19. The Importance of General Principles

[THORNDIKE, E. L., The New Methods in Arithmetic, p. 45, Copyright, 1921. Courtesy of Rand, McNally & Co., Chicago.]

But the newer methods are suspicious of learning only to forget, and in particular consider that the general principles should be the last things to be forgotten. If principles are taught that are really helpful, that really act in learning and retention, and are taught in the right way, it would seem that, even if certain details of how to compute were forgotten, these vital general principles would not be.

20. Learn One Thing at a Time

[THORNDIKE, E. L., The New Methods in Arithmetic, p. 59. Chicago, Rand, McNally & Co., 1921.]

If we try to learn all of a game at once, we may learn none of it, and perhaps think it beyond our capacity, or at least take the harmful attitude of expecting to blunder and fail. If we take the same game, one feature at a time, putting each new feature into coöperation with the others until we are playing the whole game as it is really played, we succeed.

21. The Importance of Over-learning

[AVERILL, L. A., Elements of Educational Psychology, pp. 323-324. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1923.]

It is an unfortunate tendency of most learners-particularly juvenile to stop the learning process the moment the datum can just be recited from memory. While such a minimum of repetitions may be all that is required, in the case of materials that it is not desired to retain permanently, it is a fact that by far the greater part of the associations that are built up in the schoolroom are supposed to be builded permanently. To guarantee a reasonable perpetuity of such associations it is highly important for the learner to 'over-learn'; otherwise permanence of impressions is extremely dubious.

As we have noted in a previous connection, the unfortunate tendency of the quick learner to stop too soon results in his being a rapid forgetter. Through drill and thorough discussion, therefore, the teacher should take constant pains to assure herself that the pupils are thus over-learning, at the same time of course bewaring lest the process become so monotonous that interest lags and attention scatters.

22. Active Connection vs. Passive Learning [THORNDIKE, E. L., The New Methods in Arithmetic, p. 58. Chicago, Rand, McNally & Co., 1921.]

The active connection of two things by the person is more potent than the passive hearing or seeing of them in connection. So we have the pupil study part of the table or other facts to be learned, then cover the answers with a card, and give them himself, looking at each to make sure he is right or if he is unable to think of any answer in which he has confidence. This he continues until he can give all correctly and fluently. He thus not only comes to know the facts more quickly, but also to know that he knows them. Cards with the questions on one side and the questions and answers on the other side may be used, especially where it is desirable not to have any help from the printed orders of the facts.

23. Only Correct Practice Makes more Perfect [Book, W. F., "The Psychology of Skill," University of Montana Study in Psychology, 1908, p. 177. Revised and reprinted in Psychology of Skill, p. 245. Gregg Publishing Co., New York, 1925.]

Great effort wrongly or carelessly applied is even more detrimental to progress than a simple lapse in attention or effort. . . . The tendency to slight the associations in the last stages of their development and to push ahead too fast can, of course, best be overcome, in typewriting, by not always practicing at maximum speed, for the effort for speed usually means that attention deserts the details of the work. To perfect carefully the elemental associations it will therefore be found better, practically, to practice more of the time for accuracy alone and only a small part of the time for speed-a custom generally followed by the best typewriting schools.

24. Daily Fluctuations in Attention and Effort

[Book, W. F. Psychology of Skill. Copyright, 1925. Courtesy of Gregg Publishing Co., New York.]

Variations in attention and effort of still more importance for learning than those just described are the fluctuations which occur from day to day. In our typewriting experiments there

1 These daily fluctations in attention and effort should not be confused with the diurnal changes in efficiency found by Lombard, Kraepelin and Marsh (see especially Archives of Phil., Psy. and Scientific Method, Columbia Contribution to Philosophy and Psychology,

were many days when the learner's spontaneous attention seemed to work perfectly throughout almost the whole test, and days when everything about the writing had to be forced.

25. Effect of Age on Learning

Experimental results obtained from the study of animals indicate that human beings are never too old to learn. The inference is that men and women in the forties, fifties, or even sixties may learn to dance, to skate, and to play games. We now have experimental evidence to show that the contention of William James concerning the non-plasticity that is supposed to go with old age, and which has been so generally accepted, is largely incorrect and unfounded. The adult can learn many activities as well as the youth provided he is willing to spend more time in acquiring the

same acts.

26. Concentration

[BAIR, J. H., "The Development of Voluntary Control," Psychological Review, September, 1901, Vol. 8, p. 487.]

The more closely the attention can be directed to a movement to be made, and the more nearly the part of the movements not to be made can for the time being be forgotten, the more likely is the desired movement to be accomplished.

27. The Combination Whole-Part-Whole Method of

Memorizing

The learner should select material of suitable length for one period of study. He should make a careful survey of the material for the purpose of orientation. Then he should go over it again in its entirety until its general nature is understood. He should continue mastering it by the whole method until most of the material has been learned. He

July, 1906, pp. 42-92). Our tests were made at the same time of day, hence the variations which occur are such as occur from day to day when doing the same sort of work under the same objective conditions. And it should not be forgotten that these variations were found not in the work of children, but in that of conscientious adults, accustomed to doing systematic work.

should then strengthen the weak associations by studying the parts that are causing the difficulty. When this has been done, the selection should be attacked again as a whole until the selection is well fixed in memory. By practicing recall during the learning process and by relearning the material on several successive days the material will be the more firmly and the more economically fixed.

28. Distributed Repetitions Best in Memorizing [MEUMANN, Ernst, The Psychology of Learning, p. 266. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1913.]

[A German investigator named Jost] devoted thirty repetitions without pause to the learning of a series of syllables; in another case, he employed ten repetitions on each of three successive days. In both cases he tested accuracy of retention twenty-four hours after the repetitions had been completed. He found that the syllables which had been learned with distributed repetitions were retained better than those which had been learned with the same number of accumulated repetitions. Jost also attempted to determine how far the distribution of repetitions may be carried without giving rise to a deleterious result. He found that when the material to be learned is of large mass the most extensive distribution is the most advantageous, both as to rapidity of learning and permanence of retention.

29. Improving Mental Efficiency

[BENSON, C. E., "Improving Mental Efficiency," American Educational Digest, January, 1926, Vol. 45, pp. 201–203.]

Children of the public schools make the citizens of the future, and the civilization of the future will be no better than the people who control it. The child must be taken as he comes to the school, and the school must build upon the foundation that he brings with him. Some time ago the writer received a letter from a beginning teacher in which she asked for help. She stated that the pupils in the high school in which she was teaching did not compare favorably with the pupils in the city high school from which she was graduated. She considered her pupils slow, dull, unemotional, and inefficient. They were not able to do the work as she thought they should do it. This teacher should spend very little time comparing the pupils of her school

with those of the school from which she was graduated, but she should spend more time in working with the pupils as they are to find out how much they know, and, then, she should add a little to their knowledge and skill each day. This procedure constitutes real teaching.

Teacher Responsibility.-Before the mental efficiency of children can be improved they must be understood. Teachers must understand their natures, know something about their environment, past history in and out of the school, and try to find out what is interfering with harmonious action. Take an analogy from the material world. An automobile that is running well is one in which all of the parts are working in perfect harmony. It is only when this takes place that the maximum power can be obtained. Thus it is in the case of children. A child will do his best work if his physical and mental machinery work in perfect harmony. If one part does not work well, the maximum of efficiency is interfered with. The child whose physical body is not up to par seldom does good work. The first suggestion bearing upon mental efficiency of children in the schools is to improve their general physical health. Not anything should interfere with the smooth working of a child's nervous system. The teacher can do very little to help here, however, but the little that she can do may be the means of saving the child for better school work and a happier life. A teacher should be able to tell when the eyes are over-strained in the service of the mind. She should know how much interest to arouse for the good of the physical body, for the mind is never injured by interest, but the general health may be. Worry, on the other hand, may be harmful and, in extreme cases, unbalance the mind, but it seldom injures the eyes. It is within the province of a teacher to make wholesome suggestions to children, which may improve the general tone of their health. The following suggestions may be made, also, to parents:

Increase the number of hours of sleep

Provide adequate exercise

Prepare the proper kind of food

The teacher might have the children make a study of the required number of hours of sleep and have them take the facts into the home. She might have the same thing done about exercise and food. It has been found that when children become interested in some particular problem which affects living conditions parents take an eager interest. Collings found in his ex