A brief course in the teaching process

by George D. Strayer

16. Describe the situations in which you believe your children did the best intellectual work. How do you account for the excellence of this work?

CHAPTER IV
THE DRILL LESSON

Many responses of thought and action must be reduced to an automatic basis. It is the function of the drill lesson to accomplish this result. In some schools this type of work has been overemphasized, while in others it has been neglected. It is a mistake to spend the whole of a child’s time and energy drilling him upon that which some one else has thought. He must think for himself while a child, if he is to show intellectual strength as a man. And it is just as much a mistake to believe that the greatest progress in thought or action can be achieved without careful attention to the formation of desirable habits. Probably there is little need to-day to argue against this conception of teaching, which makes the teacher simply and solely a drill master. Our respect for the native tendencies and for the experiences of children, our emphasis upon doing, our belief that the best preparation for future efficiency is to be found in present childish efficiency, all refute any such narrow view of the educative process. There is, however, in some quarters a danger that this insistence upon thinking and doing may be construed to mean that drill work is no longer necessary. There are children who are terribly handicapped in their later work because they have not learned to spell common words, to write a legible hand, to give without hesitation the addition combinations, to reproduce the multiplication tables, to use without much thought the processes commonly employed in arithmetic work. They find difficulty in reading, because they lack that knowledge of phonetics which would make easy the recognition of unfamiliar words in their reading; they stumble in geography, fail in music, lack ability to comprehend their work in nature study or history, all because facts essential to further progress, once presented and understood, were not reduced to an automatic basis by carefully conducted drill exercises. If it is clear that much of the knowledge which children acquire must be reduced to the basis of habit, we may next inquire just how this drill work is to be related to the other part of the school work.

Question of motive: In the formation of habits not provided for by native tendencies to react, the occasion for making the adjustment is, as in the case of our thinking, the recognition of a need. Our first attempts to talk or to use our limbs were due solely to the compelling force of instinct, but later we learned a foreign language or achieved success in the high jump because we had a definite aim in mind. So far as the teacher is concerned with habit formation, she can hope to utilize instinctive tendencies, but may not depend upon them alone to secure the result. A motive must be provided for the work. The stronger this incentive, the greater will be the attention given to the work in hand and the sooner will the desired result be secured. Very much of the drill work which is done is well-nigh futile because it is imposed upon children. They do not see its significance, and feel little interest in the accomplishment of the results demanded.

Ideally, drill lessons should come when the children see that their future progress is conditioned by successful formation of the habits involved. And this is not so impossible of accomplishment as might appear at first sight. If the material given to children to read in the first grade is of such a nature that they really care to read it, they are very quick to see that word drill, and later phonetic drill, will help them to secure the end desired. Of course the reply may be made: “What is the use of bothering one’s self with this attempt to make a rational appeal to children? They will be completely satisfied if you simply keep them at it. It is a game for them. They enjoy it simply because they delight in accomplishment.” One might reply to such a statement by calling to mind the fact that the school exists to develop rationality. You may be perfectly sure that frequently enough the children, and later the men and women, will be driven or led without any appeal to reason. It will undoubtedly be true that we shall have to appeal to motives other than rational; but surely this appeal to reason should be made, and, if our education is successful, should be increasingly potent as we advance from grade to grade. Even when a rational motive has been made the point of departure, we shall have to use many devices to keep alive the child’s original intention. But let us frankly admit, both to ourselves and to the children, that these subsidiary aims are merely aids in helping us to achieve the more worthy aim. If such a standard of motive were applied throughout our work, we should probably find it necessary to postpone certain activities which we insist upon for no reason which a child can understand, until there was some real use for the habit to be formed. We might even find ourselves compelled to eliminate much which finds no application in real life. The occasion for drill is found in the demand for automatic control of thought or action, and much of the later success of the children in thinking and doing will be conditioned by the quality of the work done in these drill exercises.

Knowing what to do: A clear idea of the result to be accomplished is, of course, involved in the notion or aim as it has been discussed above. The importance of this element in habit formation cannot be overemphasized. It may seem superfluous to call attention to the fact that every child should have a clear idea of what is to be done before the drill work begins; but it sometimes happens that the teacher takes too much for granted. Children stumble and fail, or do nothing at all, simply because they do not know what it is all about. It would seem impossible that any group of pupils should be asked to commit to memory anything which they did not understand, and yet we are constantly reminded by their later interpretations that they have not understood. Such logical organization is not always possible, nor, indeed, even desirable, as, for example, in learning addition combinations. In such a case the value of the habit is largely due to the fact that we no longer attempt to rationalize the process nor attempt to fix it in a logical series. But whether the task be the memorizing of a poem, the learning of addition combinations, the formation of the habit of neatness, or the gaining of skill in handling a saw, it is essential that the child know just what is to be done and that he be provided with an adequate motive for doing it.

Repetition with attention: After a child knows what to do, has the right idea, and the greatest possible motive for doing has been provided, the teacher’s problem consists in keeping alive the desire to achieve the result while the process of repetition is going on. A child learns to spell a word not simply because he repeats the letters or writes them in the correct order a hundred times. We all have knowledge of cases in which this sort of repetition has seemingly resulted in no advancement. The most economical method of learning to spell requires that the maximum of attention be given while the letters are repeated. The story of the boy who, after he had written after school the phrase “I have gone” a hundred times, wrote at the bottom of his paper for the information of the teacher, who had left the room, “I have went home,” is a case in point. The trouble with this boy was not that he had not repeated the correct form often enough, but that he had not attended to it. He had failed to realize the significance of what he was doing. Doubtless his attention, instead of being fixed on the work in hand, was more largely given to the game of baseball his companions were playing, or to the prospect of the delights of the swimming pool. Much of the concert work that one hears shows a lack of attention on the part of the larger part of the class except in so far as is necessary to follow the leaders. Such work is undoubtedly helpful to those who lead, but it is of little use to the others who take part. It is a very good plan to test concert work by listening closely to distinguish those who are carrying the burden, have them stop, and measure the success of the work by the result which can then be had.

Means of holding attention: No matter how strong the motive with which we start, any one of us will grow weary when the task imposed requires many repetitions. It is even more difficult for children to keep their attention fixed for any considerable length of time. We must, therefore, plan carefully to conduct the drill in such a way that the maximum of attention may be secured. Among the devices which are employed, one of the most important is variation in procedure. Suppose, for example, we wish to spend ten minutes in drilling children on addition combinations. The best results will not be secured by spending the whole time in either oral or written work. Probably the maximum of attention and consequently of result could be secured by dividing the period into three parts: one devoted to oral work, holding every one responsible for every answer; one to written work on a series of problems provided on number cards or mimeographed sheets; and one to work of the same sort placed on the blackboard. Of course there is nothing peculiarly good in the order of exercises suggested above, beyond the fact that they give variety. The next day the teacher would want to change the order or to introduce a new type of exercise.

Another means of securing the maximum of attention is to place a time limit. Have the children see how many problems they can solve, how many stanzas they can commit to memory, or how many words they can learn to spell in a period of ten minutes. It makes a very great difference whether the teacher says “work on this task for ten minutes,” or “see how much you can get done in ten minutes.”