to phrases in telegraphy. A special effort should be made after a while to get the new rise in the curve to begin. Finally, we should realize that many of us, and many of our pupils, are living contentedly on such plateaus, mere shelves in the upward sloping hill of progress, under the impression that we have reached the peak of our powers. It may not be worth while, but in almost any of our activities any one of us probably could, if he wished and gave thought and effort to it, lift himself on to a new upward curve and reach a higher level of skill. We have to choose, for time and energy would not permit each of us to be expert in everything. But in what we choose we could probably improve further and possibly attain a new permanent level from which we would not slip back. 35. Sources of Effect Both have Readiness and effect have a similar source. their roots in instinct, ability and habit. If a pupil receives the approval of the members of his class, appeal is made to his instinctive tendencies. If he reads so easily, effectively and with such satisfaction that he is granted more books to read, appeal is made to his reading ability, and reading habits. 36. The Will to Learn [BOOK, William F. and NORVELL, Lee, "The Will to Learn," The Pedagogical Seminary, December, 1922, Vol. 29, pp. 305–362.] (Abridged.) . . . It was the purpose of this study to subject the suggestions regarding the dynamic influence of effort in learning and the helpful effect of interest in improvement . . . to a rigid experimental test and if possible to determine the kind and amount of influence which this group of factors may exert upon one's ability to improve. As a sort of corollary to this problem it was hoped that the data gathered would throw some light on the problem of the so-called limits of improvement in the types of acquisition we selected for study as well as on the channels through which this improvement comes. One hundred and twenty-four junior and senior students . were given four simple learning tests, the first involving 75 practice periods, the other three, 45 practices each. The types of acquisition were: (1) improving a purely muscular feat, making the small letter "a" accurately and as rapidly as pos sible; (2) learning to locate and cross out certain letters in a uniform list of disconnected Spanish words; (3) a case of learning where a simple set of psycho-physical habits must be formed and fixed; (4) learning to multiply mentally one twoplace number by another. . . . The length and distribution of the practices and the control of other conditions were carefully planned. Among other things, this involved the setting up of both stimulus and control groups. Several devices were used to interest the members of our successive stimulus groups in the fact of their improvement, to arouse their "will to learn" and to establish in their minds a firm belief in the possibility of their continued advancement. The outstanding facts of the . . . comparison of the amount of improvement made by our several stimulus and control groups in the four types of learning studied are . . . the following: 1. The stimulus sections make more improvement with a given amount of practice than do the control groups. This is true for the groups taken as a whole, and for the individual records taken separately. 2. A stimulus group which has been making rapid and continuous improvement ceases suddenly to show such gains when our special group of incentives are removed. 3. A control group, on the other hand, which has been making little or no progress in the practice begins suddenly to improve and continues to gain more rapidly and consistently when definitely interested in its improvement as such and is made to feel that further improvement is possible. 4. It is significant also that these results hold not merely for the sections taken as a whole but for the men and women taken separately and for the record made by the individual subjects belonging to the various stimulus and control sections in the different experiments and holds true for both the absolute and the relative amount of gain made in each type of acquisition studied. 5. It is further significant that the records of the stimulus sections contained fewer mistakes than did the records of the control seotions, showing that the same groups of individuals not only ceased to gain in their score but also became more careless about their work when not interested in their improvement as such. But when they were subjected to the special group of incentives arranged in these experiments they began at once to increase both their output and their accuracy. Interest in improvement served as a directive force in our experiments.... Interest in improvement and belief in its possibility aid mental adaptation and the formation of new and better methods of work. . . . For arousing the "will to learn" and "confidence in success" attitudes of mind or such a helpful mental set towards the task of learning, the following devices are suggested by our data: 1. It would prove helpful if the learners could be shown, by actual figures and facts, such as we have obtained in these experiments, that this desire for improvement is not mere empty phrase or theory, but a necessary condition for advancement in learning. 2. Learners should also be made to feel that it is really worth their while to make an effort to advance because it is sure to be rewarded by success and therefore is of practical worth to them. In observation it has been found, for example, that people observe best those things in their environment which have some practical significance for them. To become interested in his own improvement the learner must, therefore, somehow be made to feel that such an interest is really desirable and worth while for him. 3. A third aid is to have a reliable method of measuring the progress in learning that is actually being made and a just standard for evaluating the results of such measurement, one which will enable the learner not merely to measure the progress he is making but to evaluate all he does in terms of what might reasonably be expected from him or from an average learner at least; a standard which takes into account the fact of individual differences in capacity to learn as well as world standards of achievement derived from the records of the most successful workers in that field. Standards play a very definite and direct part in all human efficiency and development. A genius in music will set a new standard for a host of lesser geniuses who forthwith measure up to his plane of achievement. A reliable standard and method of measuring progress in learning are therefore one of the surest ways of helping to bring it about. 4. Again, by keeping the learner succeeding and by actual measurement he may be assured that his limit of improvement has not been reached. This can best be done by directing his practice and work in such a way that he will continue to improve. If we give him the kind of guidance and direction that will enable him to succeed and then demonstrate for him by accurate measurement the fact that he is actually succeeding he will be given the necessary confidence to feed his interest and desire for even greater success. In learning, as in everything else, nothing succeeds like success; and to keep the learner succeeding he must believe in its possibility, be interested in improvement as such, and be given enough guidance and help to keep him succeeding. Such help cannot always be given, for the simple reason that the different types of learning have not been studied sufficiently to determine the facts needed to give our learners the kind of help they need to make their progress economic, continuous and sure. But as we cannot wait in actual life until the whole truth has been determined and verified, so in teaching we must do the best we can without these facts. Until such studies are made we should make special and constant appeal to the "will to learn" and arouse in each learner a strong and abiding belief in the possibility of his own success. For it is the necessity or desire for improvement and the belief in its possibility that actually bring it about in all cases of undirected human learning where the problem of initiating and developing new and higher methods of work is left for the learners to work out for themselves. 5. Other incentives which might be used to arouse a pupil's "will to learn" are to demonstrate the fact that others have and are improving beyond the point attained by him; that others have also failed for a time as well as he, but that they have succeeded in mastering all the difficulties involved. This may be done by using a typical learning curve with its early rapid rise, its plateaus and its later slow but more gradual rise, explaining the cause of each. For reasons which have already been indicated, one of the most important problems in any field of acquisition is to determine just how the learners in that field may have their interest in their improvement awakened and sustained throughout the practice. Most learners and teachers fail just here because the importance of the problem is not recognized and because they do not know how to induce in themselves or in their pupils a lasting interest in the work or make them feel that further progress can and really should be made. . . Better methods, better directed learning, more zeal, actual interest or motivation and a firm belief in the possibility of success sum it all up. It is a deficiency in one or more of these respects that accounts for the failure of most or all individuals to make their rate of improvement steady and continuous. But it should be pointed out in closing that what is just as important as arousing this "will to learn" and a desire for improvement is to know when such a desire should be aroused and definitely appealed to and when all attempts to further improvement should be discontinued and definitely discouraged. It is not desirable to attain perfection or the highest degree of success that is possible for an individual in every type of acquisition that he takes up. No one would insist to-day on having all learners attain the highest possible speed and accuracy in addition The adding and calculating machine has made this un necessary. Perhaps if more attention were given to the amount of success or degree of skill which each individual should attain in each type of learning, their desire to improve in the fields where advancement really should be made could be more easily and surely aroused because it could then always be shown to be necessary and worth their while. Is it not because we use so little judgment in regard to what really should be learned and in regard to the limits of skill which ought to be reached in each field of acquisition that learners so often develop the attitude of mind that it is not worth their while to try, and so fail to become interested in making all the improvement that is possible for them? . . . 37. Attitudes Significant for Learning [BURNHAM, William H., The Normal Mind, pp. 298-299. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1925.] In psychological experiments we come to close quarters with the attitudes significant for learning. In the laboratory, for example, one gets very different results according to the instructions given the observers. . . . Just as in the laboratory the attitude of the observer is determined largely by the instructions given, so in school we get different attitudes according to what we tell children to do. If you tell children to learn a subject for a given purpose, for example, for the purpose of reciting it to the teacher, you will get different results from what you will if you tell them to learn it for the purpose of writing out a connected description of it, or for the purpose of telling it to their parents when they go home. Again if you tell them to do a task just as quickly as possible, you will get different results from what you will if you tell them to do it as slowly and carefully as possible; and if you tell them to learn a thing because you are going to give them an examination on it to-morrow, you will get different results from what you will if you induce them to learn it because they are going to use it a month from now; again you get different results if the material learned is going to help them to-morrow in doing something that they very much wish to do, say, for example, to make toys or other concrete things useful or desirable. Again we get very different results if we interest children in the purpose of the various school activities, in the acquisition of health habits, for example, give them an intelligent idea of the results of their own work, and thus obtain an intelligent co |