Courses in Psychology
Along with the study of the history of education there has commonly been prescribed in training schools for teachers a course in psychology. Herbart pointed out more than a hundred years ago the importance of the study of mental processes as a basis for the proper direction of educational practices. The science of psychology has also by its own developments encouraged the practical educator to expect help in the solution of school problems. There was a period when so-called child psychology flourished in this country and aimed to contribute to the development of school methods as well as to the solution of problems of the curriculum and school management.
Educational Psychology
A friendly alliance will always exist between the science of psychology and the science of education. Psychology has given to education certain methods and such special results as it has worked out with regard to memory and learning and the nature of behavior; education has taken the psychological material and developed a special branch of science under the name “educational psychology.”
There are two fruitful psychological methods which have been borrowed in this way and put to work for education. These are the statistical method and the experimental method.
Statistical Studies
An impressive example of the statistical method is given in the studies of individual differences. For example, Thorndike has made a careful study of the degrees of likeness between twins, and between brothers and sisters who are not twins, for the purpose of defining more fully the meaning of the term “individual differences.”
The Experimental Method
The experimental method has been employed in many ways. Thus, Freeman has recorded with the aid of suitable apparatus the rate at which one writes long and short letters. This study he has made with individuals of various ages and degrees of training and under different conditions. One result which he derived from these records is the fact that a given writer’s rhythm of movement is the same in letters of different sizes and becomes more regular and more fixed with increase in skill.