Subdivisions of the Science of Education
The subdivisions into which the science of education naturally breaks up are dictated in part by the needs of different individuals within the school system and in part by the methods which are employed. Thus the supervisor needs a different type of training from that which is required by the classroom teacher. Again, the functions of the different supervisors are so different that some require full information on problems of school finance, while others are in more direct contact with the problems of promotion and of the curriculum. A second line of cleavage is that which is described most fully in this chapter and results from the use of different methods of investigation. Thus, laboratory studies of reading and writing naturally separate themselves from statistical studies of administrative problems.
Another line of division is that dictated by school organization. High-school problems are likely to be considered in special courses, elementary-school problems in others.
There is no need in a general introduction of the type here offered of attempting to consider these subdivisions. Our purposes are adequately served if we can show what the science as a whole is by referring to typical examples of scientific work undertaken in several of the subdivisions.