of The Century Company, publishers.

t2 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING

types: the salary-seeker, who, by keeping his eye on pay day, manages to pull through; the chore-boy teacher, who contrives, by much pottering, to use up all the time there is; the motion-maker, who feels that the whole business is guesswork so far as he is concerned, but who thinks the results ought to be there because he has worked hard, going through with everything the book and the superintendent told him to do. The teacher desired most of all is the scientific mind-maker, who, realizing that education, like everything else, is "governed by law," tries to learn that law and to follow its leading.

Science as the key to success. — Not individuals only, but the whole race is coming to regard science as the key to success. The farmer, the physician, and the business man, who used to follow blindly the practice of their predecessors, or groped along under the guidance of their own guesses, are finding that science unlocks for them the gates of enterprise. " Knowledge is power." A comparison of the New England Primer with a first reader of modern make (see pages 14 and 15) is suggestive of what has been accomplished in education.

When old means and methods fail us, we seek better ones, for we are engaged in a life-and-death game with the forces of our environment. Nature is often represented as a kindly mother, but she may also be pictured as a cruel stepmother. Whether we like it or not, our old Earth Mother deluges us with water, prostrates us with sunstrokes, poisons us with animal or plant venom, cracks our bones, swallows us up alive. But with all this terrible cruelty, she has her virtues; she is fairly regular in her habits, is invariably systematic and orderly. This is our only hope; by watching her carefully, we learn to foresee her opera-

OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD TEACHING I3

tions and save ourselves by planning ahead. So we have learned to store our food for the winter that is months away, but which is sure to come. So most of us endure vaccination, to escape the disease which would otherwise endanger our lives.

Science aims at (i) prediction and (2) control. — Some of nature's doings are still a blank mystery to us. No one can predict when the next earthquake will come, nor can he control it when it occurs. Neither can we control storms, but, failing in that, we are learning to foretell their coming and take to cover. "Forewarned is forearmed." Further, in many cases we not only, know what nature will do, but we even obtain control of some of her operations, her fires, electric currents, waterfalls, and the like, and make them work for us.

Now education is just a matter of preparing a child to go out into the world and play a winning game with nature (and human nature). As teachers, we want to control the child's attention, memory, thought, and behavior, until he can take the steering wheel and guide himself; and instead of tinkering blindly at his personality, we should be able to foresee just how his mind will operate when we apply the electric spark of education. The physician, after his diagnosis of a case, can give some "prognosis" of it, can tell what its future would be under various kinds of treatment. Some day, we teachers may be able to tell how our cases will turn out under our educational prescription. If ever we find out how to diagnose a pupil's personality and administer the kind of education that will yield him the most usefulness and happiness, whether as merchant, mechanic, or professional man, it will be the greatest educational discovery ever known.

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A page of the New England Primer

(Exact size)

From the edition published by Mr. Ira Webster, of Hartford, in the year 1843

OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD TEACHING

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She went to Humpty Dumpty.

"Please, Humpty Dumpty, help me find my sheep!"

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty said, "Leave them alone, and they'll come home."

Page from Story Hour Readers

(Reduced one-fourth)

Copyright, 191 3, by American Book Company

1 6 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OE TEACHING

Why science succeeds. — The reason why scientific practice is crowding out other methods of work is because it excels in power of prediction and control. And the reason why it thus excels is because of its invincible method of finding out the truth. Since this scientific method is the basis of many of the methods used in the schoolroom, we should cultivate a warm acquaintance with it at once.

An example of scientific investigation. — Suppose the problem is to find the cause of dew.* First we must know exactly what it is we are trying to accomplish: we must know precisely what we mean by dew. Shall it include the moisture found sometimes on the outside of a pitcher, or on windows, or on water pipes? These cases are so much alike that it is probably best to consider them all together. By dew, then, we shall mean the moisture that gathers on any substance exposed in the open air, when there is no rain or other apparent source for the dampness.

Our second step is to get all possible facts in the case. We make many observations and experiments, consuming, it may be, weeks or months in the process. We find, time after time, that dew appears on objects which are under cover, such as the water pipe or the pitcher; that it may form on the under, as well as the upper surface of an object; that there is no dew on very cloudy nights; that if we forget to put up our carriage top dew may form on the seat, whereas, if the top is up the cushion is likely to remain dry; that dew gathers on substances which are dry inside, as well as on those that are damp, etc.

Having collected a goodly treasury of facts that seem to have some bearing on the answer to our question, we next

* For a more technical logical discussion of this investigation, see John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Bk. Ill, Ch. IX, § 3.

OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD TEACHING t j

generalize, tie up our facts in bunches, so to speak, as the gardener does his radishes. For example, we may find that we have a hundred observations, all tending to show that dew forms most freely on clear nights. This generalization enables us to hold these hundred facts in a single mental grasp, and to place them as we please, without scattering our thoughts.

We now make guesses, hypotheses as they are called, as to the probable cause of dew. Let us see what some of them are:

i. Dew may fall from the sky, as rain does. But this cannot be true, for it was found that clear nights brought more dew than cloudy ones. Also, dew formed on our water pitcher, under cover, where anything like rain was out of the question.

2. Dew may be forced out of the object on which it forms. Perhaps the water on the pitcher came through the glass. But on looking over the facts we find that dew forms on objects that are dry through and through. We may even repeat some of our experiments, to make sure of the matter.

3. Dew may come from the- air and settle on objects. But why does it not form on all objects all the time? We recall the coldness of bedewed objects as compared with the temperature of the surrounding air; we know that cold contracts most things, — why may it not contract the air and squeeze out the moisture, which then settles on whatever is near? We now have a theory that harmonizes all the facts: the cooling of moist air by a comparatively cold object squeezes out particles of moisture somewhat as if from a sponge; these particles unite to form drops on the object. We should not expect, then, to find dew on objects iS THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OP TEACHING

that are warmer than the air, nor on any object surrounded by perfectly dry air.

We experiment further and find that this third hypothesis holds good under every test that our ingenuity can devise. So long as it continues to do so we shall accept it as "true."

Finally, having established this new truth, we feel safe to use it as a basis for further reasoning. For example, we may be asked if there could be dew were there no air; whether there is dew on the moon, etc. Having learned the cause of dew, we can reason out pretty certain answers to such questions.

Steps in scientific method. — While we have not gone into all the minute details of the investigation, we have followed, in general outline, the method used everywhere in science. We may sum up the steps as below:

i. Finding a definite question to answer.

2. Collecting instances, facts that seem likely to have

something to do with the answer.

3. Putting these facts into a class, or classes, and finding

what can be said of them, that is, generalizing.

4. Making guesses, hypotheses, based on the facts, sug-

gesting possible explanations.

5. Testing to see which hypothesis (if any) is the true one.

6. Using the new truth as a basis for further reasoning. The steps need not be taken in just this order: one may

have a pretty definite hypothesis when he begins the collecting of facts. Also, the scientist is sometimes compelled to halt before the process is finished. For example, he may make some important generalization, such as "All magnets attract iron but not wood," without being able to complete his work and show why this is so. But the steps enumerated above are the essential processes in scientific investigation.

OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD TEACHING I0

The scientific spirit in education. — Most noticeable in the scientific spirit is that it takes nobody's statement as the source of authority, but "seeks only the fact," insists that the voice of the facts shall silence all other voices. It forbids us to worship educational heroes and blindly obey them, or to do what "has always been done," when the facts in the case condemn such practice.

Further, these facts are obtained for the most part, not by stumbling against them in the darkness of random experience, but under the searchlight of carefully planned observation, accurately recorded. It is this devotion to scientific method that has built up our "experimental pedagogy," and much of what is known as educational psychology. The scientific educator demands that so far as possible all questions be settled, not by wrangling argument, nor by appeal to personal authority, but by experiment. He believes that not nature only, but human nature as well is regular in its workings, is "subject to law," as we say, and that its laws can be worked out, slowly, with many sighs perhaps, but surely. Pedagogy needs more r investigators who will study the minds and bodies of children as keenly as others are studying the wings of moths and the mandibles of ants.

If you take the scientific attitude toward teaching, you will realize that there is among teachers a great deal of fiction which is passing as truth. You will learn to distinguish the earnest truth seeker from the mere opinion peddler. You will learn that you cannot develop souls by a blueprint pattern furnished from the superintendent's office, but must have some insight yourself. You will be fearless, but tolerant of others; for the field of truth is too large to permit of monopoly. You will be critical, not for the sake of the criticism but for the sake of truth. You will not make believe; and if others do so, you will prick their bubbles with your logic. But you will not aim to win debates merely. Whether you confute another or acknowledge your own error, it will all be done in the same calm and happy spirit. Let facts be facts, whatever the consequences.

i. What are the dangers of following blindly an educational leader?

2. Choose some thoroughly scientific person of your acquaintance and describe his attitude toward his work. Do you think he would quickly accept a new theory, or substitute authority in place of scientific investigation?

3. How does the position of school principal or superintendent differ from that of manager of a gang of laborers?

4. Devise an experiment to determine whether children should recite spelling orally, or by writing, or both.

5. Let each member of the class bring in one or more examples of a collection of something, such as coins or stamps, made by a child. See if any generalizations can be made, and whether such collections can be satisfactorily explained.

6. Do you think your mind is " governed by law" ? Can you state any mental law? Where can you find statements of mental laws?

7. Should we ever argue educational questions, if they are open to harmless experiment? What kind of question should be debated?

8. Look up and report an account of an educational experiment.

9. When you prove something of one triangle, is it sure to hold true of all triangles? Why? If you prove some-

OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD TEACHING 2 i

thing about one child, is it sure to hold true of all children? Why?

10. Describe a pet or a friend, as you would for rhetorical purposes, and then give a scientific description of the same subject. What is the difference? Which appeals more to thought? To feeling?

ii. Generalize about your school: make statements that will hold true of all the students; all the faculty; all subjects studied ; all athletic sports.

12. Can you think of any outworn practices in schools, which you would like to change? How can you tell whether the change you propose would be wise?

Boone, Richard Gause, Science of Education, Chs. XIII, XIV. O'Shea, M. V., Education as Adjustment, Chs. I, II. Rusk, Robert R., Introduction to Experimental Education, Ch. I.

Yerkes, Robert M., Introduction to Psychology, Ch. XXX. Journal of Educational Psychology.

Chapter II

"A science teaches us to know and an art to do, and all the more perfect sciences lead to the creation of corresponding useful arts." *

Exercises. — (i) Toss a coin fifty times, recording the number of " heads" and of " tails." Repeat until you feel that you can state the law of the appearance of heads and tails.

(2) State in advance how many heads and how many tails you expect to get if you toss fifty times more. Try it.

(3) Number the next twenty-five throws and place opposite each number an k for head or a t for tail, according to what you expect in each case. Try it.

With which did you succeed better, (2) or (3)? Can you tell why?

It is not to be expected that every teacher will immediately plunge into educational experiment on a large scale; but we can all appreciate and use the results mined out for us by others. We may even gain the chance to cooperate in such work, and so have a right to feel that we are of real service in creating a reliable science of education.

What kind of science can we hope to establish?

Sciences are either exact or approximate. — We have found that science is seeking the power to predict and to control. A science is exact, then, in so far as it can (a)

* W. Stanley Jevons, Elementary Lessons in Logic. Used by permission of The Macmillan Company, publishers.

predict events accurately, or (b) control them minutely. The astronomer can predict the uncontrollable movements of the heavenly bodies — say an eclipse — to the fraction of a second. Hence astronomy is an exact science. On the other hand we have learned to accept with some indulgence the predictions of the weather bureau: meteorology is not yet an exact science. Power of control is highly developed in physics and mechanics, while it is all too slowly coming into our grasp in such sciences as agriculture, medicine, and education.

Education can be an approximate science. — The reason why some sciences cannot be exact is that there are so many unseen forces at work ; we fail to read what is going on behind nature's countenance. The weather cannot now be predicted precisely, because we have not as yet been able to isolate and measure every factor, cloud, wind, and what not, that affects weather conditions. So with the science of teaching: to attempt to measure accurately all the currents of a child's mind is much like trying to measure all the petty tributaries of a river, when they have mingled well in the big stream, or the many minute and constantly changing parts of the flame of a candle. Besides, the child's mind is unstable; one little electric twinkle in the corner of the teacher's eye may destroy the whole value of an educational experiment. Such a twinkle would have no effect if one were experimenting on a piece of steel.

To meet such difficulties the investigator depends upon spreading his work out, and covering enough ground roughly to make up for his lack of accurate knowledge of any one square yard of it. He barely touches a great many things, and can predict little, if at all, about any particular object we may point to. Such would be the experiment of raising five thousand hills of potatoes on an acre: the farmer cannot safely predict the future of any individual hill, but he can tell, in the long run, the average yield to expect from an acre, or even from the average hill of potatoes. So also the teacher, by collecting statistics from large classes year after year, can tell about how many pupils in a hundred are likely to make a satisfactory mark, and how many are likely to fail. But he cannot foretell, when first he meets a hundred new pupils, precisely who will win the highest marks, and who will not pass.

Most of our results, then, apply to large groups only, not to any one pupil in particular. For example, suppose one group of a hundred children learn the spelling lessons by writing the words over and over, while another group learn the same words more quickly and lastingly, by having them placed on the board and making a mental picture of each, after its erasure. This would convince most of us that the second method is better than the first in teaching such groups of pupils. But if we were tutoring any individual child of the two hundred mentioned above, we could not be sure that we had the superior method for him, since some few learn better by the method of repeated writing.

We can appreciate the situation if we recall how accurately a marksman can direct and control the course of his bullet; how the astronomer can foretell, to a second, when the sun will rise on any day we may name for him, ten years from now; and how helpless the teacher is either to predict or to control the career of the next pupil brought to him to be educated. But our disadvantage is not hopeless. We are making constant progress in the direction and control of pupils' lives.

Teaching is an art, as well as a science. — In any undertaking, science is the brain and art the hand. "A science teaches us to know and an art to do." An art is a process, the process of changing some kind of raw material into a finished product. In teaching, the "raw material" is our pupils as they come to us; the finished product, these pupils when they leave us. If they have not undergone a real change for the better during their sojourn with us, we can hardly say we have taught at all, no matter what fine performances we have gone through in the schoolroom. We do not teach unless somebody learns.

The science of teaching should enlighten the art. — Just as there are good farmers who do not understand their own farming, so there are successful teachers who can explain neither what they do nor why they do it. But they are in danger of being like the quack, who, because a pink pill cures one case, administers pink pills to all patients for all ailments. Silly as this may seem, such teaching is equally absurd.

Nowadays, however, every art that hopes to maintain its standing seeks scientific guidance. As the best farmer is the well-informed agricultural artist, and the best physician is the scientific practitioner, so the best teacher is the one who compasses both his science and his art, who uses both head and hand. Thoughtful art is applied science.

The relation of education to other sciences. — Education is the little brother among sciences, and it would be foolish not to profit by what its older relatives have accomplished. All are working for the same general purpose, to find out the truth about ourselves and the world in which we live. We can learn much by keeping an eye on what our neighbor is doing in his field of investigation, while our hands are driving our own work.

Some of our nearest and most helpful neighbors are: the biologist, who attempts to explain the mystery of life; the physiologist, who shows us what each part of the body does for the body as a whole, — the work of heart, stomach, and nerve; the sociologist, who shows us what each part of the social body does for the people as a whole, — the work of school, church, government; the psychologist, who is meeting with some success in exploring the mazes of the mind. All these and many others labor alongside the educator in a spirit of cheerful cooperation.

The teacher cannot be a specialist in all these fields. But he can reasonably hope to cull from them some of the facts that are largest, most significant, most illuminating for his educational endeavors. This shall be one of the aims in the pages that follow.

i. Should you, as a teacher, prefer to receive detailed instructions intended to apply to every child, or to take the responsibility of treating each as you think fit? Why?

2. A superintendent in one of our large cities laid out the daily geography lessons for each grade. Was this wise?

3. How many students have been graduated from your school each year of the past ten years? Does the average tell you the number that will be graduated this year? Is the average likely to remain the same for the next ten years? How does this problem differ from that of foretelling the percentage of stormy days during the next year or the next ten years?

4. It was once thought that, since the ocean became wanner the farther south one went, at the equator the water must boil. Explain the nature of this error. Is there any danger of similar errors in pedagogy?

5. On automatic weighing machines, figures are often found stating "what you should weigh," according to your sex and height. What authority is back of these figures? Is there any reason why they should apply to you individually?

6. Physical culturists often speak of "perfect" physical development: what is this? Whence do they obtain their idea of perfection? Have they a right to apply it to you? Why?

7. Binet found that the average height of ten-year-old French boys was 130 centimeters, and their average weight 28 kilograms. Should a French boy whose tenth -year height and weight fell below these figures be classed as subnormal? Why?

8. What is a norm? Should teeth that are as healthy as the average be called normal? When should the norm be an average? When an ideal?

9. Shall we ever be able to forecast the length of a human life scientifically? Why?

10. Can you suggest any educational questions that are not open to experiment?

1 1 . Resolved : That a teacher who has learned by experience the art of teaching, but little of the science, is to be preferred to a normal or college graduate who has learned the science but not the art. Choose your side of this question and outline an argument.

12. How do you find whether it is wrong to lie? To steal? Would you advocate experiment here?

13. Galton found that the head of a certain child who had measles and other children's diseases ceased to grow during illness, and never recovered the lost growth. What do you think of the probability that this would hold true for all children?

14. Which can safely be applied more widely, physical or mental statistics? Why?

15. Who decides what we should try to make of our children finally? How should this be decided?

16. Consider the comparative value of the following, as means of investigating any question:

1. Unsystematic observations or trials of a thing — " ex-

perience."

2. Statistics: systematic, extensive observation or ex-

periment; partial knowledge or control (or both) of that which determines the result.

3. Intensive observation or experiment; comparatively

full knowledge or control (or -both) of that which

determines the result.

Which is most reliable? Which has been most used in the investigation of educational questions?

James, William, Talks to Teachers, I.

O'Shea, M. V., Education as Adjustment, Ch. III.

Rusk, Robert R., Introduction to Experimental Education, Ch. II.

Thorndike, Edward L., Educational Psychology (1903), Ch, XV.

Chapter III Method And What Determines It

"Method is essential to the highest genius, whether it be in teaching or in other matters; and the results arrived at by clever men are largely due to the excellence of the method employed. 'If I have any advantage over other men,' says Descartes, 'I owe it to my method.'"*

Exercise. — Before reading this chapter, try to teach some one something you know, — how to whistle, throw a ball, make a paper doll, solve arithmetical problems, or the like.

Did you succeed? How do you know? How did you go about it, that is, what method did you use? Can you think of other methods that would bring the same result? How can you tell which is best? Make a list of the chief factors in the problem. What should determine the choice of the method to be used in any particular case?

Nature of method. — A method, according to the root meaning of the word, is a way of getting somewhere, attaining something we are after. It is an orderly procedure for the accomplishment of a definite end. As we can reach Rome by more than one road, so we can usually accomplish a given object in more than one way. These ways are methods. Physicians, for instance, have many ways, or methods of curing a patient. So with the farmer, who has different methods of crop raising; the cook, who knows

* Joseph Landon, Principles and Practice of Teaching and Class

Management.

several recipes for making pie; and the teacher, who understands the various methods of " making" mind. In every case there is an orderly process for the accomplishment of a definite end.

What determines method? — Picture to yourself a mechanic at his bench. Here we have (i) the material to be shaped, (2) tools with which to shape it, (3) the mechanic who wields the tools, and (4) the ideal which he holds in his head as a pattern by which to work. The way he sets to work, that is, his method, depends on all four.