7. To train, as well as test, the pupils. It will be admitted by any competent thinker that the third and fourth aims are more important than the first and second-that a pupil's progress from zero ability and from his own past positions is more important to measure and report than his progress ahead of somebody who previously was ahead of him or his falling back behind somebody whom he previously led. The order of merit within a class is of some human interest, especially to those competing for the top, but it can always be derived from the absolute abilities if these are known. They cannot be derived from it. They measure actual achievements and progress. It measures only rank.

59. Psychological Value of Examinations

[COLVIN, S. S., The Learning Process, p. 176. Copyright, 1913, by the Macmillan Co.] (Adapted.)

In elementary and secondary schools, examinations, not as tests, but as incentives for keeping in mind the work that has been pursued over an extended period, should be emphasized more than they are at present.

60. Psychological Value of Examinations

[BAGLEY, W. C., "Projects and Purposes in Teaching and in Learning," Teachers College Record, September, 1921, Vol. 22, pp. 289–290.]

There is some indirect evidence that information gained primarily to solve an immediate problem is not so long retained or so easily recalled as is information that is mastered with the intent to make its mastery permanent. I have abundant experiences of my own that confirm this conclusion. . . . In fact the validity of the principle of "learning with intent to remember" has been fairly well established by experimental evidence. . . . Psychologically, learning with the intent to master permanently comes very close to learning for its own sake.

61. Psychological Value of Examinations

[BAGLEY, W. C., The Educative Process, pp. 333-334. Copyright, 1905, by the Macmillan Co. Reprinted by permission.]

This is the capstone of the review process. Just now somewhat under the ban of the reformer, it is nevertheless an indispensable agency of education if the principles developed in the former chapters are valid.

The very essence of an examination is its formal character.

So-called informal examinations or tests may be valuable for certain purposes, but they entirely miss the virile virtue that the examination, in the strenuous sense of the term, possesses. The function of the examination as a test of the pupil's knowledge is not of paramount importance, but its function as an organizing agency of knowledge is supreme. The period of intense application preceding the examination represents the burning point of attention. It is a strain, to be sure, but a strain that pays. The little children, the weaklings, and the girls at the onset of adolescence may wisely be exempted from its operation; but for the great majority of pupils and students above the age of eight the examination is the agency of formal education par excellence.

The virtue of the examination lies, then, in its power to force strenuous mental effort to the task of organizing a large body of facts and principles into a coherent system. This is the standard by which examination questions should be set. They should be large and comprehensive, so formulated that they will bring out and exercise, not the memory for details, but the capacity to grasp large masses of knowledge and weld the separate facts and principles into systematic unities.

To this end the examination should be, from the pupil's standpoint, an important test of successful work. If the pupil realizes that success or failure depends upon "passing" his "finals," he has one of the most powerful motives-the motive of pride for successful effort. In this sense it is true that the examination is a device; for the end of knowledge is application, not organization. But if our main contention is valid—if organization is the most important and the most economical factor in promoting efficient recall-then the examination is a legitimate means to a final end, and probably the most effective instrument that is at the command of the school for this purpose.

QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS

1. What is learning as a process? as a result? How does learning take place?

2. What are Thorndike's laws of learning (habit formation) ? Give an illustration of each of the three laws.

3. Illustrate the working of the laws of readiness and effect. Illustrate how many learnings go on at once.

4. What is meant by the following: Self-activity? Multiple response? Piece-meal activity? Analogy, Mindset? Associative shifting?

5. How does the purposeful act utilize the laws of learning? How does public opinion utilize the laws of learning?

6. To what extent are your own conclusions with reference to the methods you follow in learning borne out by psychology?

7. By what methods do children acquire new acts of skill, new appreciations, new attitudes, new knowledge?

8. James, a six-year-old youngster, was told that he could not go to Karl's birthday party unless he ran a little errand for his mother. Explain why the remark resulted in immediate execution of the task. If the "threat" had not produced the desired reaction, should the child have been permitted to attend the party? When, if ever, are such threats advisable?

9. How should one prepare a theme on the subject "The Value of Psychology for a Business Man?"

10. How may expression serve as an aid in learning?

11. (a) Give two cases of learning in which resultant satisfaction is the main factor. (b) Give two cases in which resulting discomfort is the main factor. (c) Give two cases in which frequency is the main factor.

12. What principle is involved in the quotation from Woodworth: "There is a famous incident that occurred in a Swiss psychological laboratory when a foreign student was supposed to be memorizing a list of nonsense syllables. After the list had been passed before him many times without his giving the expected signal that he was ready to recite, the experimenter remarked that he seemed to be having trouble in memorizing the syllables. 'Oh, I didn't understand that I was to learn them,' he said, and it was found that, in fact, he had made almost no progress towards learning the list." 13. A mother warns her daughter repeatedly: "Don't be so rude." It has little, if any, effect. What will make the girl polite?

14. Ralph has been lately so much interested in football that he has slighted his lessons. His teacher requires him to stay after school to study problems that he has missed. As a result he misses the football practice and consequently becomes rebellious in attitude. What kind of learning goes on? How will it take place?

15. What did James have in mind when he described the baby's consciousness as "a great blooming, buzzing confusion"? 16. Of what psychological value is the recitation? the examination?

17. Account for the rapid improvement so often found at the beginning of a learning curve. The plateau may be necessary in learning, especially just preceding greater improvement. Explain fully. What should be one's attitude at a time of reduction in learning (plateau)? How may plateaus be largely eliminated, or at least minimized?

18. How would the laws of association apply to the learning of correct grammatical forms? Spelling? Dates of history?

19. Explain in terms of the principles of association and thinking the following experience: "A child who, having been accustomed to hearing stories told her at bed time, asks to be put to bed in the morning, in order to have stories told."

20. How would you use the principles of association in teaching? 21. Report concrete examples of the actual conditioning of children in habits of health.

22. Give examples of conditioned reflexes that you have observed in animals.

23. What is the special significance of the Pavlov method?

24. Give examples of memory conditioned reflexes. Cite examples of conditioned feeling reactions in relation to your study of art, music, or literature.

25. Why are all conditioned reactions helpful or injurious to one?

26. What problems do you think of which might be studied by the method of the conditioned reflex?

27. Cite instances of school children who have come under your observation where conditioned stimuli connected with the teacher, school, or classroom work have proved beneficial or injurious.

28. Read and evaluate Walter Brown's criticisms of Reed's ex

periment on the "Part versus Whole Method of Learning," Journal of Educational Psychology, 1924, Vol. 15, pp. 229-233. Also note Reed's reply to Brown in the same volume, pp. 592-595. 29. Do you know of any children who find it difficult to unlearn? Explain their case.

30. Read Pechstein's "Massed versus Distributed Effort in Learning," Journal of Educational Psychology, 1921, Vol. 12, pp. 92–97, and tell wherein it supports or conflicts with Yost's Law: that distributed repetitions are more economical than massed repetitions. 31. How are children spoiled? How may they be unconditioned? 32. How are attitudes acquired? Make a list of attitudes that each and every teacher should build into the child.

REFERENCES

BAGLEY, W. C., The Educative Process (New York, Macmillan Co., 1905).

COLVIN, S. S., The Learning Process (New York, Macmillan Co., 1921).

EDWARDS, A. S., Fundamental Principles of Learning and Study (Baltimore, Warwick & York, 1920).

KILPATRICK, E. A., Foundations of Method (New York, Macmillan Co., 1925), Chaps. ii-vii.

MEAD, A. R., Learning and Teaching (Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Co., 1923).

MEUMANN, Ernst, Psychology of Learning (New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1913).

PYLE, W. H., Laboratory Manual in the Psychology of Learning (Baltimore, Warwick & York, 1923).

Psychology of Learning (Baltimore, Warwick & York,

1921).

Nature and Development of Learning Capacity (Baltimore, Warwick & York, 1925).

STARCH, Daniel, Educational Psychology (New York, Macmillan Co., 1919), Chaps. viii-xiv.

Experiments in Educational Psychology (New York, Mac

millan Co., 1911).

THORNDIKE, E. L., Educational Psychology (New York, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1921), Vol. II.

Educational Psychology, Briefer Course (New York, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1914), Chaps. x-xvii.