23. a. How did you study Chapter XII in this book? b. Criticize your method of study in the light of Chapter XIII.

24. In what particulars do you believe that you can improve your methods of study?

25. What evidence can you give that you are able to study more independently now than you were two years ago?

26. Do you believe that the students who rank highest in daily work in a high school or college course should be excused from examinations? Give reasons for your answer.

27. Compare the analysis of the learning process given in this chapter with the analysis of study given in How to Study and Teaching How to Study, by F. M. McMurry, pp. 15–23.

28. Why is the lecture method not suited to high school pupils? 29. How should the methods of teaching in a secondary school differ from those adapted to university students?

30. How should the methods of teaching in an elementary school differ from those adapted to high school pupils?

CHAPTER XIV

EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The problem of this chapter is to find the general nature of the development of education as a rationalized endeavor. In the rationalization of education, the following subjects have arisen: History of Education, School Administration, Supervision of Instruction, School Hygiene, Theory of Teaching, Educational Psychology, Principles of Education, and Philosophy of Education. The function of each of these subjects and the relation of each to the other fields of educational investigation should be definitely recognized. The progress of education is as unending as human development.

I

The problem of this chapter is to find the general nature of the development of education as a rationalized endeavor. This development has resulted primarily from efforts to overcome through education difficulties in the social order. The development of education, like that of other forms of institutional activity, has been irregular.

Educational activities, like all other social processes, develop through becoming rationalized. Difficulties in educational procedure are ever being discovered and overcome by careful thought. For the most part this thinking has been based upon mere opinion; but, with the application of scientific methods to the study of education, an accurate knowledge of the facts concerned has greatly increased the accuracy of the results attained in the solution of educational problems. A detailed statement of the development of education as a rational

ized endeavor would constitute the history of education, which deals with the new educational purposes that have arisen from time to time and with the changes in practice that have been made in the service of these purposes. Our problem from the standpoint of the principles of education is to find the general nature of this development rather than the concrete details which comprise it. Since the educational process is essentially the same whether it appears in the school or in other institutions, where it is of secondary importance, our study of the development of education through rationalization may be limited to the work of the school, with which most of the study of education has concerned itself.

Men have, for the most part, defined the ideals and the methods of education when they have undertaken to use it for the sake of overcoming difficulties in the social order. When, for example, deep-set difficulties in the social order led to the problem of how a man should live in order to get the most out of life, Plato defined the educational ideal as knowledge, and gave an outline of the curriculum and the method which he believed would lead to the realization of this ideal. In answer to the conflict between individual interests and traditional social restrictions, Rousseau explained the ideal of education as individual development, and presented a scheme whereby he believed this ideal could be attained. When a difficulty arose because the practical demands of rapidly developing science conflicted with the traditional humanistic curriculum, Herbert Spencer devised important educational doctrine in attempting to solve the problem of what knowledge is of most worth. When a body of educational doctrine arising from various sources had been generally accepted, conflicts arose within the theory of education

itself. In reconciling such conflicts between the doctrines of interest and effort and between theories regarding the child and the curriculum, Professor Dewey made valuable contributions towards rationalizing education. In recent years much attention has been given to difficulties arising within the technique of education; and valuable results, due largely to the use of scientific methods in locating these difficulties and in devising means for overcoming them, have been attained.

The development of education has been irregular. Like other forms of institutional activity, it has passed through periods of development gradual, arrested, and revolutionary. Illustrations of this fact are given in the chapter on social development.1

II

In the rationalization of education, the History of Education prevents formalism and opens the way for scientific improvement of educational practices, School Administration solves the problems arising from the complex school organization, Supervision of Instruction presents the methods that should be used in improving and coördinating the teaching in the schools, School Hygiene deals with health problems peculiar to school conditions, the Theory of Teaching reveals the methods by which the learning process can be controlled, Educational Psychology presents from the educational point of view an objective scientific study of human nature, the Principles of Education afford general guidance in educational thought and practice by revealing the fundamental ideas which should regulate educational procedure, and the Philosophy of Education unifies the whole field of educational endeavor.

When, because of the growing complexity of educational practice, those engaged in educational work felt the need of guidance, they sought the History of Education in order to profit by the experience of the past,

1 See pp. 290-305.

in

which many thinkers had dealt with educational problems. Since educational classics were directly concerned with solving important educational problems and were easily accessible, these writings occupied the most prominent place in the History of Education. The appearance of new difficulties, for later situations are different from those that have gone before, and the development of scientific methods of investigation, led later educational thinkers to attempt to solve educational problems by a direct study of the facts themselves instead of depending upon the experience of the past. As new scientific subject matter dealing with educational practice was in this way worked out, the History of Education was not so much depended upon for guidance in educational control, because the greater value of the results of modern scientific investigations was easily recognized. A modern scientific treatment of the methods of teaching is a better guide for school practice than the theories of teaching advocated by Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Herbart, or accounts of the methods used by old-time schoolmasters. A modern standard work on school administration is more useful as a guide in organizing schools than is Comenius's Great Didactic or accounts of school systems in past generations. Having been relieved of the responsibility of giving scientific guidance, for which it is not well adapted, the History of Education is now free to do the peculiar work in which it excels all other studies of education, the work of revealing the purposes which underlie educational practices. It thus prevents formalism and opens the way for the scientific improvement of these practices.1 When the independent one-room school gave way to city, county, and state educational systems, the problems 1 See discussion of the function of history, pp. 202-204.