Introduction to the scientific study of education — A Closer Reading

I. EXTENDING THE PUPIL’S VIEW OF THE SCHOOL 1

The pupil’s view limited. Conservatism in the community as a natural consequence. Demand for a broad scientific study. Beginnings of the science of education. Effectiveness of studies of retardation. A study of high-school courses. An experimental analysis of a fundamental subject. A study of the relation of education to general social life. The scientific study of educational problems. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER II. SCHOOLS OF OTHER COUNTRIES AND OF OTHER TIMES 14

The comparative and historical methods. The American textbook method of teaching. Independence of thought based on reading. European schools caste schools, American schools truly public. Influence of European schools on the educational system of this country. Report of the visiting committee of Taunton in 1801. Adoption of the German model. Results of the adoption of the German example. The reorganization of American schools. Origin of the high school. Education of girls. Higher education free. American public schools secular. The school system and its domination of the teacher. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER III. EDUCATION AS A PUBLIC NECESSITY 32

The primitive attitude one of neglect. Compulsory education. Compulsion of communities. Later stages of compulsory legislation. American education to 1850. Compulsory attendance. Obstacles to enforcement of compulsory attendance. Newer legislation recognizing complexity of problems of attendance. Supervision a necessary corollary to compulsion. Higher education and public control. Public control adequate only when directed by science. Fiscal problem typical. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER IV. INVESTING PUBLIC MONEY IN A NEW GENERATION 46

The cost of educating an individual. Total school expenditures in the United States. Cost a determining consideration in school organization. Relation of school expenditures to other public expenses. Urgent demands for economy and efficiency. Expenditures in relation to wealth. Costs of different levels of education. Costs of different subjects of instruction. Costs of classes of different sizes. Salaries. Books and supplies. The meaning of financial organization and educational accounting. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER V. DELEGATING RESPONSIBILITY FOR CARRYING ON SCHOOLS 63

Class instruction given over to the teacher. Supervision. Sketch of development of a school system. The community slow to delegate school control. Limits of authority and responsibility not clear. Statement by a public educating association. What is a representative board of education? The functions of a board of education. How a good board gets the work done. Making the machine work smoothly. Report of committee of superintendents. Obsolete administration system. Status of superintendency varies. District control discarded system of school administration. An effective substitute to be discovered. Dangers of this period of adjustment. Organization under scientific principles. Control of school work through tests. A study of the building needs of a city. The errors of democracy. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER VI. THE SCHOOL BUILDING 78

The building as an evidence of a community’s educational views. Contrasts in plans of rural schools. Contrasts in urban elementary schools. A high-school building of the early type. The hygiene of lighting. The hygiene of ventilation and heating. Hygienic equipment. Relation of equipment to the course of study. Modern school construction and costs. The Gary plan for distributing pupils and enlarging the scope of school work. Requirements to be met when the Gary plan is adopted. The construction of consolidated schools. Comparative statistics. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER VII. GROUPING PUPILS IN CLASSES 96

Transition to problems of internal organization. Economy a first motive for grouping. Social influence an important motive. Grouping in the one-room school. Courses of instruction in relation to the problem of grouping. New problems of grouping in large schools. Fundamentally different views on the curriculum. The ungraded class in graded schools. Cases where failures show the urgency of the grading problem. Efforts to adjust instruction to pupils. Readjustments of the curriculum. Problems of grouping in high school. Illegitimate reasons for promoting pupils. Experiments and studies which aim to supply both individual instruction and class instruction. Arrangement of the materials of instruction. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER VIII. THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM AND ITS REORGANIZATION 113

Importance of a study of the curriculum. The specialized curriculum of higher schools. Problems of generalizing a specialized curriculum. Traditional character of mathematics courses in high schools. Suggestions of new subjects. Present-day social demands. Traditional neglect of industrial education on the part of the public. The demand for revision of the curriculum. Summary. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER IX. SPECIALIZED EDUCATION VERSUS GENERAL EDUCATION 127

Present-day wavering between specialized and general training. The theory of separate schools for different classes of people. Statement of principles. Public demand for a new curriculum. Commercial courses in high schools. Agricultural high schools. Part-time courses. Various types of trade schools. The Manhattan Trade School, New York City. Practical applications as parts of academic courses. Studies of social activities. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER X. EXTENSION OF SCHOOL ACTIVITIES 141

A general social movement. Credit for home activities. Bulletin for teachers: home credits. Relation of home work to traditional school work. After-school classes and vacation classes. Continuation classes for adults. Demonstrations as means of economic and social improvement. Entertainment as part of the educational program. Associations aimed directly at the improvement of schools. Correspondence schools. Principles required to systematize educational activities. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER XI. PRINCIPLES INFLUENCING THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CURRICULUM 156

Necessity of practical decisions in spite of confusion. The doctrine of discipline. The doctrine of natural education in the form of the doctrine of freedom. Concentration and interest. Popular attitude toward discipline. Examples of discipline and freedom. Natural education and recognition of individual differences. Natural education as training for life. Training in the methods of knowledge and general training. Examples of views on formal training. Prominence of curriculum in determining quality of instruction. Bases for judging curriculum and syllabi. Formal discipline and transfer of training. Relation of subjects to maturity of pupils. Summary. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER XII. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 170

Adaptation of curriculum to individual pupils. Low grades of intelligence. Differentiated courses. Tests of general intelligence. Exceptionally bright pupils. Sex differences. Differences in industrial opportunity for the sexes and corresponding demands for training. Household arts as extras. Demand for new courses for girls. Individual differences which appear during training. Democratic recognition of individual differences. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER XIII. PERIODICITY IN THE PUPIL’S DEVELOPMENT 184

Recognition of periodicity in present organization. The meaning of infancy. The period before entering school. The primary period one of social imitation. The period of individualism. Early adolescence as a period of social consciousness. The new school adapted to adolescence. Later adolescence a period of specialization. The reorganized school system. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER XIV. SYSTEMATIC STUDIES OF THE CURRICULUM 197

The curriculum based on authority versus the living curriculum. Older subjects products of long selection. Social needs and the curriculum. Systematic studies as devices for facilitating evolution of the curriculum. A study of representative adults. A study of current references. A study of the mistakes of pupils. Prerequisites for higher courses. Administrative studies. Need of broad, coöperative studies. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER XV. STANDARDIZATION 212

Tests and measurements of products. Earlier standards based on opinion. Objective and exact standards. Beginnings of the movement. Handwriting scales. Speed as a correlate of quality. Standards, personal and impersonal. Social standards versus imposed standards. Comparison through exact measurement. Records as a basis of standardization. Studies of oral reading. Studies dealing with other subjects. Mechanical aspects the first to be standardized. Standardization and the science of education. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER XVI. METHODS 229

Meaning of the term “method.” Meaning of the term “device.” Personal methods and devices. Supposed conflict between methods and subject-matter. Two examples of modern methods. Object teaching. Laboratory method in physics. Spread of the laboratory idea. Reaction against the question and answer method. Inefficient methods of study. Organizing a school for supervised study. Organizing subject-matter for supervised study. Experiments in method. Method as a subject of scientific tests. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER XVII. CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT 242

Intellectual progress and social conditions. Social training general. Types of social organization. Social control through anticipation. Organization of routine. Punishments and rewards. Larger social organization. Attempts to classify unruly members of the social group. Impersonal discipline. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER XVIII. SELECTED ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS 254

Programs and marks. The total school day. The class period. Physiological fatigue. Conditions like fatigue. Practical precepts based on study of fatigue. Administrative considerations controlling length of the class period. Adjustment of work within the period. Adjustment of credits. The problem of grading. Experiments with grading systems. The study of marks as an introduction to a study of the school system. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER XIX. PLAY 266

Motives for cultivation of physical powers. Earlier attitude toward play. Play as natural behavior. Periods in the development of play. Play as natural education. Social necessity of recreation. Play as physical education. The school and play. Surveys of children’s play in cities. Systematizing instruction in play. Survey of recreational facilities. Play as part of the regular school program. Slow spread of modern attitude toward play. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER XX. HEALTH SUPERVISION 279

The relation of health to school work. Treatment of pathological cases. School luncheons. Control of home feeding. Public attention to nutrition of children. Control of contagion. The school health department. Difficulties of introducing health instruction. Health as a subject of instruction and as a mode of life. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER XXI. SCIENTIFIC SUPERVISION 289

Evolution of the demand for supervision. The principal. Other supervisory officers. Lack of public appreciation of central problems. Managerial training in relation to democracy. The purpose of the present discussion. Studies of the community. Selection and management of teachers. Standardization by measurement of results. An example of public recognition of the need of efficiency measurements. Scientific studies and central supervision. Scientific supervision. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER XXII. THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION 299

Scientific methods of studying schools. Definition through enumeration of methods. The history of educational theory and practice. Courses in psychology. Educational psychology. Statistical studies. The experimental method. Extension of use of psychological methods. Studies of retardation. School experiments and laboratory studies. Examples throughout earlier chapters. Studies of administrative problems. Method of comparison. Records necessary to scientific study. Subdivisions of the science of education. Rapid expansion of the science of education. Definition of the science of education. Exercises and readings.

CHAPTER XXIII. PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF TEACHERS 308

Increasing demand for professional training. American normal schools. American demands on secondary-school teachers. German training of secondary-school teachers. New courses in colleges and universities for secondary-school teachers. The requirements of a standardizing association. The California requirements the most advanced in the United States. Continuation training of school officers. Specialized training for administration. Contributions to the science of education. Exercises and readings.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Average number of high-school units in the approved schools of the various states of the North Central Association 6

2A. Pauses made in silent reading 8

2B. Pauses made in oral reading 9

3. Diagram showing the organization of German schools and American schools 18

4. Proportion of public money spent for public schools and other items 50

5. Distribution in the various grades of each thousand dollars expended for instruction 59

6. Floor plan of a typical school building of the old style 79

7. Floor plan of a well-arranged one-teacher rural school of minimum cost 80

8. An old and a new rural school 81

9A. Ground plan of Alabama School 83

9B. Exterior of Alabama School 83

10A. Ground plan of Empire School 84

10B. Exterior of Empire School 84

11. Record of nonpromotions and failures in Cleveland, 1914 103

12. Enrollment in private vocational schools and in public high schools of Chicago 133

13. Individual differences in the number of lines read in a minute by pupils in the fifth grades of two schools 181

14. Average quality and average speed of handwriting of pupils of the four upper grades in ten schools 218

15. Speed and quality of handwriting 223

16. Distribution of grades in various Harvard classes 263

I. Expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools compared for a period of years, including also a comparison of population for the same periods 48

II. Per cent of total governmental cost payments devoted to various city departments 51

III. Cost per pupil in elementary schools and high schools in selected cities 55

IV. Cost, per thousand student hours, of instruction in high schools in the various subjects of the curriculum 57

V. The portion of each thousand dollars spent for instruction in each subject in each of the first six elementary grades 58

VI. Percentages of failures in the chief subjects of instruction in the five high schools of Denver in June, 1915 107

THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF EDUCATION

EXTENDING THE PUPIL’S VIEW OF THE SCHOOL

THE PUPIL’S VIEW LIMITED

Most people think of school matters from the pupil’s point of view. When they learned arithmetic and grammar, or later when they studied algebra and Latin, each course was presented to them as though it were a perfect system. The teacher did not confide in them that arithmetic probably ought to be revised by the omission of many of its topics, that formal grammar is a very doubtful subject, and that both algebra and Latin are on the point of losing their places as required subjects. The pupil sees the front of the school scenery; the machinery behind is known only to those who conduct the performance.

It would be possible to multiply indefinitely examples which show that the pupil’s view of the school is very limited. What pupil understands the duties of the principal or the superintendent, or of the still more remote and mysterious board of education? Where does the daily program come from? Who decides about textbooks? Why are school buildings commonly planned with large study-rooms? Most of these questions are never thought of by pupils. Everything in school life seems to have a kind of inevitableness which raises it above question or even consideration.

CONSERVATISM IN THE COMMUNITY AS A NATURAL CONSEQUENCE

The narrowness of the pupil’s view would have less serious consequences if it were not for the fact that the pupil becomes in mature life a member of a board of education or adopts teaching as his profession. Then trouble results, because there is machinery which must be kept running if schools are to be efficient, and this machinery suffers if intrusted to the hands of those who do not understand its complexities.

One school superintendent, who encountered vigorous opposition to the introduction of changes in the course of study, wrote as follows:

The average American citizen whose schooling was limited to the primary and grammar grades looks with reverence upon the subjects there taught, and refuses to concur in a change of the course of study for the elementary school. Associated with the average citizen is a heavy percentage of the teaching faculty of both elementary and high schools throughout the country.[1]

Another superintendent, who was more successful in bringing about reforms, makes this statement:

People are more conservative in their attitude towards educational innovations than toward new adjustments to meet the demands of changing modern life in any other field of activity. Each adult is inclined to overvalue the particular type of training he received and to regard with suspicion any change which will tend to discredit this sort of training received at such an expenditure of time and money. The schools are, therefore, the last institution to respond to the changing demands of modern life.[2]

DEMAND FOR A BROAD SCIENTIFIC STUDY

If schools are to be progressive and efficient, they must be studied very much more broadly and comprehensively than they can be from the pupil’s point of view. The suggestion naturally arises that this broader study is a part of the professional duty of the teacher. So it is; but it will not be enough merely to exhibit the intricacies of education to teachers. The whole community must be shown by scientific methods that the school is a complex social institution, and that its conduct, like the conduct of every other social institution, requires constant study and expert supervision. In this movement of opening the eyes of the community to the needs and nature of education, the school officers must be leaders; but their methods must be impersonal and exact.

BEGINNINGS OF THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION

During recent years the demand for a thorough and comprehensive study of schools by scientific methods has led to a number of investigations which can be offered as an optimistic beginning of a science of education. It would, indeed, be far beyond the truth to assert that science has settled all the problems of teaching and of school organization. There is, however, a very respectable body of fact which has been clearly enough defined so that it can in no wise be set aside. In certain details the requirements of a scientifically valid educational scheme are known and can be described. The method of studying schools can safely be said to be established. It is the work of the future to take up, now this problem, now that, and by progressive stages to work out a complete science of school management and classroom organization.

It will be the purpose of subsequent chapters to define fully certain of the leading problems with which the science of education deals. The remainder of this chapter will be devoted to a brief statement of certain typical studies, which will make more concrete and definite the contention that the pupil’s view of schools is narrow and that the teacher’s view must be extended, as must also that of the community at large, if educational conditions are to be improved.

EFFECTIVENESS OF STUDIES OF RETARDATION

First, we may refer to investigations which have been made of the rate of promotion of pupils through the grades.

Whenever a pupil fails to complete the work of a grade in the appointed time, it is evident that there is some kind of maladjustment. The pupil may be incompetent to do the work required of him because he is mentally deficient. On the other hand, it may be that the work is ill chosen and in need of revision. The following statement from one of the leading students of education in the United States describes with clearness the problem and the progress made in meeting it.

Just ten years ago the distinguished superintendent of schools of New York called attention to the fact that 39 per cent of the children in the schools of that city were above the normal ages for their grades. This aroused widespread investigation, which showed that similar conditions obtained in other cities throughout the country. Soon studies of this phase of educational efficiency showed that the same conditions which resulted in our schools being crowded with retarded children also prevented a large proportion of these children from ever completing the elementary grades.

About seven years ago this became one of the most widely studied problems of educational administration, and in the past four it has been one of the prominent parts of the school surveys. During the entire period hundreds of superintendents throughout the country have been readjusting their schools to better the conditions disclosed.

In these seven years the number of children graduating each year from the elementary schools of America has doubled. The number now is three quarters of a million greater annually than it was then. The only great organized industry in America that has increased the output of its finished product as rapidly as the public schools during the past seven years is the automobile industry.

It is probable that no other one thing so fundamentally important to the future of America as this accomplishment of our public schools has taken place in recent years. There is every evidence that this is the direct result of applying measurements to education. If the school survey movement now under way can produce other results at all comparable with this one, we need have no fear for the outcome.[3]

The quotation does not tell us how the reform has been worked out. That is a long story. In some cities better teachers were needed and have been employed. In a great number of cases the course of study has been revised. Sometimes smaller classes have been provided. So on through a long list of details, one might enumerate the reforms which have resulted from a careful study of the one fact that pupils in the schools were older than they normally should be.

A STUDY OF HIGH-SCHOOL COURSES

A second type of study can be borrowed from the reports of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. This Association has as its practical purpose the inspection of the secondary schools and colleges of the northern states from Ohio to Colorado. The inspectors of high schools in seventeen states brought together in the report of 1916 a number of exact statistics regarding 1128 approved schools.[4] One set of these facts may be selected for special comment.