How to Teach Part 15

Study, when the object is to arrive at responses of judgment, is the type which has received most attention. This type of study includes within itself several possibilities. Although judgment is the only response that can solve the problem, still the problem may be one of giving the best expression in art or music or drama. It may be the a.n.a.lysis of a course of action or of a chemical compound. It may be the comparison of various opinions. It may be the arriving at a new law or principle. It is to one of these types of thinking that the term "study"

is usually applied. Important as it is, the other three types already discussed cannot be neglected. If children are taught to study in connection with the simpler situations provided by the first two types, they will be the better prepared to deal with this complex type, for this highest type of study involves habit formation often and memory work always.

In the type of study involving reasoning, because of its complexity, and because the individual must work more independently, the child must learn the danger of following the first suggestion which offers itself.

He must learn to weigh each suggestion offered with reference to the goal aimed at. Each step in the process must be tested and weighed in this manner. To go blindly ahead, following out a line of suggestions until the end is reached, which is then found to be the wrong one, wastes much time and is extremely discouraging. No suggestion of the way to adapt means to end should be accepted without careful criticism. The pupil should gradually be made conscious of the technique of reasoning, a.n.a.lysis, comparison, and abstraction. He must know that the first thing to do is to a.n.a.lyze the problem and see just what it requires. He must know that the abstraction depends upon the goal. The learner should be taught the sources of some of the commonest mistakes in judgment. For instance, if he knows of the tendency to respond in terms of a.n.a.logy, and sees some of the errors to which accepting a minor likeness between two situations as ident.i.ty lead, he will be much more apt to avoid such mistakes than would otherwise be true. If he knows how unsafe it is to form a judgment on limited data,--if from his own and his cla.s.smates'

thinking first, and later from the history of science, ill.u.s.trations are drawn of the disastrous effect of such thinking, he will see the value of seeking sources of information and several points of view before forming his own judgment. In his study the child should be taught not to be satisfied until he has tested the correctness of his judgment by verifying the result. This is a very necessary part of studying. He should check up his own thinking by finding out through appeal to facts if it is so; by putting the judgment into execution; by consulting the opinion of others, and so on.

Study may be considered from the point of view of the type of material which is used in the process. The student may be engaged on a problem which involves the use of apparatus or specimens of various kinds, or he may need to consult people, or he may have to use books. So far as the first type is concerned, it is obviously unwise to have a student at work on a problem which involves the use of material, unless the technique of method of use is well known. Until he can handle the material with some degree of facility it is waste of time for him to be struggling with problems which necessitate such use. Such practice results in divided attention, poor results from the study, and often bad habits in technique as well. Gaining the technique must be in itself a problem for separate study.

Children should be taught to ask questions which bear directly on the point they wish to know. If they in working out some problem are dependent on getting some information from the janitor, or the postman, or a mason, they must be able to ask questions which will bring them what they want to know. Much practice in framing questions, having them criticized, having them answered just as they are asked, is necessary.

Children should be aware of the question as a tool in their study and therefore they must know how to handle it. In connection with this second type of material, the problem of the best source of information will arise. Children must then be made conscious of the relative values of various persons as sources of a particular piece of information.

Training in choice of the source of information is very important both when that source is people and also when it is books.

Teaching children to use books in their study is one of the big tasks of the teacher. They must learn that books are written in answer to questions. In order to thoroughly understand a book, students must seek to frame the questions which it answers. They must also know how to use books to answer their own questions. This means they must know how to turn from part to part, gleaning here or there what they need. It means training in the ability to skim, omitting unessentials and picking out essentials. It means the ability to recognize major points, minor points, and ill.u.s.trative material. Children must be taught to use the table of contents, the index, and paragraph headings. They must, in their search for fuller information or criticism, be able to interpret different authors, use different language, and attack from different angles, even when treating the same object. Children must in their studying be taught to use books as a means to an end--not an infallible means, but one which needs continual criticism, modification, and amplification.

Study may be supervised study, or unsupervised study. To some people the requirements in learning to study may seem too difficult to be possible, but it should be remembered that the process is gradual--that one by one these elements in study are taught to the children in their supervised study periods. These periods should begin in the primary grades, and require from the teacher quite as much preparation as any other period.

Many teachers have taught subjects, but not how to study subjects. The latter is the more important. The matter of distributed learning periods, of search for motive, of asking questions, of criticizing achievement, of use of books; each element is a topic for cla.s.s discussion before it is accepted as an element in study. Even after it is accepted, it may be raised by some child as a source of particular difficulty and fresh suggestions added. Very often with little children it is necessary for the teacher to study the lesson with them. Teachers need much more practice in doing this, for one of the best ways to teach a child to study is to study with him. Not to tell him, and do the work for him, but to really study with him. Later on the supervised study period is one in which each child is silently engaged upon his own work and the teacher pa.s.ses from one to the other. In order to do this well, the teacher needs to be able to do two things. First, to find out when the child is in difficulty and to locate it, and second, to help him over the trouble without giving too much a.s.sistance. Adequate questioning is needed in both cases. It is probably true that comparatively little new work should be given for unsupervised study.

There is too much danger of error as well as lack of interest unless a start is given under supervision.

Studying, especially unsupervised, may be done in groups or individually. The former is a stepping-stone to the latter. There is a greater chance for suggestions, for getting the problem worded, for arousing interest and checking results, when a group of children are working together than when a child is by himself. Two things must be looked after. First, that the children in the group be taught not to waste time, and second, that the personnel of the group be right. It is not very helpful if one child does all the work, nor if one is so far below the level of the group that he is always tagging along behind.

More opportunities for group study in the grammar grades would be advantageous.

When it comes to individual study, the student then a.s.sumes all responsibility for his methods of study. He should be taught the influence of physical conditions or mental reactions. He will therefore be responsible for choosing in the home and in the school the best possible conditions for his study. He will see to it that, in so far as possible, the air and light are good, that there are no unnecessary distractions, and that he is as comfortable bodily as can be. He must think not only in terms of the goal to be reached, but also with respect to the methods to be employed. He should be asked by the teacher to report his methods of work as well as his results.

QUESTIONS

1. Are children always primarily engaged in thinking when they study?

2. What type of study is involved in learning a multiplication table, a list of words in spelling, a conjugation in French?

3. How would you teach a pupil to study his spelling lesson?

4. In what sense may one study in learning to write? In acquiring skill in swimming?

5. How would you teach your pupils to memorize?

6. Show how ability to study may be developed over a period of years in some subject with which you are familiar. Reading? Geography? History?

Latin translation?

7. Is the boy who reads over and over again his lesson necessarily studying?

8. Can one study a subject even though he may dislike it? Can one study without interest?

9. How can you teach children what is meant by concentration of attention?

10. How have you found it possible to develop a critical att.i.tude toward their work upon the part of children?

11. Of what factors in habit formation must children become conscious, if they are to study to best advantage in this field?

12. How may we hope to have children learn to study in the fields requiring judgment? Why will not consciousness of the technique of study make pupils equally able in studying?

13. What exercises can you conduct which will help children to learn how to use books?

14. How can a teacher study with a pupil and yet help him to develop independence in this field?

15. How may small groups of children work together advantageously in studying?

XV. MEASURING THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF CHILDREN

The success or failure of the teacher in applying the principles which have been discussed in the preceding chapters is measured by the achievements of the children. Of course, it is also possible that the validity of the principle which we have sought to establish may be called in question by the same sort of measurement. We cannot be sure that our methods of work are sound, or that we are making the best use of the time during which we work with children, except as we discover the results of our instruction. Teaching is after all the adaptation of our methods to the normal development of boys and girls, and their education can be measured only in terms of the changes which we are able to bring about in knowledge, skill, appreciation, reasoning, and the like.

Any attempt to measure the achievements of children should result in a discovery of the progress which is being made from week to week, or month to month, or year to year. It would often be found quite advantageous to note the deficiencies as well as the achievements at one period as compared with the work done two or three months later. It will always be profitable to get as clearly in mind as is possible the variation among members of the same cla.s.s, and for those who are interested in the supervision of schools, the variation from cla.s.s to cla.s.s, from school to school, or from school system to school system.

For the teacher a study of the variability in achievement among the members of his own cla.s.s ought to result in special attention to those who need special help, especially a kind of teaching which will remove particular difficulties. There should also be offered unusual opportunity and more than the ordinary demand be made of those who show themselves to be more capable than the ordinary pupils.

The type of measurement which we wish to discuss is something more than the ordinary examination. The difficulties with examinations, as we have commonly organized them, has* been their unreliability, either from the standpoint of discovering to us the deficiencies of children, or their achievements. Of ten problems in arithmetic or of twenty words in spelling given in the ordinary examination, there are very great differences in difficulty. We do not have an adequate measure of the achievements of children when we a.s.sign to each of the problems or words a value of ten or of five per cent and proceed to determine the mark to be given on the examination paper. If we are wise in setting our examinations, we usually give one problem or one word which we expect practically everybody to be able to get right. On the other hand, if we really measure the achievements of children, we must give some problems or some words that are too hard for any one to get right. Otherwise, we do not know the limit or extent of ability possessed by the abler pupils. It is safe to say that in many examinations one question may actually be four or five times as hard as some other to which an equal value is a.s.signed.

Another difficulty that we have to meet in the ordinary examination is the variability among teachers in marking papers. We do not commonly a.s.sign the same values to the same result. Indeed, if a set of papers is given to a group of capable teachers and marked as conscientiously as may be by each of them, it is not uncommon to find a variation among the marks a.s.signed to the same paper which may be as great as twenty-five per cent of the highest mark given. Even more interesting is the fact that upon re-marking these same papers individual teachers will vary from their own first mark by almost as great an amount.

Still another difficulty with the ordinary examination is the tendency among teachers to derive their standards of achievement from the group itself, rather than from any objective standard by which all are measured. It is possible, for example, for children in English composition to write very poorly for their grade and still to find the teacher giving relatively high marks to those who happen to belong to the upper group in the cla.s.s. As a result of the establishment of such a standard, the teacher may not be conscious of the fact that children should be spurred to greater effort, and that possibly he himself should seek to improve his methods of work.

Out of the situation described above, which includes on the one hand the necessity for measurement as a means of testing the success of our theories and of our practice, and on the other hand of having objective standards, has grown the movement for measurement by means of standard tests and scales. A standard test which has been given to some thousands of children cla.s.sified by grades or by ages, if given to another group of children of the same grade or age group will enable the teacher to compare the achievement of his children with that which is found elsewhere. For example, the Courtis tests in arithmetic, which consist of series of problems of equal difficulty in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division may be used to discover how far facility in these fields has been accomplished by children of any particular group as compared with the achievements of children in other school systems throughout the country. In these tests each of the problems is of equal difficulty. The measure is made by discovering how many of these separate problems can be solved in a given number of minutes.[20]

A scale for measuring the achievements of children in the fundamental operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division has been derived by Dr. Clifford Woody,[21] which differs from the Courtis tests in that it affords opportunity to discover what children can achieve from the simplest problem in each of these fields to a problem which is in each case approximately twice as difficult as the problems appearing on the Courtis tests. The great value of this type of test is in discovering to teachers and to pupils, as well, their particular difficulties. A pupil must be able to do fairly acceptable work in addition before he can solve one problem on the Courtis tests.

Considerable facility can be measured on the Woody tests before an ability sufficient to be registered on the Courtis tests has been acquired. In his monograph on the derivation of these tests Mr. Woody gives results which will enable the teacher to compare his cla.s.s with children already tested in other school systems. In the case of all of these standard tests, school surveys and superintendents' reports are available which will make it possible to inst.i.tute comparisons among different cla.s.ses and different school systems. One form of the Woody tests is as follows:

SERIES A ADDITION SCALE BY CLIFFORD WOODY

Name......................

When is your next birthday?...... How old will you be?.....

Are you a boy or girl?....... In what grade are you?......

(1) (3) (5) (7) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (15) (16) 2 17 72 3+1= 20 21 32 43 23 100 9 3 2 26 10 33 59 1 25 33 24 -- -- -- 2 35 17 2 16 45 12 30 -- -- 13 -- 201 15 (2) (4) (6) (8) 25 -- 46 19 2 53 60 2+5+1= -- --- -- 4 45 37 (14) 3 -- -- 25+42= --

(17) (19) (21) (22) (23) (26) (29) 199 $ .75 $8.00 547 1/3+1/3= 121/2 4 3/4 194 1.25 5.75 197 621/2 2 1/4 295 .49 2.33 685 (24) 121/2 5 1/4 156 ----- 4.16 678 4.0125 371/2 ----- --- .94 456 1.5907 --- 6.32 393 4.10 (30) (18) (20) ----- 525 8.673 (27) 2 1/2 2563 $12.50 240 ------ 1/8+1/4+1/2= 6 3/8 1387 16.75 152 3 3/4 4954 15.75 --- ----- 2065 ------ (25) (28) ---- 3/8+5/8+7/8+1/8= 3/4+1/4=

(31) (33) (34) (35) (36) (37) 113.46 .49 1/6+3/8= 2ft. 6in. 2yr. 5mo. 16 1/3 49.6097 .28 3ft. 5in. 3yr. 6mo. 12 1/8 19.9 .63 4ft. 9in. 4yr. 9mo. 21 1/2 9.87 .95 --------- 5yr. 2mo. 32 3/4 .0086 1.69 6yr. 7mo. ------ 18.253 .22 --------- 6.04 .33 -------- .36 (38) 1.01 25.091+100.4+25+98.28+19.3614= (32) .56 3/4+1/2+1/4= .88 .75 .56 1.10 .18 .56 ----