=The Conditions of Many-sidedness=
66. It becomes obvious at once that a many-sided culture cannot be
brought about quickly. The requisite store of ideas is acquired only
by successive efforts; but unification, a view of the whole, and
assimilation are to be attained besides (65), whence an alternation, in
time, of absorption and reflection. The apprehension of the manifold is
of necessity a gradual process, and the same is true of the unification
of knowledge.
In _absorption_ the mind surrenders itself to the acquisition or
contemplation of facts. Thus a child will stand in open-eyed wonder
at beholding a novel spectacle, the scientist becomes absorbed in
watching the outcome of a new experiment, the philosopher loses
consciousness to all about him in the unfolding of some new train
of thought. Not only may absorption concern momentary experiences,
but it may in a broad way be said to cover considerable periods
of life, as, for instance, when a student becomes absorbed in the
mastery of foreign languages having no immediate relation to his
daily life. _Reflection_ is the assimilation of the knowledge gained
by absorption. The mind, recovering from its absorption in what
is external, relates its new-found experience to the sum of its
former experiences. New items of knowledge in this way find their
appropriate places in the organic structure of the mind. They are
apperceived. The many-sided thus comes to unity.
Rosenkranz calls absorption and reflection, _self-estrangement_ and
its _removal_. “All culture,” he says, “whatever may be its special
purport, must pass through these two stages,--of estrangement,
and its removal.” Again, he says, “The mind is (1) immediate (or
potential); but (2) it must estrange itself from itself, as it were,
so that it may place itself over against itself as a special object
of attention; (3) this estrangement is finally removed through a
further acquaintance with the object ... it feels itself at home in
that on which it looks, and returns again enriched to the form of
immediateness (to unity with itself). That which at first appeared
to be another than itself is now seen to be itself.”[5] This is an
abstract statement of the fact that (1) in learning the mind becomes
absorbed for a time in external objects, ignoring temporarily their
inner meaning and relation to self, and (2) this period of absorption
is succeeded by one of reflection, in which the mind perceives
the significance of what has been observed, noting the laws and
principles underlying the phenomena and thus assimilating them to
what it conceives to be rational.
Owing to the fact that absorption and reflection may refer to very
short and also to comparatively long periods, they may be studied
with respect to their bearing in conducting recitations, and to their
importance in fixing courses of study. The former aspect of the two
processes will in this connection chiefly occupy our attention.
[5] “Philosophy of Education,” pp. 27, 28, New York, D. Appleton & Co.
67. Some teachers lay great stress on the explication, step by step, of
the smaller and smallest components of the subject, and insist on a
similar reproduction on the part of the pupils. Others prefer to teach
by conversation, and allow themselves and their pupils great freedom of
expression. Others, again, call especially for the leading thoughts,
but demand that these be given with accuracy and precision, and in the
prescribed order. Others, finally, are not satisfied until their pupils
are self-actively exercising their minds in systematic thinking.
Various methods of teaching may thus arise; it is not necessary,
however, that one should be habitually employed to the exclusion of
the rest. We may ask rather whether each does not contribute its share
to a many-sided culture. In order that a multitude of facts may be
apprehended, explications or analyses are needed to prevent confusion;
but since a synthesis is equally essential, the latter process may
be started by conversation, continued by lifting into prominence the
cardinal thoughts, and completed by the methodical independent thinking
of the pupil: _clearness_, _association_, _system_, _method_.
In teaching we need to have (1) _clearness_ in the presentation
of specific facts, or the elements of what is to be mastered;
(2) _association_ of these facts with one another, and with other
related facts formerly acquired, in order that assimilation, or
apperception, may be adequately complete; (3) when sufficient facts
have been clearly presented and sufficiently assimilated, they must
be _systematically_ ordered, so that our knowledge will be more
perfectly unified than it could be did we stop short of thorough
classification, as in the study of botany, or of the perception of
rules and principles, as in mathematics and grammar; (4) finally the
facts, rules, principles, and classifications thus far assumed must
be secured for all time by their efficient _methodical_ application
in exercises that call forth the vigorous self-activity of the
pupil. These four stages of teaching may be considered fundamental,
though varying greatly according to the nature of the subject and
the ability of the pupil. It is good exercise for a pupil to take
long, rapid steps when able to do so; it is hopeless confusion to
undertake them when they are too great or too rapid for his capacity.
These four stages in methods of teaching conceived to be essential,
form the nucleus of an interesting development in the Herbartian
school, under the title of “The Formal [_i.e._ Essential] Steps
of Instruction.” The leading ideas will be further described in a
subsequent paragraph (70).
68. On closer inspection we find that instead of being mutually
exclusive, these various modes of instruction are requisite, one by
one, in the order given above, for every group, small or large, of
subjects to be taught.
For, first, the beginner is able to advance but slowly. For him the
shortest steps are the safest steps. He must stop at each point as
long as is necessary to make him apprehend distinctly each individual
fact. To this he must give his whole thought. During the initial stage,
the teacher’s art consists, therefore, preëminently in knowing how to
resolve his subject into very small parts. In this way he will avoid
taking sudden leaps without being aware that he is doing so.
Secondly, association cannot be effected solely by a systematic mode
of treatment, least of all at first. In the system each part has
its own fixed place. At this place it is connected directly with
the nearest other parts, but also separated from other more remote
parts by a definite distance, and connected with these only by way of
determinate intervening members, or links. Besides, the nature of this
connection is not the same everywhere. Furthermore, a system is not to
be learned merely. It is to be used, applied, and often needs to be
supplemented by additions inserted in appropriate places. To be able
to do this requires skill in diverting one’s thoughts from any given
starting-point to every other point, forward, backward, sideways. Hence
two things are requisite; preparation for the system, and application
of the system. Preparation is involved in association; exercise in
systematic thinking must follow.
69. During the first stage, when the clear apprehension of the
individual object or fact is the main thing, the shortest and most
familiar words and sentences are the most appropriate. The teacher will
often find it advisable also to have some, if not all, of the pupils
repeat them accurately after him. As is well known, even speaking in
concert has been tried in many schools not entirely without success,
and for young beginners this method may indeed at times answer very
well.
For association, the best mode of procedure is informal conversation,
because it gives the pupil an opportunity to test and to change the
accidental union of his thoughts, to multiply the links of connection,
and to assimilate, after his own fashion, what he has learned. It
enables him, besides, to do at least a part of all this in any way that
happens to be the easiest and most convenient. He will thus escape the
inflexibility of thought that results from a purely systematic learning.
System, on the other hand, calls for a more connected discourse,
and the period of presentation must be separated more sharply from
the period of repetition. By exhibiting and emphasizing the leading
principles, system impresses upon the minds of pupils the value of
organized knowledge; through its greater completeness it enriches their
store of information. But pupils are incapable of appreciating either
advantage when the systematic presentation is introduced too early.
Skill in systematic thinking the pupil will obtain through the solution
of assigned tasks, his own independent attempts, and their correction.
For such work will show whether he has fully grasped the general
principles, and whether he is able to recognize them in and apply them
to particulars.
70. These remarks on the initial analysis and the subsequent gradual
uniting of the matter taught, hold true, in general and in detail, of
the most diverse objects and branches of instruction. Much remains to
be added, however, to define with precision the application of these
principles to a given subject and to the age of the pupil. It will
suffice, for the present, if we remind ourselves that instruction
provides a portion of the occupations necessary to government (56).
Now, instruction produces fatigue in proportion to its duration; more
or less, of course, according to individual differences. But the more
fatiguing it is, the less it accomplishes as employment. This fact
alone shows clearly the necessity of intermissions and change of
work. If the pupil has become actually tired, that is, has not lost
merely inclination to work, this feeling must be allowed, as far as
is practicable, to pass away, at any rate to diminish, before the
same subject is resumed in a somewhat modified form. In order to have
time enough for this, the systematic presentation must in many cases
be postponed until long after the first lessons in the elements have
begun, and conversely, the rudiments of a subject frequently have to be
at least touched upon long before connected instruction can be thought
of. Many a principle needs to be approached from a great distance.
Herbart found his basis for the four steps of method, viz.
_clearness_, _association_, _system_, _method_, in the ideas of
absorption and reflection, the alternate pulsation of consciousness
in absorbing and assimilating knowledge. Others, adopting this
classification as essentially correct, have related these steps to
customary psychological analysis. Thus Dörpfeld and Wiget point
out that the mind goes through three well-marked processes when it
performs the complete act of learning, namely, _perception_ of new
facts; _thought_, or the bringing of ideas into logical relations;
and _application_, or the exercise of the motor activities of the
mind in putting knowledge into use. Perception gives the _percept_,
thought gives the _conception_ (or rule, principle, generalization),
and application gives _power_. In other words, the receptive and
reflective capacities of the mind come to their full fruition when
they result in adequate motor activities. With respect to perception
a good method will first _prepare_ the mind for facts and will then
_present_ them so that they may be apperceived. The first two steps
are therefore _preparation_ and _presentation_. The first step, as
Ziller pointed out, is essentially _analytic_ in character, since it
analyzes the present store of consciousness in order to bring facts
to the front that are closely related to those of the present lesson;
the second step, _i.e._, presentation, is essentially _synthetic_,
since its function is to add the matter of the new lesson to related
knowledge already in possession. Both together constitute the initial
stages of apperception.
_Thought_ consists of two processes that may also be termed steps,
and that are more or less observable in all good teaching; they are
(1) the _association_ of newly apperceived facts with one another and
with older and more firmly established ideas in order that rational
connection may be established in what one knows, and especially
in order that what is general and essential in given facts may be
grasped by the mind; and (2) the condensation of knowledge into a
_system_, such for instance as we see in the classifications of
botany and zoölogy, or in the interdependence of principles as in
arithmetic. Thought, in brief, involves the association of ideas and
the derivation of generalizations such as are appropriate to the
matter in hand and to the thought power of the pupils.
The third stage, that of _application_, is not subdivided. Most
other followers of Herbart, both German and American, though varying
in methods of approach, conform essentially to the results of this
analysis, distinguishing _five_ steps, as follows:--
1. Preparation--Analysis }
2. Presentation--Synthesis } Apperception of percepts.
3. Association } Thought. The derivation and arrangement
4. Systemization } of rule, principle, or class.
5. Application. From knowing to doing: use of motor powers.
The reader is referred to the following-named works for extended
discussion of this topic: McMurray, “General Method”; DeGarmo,
“Essentials of Method”; Lange, “Apperception,” pp. 200–245; Rein
(Van Liew’s translation), “Outlines of Pedagogy”; Herbart (Felkins’
translation), “Science of Education”; McMurray, C. A. & F. M., “The
Method of the Recitation.” A comparative view of the treatment of
the Steps of Instruction by various authors is found in Van Liew’s
translation of Rein’s “Outlines of Pedagogy,” p. 145.