Inefficient Methods of Study
Observation of high-school pupils who are asked to study will always show the need of attention to methods of study. The following description of such observation is illuminating:
To ascertain to what extent the other members of the class might have this difficulty, the following experiment was tried. In assigning the next lesson, suggestions were given with unusual care. The pupils were then told that the next fifteen minutes would be given to studying the lesson, and that they should begin the assigned home work immediately. The experiment showed at once that the pupils did not appreciate the value of limited time, for all were slow in beginning work. It took some of them the whole fifteen minutes to go through the technique of getting started. Several evidently were not in the habit of working alone, for they looked about helplessly and simply imitated the others. However, these same pupils had come to the classroom daily with the lessons well prepared. Very little was accomplished in the fifteen minutes indicating that the pupils very probably wasted much time in studying their assignments of home work. Although the class had been in the high school only a short time, the teacher had been presupposing a habit of study which did not exist. Much of the difficulty is due to lack of knowledge as to how to study and how to use time to advantage. The remedy in this case is, of course, definite instruction as to methods of study.[78]