Another important step emphasized by the recent writers is the need for
training children to pick out the significant features in the text or
portion of the text that they are reading. This, of course, is work that
is to be undertaken from the very moment that they begin to use books.
How to do it effectively is a puzzling problem and one that will amply
repay study and experimentation by the individual teacher. Much studying
of lessons by teachers and pupils together will help, provided that the
exercise is spirited and vital, and is not looked upon by the pupils as
an easy way of getting out of recitation work. McMurry strongly
recommends the marking of books to indicate the topic sentences and the
other salient features. Personally, I am sure from my own experience
that the assignment is all-important here, and that study questions and
problems which can be answered or solved by reference to the text will
help matters very much; but care must, of course, be taken that the
continued use of such questions does not preclude the pupil's own
mastery of the art of study. To eliminate this danger, it is well that
the pupils be requested frequently to make out their own lists of
questions, and, as speedily as possible, both the questions made by the
pupil and those made by the teacher, should be replaced by topical
outlines. By taking care that the questions are logically
arranged,--that is, that a general question refer to the topic of the
paragraph, and other subordinate questions to the subordinate details of
the paragraph,--the transition from the questions to the topical outline
may be readily made. Simultaneously with this will go the transition in
recitation from the question-and-answer type to the topical type; and
when you have trained a class into the habit of topical
recitation,--when each pupil can talk right through a topic (not around
it or underneath it or above it) without the use of "pumping" questions
by the teacher,--you have gone a long way toward developing the art of
study.
The transfer of this training, however, is quite another matter. There
are pupils who can work up excellent topical recitations from their
school text-books but who are utterly at sea in getting a grasp on a
subject treated in other books. Here again the problem lies in getting
the pupil to see the method apart from its content, and to show him that
it really brings results that are worth while. If, in our training in
the topical method, we are too formal and didactic, the art of study
will begin and end right there. It is here that the factor of motivation
is of supreme importance. When real problems are raised which require
for their solution intelligent reading, the general worth of the method
of study can be clearly shown. I do not go so far as to say that the
pupil should never be required to study unless he has a real problem
that he wishes to solve. In fact, I think that we still have a large
place for the formal, systematic mastery of texts by every pupil in our
schools. I do contend, however, that the frequent introduction of real
problems will give us an opportunity to show the pupil that the method
that he has utilized in his more formal school work is adequate and
essential to do the thing that appeals to him as worth while. Only in
this way, I believe, can we insure that transfer of training which is
the important factor from our present standpoint.
And I ought also to say, parenthetically, that we should not interpret
too narrowly this word "motivation." Let us remember that what may
appeal to the adult as an effective motive does not always appeal to the
child as such. Economic motives are the most effective, probably, in our
own adult lives, and probably very effective with high-school pupils,
but economic motives are not always strong in young children, nor should
we wish them to be. It is not always true that the child will approach a
school task sympathetically when he knows that the task is an essential
preparation for the life that is going on about him. He may work harder
at a task in order to get ahead of his fellow-pupils than he would if
the motive were to fit him to enter a shop or a factory. Motive is
largely a matter of instinct with the child, and he may, indeed, be
perfectly satisfied with a school task just as it stands. For example,
we all know that children enjoy the right kind of drill. Repetition,
especially rhythmic repetition, is instinctive,--it satisfies an inborn
need. Where such a condition exists, it is an obvious waste of time to
search about for more indirect motives. The economical thing to do is to
turn the ready energy of the child into the channel that is already open
to it, so long as this procedure fits in with the results that we must
secure. I feel like emphasizing this fact, inasmuch as the terms
"problem interest" and "motivation" seem most commonly to be associated
in the minds of teachers with what we adults term "real" or economic
situations. To learn a lesson well may often be a sufficient
motive,--may often constitute a "real" situation to the child,--and if
it does, it will serve very effectively our purposes in this other
task,--namely, getting the pupil to see the worth of the method that we
ask him to employ.