A brief course in the teaching process

by George D. Strayer

Another distinction that it is well to keep in mind concerns the development of intellectual interests on the part of children. The characteristic aim for a first-grade child may make its appeal chiefly to his desire for satisfaction, which has little intellectual significance; but education fails if it does not make for an increase of interest in intellectual activity. For example, a first-grade boy may be led to count because he wants to be able to tell how many marbles he has, or how to measure the materials he uses in constructive work; while the mathematician may work night and day upon a problem of mathematics because of a purely speculative interest in the result. We may not hope to produce the great mathematician in the elementary school, but we may hope after a certain point has been reached in our study of arithmetic that a boy will recognize the necessity for drill in addition simply because he realizes that in the ordinary affairs of life this knowledge is required.

Presentation: The full realization of the problem to be solved involves a consideration of data already at hand in experience. When we have the problem clearly in mind, we examine this experience more carefully to see what bearing it may have upon the solution, or we gather further data, observe more critically or more extensively, or experiment in such a manner as to involve the solution of our problem. What is the function of the teacher during this part of the process? There is no single answer to this question. Sometimes the work of the teacher will consist almost wholly in helping children to recall their past experience and to apply it to the question at hand. At another time, when experience is lacking, the teacher must direct children to the sources of data, guide them in their observations or experiments, or even give them outright all of the data that she can bring to bear on the situation. It will not always be economical to wait for children to gather the data for themselves, just as it is not always feasible to require them to reach conclusions for themselves. There are times when the best teaching consists in demonstration, and occasions arise when the only feasible course for the teacher is to literally flood the children with data from which they may draw their conclusions.

Again the problem of gathering data becomes the problem of memory. We want children to think, and we should insist that they gather facts with reference to the solution of some problem; but the solution may not always be immediate. We may suspend judgment while we gather further facts and organize them. The facts gathered for one purpose, when rearranged with reference to a new problem, take on a new meaning. If this be true, we may not in our zeal for clear thinking neglect the tools with which we work. There may be some people who have a great many facts and who reason little, but no one can reason without data. Our ability to think logically upon any topic is conditioned by our ability to see facts in new relations, to reorganize our data with reference to new problems; but facts we must have, and a memory stored with facts is one of the greatest aids to thinking.

One of the means mentioned above for the gathering of data was observation. It is necessary that we appreciate the fact that observation involves something more than having the thing present to the senses. Our observations are significant for our thinking when we have clearly in view the problem which the observations are to help solve. Teachers sometimes make the mistake of supposing that when children have objects with which to work they have a problem. It is not unusual to hear teachers speak of objective work as concrete work. Now the concreteness of a situation is not at all dependent upon the presence of objects. Logically a situation may be concrete, and yet present no objects to the senses. On the other hand, objects may be present, children may be directed to use them, and yet in the absence of any real problem the work done may be of the most abstract sort. Objects help to make a situation concrete when the problem under consideration demands their presence, or when they help to make clear the situation under consideration. For example, children may have peas or beans in solving problems in addition; they serve to present objectively the reality which is symbolized by the teacher or pupils in their written work, but this does not make the work in addition concrete. The concreteness of these exercises will depend upon the need which children feel of the ability to find the sum of two or more numbers. The beans will be significant, beyond their use as objects, to illustrate the one-to-one correspondence between symbolic representation and reality, only if the problem of summation which at that time engages their attention concerns the sum of certain numbers of beans. Indeed, it may be claimed that the use of one set of objects continuously to illustrate a process in arithmetic hinders rather than helps the child in his ability to reason in this situation, since he may come to consider this chance relationship of beans and addition as essential. He may think that he ought always to add when he is given beans.

A good illustration of the necessity for a well defined problem for guidance when observations are to be made is found in the futility of much work that is done, or rather left undone, when children are taken on excursions. The directions which follow for the conduct of excursions are those which should be followed whenever work in observation is required, those which have reference to the handling of a large group of children in the field being added.

1. The teacher must have clearly defined in her own mind the purpose of the observation. If the teacher has not definitely formulated the problem, the observation of the children will surely be purposeless.

2. It is not enough that the teacher know just what data she expects the children to gather toward the solution of a particular problem; she must know exactly what data are available under the conditions governing the observation.

3. The preliminary work must have prepared children for their observations by giving them very definite problems to solve. Often it will be advantageous to have these problems written in notebooks.

4. Children not only need to want to see, but also need to be directed while they are observing. Nothing is easier than to look and not see that which is essential.

5. It is always advisable to test the success of the observations while they are being made. There is nothing more difficult than to correct a misconception growing out of careless or inadequate observations.