The fundamental principles of learning and study

Front matter

Hill:!

Hi wm m j| p | imp j rjjf

ilii

Preface

The present volume is' a rewriting of manuscript which the writer has used for some time as part of his lectures to students in educational psychology. The aim is especially to show how the results of general psychology and experimental psychology and of allied sciences can be put into use by the teacher and the student in the problems of learning and of study. In the chapters on Making the Appeal to the Student, and Attention and Sustained Effort, examples have been given from the writer's own studies and observations for the purpose of illustrating psychological principles involved and to suggest to teachers ways that have proved successful in the actual everyday work of the teacher.

The writer thinks that The Habit Theory has not received its due in educational practice and perhaps not in educational thought. It is a principle which runs through the whole work of education and the adoption of it as the fundamental working principle of the teacher's work should help to bring the definiteness that is needed. If habits, including habitudes, dispositions and attitudes, are not all the results that education can show, we can see what is left out after we do our duty to the first and fundamental things.

The general scheme of the book can be indicated by the following statement of some of the main thoughts: 1) The nature of education and of the educational process from the point of view of permanent results in the individual. 2) The necessity for permanent results of some kind and the nature of these results. 3) The process of learning, of making acquisitions which can be made more or less permanent and suggestions for the right direction of this learning process. 4) A discussion of how to make the best progress in learning. 5) The getting of not only specific but general improvement. 6) The factors that make for permanent results. 7.) Modes of appeal for the purpose of arousing and directing the desired activities. 8) The development through lower to higher stages of attention, activity, and effort. 9) The development of the emotional and moral nature for permanent results in moral character. 10) Physical and physiological conditions that are involved in learning and study. 11) The problem of how to study, teaching to study, and of putting supervised study into the school. 12) The need for definite ends of education and the possibility of using the principles and facts presented herein to help towards greater definiteness of aim, of procedure and of obtaining recognizable and measurable end results so that the work of education shall approach in definiteness the achievement of other big business enterprises.

The directions for students appearing in chapter 16 are practically unchanged from the early writing nearly three years ago.

References at the ends of chapters indicate books and articles that seem to the author to be most useful to the teacher if he wishes to choose from a large number of possible references. Others may be equally good, but a selected bibliography seems to be most valuable.

It is my pleasure and duty to acknowledge the helpful criticisms and suggestions of Dean L. D. Coffman, Professor N. Wilde, Professor H. H. Woodrow, Professor J. Peterson, and Mr. J. R. Kantor, of The University of Minnesota and of Professor H. W. Odum, of The University of Georgia.

A. S. EDWARDS,.

The Psychological Laboratory.

Peabody School of Education.

Chapter 1. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION

Pages 11-21 Purpose and point of view of writer. Habit a convenient term. Habit but not automatism. Habit fixes but it also releases. No justification for education which does not make permanent results. Education compares in importance with heredity. Importance of the habit theory. Habit in various fields of thought. Habit at bottom a matter of physics. Ideals and standards. Three great principles of education. The greatest needs of education.

Chapter 2. NEUROLOGY AND THE BASIS OF EDUCATION

Pages 22-36 The fundamental nature and importance of habit: Quotation from Dr. Carpenter. The modifications in the individual which result in habits make up his education. The work of the teacher. Sully on habit. Comprehensiveness of the habit theory as shown by Prof. Angell's Psychology. Habit is fundamental for the most complete kinds of thinking. Habit and originality. Habit and plasticity. Habit and the fixity of response. The danger of too much fixity. No necessary danger of losing plasticity through education. Flexibility depends partly on a variety of habits and a habit of choosing from among them. Variety of response a peculiarly human thing. Education and initiative. The varying strengths of habits. Types of habit: habit and habitude.

Chapter 3. THE FUNDAMENTAL WORK OF EDUCATION

Pages 37-50 Habit is the basis of progress in learning. Progress to higher stages of efficiency. Progress and modifying the old habits. Education and the development of permanent desires and interests. The advantages of the habit theory: Fundamental nature and comprehensiveness of the theory. It gives definiteness to the work of the teacher. It gives the basis for scientific treatment and measurement. It reduces all education to the same terms. It emphasizes the psychological factors necessary to learning. The knowledge of habit formation reveals the manifold nature of the teacher's work. Other aims of education are included and defined. Disadvantage of the term habit. Judgments, ideas and habits. Ideals, the guiding influence of education. Ideals and achievement. The case of Dr. Brashear. Ideals as permanent motives in life. The controlling principle of education. Determination of the curriculum on the basis of activities which result in habits. Kinds of habits to be formed. Education as the formation and modification of habits under the guidance of ideals and the control of standards.

Chapter 4. LEARNING AND HABIT FORMATION

Pages 51-62

Life and habit formation. The need for habits. The effects of habits. The strong guiding influence of habit. Principles of habit formation : Learning correctly. Accuracy first, speed later. Helps to habit formation include: — Strong and decided initiative. Continuity of practice. Use of every opportunity. Caring enough and determination. A clear plan. The realization of value. Success and the feeling of success; mastery and the feeling of master}^. Suggestion. Publishing intentions. Penalties. Putting self on honor. Thoroughness. Hindrances to habit formation: Not caring enough. Laziness. Lack of incentive. Other habits. Difficulty and complexity. Unpleasantness. The pressure of time and other things. The tendency to feel without acting. The incomplete learning of other habits. Breaking old habits: Never permit the old habit to function. Remove the conditions and suggestions for the old habit. Develop a substitute habit. Penalties. A new ideal coupled with strong emotion. New demands and responsibilities. "Keep the faculty of effort alive." The habit of making new habits.

table of contents o

Chapter 5. ACQUISITION WHICH INVOLVES STUDY

Pages 63-75 The acquisition of knowledge. Association in all kinds of learning. Acquisition through the senses: observational learning. Factors that determine our perceptions: The object itself. The contents of consciousness. Mental habits. Physiological processes. Attention. Thoroughness. Observation with definite expectation ideas. "Apperception." Observation for complete analysis. Total impression. Learning by trial and error. Imitation. Note-taking. Acquisition by reasoning. Selection and organization. Essence of reasoning. The problem for the student. Helps to habits of correct thinking. The value of ideas. Age and learning. The value of early acquisitions. Jost's law. Some kind of habits are formed early. Subjects to be taught at different ages. Other conclusions in relation to age and learning. Social factors involved.

Chapter 6. WAYS OF THINKING AND PITFALLS FOR THE STUDENT

Pages 76-85 Common tendencies: advantages and disadvantages. Predisposition, or prejudice. Empathy. Learning by trial and error. Imitation. Partial, hasty observation and faulty conclusions. Careful rather than fast work. The tendency to get general impressions. Coincidences considered as matter of cause and effect. Jumping to conclusions on the basis of too few facts. Reasoning by analogy. Reasoning from "what ought to be" to supposed facts. The conversion of arguments. Originality without preparation. Affirming of the whole what is true of the part. Affirming of a part what is true of the whole. Reasoning from incorrect premises. Proving one thing and assuming another. Appeal to the feelings instead of to the intellect. Throwing overboard a conclusion or belief because the arguments found for it are bad. Language difficulties. The great achievement for the student.

b principles of learning and study

Chapter 7. PROGRESS AND IMPROVABILITY

Pages 86-96 The universality of improvement. Habit and the law of short-circuiting. Regularity and persistence. Drill. Use versus drill. Definiteness of practice. Lower and higher order habits develop together. The order of learning. Correct practice. The critical attitude and ability to distinguish the correct from the incorrect. Thoughtful practice. Improvement of methods. Improvement in observational learning. Feelings of satisfaction and of dissatisfaction. The feelings an unsafe guide. Physiological conditions. The principle of completeness of response. Improvement in subnormals.

Chapter 8. ARRESTS IN LEARNING AND THE LIMIT OF

IMPROVABILITY.

Pages 97-106 Are plateaus necessary in human learning? The curve of learning. Causes of plateaus: The nature of the learner. Defective training. Growing complexity and critical stages. Little experience in higher habits. Improper use of time and effort; poor methods. The illusion of progress. Avoiding and overcoming plateaus: Observation of principles already mentioned. Forcing one's self. The limit of unprovability.

Chapter 9. THE TRANSFER OF ACQUISITIONS: GENERAL

IMPROVEMENT.

Pages 107-116 Most improvement is specific. Some transfers may take place. Factors that complicate the discussion. The nature and amount of transfer. Quotation from Ladd and Woodworth. The conditions of transfer. Quotations from Baqlev, Judd and Peorson. Transfers -^nd the choice of subjects. Choice f 1 onld also be a choice of teachers. Studies should call (■•' ■■']-: ! •* efforts. The value of intensive studv.

table of contents 7

Chapter 10. MEMORIES AND THE PERMANENCE OF ACQUISITION

Pages 117-131 The modern conception of memory. Memory as a kind of habit. Not memory but many memories. The conditions of memory: Better methods of learning. Many associations. Vividness, frequency of repetitions, duration, recency and primacy. Accumulations of repetitions: Meumann. Jost's law. The "warming up" period. Fatigue. The "hardening" period. The value of comparatively short periods. Immediate and permanent retention. Cramming: Memory and general intelligence. The rate of learning. Regularity of application. Distribution of practice.

Chapter 11. MEMORIES AND THE PERMANENCE OF ACQUISITION

(Concluded).

Pages 132-142 The nature of material. Topical study and topical organization. Light from later chapters. The whole versus the part method. The mediating or emphasizing method : a modification of the whole method. Size of units. Order of learning. Size of units and the length of assignments. Silent learning versus learning aloud. The attitude of the student. Artificial systems and devices: Mnemonics. Mnemonic devices. Forgetting. The curve of forgetting. Reviews. The value of reviews in learning small amounts of material. Permanence of acquisition and the kind of learning.

Chapter 12. MAKING THE APPEAL TO THE STUDENT

Pages 143-157 The release of energy. The teacher's work is to arouse and to direct. The means of appeal : the native and acquired dispositions. Case studies of successful appeals : A tactful rerruest. Arousnl of the group spirit. One's own problem. The feeling of usefulness. Reing a knight. School money, bank books, and ownership. Appeal to pride in one's own possessions. Winning pupils through tact, play and a friendly attitude. Army organization, and reward of a holiday. The arousal and development of interest. The force of suggestion. The law of affective expansion. The law of affective transfer. Association and the development of interest. Interest and attitude. Realization of use or value. The feeling of need. Interest through special topics. Interest and the assignment of lessons. Utilizing manual activities. Use of the dramatic tendency. Sublimation. Action and feeling. Centering interest in the pupil's activity. Motivation through the activity of the pupil. "A passion for your subject." The development from interest to effort.

Chapter 13. ATTENTION AND SUSTAINED EFFORT

Pages 158-174 From interest to effort. The need for attention. Kinds or stages of attention: primary attention. The conditions of primary attention. Vividness or intensity of stimulus. Change of stimulus. Novelty. Familiarity. The concrete. The definite and concrete. Secondary or "voluntary" attention. Derived primary or habitual attention. The conditions of secondary and derived attention. The arousal of sustained attention. The driving power of pain, fear and anger. Appeal made through the removal of privileges. Appeal to an habitual tendency. The passing of secondary into derived primary attention. The best attention is had with slight distraction- Hindrances to good attention: The feeling of fatigue versus fatigue. Exciting emotions. Not knowing what to do or how to go ahead. Lack of technique and of instruments. Bad suggestions and failure to try. Self government and sustained effort. Self government aided by school paper. A teacher's personal interest, trust, and right direction of a boy's activities. Sharing in activities. Pride and interest in one's own achievement. Appeal to sympathy and the sense of responsibility. A position of responsibility. Improvement from within. The direction of attention. Control of action through control of attention. The direction of native tendencies. The value of purpose. Ideals.

Chapter 14. FEELING HABITS AND MORAL EDUCATION

Pages 175-I&3

The feelings and permanence of acquisition. Feelings and

action. The feelings dependent upon action. Associations.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 9

The development of interests. Making interests permanent. Other emotional tendencies. Imitation. Moral education. Will in moral training. The type of moral habits. Moral education in our schools.

Chapter 15. PHYSICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS

Dependence of mind on body. Special defects. Food.

Air. Temperature. Humidity. Atmospheric conditions and

mental work. Regularity and efficiency. Change of work.

Fatigue. Sleep. Short naps. Health and social activities.

Chapter 16. THE DIRECTING OF LEARNING AND STUDY

Pages 196-210 Methods of teaching versus methods of study. Results of supervised study. Moral value of home study habits. The pupil's failure in the application of advice for method of study. The teacher's inability to advise. Detailed suggestions to give students in connection with improved study. The teacher's responsibility. Pupil's study card. Suggestions for the individual student. The final result.

Chapter 17. SUPERVISED STUDY AND THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Pages 211-22] Methods for putting supervised study into the curriculum outlined. The use of the regular teacher. Use of a special teacher. Both methods valuable. Separate times for instruction in study during the school session. Special times appointed by the principal. The division of every period, part for supervised study. The double period. Study conferences. Extra study periods. Directing study in the general study hall. Essential factors in the administration of study supervision. An experiment in supervised study in the schools of Athens. General suggestions for study. Special suggestions and directions for the study of special subjects: How to study reading. How to study history. How to study science. How to study mathematics. English composition. Manual training and domestic science. Some results of the experiment.

Chapter 18. DEFINITENESS IN AIM AND IN METHOD

Pages 222-23 r Quotations from Snedden and Judd. Social Values. The binding force of tradition. The case of Latin. The question of English. Results of an experiment by Professor Mead. A lesson from the French schools: quotation from Professor Brown. Other facts in relation to English. Some conclusions. The theory of specific versus formal discipline. A quotation from Professor Snedden. A quotation from Professor Thorndike. The practical conclusion.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF REFERENCES USED IN TEXT.

Introduction

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION.

Purpose and point of view of the writer. It is the purpose of the writer to deal with the problem of education from the point of view of economy in learning and study. The student should be interested because his problem is to know how to learn and to study most effectively. The teacher should be interested because all teaching must be true to the laws of learning and of study and should not conflict with them. If teaching does conflict with the laws of learning it is relatively ineffective. Fundamental to knowing how to teach is knowing how to help the student to learn.

Education comes about through the learning process. The results of education are more or less permanent dispositions or tendencies of some kind. We may, then, define education tentatively as the making, modifying, and remaking of more or less permanent dispositions or tendencies. It will be shown later how these permanent tendencies make for fixity and stability on the one hand, and, on the other, for flexibility, originality, initiative, and may require conscious choice and moral reflection.

Habit a convenient term. In order to conveniently express these more or less permanent dispositions or tendencies, memories, habitudes, habits, interests and the like which are the result of education we shall use the word "habit." This word is used commonly in a narrower and in a broader way. In the narrower sense it refers to the more or less mechanical tendency to act as we have acted before. But it is used commonly in a broader sense. Thus habit is defined as being "the tendency to think, feel and do as we have thought, felt or done before." In the broadest sense we find writers speaking of "habits of thought," "habits of liberality," "habits of devotion," "habits of attention," "moral habits," and we hear of people habitually liking or disliking this or that. Habit thus includes attitudes and may be used as a general term for all more or less permanent tendencies of mind and body.

Habit but not automatism. Habit is thus used in this book, according to common usage, to refer in the broadest kind of way to the permanent acquisition of the individual. It is not to be interpreted as meaning a bringing about of automatism. It includes this, as in the best formed acts of skill, but it includes much more. Making an individual a narrow mechanical kind of person could never be a satisfactory or adequate work of education. Man is not made to be an automaton. In fact, with normal people and any right kind of education there is no danger of making one an automaton. The fact is that fixity and plasticity exist together in the organism. The increase of fixity does not do away with the plasticity, though it modifies it, and brings not rigidity but elasticity. (62).

Habit fixes but it also releases. The higher centers of the brain are released by habit to deal with the new and problematic, to make further modifications which may result in habit, and to permit greater and greater freedom in higher and still higher mental problems. The absurdity of the idea that habits rob the individual of further modifiability is shown by countless facts in our everyday observation. Men are all the time shifting from one thing to another, from one view to another, from one attitude to another. They are different individuals in different years and even, sometimes, in different months of the same year. Deep set habits of a life time may be changed by disappointment in love, in business, by great good fortune, by deep emotional experiences. The facts suggest that more and not less permanence would be better and render the individual and society more stable and efficient.

No justification for education which does not make permanent results. Furthermore, there would be no excuse for education if the results of education were not in some way permanent. If tendencies to think, feel, and do, could not be more or less well fixed in the organism, the efforts of teachers might as well stop. Just what these permanent tendencies shall be must be determined by society in terms of its needs, right desires and ideals. And the aims may be expressed in broad generalizations, such as, adaptation, social efficiency, or character. But we attain these things by acquiring the habits and by later modifying these habits and forming new ones to bring better adaptation, greater efficiency, the higher development of character. Social organization depends on custom and custom depends on habit. Evolution appears to provide for just this bringing about of fixity and for the subsequent breaking up of the fixity for the purpose of further progress. Witness the change from plasticity to fixity from infancy to old age, and the production of plasticity again by means of the new generation. Witness in the course of history the development of forms in social usage and the breaking up of these forms or their modification for further progress.

The forming, modifying and remaking of habits, habitudes, dispositions, tendencies, etc., under the guidance of ideals set up by society, seems to be the fundamental work of education. The theory is not new. Witness the work of Radestock on "Habit and Education." (83). Many will accept this theory; others will be disturbed and object. It is worth noting that of the many people the writer has asked, none has been able to suggest an exception to the statement that all the results of education are habits of some kind. But remember that habit as defined by the author means more than is commonly meant by that term in its narrow mechanical signification.

Only results in the individual dealt with in this book. Let it be fully understood at this point that the writer is not dealing with the results of education in society; nor with the ultimate results of education in the institutions of society. Here indeed, we may find other things than habits as the outcome of education. The only results of education considered under this theory of habit and, for the most part throughout this volume, are the results in the individual. This point is of the greatest importance and must not be lost sight of.

Second, and of equal importance, it must be understood and remembered that the writer has in mind the educational process in the individual. The futility and uselessness of attempting to give a simple definition of such complex things as education in its many phases, is fully apparent to the writer. There is no attempt to deal with education in all of its varied aspects. The attempt, — and it cannot, perhaps, be too much emphasized, or held too clearly in the mind of the reader, — is. to deal in the most fundamental and definite way possible with the educational processes, the means and methods of directing them, and the results of these educational processes in the individual.

The importance of this educational process cannot be overestimated. All that an individual is or can be, is the outcome of two things, physical heredity on the one hand, and education, or social heredity, on the other. Educational influences form, modify, change, bring about the most desirable development of that which is given in heredity. This process of education in the individual, not to speak of the education in the larger sense of its various aspects, ranks with the few great things in life, i. e., the process of getting food and drink, that of getting shelter and clothing, and of obtaining social intercourse with other human beings. If life is to go on normally, we need all of these things. But, also, if living is to improve from generation to generation we are absolutely dependent upon education.

Education compares in importance to heredity. A certain age old discussion, and the fact that it appears to be as far from settlement as ever, gives evidence of the value of education. I refer to the argument as to which is more important, heredity or environment, nature or nurture. Than being necessarily thus ranked with heredity in importance in the minds of men, there could hardly be greater evidence of the value of education, nay, more, of its necessity. To recall the debt of civilization to those who kept learning alive during the dark ages, or to refer to the efforts of civilized countries to keep open their schools even during the ravages of desolating war, can add but little weight to the overwhelming evidence for the importance of and need for education already cited. Just as surely as the doing away with the results of physical heredity, if it were possible, would be the doing away with the race, so the doing away with the results of education would be the doing away with the achievements of the race,— civilization, efficiency, culture, and what not.

But we hear objections to and adverse criticisms of education. Yes, and again, just as the objections to and adverse criticisms of heredity are in reality only against bad heredity; so are the adverse criticisms of education in reality only against bad or mis-directed education. If we need good heredity, so do we need good education. Or better still, if we work for the best heredity, so should we work for the best education.

Still another fact may be brought forward to indicate the importance of education. Turn to the anthropologist, if you please and realize, that in looking back through the history of the race, he finds it impossible to discover evidence that the physical endowment of the modern man is any better than the physical endowment of the most primitive man of whom we have knowledge. To what, then, is his advancement due? To the results of the educational process, i. e., to the results, in other words, of social heredity. Or grant, if you will, the very doubtful proposition that acquired characteristics can be inherited, that the modifications of the body cells can also modify the germ cells of the present and therefore of succeeding generations, how are we told that the modifications of the germ cells can be brought about? Only by thorough modification of the body cells through many generations. Here again the necessary resort to education.

Importance of the Habit Theory. Habit formation, modification and remaking as the basis of education have not been sufficiently stressed as principles in the actual work of education. And if the Habit Theory is inadequate, it still seems that inestimable advantage could be gained by beginning with it, and carrying it as far as possible. Before the work on reflexes was done, no one probably dreamed of the immense light it would throw upon more complex processes. And if educators would not only accept in theory the principle of habit, but also shape their work in accordance with it, it is not unlikely that we would find a solution for many, if not for most of our so-called higher and more complex problems of education.

Habit a universal principle. It is not inappropriate to indicate that this principle of habit, or the tendency for repetition, is fundamental for phenomena other than those found in the human and animal organism.

The logician tells us that "Induction is only possible on the assumption that things not only are together but belong together the universal nature of a thing cannot be discovered in the form of some essence or substance that remains

permanent and unchanging it must be defined through

the constancy of behavior shown in its changing relations to its environment." (19).

But even more, the finding of things happening again as they have happened before under the same conditions is at the very bottom of our thinking and a necessary basis of all reasoning. According to Pearson, "Anything, be it noted, that tends to weaken our confidence in the uniform order of phenomena, in what we have termed the routine of perceptions, tends also to stultify our reasoning faculty by destroying the sole basis of our knowledge." (76).

Jevons writes that "It must be the ground of all reasoning and inference that what is true of one thing will be true of its equivalent, and that under carefully ascertained conditions, Nature repeats herself." (45). "We must always rise to something which is general or same in the cases (of induction), and assuming that sameness to be extended to new cases we learn their nature. Hearing a clock tick five thousand times without exception or variation, we adopt the very probable hypothesis that there is some invariably active machine which produces those uniform sounds, and which will, in the absence of change, go on producing them." (46).

On what else can prediction in any science be based than on the assumption that what nature has done before under certain conditions, will be done again under those conditions? "Every law of nature is the statement of a certain uniformity observed to exist among phenomena, and since the laws of nature are invariably obeyed, it seems to follow that the course of nature itself is uniform, so that we can safely judge of the future by the present. This inference is supported by some of the results of physical astronomy." (47).

Habit and the social sciences. Or let us turn to history. We are all accustomed to the phrase that "history repeats itself." The orders and speeches of Napoleon to his troops are seemingly repeated in the present speeches and messages of the Kaiser to his troops. The French denunciation of the English one hundred years ago appears today in the German denunciation of the English. The treaty of Utrecht and the reapportioning of Europe among the powers, (1713-14), finds its counterpart in the Congress of Vienna and another reapportioning of Europe, (1815). We may ask, will this analog of habit appear the same as before? The present war completes part of the repetition of events. Will the reapportioning of Europe again recur?

Biology furnishes analogs. Spencer writes: "A species of plant that has been transformed from one soil or climate to another, frequently undergoes what botanists call 'a change of habit.' " (92.)

In the field of social psychology McDougall tells us, "In short, the formation of habits by the individuals of each generation is an essential condition of the perpetuation of custom, and custom is the principle condition of all social organization." (63) . Ross, in his Social Psychology, also shows the working of this fundamental law. (87).

Sumner in his excellent work in social science takes us again to habit. In the preface he says : "The thesis which is expounded in these chapters (chs. 1 and 2) is : that the folkways are habits of the individual and customs of the society which arise from efforts to satisfy needs," etc. (93) .

In his Laws of Imitation, Tarde (106), writes: "Repetition exists, then, for the sake of variation." "Science, as I have said, deals only with quantities and growths, or in more general terms, with the resemblances and repetitions of phenomena Every advance of knowledge tends to strengthen

the conviction that all resemblance is due to repetition." "In the distant future all social phenomena will be reducible to mathematical formula." ....".... every civilization is fated to

begin its endless cycle over again." "Everything repeats

itself, and nothing persists." .... "Tradition and custom, the conservative forms of imitation, have been fixing and perpetuating its new acquisitions and consolidating its increments in the heart of every class of people that has been raised up through the example of higher classes or of more civilized neighbors."