I. E. Miller, The Psychology of Thinking, Chapter XVIII.
Exercises.
1. A class is engaged in deriving inductively the generalization that multiplying the numerator of a fraction by any number multiplies the fraction by that number; will there be any occasion for deductive thinking as the work proceeds?
2. A history teacher has tried to develop the generalization that taxation without representation is tyranny. A girl in the class says that this proves that women should have the right to vote. Analyze the process of thought by which the girl arrived at her conclusion. Was the process essentially inductive or deductive?
3. Some people pride themselves upon the fact that they never change their minds. What comment would you feel justified in making concerning their processes of thought?
4. Why can the leader of a mob influence his followers to most unreasonable action?
5. An eighth-grade boy remarked that he thought that we should forbid all foreigners to come to the United States. How would you lead such a boy to change his point of view by means of his own thought on the subject?
6. A class in grammar was required to commit to memory fifty rules of syntax and later to correct sentences in which the mistakes in syntax were covered by the rules already learned. Could you suggest a better way to teach English syntax?
7. What is the value of the miscellaneous problems given at the end of each section of the arithmetic? A teacher of arithmetic went through one of these lists and had the class indicate opposite each problem the case, or rule, which was involved. Was this a good thing to do?
8. What sort of reasoning is demanded of a class in parsing?