READINGS IN CHAPTER I THE PROBLEMS AND SCOPE OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY Educational psychology is the science which treats of the different levels of mental growth and development. Its chief subject-matter is the original nature of man, and the psychology of learning. A knowledge of its laws and principles is worth just the difference it makes in learning and teaching. This science has taken sufficient form within the last few years to warrant its inclusion in the curriculum of teacher training institutions. The excerpts contained within this volume are representative of a considerable body of relevant material available at the present time. The excerpts for Chapter I have been selected with the view of orienting the student and preparing the way for subsequent chapters. An adequate orientation, preparatory to the study of this science, implies a knowledge of the aims of education, the outcomes of teaching, the subject-matter of the science, the influences of heredity and environment in mental growth and development, the tools of learning, the historical development of the science, and its contribution to educational practices. The aims and objectives of education set the goal for both pupil and teacher (2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9). The outcomes of instruction are knowledges, habits and attitudes (11). Educational psychology purports to contribute to the realization of the aims through the securing of desirable outcomes in the most economical ways. Education is an active and dynamic process wherein the 1 individual occupies the center of the stage. The individual is a conscious being who behaves in various ways. Heredity and environment determine both the nature and the level of conduct. Heredity contributes structure and organization; environment, including social heredity, provides the opportunity for the individual's growth and development. 1. Social Aim of Education [BETTS, George Herbert, Social Principles of Education, p. 184. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912.] Education is the progressive reconstruction of experience, with a growing consciousness of social values and an increasing control over the processes of experience. 2. What Is Education? [THORNDIKE, E. L., Educational Psychology, Briefer Course, p. 1. New York, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1914.] The problems and scope of educational psychology are determined by our conception of education. If education is to be associated with mental development, self-realization, or the development of personality, the problems will be of one sort; if education is to be conceived as social adaptation, the problems will be primarily of another kind. In a book of this sort, it will be sufficient to state in simple understandable terms what education is as a psychological process. Broadly speaking, education is the production of useful changes in human beings. The arts and sciences serve human welfare by helping man to change the world, including man himself, for the better. The word education refers especially to those elements of science and art which are concerned with changes in man himself. Wisdom and economy in improving man's wants and in making him better able to satisfy them depend upon knowledge-first, of what his nature is, apart from education, and second, of the laws which govern changes in it. It is the province of educational psychology to give such knowledge of the original nature of man and of the laws of modifiability or learning, in case of intellect, character and skill. 3. The Aims of Education and Teaching [THORNDIKE, E. L., Principles of Teaching, pp. 1, 3-4, 7. New York, A. G. Seiler, 1906.] The word Education is used with many meanings, but in all its usages it refers to changes. No one is educated who stays just as he was. We do not educate anybody if we do nothing that makes any difference or change in anybody. The need of education arises from the fact that what is is not what ought to be. Because we wish ourselves and others to become different from what we and they now are, we try to educate ourselves and them. . . . Education as a whole should make human beings wish each other well, should increase the sum of human energy and happiness and decrease the sum of discomfort of the human beings that are or will be, and should foster the higher, impersonal pleasures. These aims of education in general-good-will to men, useful and happy lives, and noble enjoyment-are the ultimate aims of school education in particular. Its proximate aims are to give boys and girls health in body and mind, information about the world of nature and men, worthy interests in knowledge and action, a multitude of habits of thought, feeling and behavior and ideals of efficiency, honor, duty, love and service. . . . The work of teaching is to produce and to prevent changes in human beings; to preserve and increase the desirable qualities of body, intellect and character and to get rid of the undesirable. To thus control human nature, the teacher needs to know it. To change what is into what ought to be, we need to know the laws by which the changes occur. 4. The Aims of Education (Sociological) [Courtesy of JOHN W. WITHERS, School of Education, New York Uni versity.] The aim of education is the aim of human life, both individual and social. As we conceive the latter, so must we conceive the former. Education's central purpose is to reduce suffering and waste of human life and to promote social and individual wellbeing; to assist as fully and as economically as possible in meeting life's needs and the realization of life's values through the proper selection and control of the means of education. 5. The Aim of Education [BAGLEY, W. C., Educational Values, p. 45. Copyright, 1911, by the Macmillan Co. Reprinted by permission.] To transmit worthy ideals from generation to generation is the prime task of education. 6. The Meaning of Education (Philosophical) [Courtesy of HERMAN HARRELI. HORNE, New York University.] Education is the eternal and divinely significant process of superior adjustment to and control of the intellectual, emotional, and volitional environment by physically and mentally developed free conscious human beings. 7. Definition of Education [DEWEY, John, "Education," in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education. Copyright, 1911, by the Macmillan Co.] (Adapted.) Dewey considers education as a process of continuous reconstruction of experience with the purpose of promoting the aims and ideals of society while at the same time the individual becomes master of the technique involved. 8. Social Objectives in Education [BOBBITT, Franklin, How to Make a Curriculm, pp. 8-9. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1924.] 1. Social intercommunication, mainly language 2. Development and maintenance of one's physical powers 3. Unspecialized practical labors 4. Labors of one's calling 5. Activities of an efficient citizen 6. Activities involved in one's general social relationship and behavior 7. Leisure, occupations, recreations, amusements 8. Development and maintenance of one's mental efficiency 9. Religious activities 10. Parental activities, the up-bringing of children, the maintenance of the home life 9. Cardinal Principles of Education ["Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education," Bulletin 35, 1918, pp. 10-11. United States Bureau of Education, Department of Interior.] 1. Good health 2. Good citizenship 3. Good character 4. Worthy use of leisure 5. Worthy home membership 6. Command of the fundamental processes 7. Vocation 8. International understanding (added by authors) 10. Great Importance of Early Childhood [WEEKS, Arland D., Psychology for Child Training, pp. 6-7. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1925.] Far-sighted men and women see that any progress for building a positively different and better social order must reckon with the resources of the first years of the life of the individual. People have become more and more conscious of the strategic possibilities of early training. Great care should be exercised here lest childhood be exploited by this or that group for its special purpose. But there is no denying the fact that the roots of our institutions, creeds, platforms, customs, ideals, prejudices, valuations, attitudes, and principles are in the impressions and instruction of childhood and youth. There are indications that the point of attack on the evils of society is being shifted to the formative period. Thus in modern times the early plastic years are taking on a significance formerly lacking, and receive the concentrated gaze of educators, public leaders, social reformers, advocates of safety first and of "law not war," pediatricians, clergymen, mayors of cities, and parents' and teachers' organizations. 11. The Psychological Outcomes of Teaching and Learning [BAGLEY, W. C. and KEITH, J. A. H., An Introduction to Teaching, Chap. ix. Copyright, 1924, by the Macmillan Co.] (Adapted.) Man has transcended nature by building up controls or acquired forms of behavior. These differ fundamentally from instinctive controls which determine, in part, man's |