[CHAPTER XXII]
THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION
Scientific Methods of studying Schools
Each of the preceding chapters has aimed to set forth certain practical school problems and to suggest the sources of information on the basis of which these problems are to be solved. Some of the information to which reference has been made is confessedly incomplete; some of it is in a form which renders very difficult exact and final inferences as to its meaning. Taken in the aggregate, however, the body of information at hand regarding schools is so great that we are justified in speaking of a science of education. Furthermore, the use of the term “science” would be justified even if we were in possession of fewer solutions of school problems than we now have, for the essence of science is its method of investigation, not its ability to lay down a body of final rules of action.
A complete transformation of the method of approaching school problems has come about in recent years. The time was when opinion, especially if it was backed by even a little practical experience, was urged as sufficient reason for all kinds of school practices. To-day it is only the rashly ignorant who talk about education or aim to influence actual school operations without informing themselves through a study of known and recorded facts. A host of practical school officers and special students of school problems have carried out laborious investigations and have created a technical literature which promises to reach every phase of school work.
Definition through Enumeration of Methods
It is not too early, therefore, to define the scope and methods of the science of education. Such a definition need in no wise limit the further development of the science, while it may serve to stimulate more exact formulation of its problems and methods. Our effort to frame such a definition naturally leads us to review the courses which have commonly been given to teachers-in-training.
The History of Educational Theory and Practice
The historical method of studying education was the first which was cultivated in institutions which undertook the training of teachers. The history of education divides readily into two branches: one deals with the history of educational theories, the other with the history of actual school practices. The history of theories is the easier of the two branches to cultivate because it consists chiefly in a review of the writings left behind by writers who discuss educational problems. Thus the earlier histories of education laid great emphasis on the writings of Plato and Quintilian, of Comenius and Locke, of Rousseau and Pestalozzi. Reviews of earlier writers were, however, of little real influence in molding modern practice, and the history of theories had only a very indirect influence on teachers.
More significant by far is the recent movement which studies practices in schools, especially the schools of one’s own country. The development of arithmetic or grammar in American schools is illuminating as showing both the direction in which we are moving and the kinds of forces which operate in reformulating the course of study. Earlier chapters have aimed to suggest the value of such studies, especially Chapters II and III.