Introduction to the scientific study of education

It has been the aim of the preceding chapters of this volume to make it clear that the teacher of the future must be able to cope in a large and intelligent way with problems wh...

The scientific methods of studying school problems, which were illustrated in the last chapter, can be supported and supplemented by a comparison of the schools of the present w...

The preceding chapters have dealt, for the most part, with aspects of school organization which are external to the classroom and to the operations of instruction. The external...

A study of school buildings furnishes in very concrete form evidence of the new spirit which has come into school organization. The old-fashioned school building was copied from...

Although the community as a whole recognizes the need of education, and is willing to supply the necessary financial support, it cannot manage directly the details of school ope...

The six preceding chapters, which have dealt with the curriculum, make no pretense of presenting formulated courses which can be given to classes. Some reader may have been impa...

There is a group of recent studies which affect the curriculum and all other phases of school organization so profoundly that a separate chapter must be devoted to an exposition...

One does not have to go far from the door of any educational institution to find people who look on reading and writing—to say nothing of higher forms of education—as luxuries r...

We all know something about how much the family invests in its sons and daughters. The provision made by the father for his children is recognized as an expression of the parent...

The last chapter failed of its purpose if it did not concentrate the attention of the reader on the school curriculum. The organized body of materials of instruction constitutes...

It would be a mistake to treat the innovations in the course of study which were discussed in the last chapter as concessions to a narrow demand for mere gain through the better...

Because there is an urgent social demand for the reorganization of the curriculum and because the principles which should underlie a sound curriculum are as yet not clear, there...

With the expansions in education that have been reviewed in foregoing chapters, there has come a certain confusion and uncertainty of practice which sometimes tends to lower the...

A number of times in the last few chapters the discussion has been brought to the point of recognizing the importance of individual differences. The teacher cannot determine mer...

The problems of instruction are by no means solved when a subject has been selected and placed in its proper relation to the other subjects in the curriculum. There is still the...

Recent educational practice has laid great emphasis on the cultivation of children’s physical natures as well as their mental powers. This new emphasis on physical training is d...

Both the school curriculum and the general organization of the school program in such matters as the length of class periods and the forms of order required, reflect the fact th...

The regular and orderly movement of a social group depends on the adoption of a program. The daily program of a school is an indispensable formal device for maintaining that typ...

The last chapter dealt with the intellectual side of class exercises. The recitation has for its final purpose the conveying and fixing of certain ideas and methods of thinking....

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 prese...

Ordinary school work is so dependent on health that one wonders how teachers of an earlier generation could have failed to see the absolute necessity of systematic supervision o...

In the days when the school system was simple in its equipment and in its course of study no distinction was drawn between the problems of teaching and the problems of organizin...

Each of the preceding chapters has aimed to set forth certain practical school problems and to suggest the sources of information on the basis of which these problems are to be...

Increasing demand for professional training. American normal schools. American demands on secondary-school teachers. German training of secondary-school teachers. New courses in...

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 respon...

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 instructi...

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 i...

The comparative and historical methods. The American textbook method of teaching. Independence of thought based on reading. European schools caste schools, American schools trul...

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 t...

Scientific methods of studying schools. Definition through enumeration of methods. The history of educational theory and practice. Courses in psychology. Educational psychology....

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...

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. O...

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 qu...

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 necessi...

Programs and marks. The total school day. The class period. Physiological fatigue. Conditions like fatigue. Practical precepts based on study of fatigue. Administrative consider...

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 c...

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 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 s...

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 c...

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 fac...

The primitive attitude one of neglect. Compulsory education. Compulsion of communities. Later stages of compulsory legislation. American education to 1850. Compulsory attendance...

Importance of a study of the curriculum. The specialized curriculum of higher schools. Problems of generalizing a specialized curriculum. Traditional character of mathematics co...

Adaptation of curriculum to individual pupils. Low grades of intelligence. Differentiated courses. Tests of general intelligence. Exceptionally bright pupils. Sex differences. D...

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 individu...

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 contagio...

Intellectual progress and social conditions. Social training general. Types of social organization. Social control through anticipation. Organization of routine. Punishments and...