_special_. A general method may be followed in teaching all the
different subjects that make up a course of study. A special method is
followed in teaching one particular subject or a part of a subject. A
device is merely a temporary resort to some special act to accomplish
an immediate result. Methods, general and special, may be used again
and again. A device rarely can be repeated, since the same conditions
may never again arise.
#58. Analytic and Synthetic Method.#--A lesson, like a jack-knife, is
made up of a number of parts. We may begin the recitation by
presenting first the object or lesson as a whole and follow with a
study of the parts; this is the _analytic method_. Or we may begin the
recitation by presenting first the parts, one at a time, and follow
with a study of the object as a whole. This is the _synthetic method_
in teaching. These two general methods are usually combined in a
complete lesson. That is to say, we usually consider first the whole
thought, then analyze it into its several parts, and when each part
is understood, we combine by synthesis the parts into the general
thought. If, for example, we begin by citing the golden text, and then
analyze the lesson to find the parts that illustrate the meaning in
the golden text, and finally combine these parts into a fuller
understanding of the golden text, the process is analytico-synthetic.
The purpose of this thought exercise is to enlarge the learner's
comprehension of the general truth in the lesson. In the earlier years
teaching should be largely synthetic; in later years, analytic. A
study of the growth of the powers of the soul will show why this is
so.
#59. Inductive and Deductive Method.#--When once the mind is trained
to analyze fairly well it is possible to use another set of general
methods. In reasoning we may begin with particular facts, with simple
sensations, with the individual notions based upon concrete
experience, and rise step by step to a general law. If we pursue this
plan in the recitation, we use the _inductive method_ in teaching. If
we pursue the opposite order, beginning with some general law or
principle and proceed by reasoning to special or particular facts, we
use the _deductive method_ in teaching. The parable of the sower is a
good example of inductive teaching. The seventh chapter of Matthew
contains a number of excellent examples of deductive teaching. Note
carefully the method by which Jesus makes plain the words, "Beware of
false prophets." These general methods are followed always in one
order or another by every good teacher.
#60.# The recitation also affords opportunity for the exercise of
special methods. We may or we may not ask _questions_. We may or we
may not assign _topics_, we may or we may not draw _pictures_ on a
blackboard. We may or we may not ask pupils to _consult the text_ of
the lesson in reciting the same. These facts suggest methods that the
wise teacher will consider carefully.
#61. Questioning.#--If the teacher asks and requires the pupils to
answer a series of questions he is using the _question method_. It is
a good method because it compels the pupils to think and to give
expression in proper language to their thoughts. It is vastly better
than telling, for telling things to pupils is not teaching, since it
fails to cause the pupil's mind to act in any creative way. It is a
much abused method because many questions that an unwise teacher asks
do not lead by synthesis to a common general truth or law. It is to be
noted that the simplest form of questioning seeks only to obtain in
answer a statement of fact, as when one asks how many miles it is from
Jerusalem to Jericho, or who betrayed Jesus, or any similar question
that calls for a statement of fact. A better question is one that sets
all the currents of thought aflow, that causes one to stop, think,
weigh, ponder, deliberate, before framing an answer. A careful study
of Jesus' method of asking questions is of the utmost value in
mastering the fine art of teaching by the question method. In Luke 9
Jesus asks the question, "Who do the multitudes say that I am?" After
the disciples had reported all the guesses of the people, he asked,
"But who say ye that I am?" This question went to the heart of the
subject of his identity. It forced from Peter a great declaration.
Wise questioning always touches the very center of discussion and
crystallizes thought.
#62.# For more advanced classes it is a good plan to assign in advance
certain subjects to be recited by the pupil in the recitation. When
this is done, the teacher uses the _topical method_. It requires a
maximum of effort and should not be used with young pupils. It is an
excellent method in the Bible classes.
#63. Illustrations.#--If the teacher uses objects, pictures, or
drawings to make meaningful his language in teaching, he is using the
_illustrated method_. This is especially valuable in the primary
grades. The one necessary caution is that the objects, pictures, or
drawings shall be wisely selected, and that in their use special care
be taken that the interest of the pupils is focused upon the thought
or fact to be taught and not upon the illustration.
#64.# If the teacher allows the pupils to consult the text while
reciting, his method is likely to produce little permanent good. To
fix the lesson in memory, to lay aside all books, to face the anxious
and earnest teacher, is to secure the best results. Of course, there
are times when the text is to be studied and when it is necessary to
refer to the printed lesson, but a wise teacher will remember that
when soul looks into soul the greatest possible good comes from
teaching.
Test Questions
1. What is meant by a teaching method?
2. What is meant by the _analytic_ method?
3. The _synthetic_ method?
4. What is meant by the _inductive_ method?
5. The _deductive_ method?
6. Why is the _question_ method a good one?
7. Why is mere telling not teaching?
8. What kind of question is better than that which merely draws out a
fact?
9. What is the topical method, and with what pupils should it be used?
10. What is the gain in using illustrations? What the danger?
11. Should the lesson text be consulted by the pupil when reciting?
Why?
Lesson 8
What the Concrete Means in Teaching
#65. Value of the Concrete.#--The world is made up of concrete things;
that is, things which can be recognized by the senses. The first
impressions the soul gets of this world are concrete. We call them
individual or perceptual notions. The soul compares, classifies,
generalizes these concrete notions into general or conceptual notions.
These thought products are abstract. But all knowledge begins in these
individual notions and hence all first presentations of a new lesson
or a new object of thought must be in the concrete. The richer and
more varied the concrete data, the more valuable is the mental result
in abstract thought. When an abstract notion is presented to a class
it is of no educational value unless it can be referred back in the
mind of each pupil to some concrete experience in his own past. The
teacher, knowing this, will always aim to interpret general truths,
which are abstract, into terms of experience, which are concrete. When
David wishes to express the thirst of his soul for God he says, "As
the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after
thee, O God." To a people familiar with Palestine and the habits of
the hart this language at once made vividly real, in a concrete image,
the great longing the pure soul has for its Creator.
#66.# All the tentacles of the soul seem to find in the concrete thing
great sources of nourishment. Note the crowds that throng the
zoological gardens, the flower expositions, the picture galleries, the
museums of one sort or another, to see the potency of the concrete as
a great teaching power. Explore a boy's pocket to learn what the
concrete is worth. Why all these "scraps," broken glass, rusty nails,
old knives, buttons, peculiar pebbles, colored strings, parts of a
watch or clock, odd sticks, bits of chewing gum, ends of pencils,
broken buckles, speckled beans, colored papers, bits of fur, and other
things that he treasures? Because in a most potential way they are
nutrition to his yearning soul. One will never fathom the real depths
of the concrete as teaching data until he can appreciate why the son
of a President of the United States gladly traded rare exotic flowers
from the White House conservatory for the discarded paper caps of
common milk bottles.
#67.# The trouble we all experience is to discover just what concrete
thing the general statement figures in the soul of the child. When our
pupils read
"Up from the meadows rich with corn,
Clear in the cool September morn,"
what does it mean to them? Instance a poor child whose life is pent
within the narrow walls of a city tenement, one who has never seen the
park, much less the great, grand farms of the country; what can even
this simple language of Whittier's figure to that child? Do you not
see that first of all the needed thing in teaching is to bring new
thoughts into terms of old thoughts, to interpret the new by the old,
to translate all abstract truth into terms of conduct and into terms
of real concrete experience. If then the pupil's personal experience
is meager, how very difficult it is to teach him, and how very
important it is that we should be wise enough to supply the concrete
data necessary to make meaningful our teaching.
#68. Tools for the Teacher.#--The agencies at the teacher's disposal
are objects, pictures, drawing, and stories. These demand extended
study. Do you have a collection of objects and of pictures for
teaching purposes? These are your tools. Be sure you carry a goodly
store of them. Select them with care and use them with caution. If you
cannot draw beautiful pictures, do not worry. But be sure you can,
with a few strokes of the crayon, make concrete the thought you wish
to emphasize. This power is of immeasurable value and the training of
every teacher should include lessons in simple graphic illustration.
#69. Stories.#--But above all else, as equipment to teach, can you
tell a story? The story is an abstract truth dressed in concrete
garments. When Jesus was asked to define the word _neighbor_ he might
have answered in some such definition as may be found in any
dictionary. He was too wise a teacher to do that. He immediately
translated the meaning of neighbor into the concrete story of the
good Samaritan and gave us an example of the loftiest teaching power
the world has ever known. Every parable is an example of great skill
in teaching the abstract by means of the concrete. Go over the series
and note in how many ways the Kingdom of heaven is concreted into
terms of the common experience of the people Jesus taught.
#70.# A good story, well told, at once attracts marked attention. The
pupil unconsciously turns to a concrete incident and from that obtains
the richest nutrition for his spirit. But the story must be well told.
It must contain abundant elements of specific detail and must be
packed with incidents that thrill with action. The old Mother Goose
rhymes are excellent examples of stories full of action, and, as a
result, of interest. The child personifies all things, that he may
find in them the elements of life, of action, of things in the process
of doing. If you will spend an hour with a boy who is riding a stick
that is to him a horse, or a girl who is playing with a rag-doll, you
will learn the method and value of action in the concrete materials of
instruction.
#71. Rhyme and Song.#--If to the story is added the attractive appeal
of rhythm, rhyme, and song the concrete materials of teaching become
almost ideal. It is a good thing to conclude a well-told story with a
short, simple poem and a song, both of which should relate to the same
truth the story sets forth in the concrete. Through story, rhyme, and
song the growing soul climbs most surely and securely to the lofty and
illuminating vistas of God's universal laws. Maxims, precepts,
proverbs, mottoes, laws, become meaningful and potential only when the
soul moulds these mass motives of guidance from the plastic and
suggestive data of a rich and varied contact with concrete experiences
and things. "I am the vine," "I am the good shepherd," "I am the way,"
contain the very essence of all great method in the art of building a
soul for the Kingdom of God and of service.
Test Questions
1. Give an illustration of a "concrete notion"?
2. What may be learned by the study of a boy's pocket?
3. By what means should we bring new thoughts to the pupil?
4. What are four tools at the teacher's disposal?
5. What constitutes a "good story"?
6. What appeal may well be added to the story?
Lesson 9
What Instruction, Drill, and Examination Can Do
#72.# The two processes at work in every good recitation are #teaching
and learning#. The first of these processes is the work of the
teacher; the latter is the work of the pupil. Learning includes study
proper and practise in the use of knowledge learned. The learning
process should, of course, be directed by the teacher.
#73. Teaching#, the work of the teacher, includes three distinct
elements or parts: _instruction_, _drill_, _examination_. These may at
times be supplemented by a fourth teaching process of considerable
importance, _review_. Every good class exercise is made up of these
elements. In certain cases the amount of time devoted to one or to the
other of these varies greatly. No fixed law can be set. The judgment
of the teacher, the condition of the class, the immediate purpose of
the particular lesson, combine to make the relative value of these
elements vary from one recitation to another. We can, however, study
the purpose or function of each and arrive at some fairly adequate
guidance.
#74. Instruction# is the process through which the teacher aims to
assist the pupil in the acquisition of knowledge or power, or both. It
may take the form of written or of oral instruction. Written
instruction has to do with the mastery of the printed page. To know
how to obtain knowledge from the printed page is an important end of
instruction. "Understandest thou what thou readest?" is a question
that goes to the heart of good written instruction. Oral instruction
is the act of the living teacher in stimulating the pupil to know. It
has three phases--_objective_, _indirect_, and _direct_.
#75.# _Objective instruction_ is the presentation to the eye or other
sense of the pupil, by means of objects or pictures, some concrete
thing which will aid the pupil to gain clear knowledge. We have
already considered the value of this form of concrete instruction.
#76.# _Indirect instruction_ is the process of recalling, through
memory, past objective experiences and causing the mind to discern
their likeness or unlikeness, their relations one to another, and to
express a conclusion that the teacher does not first announce. In
indirect instruction the learner is led to express his own past
knowledge and, by comparing one fact with another, to arrive for
himself at new knowledge. This is a most difficult but a most valuable
type of instruction. It makes the pupil an explorer after truth and it
should result in making him a discoverer of truth. The joy of original
discovery possesses the soul of the successful pupil, who is taught by
this indirect or suggestion method of instruction.
#77.# _Direct instruction_ is the communication of facts by the
teacher through oral language to the pupil. The pupil in this type of
learning follows the statements of the teacher and sees for himself
the truth of the facts presented and the conclusion reached. The
danger of direct teaching lies in the fact that the teacher may fail
to arouse in the pupil a current of thought corresponding to his own.
In this case there is no resulting knowledge in the soul of the
learner; and, instead, there is likely to be confusion or disorder in
the class. This is a common phenomenon in classes that are so
unfortunate as to have poor teachers. The law underlying all oral
teaching is as follows: _Do not tell the pupil directly what he may be
reasonably expected to observe or discern for himself._
#78. Drill# is the process through which the teacher aims to assist
the pupil in the acquisition of power and skill. The new truth, when
first apprehended by the pupil, must be made so familiar to the
learner that he can promptly and easily recall the new truth or
knowledge. Drill is the agency that accomplishes this result. Note how
often a boy or girl repeats some new sentence or word or game in order
to fix its easy recall. Many teachers think repetition deadens
interest. But without repetition Comenius rightly declares we do not
know solidly. Repetition is nature's way of developing strength. It is
of prime importance that every new truth be drilled until it is as
familiar to the learner as old knowledge. Then it becomes easy of
recall and ready for use. The wise teacher will avoid the abuse of the
drill by so varying the exercise as to secure a maximum of interest,
for interest is the basis of pleasure, and the soul does not easily
retain knowledge that is not pleasurable.
#79. Examination# is the process through which the teacher aims to
test the result of instruction and learning. Its value is twofold: it
adds to the learner's knowledge by the preparation he makes for the
examination, and it gives the teacher a means of measuring the results
obtained through instruction and drill. If the examination tests only
knowledge gained by direct teaching, it is of little value. If, on the
contrary, the questions are so phrased as to cause the pupil to think
his way out of things known into some newer and higher order of
knowledge, it is a valuable exercise. Usually before examinations are
given the teacher and pupils join in a _review_.
#80.# The #review# is an invaluable teaching agency when it results in
such a reorganization of unrelated or partly related facts of
knowledge as to give the pupil a clearer and surer grasp upon the
relative value of the facts previously acquired. A drill fixes a given
fact more securely or solidly in the soul; a review organizes these
drilled facts into new systems and wider classifications. It is seeing
the old once more, but seeing it from a new point of vantage; just as
a man climbing a tower with windows at stated points sees in each case
all that he saw before, but sees it in a new setting, sees it as part
of a larger scene, and sees it finally as a part of a mighty whole.
Wisely conducted, the review establishes proportion in the knowledge
set in the soul and leads finally and directly to the fact that all
truth is at last one truth; all life at last one life; all parts at
last one great infinite unity, whose name is God.
Test Questions
1. What two processes are at work in every good recitation?
2. What four elements does teaching include?
3. What are the three phases of oral instruction?
4. Define each of these three phases.
5. What law underlies all oral teaching?
6. What is meant by drill?
7. Define examination. What is its twofold value?
8. When is a review valuable?
Lesson 10
What Will-training Leads To
#81.# The soul by #thinking, feeling, and willing# completes its round
of activities. It is not a three-parted power, each part doing one and
only one of these things; but it is a single power, capable of doing
in turn all these things. The soul _thinking_ is at work in an
intellectual process. The soul _feeling_ is at work in an emotional
process. The soul _willing_ is at work in a volitional process. These
three processes are so inter-related that it is not easy to separate
them at any given time, and yet a bit of reflection upon how the soul
does operate will make fairly clear these distinct processes. A child
that has not been made unnatural by arbitrary training always follows
its emotions and its thoughts by action. The inference from this is
significant. The soul untrammeled always translates thought and
feeling into action. This is only another way of saying that all
intellectual and emotional products are under the direction of the
will. _The will is the power of the soul that resolves to do, that
causes us to act._ The will uses thought and feeling in much the same
way that a sailor uses compass and rudder to guide a vessel in the
right course.
#82. The First Step, Obedience.#--At the beginning the feeling and
thought elements are so numerous and so complex that the will is
unable rightly to organize all this data into guidance. Hence the
child must be guided by a will that has, through experience, acquired
this power. The will of the parent and of the teacher is at the outset
the effective guide, and the one necessity for the welfare of the
child is obedience. Gradually the child finds his way through the maze
of things his intellect and his sensibilities have retained, and then
he becomes self-directive. His own will has asserted itself. He is now
able and should be free to direct his own actions. When he does this
his difficulties will not disappear. At times, he will find his will
at a loss to give the guidance he knows he should have. Then, by all
means, it is important that he should willingly surrender his finite
will to the infinite will, his imperfect guidance to the perfect
guidance; and he shall thus find his complete freedom of action in
full surrender to the will of Almighty God.
#83.# In this first stage, when parent and teacher are motive and will
to him, the child needs to be guided with the utmost care. _There must
be reasonableness in the guidance._ Caprice, anger, impatience,
arbitrariness, and severity are the methods of weaklings and cowards.
From all such the child should be freed. Consistency, kindness,
patience, reasonableness, and moderation are the methods of strong,
successful teachers. If you utter a command, see to it that the child
obeys. Nothing is quite so deadly in the realm of the will as the fact
that the pupil knows that his teacher threatens, commands, talks--but
never acts. If you really do not intend to enforce obedience, do not
utter the command. If you do not intend to compel obedience, do not
assume the role of guide and teacher. How many children come into
caprice instead of regulated conduct because they have from infancy
lived in a realm of caprice, of confusion, and of disorder; a realm
that moved by no law and hence set no law of guidance in the soul of
the child.
#84. The Aim of Teaching is Right Living.#--We err when we assume that
intellectual endeavor will inevitably lead to right conduct. Nothing
is more obvious than the fact that our conduct is far below the plane
of our thought. We _know_ vastly better than we _do_ the things that
are right and true. Nor do we quite understand the function of good
teaching if we neglect to cultivate the feeling powers of the soul. It
is my conviction that we act more nearly in harmony with our feelings
than our thoughts. If, then, conduct, right action, or character is
the end of all true teaching; if, as Jesus taught, it is not what we
know, nor yet what we feel, but what we do, that makes life worth
while, it is of the utmost importance that we should so train the
feeling life as well as the thought life as to prepossess the soul to
right conduct. But the feelings are intensely concrete. Whence arises
again the value of concrete teaching as a method in will training.
#85. Self-control.#--Aim to bring the pupil speedily into the exercise
of his own will, into self-regulated conduct. Nothing will so surely
negative good instruction as to deny to the pupil the freedom to
exercise his own will as soon as that will has become sufficiently
powerful and reasonable to be an adequate agency to direct the pupil's
conduct. Many teachers and parents insist upon guiding the pupil long
after he is capable of self-direction. Here, of course, is the
critical moment in the pupil's life, and only the most careful study
of the pupil and constant prayer for Divine assistance will insure the
wisest procedure. When a boy has acquired self-control it is always a
mistake to treat him as you would a small child. His self-respect is
involved in his desire to do things in the way his own will
determines. To ignore this fact is to predispose the boy to rebellion
against his teacher; and perhaps against all constituted
authority--human and divine.