But there is another side of teaching that must be supervised. Although
habit is responsible for nine tenths of conduct, the remaining tenth
must not be neglected. In situations where habit is not adequate to
adjustment, judgment and reflection must come to the rescue, or should
come to the rescue. This means that, instead of acting without thought,
as in the case of habit, one analyzes the situation and tries to solve
it by the application of some fact or principle that has been gained
either from one's own experience or from the experience of others. This
is the field in which knowledge comes to its own; and a very important
task of education is to fix in the pupils' minds a number of facts and
principles that will be available for application to the situations of
later life.
How, then, is the efficiency of instruction (as distinguished from
training or habit building) to be tested? Needless to say, an adequate
test is impossible from the very nature of the situation. The efficiency
of imparting knowledge can be tested only by the effect that this
knowledge has upon later conduct; and this, it will be agreed, cannot be
accurately determined until the pupil has left the school and is face to
face with the problems of real life.
In practice, however, we adopt a more or less effective substitute for
the real test--the substitute called the examination. We all know that
the ultimate purpose of instruction is not primarily to enable pupils
successfully to pass examinations. And yet as long as we teach as though
this were the main purpose we might as well believe it to be. Now the
examination may be made a very valuable test of the efficiency of
instruction if its limitations are fully recognized and if it does not
obscure the true purpose of instruction. And if we remember that the
true purpose is to impart facts in such a manner that they may not only
"stick" in the pupil's mind, but that they may also be amenable to
recall and practical application, and if we set our examination
questions with some reference to this requirement, then I believe that
we shall find the examination a dependable test.
One important point is likely to be overlooked in the consideration of
examinations,--the fact, namely, that the form and content of the
questions have a very powerful influence in determining the content and
methods of instruction. Is it not pertinent, then, to inquire whether
examination questions cannot be so framed as radically to improve
instruction rather than to encourage, as is often the case, methods that
are pedagogically unsound? Granted that it is well for the child to
memorize verbatim certain unrelated facts, even to memorize some facts
that have no immediate bearing upon his life, granted that this is
valuable (and I think that a little of it is), is it necessary that an
entire year or half-year be given over almost entirely to "cramming up"
on old questions? Would it not be possible so to frame examination
questions that the "cramming" process would be practically valueless?
What the pupil should get from geography, for instance, is not only a
knowledge of geographical facts, but also, and more fundamentally, the
power to see the relation of these facts to his own life; in other
words, the ability to apply his knowledge to the improvement of
adjustment. Now this power is very closely associated with the ability
to grasp fundamental principles, to see the relation of cause and effect
working below the surface of diverse phenomena. Geography, to be
practical, must impress not only the fact, but also the principle that
rationalizes or explains the fact. It must emphasize the "why" as well
as the "what." For example: it is well for the pupil to know that New
York is the largest city in the United States; it is better that he
should know why New York has become the largest city in the United
States. It is well to know that South America extends very much farther
to the east than does North America, but it is better to know that this
fact has had an important bearing in determining the commercial
relations that exist between South America and Europe. Questions that
have reference to these larger relations of cause and effect may be so
framed that no amount of "cramming" will alone insure correct answers.
They may be so framed that the pupil will be forced to do some thinking
for himself, will be forced to solve an imaginary situation very much as
he would solve a real situation.
Examination questions of this type would react beneficially upon the
methods of instruction. They would tend to place a premium upon that
type of instruction that develops initiative in solving problems,
instead of encouraging the memoriter methods that tend to crush whatever
germs of initiative the pupil may possess. This does not mean that the
memoriter work should be excluded. A solid basis of fact is essential to
the mastery of principles. Personally I believe that the work of the
intermediate grades should be planned to give the pupil this factual
basis. This would leave the upper grades free for the more rational
work. In any case, I believe that the efficiency of examinations may be
greatly increased by giving one or two questions that must be answered
by a reasoning process for every question that may be answered by verbal
memory alone.