Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education Part 9

=A. Conception.=--In describing the method of attaining general knowledge, it is customary to divide such knowledge into two slightly different types, or cla.s.ses, and also to distinguish between the processes by which each type is attained. When the mind, through having experienced particular dogs, cows, chairs, books, etc., is able to form such a general, or cla.s.s, idea as, dog, cow, chair, or book, it is said to gain a cla.s.s notion, or concept; and the method by which these ideas are gained is called _conception_.

=B. Induction.=--When the mind, on the basis of particular experiences, arrives at some general law, or truth, as, "Any two sides of a triangle are together greater than the third side"; "Air has weight"; "Man is mortal"; "Honesty is the best policy"; etc., it is said to form a universal judgment, and the process by which the judgment is formed is called a process of _induction_.

=Examples of General and Particular Knowledge.=--When a pupil learns the St. Lawrence River system as such, he gains a particular experience, or notion; when he learns of river basins, he obtains a general notion. In like manner, for the child to realize that here are eight blocks containing two groups of four blocks, is a particular experience; but that 4 + 4 = 8, is a general, or universal, truth. To notice this water rising in a tube as heat is being applied, is a particular experience; to know that liquids are expanded by heat is a general truth. _The air above this radiator is rising_ is a particular truth, but _heated air rises_ is a general truth. _The English people plunged into excesses in Charles II's reign after the removal of the stern Puritan rule_ is particular, but a _period of license follows a period of repression_ is general.

=Distinction is in Ideas, not Things.=--It is to be noted further that the same object may be treated at one time as a particular individual, at another time as a member of a cla.s.s, and at still another time as a part of a larger individual. Thus the large peninsula on the east of North America may be thought of now, as the individual, Nova Scotia; at another time, as a member of the cla.s.s, province; and at still another time, as a part of the larger particular individual, Canada.

=Only Two Types of Knowledge.=--It is evident from the foregoing that no matter what subject is being taught, so far as any person may aim _to develop a new experience_ in the mind of the pupil, that experience will be one or other of the two cla.s.ses mentioned above. If the aim of our lesson is to have the pupils know the facts of the War of 1812-14, to study the rainfall of British Columbia, to master the spelling of a particular word, or to image the pictures contained in the story _Mary Elizabeth_, then it aims primarily to have pupils come into possession of a particular fact, or a number of particular facts. On the other hand, if the lesson aims to teach the pupils the nature of an infinitive, the rule for extracting square root, the law of gravity, the cla.s.ses of nouns, etc., then the aim of the lesson is to convey some general idea or truth.

APPLIED KNOWLEDGE GENERAL

Before proceeding to a special consideration of such type lessons, it will be well to note that the mind always applies general knowledge in the learning process. That is, the application of old knowledge to the new presentation is possible only because this knowledge has taken on a general character, or has become a general way of thinking. The tendency for every new experience, whether particular or general, to pa.s.s into a general att.i.tude, or to become a standard for interpreting other presentations, is always present, at least after the very early impressions of infancy. When, for instance, a child observes a strange object, dog, and perceives its four feet, this idea does not remain wholly confined to the particular object, but tends to take on a general character. This consists in the fact that the characteristic perceived is vaguely thought of as a quality distinct from the dog. This quality, _four-footedness_, therefore, is at least in some measure recognized as a quality that may occur in other objects. In other words, it takes on a general character, and will likely be applied in interpreting the next four-footed object which comes under the child's attention. So also when an adult first meets a strange fruit, guava, he observes perhaps that it is _pear-shaped, yellow-skinned, soft-pulped_, of _sweet taste_, and _aromatic flavour_. All such quality ideas as pear-shaped, yellow, soft, etc., as here applied, are general ideas of quality taken on from earlier experiences. Even in interpreting the qualities of particular objects, therefore, as this rose, this machine, or this animal, we apply to its interpretation general ideas, or general forms of thought, taken on from earlier experiences.

The same fact is even more evident when the mind attempts to build up the idea of a particular object by an act of imagination. One may conceive as present, a sphere, red in colour, with smooth surface, and two feet in diameter. Now this particular object is defined through the qualities spherical, red, smooth, etc. But these notions of quality are all general, although here applied to building up the image of a particular thing.

PROCESSES OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE SIMILAR

If what has already been noted concerning the law of universal method is correct, and if all learning is a process of building up a new experience in accordance with the law of apperception, then all of the above modes of gaining either particular or general knowledge must ultimately conform to the laws of general method. Keeping in view the fact that applied knowledge is always general in character, it will not be difficult to demonstrate that these various processes do not differ in their essential characteristics; but that any process of acquiring either particular or general knowledge conforms to the method of selection and relation, or of a.n.a.lysis-synthesis, as already described in our study of the learning process. To demonstrate this, however, it will be necessary to examine and ill.u.s.trate the different modes of learning in the light of the principles of general method already laid down in the text.

CHAPTER XV

MODES OF LEARNING

DEVELOPMENT OF PARTICULAR KNOWLEDGE

A. LEARNING THROUGH THE SENSES

In many lessons in nature study, elementary science, etc., pupils are led to acquire new knowledge by having placed before them some particular object which they may examine through the senses. The knowledge thus gained through the direct observation of some individual thing, since it is primarily knowledge about a particular individual, is to be cla.s.sified as particular knowledge. As an example of the process by which a pupil may gain particular knowledge through the senses, a nature lesson may be taken in which he would, by actual observation, become acquainted with one of the constellations, say the Great Dipper.

Here the learner first receives through his senses certain impressions of colour and form. Next he proceeds to read into these impressions definite meanings, as stars, four, corners, bowl, three, curve, handle, etc. In such a process of acquiring knowledge about a particular thing, it is to be noted that the acquisition depends upon two important conditions:

1. The senses receive impressions from a particular thing.

2. The mind reacts upon these impressions with certain phases of its old knowledge, here represented by such words as four, corner, bowl, etc.

=a.n.a.lysis of Process.=--When the mind thus gains knowledge of a particular object through sense perception, the process is found to conform exactly to the general method already laid down; for there is involved:

1. _The Motive._--To read meaning into the strange thing which is placed before the pupil as a problem to stimulate his senses.

_2. Selection, or a.n.a.lysis._--Bringing selected elements of former knowledge to interpret the unknown impressions, the elements of his former knowledge being represented in the above example by such words as, four, bowl, curve, handle, etc.

3. _Unification, or Synthesis._--A continuous relating of these interpreting factors into the unity of a newly interpreted object, the Dipper.

SENSE PERCEPTION IN EDUCATION

=A. Gives Knowledge of Things.=--In many lessons in biology, botany, etc., although the chief aim of the lesson is to acquire a correct cla.s.s notion, yet the learning process is in large part the gaining of particular knowledge through the senses. In a nature lesson, for instance, the pupil may be presented with an insect which he has never previously met. When the pupil interprets the object as six-legged, with hard sh.e.l.l-like wing covers, under wings membranous, etc., he is able to gain knowledge about this particular thing:

1. Because the thing manifests itself to him through the senses of sight and touch.

2. Because he is able to bring to bear upon these sense impressions his old knowledge, represented by such words as six, wing, sh.e.l.l, hard, membranous, etc. So far, therefore, as the process ends with knowledge of the particular object presented, the learning process conforms exactly to that laid down above, for there is involved:

1. _The Motive._--To read meaning into the new thing which is placed before the pupil as a problem to stimulate his senses.

2. _Selection, or a.n.a.lysis._--Bringing selected elements of former knowledge to interpret the unknown problem, the elements of his former knowledge being represented above by such words as six, leg, wing, hard, sh.e.l.l, membranous, etc.

3. _Unification, or Synthesis._--A continuous relating of these interpreting factors into the unity of a better known object, the insect.

=B. Is a Basis for Generalization.=--It is to be noted, however, that in any such lesson, although the pupil gains through his senses a knowledge of a particular individual only, yet he may at once accept this individual as a sign, or type, of a cla.s.s of objects, and can readily apply the new knowledge in interpreting other similar things. Although, for example, the pupil has experienced but one such object, he does not necessarily think of it as a mere individual--this thing--but as a representative of a possible cla.s.s of objects, a beetle. In other words the new particular notion tends to pa.s.s directly into a general, or cla.s.s, notion.

B. LEARNING THROUGH IMAGINATION

As an example of a lesson in which the pupil secures knowledge through the use of his imagination, may be taken first the case of one called upon to image some single object of which he may have had no actual experience, as a desert, London Tower, the sphinx, etc. Taking the last named as an example, the learner must select certain characteristics as, woman, head, lion, body, etc., all of which are qualities which have been learned in other past experiences. Moreover, the mind must organize these several qualities into the representation of a single object, the sphinx. Here, evidently, the pupil follows fully the normal process of learning.

1. The term--the sphinx--suggests a problem, or felt need, namely, to read meaning into the vaguely realized term.

2. Under the direction of the instructor or the text-book, the pupil selects, or a.n.a.lyses out of past experience, such ideas as, woman, head, body, lion, which are felt to have a value in interpreting the present problem.

3. A synthetic, or relating, activity of mind unifies the selected ideas into an ideally constructed object which is accepted by the learner as a particular object, although never directly known through the senses.

Nor is the method different in more complex imagination processes. In literary interpretation, for instance, when the reader meets such expressions as:

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, The ploughman homeward plods his weary way And leaves the world to darkness and to me;

the words of the author suggest a problem to the mind of the reader.

This problem then calls up in the mind of the student a set of images out of earlier experience, as bell, evening, herd, ploughman, lea, etc., which the mind unifies into the representation of the particular scene depicted in the lines. It is in this way that much of our knowledge of various objects and scenes in nature, of historical events and characters, and of spiritual beings is obtained.

=Imagination Gives Basis for Generalization.=--It should be noted by the student-teacher that in many lessons we aim to give the child a notion of a cla.s.s of objects, though he may in actual experience never have met any representatives of the cla.s.s. In geography, for instance, the child learns of deserts, volcanoes, etc., without having experienced these objects through the senses. It has been seen, however, that our general knowledge always develops from particular experience. For this reason the pupil who has never seen a volcano, in order to gain a general notion of a volcano, must first, by an act of constructive imagination, image a definite picture of a particular volcano. The importance of using in such a lesson a picture or a representation on a sand-board, lies in the fact that this furnishes the necessary stimulus to the child's imagination, which will cause him to image a particular individual as a basis for the required general, or cla.s.s, notion. Too often, however, the child is expected in such lessons to form the cla.s.s notion directly, that is, without the intervention of a particular experience. This question will be considered more fully in Chapter XXVII, which treats of the process of imagination.

C. LEARNING BY INFERENCE, OR DEDUCTION

Instead of placing himself in British Columbia, and noting by actual experience that there is a large rainfall there, a person may discover the same by what is called a process of inference. For example, one may have learned from an examination of other particular instances that air takes up moisture in pa.s.sing over water; that warm air absorbs large quant.i.ties of moisture; that air becomes cool as it rises; and that warm, moist air deposits its moisture as rain when it is cooled. Knowing this and knowing a number of particular facts about British Columbia, namely that warm winds pa.s.s over it from the Pacific and must rise owing to the presence of mountains, we may infer of British Columbia that it has an abundant rainfall. When we thus discover a truth in relation to any particular thing by inference, we are said to go through a process of deduction. A more particular study of this process will be made in Chapter XXVIII, but certain facts may here be noted in reference to the process as a mode of acquiring knowledge. An examination will show that the deductive process follows the ordinary process of learning, or of selecting certain elements of old knowledge, and organizing them into a new particular experience in order to meet a certain problem.

=Deduction as Formal Reasoning.=--It is usually stated by psychologists and logicians that in this process the person starts with the general truth and ends with the particular inference, or conclusion, for example:

Winds coming from the ocean are saturated with moisture.

The prevailing winds in British Columbia come from the Pacific.

Therefore these winds are saturated with moisture.

All winds become colder as they rise.