Principles of teaching in secondary education

Preface

"The bane of high school science teaching is the notion that it must be taught differently from other subjects." These words, spoken to the author by a widely known science teacher, are in harmony with the statements of many prominent and successful teachers in other branches of high school study. Some years ago, having occasion to make a comparative study of all the available books on the teaching of secondary school subjects, the author was impressed by the striking parallel between the best of the books whenever method of instruction was treated. The chief differences were matters of omission, and the omissions in books in the same field were far from being the same. The only possible inference was that certain general principles of method are valid in all of the studies of the high school curriculum, and that the task of each teacher is not to construct his educational method regardless of these principles, but to adapt their application to his particular field.

The present text is an attempt to assist the prospective or untrained teacher in a study of the principles upon which method in secondary instruction must be based. The book is a protest against formalism and mechanism, on the one hand, and unsystematic procedure on the other. The point of view is functional, in that in each step there is a procedure from discovery of aim to adaptation of process to aim. The author is also governed by the conviction that a w^ell-planned lesson is more than a mere series of topics for study, but as a whole possesses an organic unity. While at least the greater part of the content of the book is applicable to all stages of

VI PREFACE

instruction, it is intended especially for the work of the secondary school, including the junior high school.

The book is designed to assist in the training of teachers. Hence it must constantly be supplemented with intelligent, sympathetic observation of actual secondary school instruction. The reader should throughout strive to trace the application of the principles to the held in which he hopes to teach. To the experienced teacher this practical application and significance will be more immediately apparent. In any case, this study of the principles of method in terms of the schoolroom and of one's special subject will be the sine qua 710)1 for the gaining of much practical benefit from the text.

. The author takes the liberty to suggest f o instructors and students that a careful reading of the analysis of each chapter or section, as given in the table of contents, precede the study of the text. By this method one will doubtless gain a better preliminary conception of the problems raised and of their treatment. To the reader who is unfamiUar with the principles of education and of educational psychology, it is suggested that the supplementary readings be read before the chapters of the text to which they are appended. It is the aim of the author to mention only a few representative readings rather than to give an extended bibliography.

A considerable part of the material of the text, and especially the attempt at organization of principles for the teacher's use, is the product of the author's experience and observation. Ten years of work in secondary education, in administration and teaching, and in the supervision of practice teaching has been the laboratory in which the practical test of these principles has been made. The principles are not new, but are being applied to-day, though often unconsciously, by the more progressive and successful teachers of our secondary schools.

The book, excepting the last four chapters, was written several years ago, and has in manuscript form been used as

PREFACE VU

a text-book in several institutions. A number of changes have resulted. In the meantime have appeared the excellent texts by Professor Parker and Professor Colvin, but the author feels that the difference in view point of the present text justifies offering it to the educational public.

Acknowledgment must be made of obligation to a number of educational writers, notably Professors Thorndike, Dewey, and De Garmo. To a number of friends who have read the manuscript, the author is indebted for helpful suggestions. Students who have used the book as a text have been of great assistance in rendering it usable as a classroom text. Professor Alexander IngKs, of Harvard University, has contributed a wealth of extremely helpful criticism and suggestion. Finally, the author renders grateful acknowledgment to his wife, whose professional training and experience as well as personal encouragement and assistance have done much to give the book any merit it may possess.

Introduction

PAGE

1. Meaning of Method i

Method is the way of doing anything, including teaching. The "born" teacher and the trained teacher.

2. Basis of Method in Secondary Instruction ... 5

The validity of the principles of educational psychology constitutes the basis for the validity of the principles of teaching. The psychology of adolescence is the basis for secondary method. General vs. special method. The native interests of the student and their fimctioning in learning.

Chapter II

1. The Child's Equipment 10

Teaching must treat the child as a bundle of native and acquired tendencies to action.

2. Interest and Teaching 11

The teacher must induce interest in the subject matter, even though the interest be indirect. He must direct the student's interest into the most fruitful paths.

3. Attention and Teaching 14

Attention is an essential in learning. Passive attention is the most favorable for learning, but is not always attainable. Active attention should lead to secondary passive attention.

4. Associative Learning 17

Rules for securing simple associations. Association after dissociation involves analysis followed by synthesis. Rules for securing association after dissociation.

X CONTENTS

PAGE

5. The Transfer of Acquired Efficiency .... 21

The doctrine of the transfer of acquired power is a prominent factor in curriculum and instruction. What truth it possesses lies in the identity of the elements in the thing learned and in that to be learned. The principle involved is association after dissociation. In order to secure transfer of training, a variety of instances should be made basal in deriving a concept, the meaning as well as the form of the thing learned should be emphasized, and a variety of applications should be employed.

Chapter III

1. Educational Aims 28

The seemingly disparate formulations of the aim of education are fundamentally agreed upon five elements. These are in terms of knowledge, sympathy, thought-power, ability to express and act, and permanence of character and attainment.

2. Essentials and Factors of Instruction .... 30

Relation of instruction to education. Teaching must produce knowledge, thought-power, sentimental development, eflBciency, and permanency. These suggest the six fundamental factors of method in instruction: acquisition, reflection, expression-application, appreciation, drill, and test.

3. Importance and Character of the Lesson Aim . 35

It facilitates definiteness and flexibility of procedure. Teacher's aim and student's aim are to a considerable degree coincident, especially in secondary education. Community of aim facilitates co-operation. The aim may be expressed in terms of subject matter, as well as in terms of the various factors of method. The lesson unit.

4. The Five Modes of Instruction 39

The Recitation, Problematic, Appreciation, Expression-Application, and Laboratory Modes. Relation between teaching modes and lesson types. The "formal steps" of the lesson; their suggestive value and their danger.

Chapter IV

the class exercise I. Meaning 43

The term is used for all forms of classroom activity, and means much more than mere recitation. The class exercise is the occasion for the employment of all the forms of instruction.

CONTENTS XI

PAGE

2. Personality in the Class Exercise 45

The true method provides opportunity for the best development of personality of both teacher and pupil. Whatever negates either is bad method.

3. The Atmosphere of the Class Exercise .... 47

Cheerfulness and enthusiasm are positive factors in instruction.

4. The Classroom Activity 48

Activity is fimdamental in learning. Blackboard work. The mood of expectancy. Distribution of activity between teacher and class; between members of the class. The teacher's preparation as a means for increasing the efficiency of class work. The "tempo" of the classroom.

Chapter V

1. Its Function 55

In teaching, the question serves not merely to obtain information but also to bring the student to consciousness of a need and to stimulate thought.

2. Kinds of Questions 56

Memory question. Analytic questions. Development questions. Comparison-contrast questions. Judgment questions.

3. The Essentials of Good Questioning 59

The question must be thought-provoking, clear, brief, and adapted to the student.

4. The Manner of Questioning 63

I. Questions should be addressed to the class, altliough answered by one student. 2. Questions should be distributed among the pupils, taking account of the students' abiUty and special needs. 3. The teacher should manifest an interest in the question.

5. The Question as an Index of Efficiency in Teaching 67

The number of questions, and the distribution of activity between teacher and class.

6. The Answer 68

The answer must be adequate and matured. The topical recitation. The form of expression in the answer.

7. The Pupil's Question 71

Its importance and treatment.

Xll CONTENTS

Chapter VI Page

1. Meaning of Recitation 74

The recitation as mechanical reciting. The opposite extreme. True function of recitation.

2. The Recitation as Testing 75

Its aim is to insure progress: by determining faithfulness, adequacy of preparation and instruction, and appropriateness of material, and by providing opportunity for expression and correction. When is a lesson adequately prepared? The enforcing of preparation. The oral quiz, and its functions. The examination, its aim and requirements.

3. The Recitation as Drill 83

Drill is to render processes or memories stereotyped and automatic. Applicability of drill. Its dangers: excess and insuflSciency. Relation of attention to drill. Drill as habit-forming: initiation and fixation. Drill as memory-forming: learning, retention, recall, and recognition. Memory content must be deeply impressed, and widely and strongly associated. Repetition in drill: its degree and distribution. Drill must be intelligent, applied, and suflScient. The meaning and criticism of cramming.

4. Propaedeutic Function of the Recitation ... 94

Learning as apperception. The recitation as a preparation step. The recitation as a sole mode in instruction.

CHAPTER VTI

LESSON DEVELOPMENT

1. Learning and Feeling 100

The curriculum is a system of situations forthe student. His meeting of the situation; knowledge of it, its appeal to him, his response and expression. The response is as intellectual or as sentimental, as learning or as feeling. Learning as informational or as problematic.

2. Development in Teaching 102

Nature of development. Student activity is fundamental in development. Difficulty in its use.

CONTENTS xm

3. General Principles op Development Instruction . 106

From known to unknown. Analogy: its character and essentials. From simple to complex; limitations of the principle. From concrete to abstract; must end in further concrete. Illustration, as a form of the concrete. Its place and use in instruction. Essentials of good illustration: familiarity, accuracy, simplicity, significance. Student's contribution in development. Over-instruction.

4. Typical Forms of Development 118

Socratic, heuristic, lecture. Applicability of each.

5. The Place of Development in the Class ExERasE 123

Following the recitation. Relation to lesson assignment.

Chapter VIII

1. Character and Function 129

A problem is any situation stimulating to knowledge or thought. Informational and thought problems. Thought problems as inductive and deductive.

2. Sources of Information 132

TeUing, reading, and discovery. Advantages and dangers of teUing. Advantages and dangers in use of text-book. Value of discovery as source of information. Requirements of good telling, of good text-book use, and of student's observation. The information problem as simple association.

3. Composition of an Act of Thought 139

Recognition and formulation of problem, hypothetical solution, reasoning out the implications, and verification. The thought problem is a form of association after dissociation. Induction vs. deduction in teacning.

4. Procedure in the Thought Type of the Problematic

Mode 142

I. Recognition and formulation of the problem. Problem must be definitely understood by both teacher and pupil. Inductive and deductive problems. Problems must be real, arising out of the student's experience and needs. Meaning of "reality " of problem. The project method. 2. Tentative solution of the problem. Its form. Hypothesis must be a definite one for the student and a real solution to the problem. 3. Reasoning out the implications of the problem. The student must be the real thinker, rather than adopt another's thought. The reasoning must be sound. 4. Verification of the hypothesis. The concrete of the original problem and that of the verification. Relation of verification to application. Degree of rigor in veri-

XIV CONTENTS

fication, and attitude of student toward proof. Verification should be definitely formulated, since it encourages clearer thinking and offers opportunity for conviction. Explanation: its character, function, and essentials. Meaning of demonstration. The teacher's place in the problematic mode.

PAGE

5. Application or the Problematic Mode in Teaching . 163

Its application and forms in various studies. The transfer of training in the problematic mode. The place of problematic procedure in the class exercise.

Chapter IX

1. Character and Function 173

Appreciation as the sentimental response to a situation. Aim of appreciation instruction, to lead to tlie most adequate and helpful rcsiwnse.

2. Types and Forais or Appreciation 176

Intellectual, esthetic, and ethical; based upon the three types of sentiment. The place of the different typos in the various studies of the curriculum.

3. Procedure in the Appreciation Mode 177

Based on creating the right type of situation, i. The teacher must catch the spirit of the situation. 2. The situation must be made as real and vivid as possible, by suggestive imagery, both sensory and idealized. 3. The student must understand the medium of expression of the material studied. The securing of this understanding; its method and Hmitations. 4. An analysis of the content is necessary, yet if overdone will prevent appreciation. 5. The appreciation situation must be such as to arouse the activity of the student. He must feel it as one which has a personal significance for him. Pettiness and artificiality in appreciation instruction. 6. Atmosphere of the classroom in appreciation instruction; its importance and control. The tempo of appreciation.

4. Summary i86

Chapter X

the expression-application mode I. Character and Function i88

Expression and application are the student's extension of the learned and felt to further persons and objects. Value of the expression-application mode: it tests the instruction, renders impressions definite and permanent, and provides skill in the use of knowledge.

CONTENTS XV

PAGE

2. Forms or Expression and Application 190

Opportunity occurs in almost all instruction. Expression in Engli^ composition. Application in laboratory, translation, and exercises.

3. Home Study as Application ........ 194

Not an independent preparation for recitation. Essentially an extension and amplification of the classroom application.

4. Essentials oe Expression and Application ... 196

Determined by function. Expression shall be: i, adequate; 2, general. Application shall: 3, immediately follow the development; 4, be typical; 5, intelligent; 6, general.

5. The Lesson Assignment 201

Relation to classroom application. Should come at close of class hour. Definiteness of assignment. Stimulating to thought.

Chapter XI

1. Character and Function 207

Relation to home study, to the development mode, to the application mode. Fivefold function: acquisition of knowledge or sentimental experience, application of methods of study, training in observation and induction, technic and manual skill, verification.

2. Types or Laboratory Work 211

Experimental, observational, appreciation, and application. Meaning of experiment, and its use in the secondary school. School laboratory and field excursion. Description of results in observation; by language, by drawings. Inference from the observations. The appreciation laboratory exercise. The application laboratory.

3. Essentials of Laboratory Instruction 216

I. Problem must be real; originating in the classroom work. Definiteness of problem; in aim and in instructions. 2. Threefold function of the teacher in the laboratory: to provoke thought, prevent waste of time and material, direct to sources, 3. Use made of results in the laboratory. Results should be definitely thought through, adequately described, correlated with the classroom work.

XVI CONTENTS

Chapter XII Page

1. Significance of Study 222

It develops initiative and self-control. The wisdom of home study,

2. Teaching to Study 223

Study is self-teaching, and follows the methods of class teaching. Securing the problem attitude. Getting one's bearings. Use of sources of information. Habit-forming and memory-forming in study. Training pupils to recognize problems, to formulate hypotheses, to reason out the impHcations, and to verify. Appreciation study through understanding of medium of expression, vividness of imagery, and judgment forming. Home study as appHcation. Physical and mental conditions for effective study.

3. Supervised Study 241

Meaning and need of supervision. Forms of its administration.

Chapter XIII

1. Significance of Organization . 247

The modes are not methods but the components of methods. Lesson organization as a synthesis of modes.

2. The Lesson Plan 248

The planning of the lesson, involving determining of aim, selection of content, organization of thought, formulation of pivotal questions, and provision for expression-application. Importance of the assignment. The recitation mode as the completion of the cycle. Use of laboratory mode.

3. Summaries in the Lesson 254

Character and function of the summary. It should be developed, rather than dictated.

4. Review and the Review Lesson 255

Character of review, involving essentials only, for purpose of organization. Its frequency and forms.

CONTENTS XVU

Chapter XIV Page

1. Efficiency in Teaching 259

Importance of measurement of results; for the determination of students' progress, the comparison of the work of various classes and schools, the investigation of methods of instruction, and the discovery of individual differences and needs.

2. Essentials of Standardization 263

Objectivity, definiteness, absoluteness, inclusiveness, practicability. Exact measurement is possible only when there is an available standard, when the thing measured is definitely known,%nd when the zero degree of the quaUty investigated for can be determined. The aims of instruction are basal in the evaluation of educational products.

3. Typical Standards and Forms of Measurement . . 271

Absolute vs. comparative measurements. Various scales and tests for elementary and secondary school subjects. The principle of the normal distribution of abiUties, and its use as the basis for grading of students' work. The advantages and limitations of "scientific grading."

4. The Practical Value of Standardization and Mea-

surement IN Secondary Instruction . . . .292

Use of the standard tests in secondary education. The improvising of further tests. Suggestions for testing: isolation of factor tested, adaptation of tests, importance of uniformity and clarity in testing. The grading of classes other than normal; by seeking to distribute the grades of several successive classes viewed as one, and taking account of the grades of other teachers. Significance of grade distribution for classes not normal.

Chapter XV Individual And Social Elements In Secondary Instruction

I. Individual Instruction 309

Its meaning. It is based on individual differences. Differences of environment and their utilization. Differences due to heredity: of thought, of disposition, of action. Both idea-thinkers and thing-thinkers must be recognized in instruction. Treatment of temperamental differences. Following-up instruction; the classroom application, the laboratory, the study hour, the personal conference.

XVlll CONTENTS

PAGE

2. Social Instruction 319

Its meaning. Its aims: social intelligence, social disposition, social efficiencj', social habit. Social intelligence inclufles knowledge of the curriculum, of society, of the self. Social disposition is determined somewhat by content, but more by the spirit and form of instruction. Social efficiency requires that opportunity for social action be provided in instruction. Social habit, secured by motivated repetition. The agencies for social instruction: the class exercise, the laboratory, the study hour. Student co-OF>eration and teacher leadership in theVlass exercise. Students' jjart in socialized instruction: co-operation, direction, participation. The laboratory as an opportunity for social instruction. The study hour.

3. The Relation between Individual and Social In-

struction 336

Not antagonistic, but as phases of a unity. Socialization of the individual, and its meaning for instruction. Individual and social instruction as differentiation and integration.

Lesson plans; in physical geography, algebra, United States History, English, Spanish, and Home Economics.

Index 361

Chapter I Introduction

I. Meaning of Method

Methods as Ways of Doing Things. — The modem business world, in its quest for efficiency, is devoting more and more attention to method. The test of business methods is being appHed to educational administration, and the question, '^How are you teaching?" must be faced by the instructor as squarely and as frankly as by the administrator. In its literal meaning the term "method '^ refers simply to a way or mode of doing anything. Our ways of holding the book in reading, of describing an event which we have witnessed, or of persuading a customer to purchase our wares-— all these are methods. Thus we have methods of walking, of speaking, of studying, and of instructing. One can no more teach without method than he can walk or speak without muscular activity. In Professor Dewey's words: *'The teacher needs to recognize that method covers not only what he intentionally devises and employs for the purpose of mental training, but also what he does without any conscious reference to it — anything in the atmosphere and conduct of the school which reacts in any way upon the curiosity, the responsiveness, and orderly activity of children."^ The skilled educator teaching a "demonstration lesson" in the teachers' college and the schoolgirl explaining a problem in division to her younger sister are both employing method in their teaching, though differing widely in efficiency as educators,

^ Dewey, " How We Think, " p. 42.

Consciousness in Method. — What causes this difference in efficiency? Wherein is the method of one superior to that of the other? As a means of enabling the younger child to work the problem, the girl's method has a measure of efficiency, but for real educative service its value may be negligible or even negative. She has but little understanding of the ultimate aim of the work and still less of the means. The skilled educator, on the other hand, knows quite definitely just what he is seeking to accomplish, and is employing wisely selected and adapted methods for its accomplishment. Therein lies his greater efficiency as an instructor.

A fundamental element in his skill is knowledge of end and means. Ha\ang his aim ever in mind, he is able at each stage in the process to employ those modes of teaching which a knowledge of the child mind and the results of his own and others' experience indicate as the most serviceable for his purpose. The schoolgirl relies almost wholly upon imitation, largely unconscious; the skilled educator's method is the product of conscious and intelligent selection throughout.

Skill in Method. — But the teacher's skill is more than knowledge. In his long years of training he has carefully studied the principles of teaching, has come to understand them, and has with experiment and observation put them into conscious application so many times that their application is now in a measure a matter of habit. He has made these principles of method his own, so that their application has become in a large measure unconscious and automatic. Some one has said that "sound practice is sound theory unconscious of itself." Otherwise worded, it means simply this. Good teaching is the constant interplay of theory and practice. The skilful teacher never loses sight of his aims, both principal and subordinate. On the other hand, the constant purposive application of educational principles in the realization of those aims has resulted in an ever-increasing skill in such application. The processes of ever greater complexity have become natural and automatic, until he is able

INTRODUCTION 3

to realize his aims with a high degree of efficiency because the subordinate processes have become laijgely automatic. As the oarsman in the college crew must consciously and carefully follow the instructions of the coach until his rowing is accurate without his thinking of instructions, so the teacher can attain corresponding skill in teaching only through the training resulting from conscious, careful, persistent appKcation of educational principles. His attention, thus released from technic, is free for the larger consideration of his task.

It is just at this point, the rendering of educational processes unconscious and automatic, that the crucial stage of professional training is encountered. Whether we become progressive teachers or fall into a rut in our profession depends almost wholly upon our attitude toward our methods It, like habit, makes a good servant but a bad master, and the teacher who can use good method in the intelligent accomplishment of his purposes, who can automatically apply educational principles in the realization of ever-conscious aims, will experience therein not the depression of drudgery but the spiritual exaltation of work. The danger is that of losing consciousness of purpose and hence permitting habit alone to control procedure.

Types of Teachers. — Much has been said of the "born" teacher. Certain it is that great differences of native aptitude for teaching exist. It is the author's behef, however, that much misconception in the matter exists. In our observation, most if not all so-called *^born'' teachers owe their reputation to two things. In the first place, they are by ^^ nature unusually S3anpathetic and observing, and in their instruction are more quick to detect failure and to make required adjustments before wrong procedure has more than begun. Secondly, their sympathy and enthusiasm induce a highly responsive mood and activity of mind on the part of students, which are well known to be most favorable conditions for learning, whether with or without a teacher. Possibly, too, they remember well the way in which they learned the material, with its difficulties and successes. If we add to these elements the resultant one of popularity, the author believes that we have the key to the success, both real and reputed, of the ''born" teacher, or ''genius."

A more real character in pedagogic caste is what Professor

De Garmo calls the artisan teacher. Too many teachers,

because of narrowness either of training or of perspective,

lose sight of the broader principles and aims of education,

^ and reduce teaching to an unthinking, unelastic mechanism.

V They are sticklers for methodology, but fail to catch the vision of true education. To the "artist" teacher, on the

y other hand, method is but the means to an end; the best way of realizing the ultimate aims of instruction.

For the first class of teachers, the geniuses, or, as Professor Rein calls them, "teachers by the grace of God," the teaching art is largely inborn, not acquired by study. But their number is indeed small, if indeed there be such. Unhappy is the teacher (and still unhappier his pupils) who, although not even an artisan, mistakes himself for a genius and, trusting to inspiration, scorns anything which savors of method. On the other hand, let us not sink to the plane of the artisan, and think of a study of teaching-method as an attempt to take over and incorporate certain stereotyped formulas of procedure, warranted to work whenever certain specified situations confront us. The truth is that no artist teacher ever employs exactly the same method as his colleague, nor follows unchanged his own former practice. The study of the Boston Tea Party and the court scene in " The Merchant of Venice " cannot be taught twice in exactly the same way. What the

. true teacher adopts is the principles of method; he adapts his

[ method as occasion demands. "Professional training in education," says Doctor MacVannel, "must aim to give control of the principles or the intellectual methods involved in practice rather than the mere mastery of technic." ^ He whose

^ MacVannel, "The College Course in the Principles of Education," p. i6.

INTRODUCTION 5

training gives him this intelligent control need have no fear of losing his personality and becoming a mere machine in his profession. His progress is assured.

2. Basis of Method in Secondary Instruction

Principles of Method. — Do principles of method exist? Is it true that we can find principles which possess general validity for the teaching process, and, if so, what are they, and where are they to be sought? Miinch seems to offer an affirmative answer. ^'Method,'* he says, ''means that which is obtained in clearly defined principles by the consideration, on the one hand, of the laws of the mental life, and on the other of the nature of both content and aim of instruction; it accordingly has equal validity for all instructors." ^ In so far as these laws of the mental life have validity, the derived science of teaching is estabhshed as an applied science, not merely as an empirically discovered art. The truth of this position has long since received some recognition in the field of elementary school method, so that to-day there is evident a tendency toward the other extreme, the substitution of formaHsm in instruction at the expense of personality. In the domain of secondary education, however, the situation is not as clear. Educators are justly in revolt against any attempt to prescribe specific methods or systems of methods according to which the various high school subjects shall be taught. Just as methods vary with teachers and with classes, so they must vary with subjects. It is evidently with this thought in mind that one writer has said: ''There is no such thing as a high school pedagogy. It is time all students of secondary education recognize that we must speak rather of high school pedagogies." ^ Yet no one trained in educational thought will question that there are certain principles in accord with which the teacher must proceed if he would suc-

^ Miinch, "Geist des Lehramts," p. 386. 2 Johnston, "High School Education," p. v.

ceed. The musical composer and the painter, the architect and the teacher are herein similarly situated. The teaching profession must carefully distinguish between the ''methods" of teaching and the *' principles of method." *

Nevertheless, there are not a few to whom *' methods" and "method" are synonymous, and in their protest against a study of methods they will have nothing to do with anything that even suggests method. Doubtless the chief cause of this attitude, which is especially common in the universities, is the failure of the college professor, a specialist in a particular field of science, to catch the point of view of secondary education. He thinks of his science primarily as a science, rather than as a means for developing personality; he is absorbed in the science as knowledge, and in fact so teaches it, forgetting the human factor, the student. Indeed, the most frequent criticism offered against the teaching done by newly graduated college students is that they carry over to the high school this point of view of their college study, absorbed from their professors in the university. When the principles of psychology cease to be true, and the aim of education is displaced by the particular aims of the various secondary school studies, each determined solely by the content of the study, then and not until then will there cease to be valid general principles of method in secondary education. But that day is not yet.^