Training the Teacher

by A. F. Schauffler; Martin Grove Brumbaugh; Antoinette Abernethy Lamoreaux; Marion Lawrance

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.