The young teacher's lack of knowledge of the principles underlying the art of study is a more serious matter, and a difficulty harder to overcome. Every teacher should make a special study of the psychology of attention and interest. He should also come to know how the mind naturally approaches any new subject, first securing a synthetic or bird's-eye view of it as a whole; how next it analyzes it into its elements; and how finally it thinks them together, or synthesizes them, into a new and better-understood whole.
4. How to assign a lesson
There may, of course, be some lessons that can properly be assigned in a moment by telling the class how much to take in advance. This is true of lessons that are only a continuation of matter with which the class are already somewhat familiar, which they know how to study, and which contains no special difficulties. For example, spelling lessons presenting no new difficulties or especially hard words; arithmetic lessons containing practice problems intended for drill, but no new topics for study; grammar lessons consisting of applications of principles or rules already mastered. But all lessons that are built upon a logical outline, or contain new or difficult principles, or involve especial difficulties of any kind should be assigned carefully and with sufficient detail to make sure that the class know how to go to work in preparing the lesson without loss of time and interest.
It is necessary, however, to observe a caution in this connection. There is some danger of assigning lessons in such a way as to render too much help, and thus relieve the pupil of the necessity of mastering it for himself. It is difficult to say whether the mistake of helping too much in the assignment, or not helping enough is the more serious. The teacher must know his class and his textbook, and then use the best judgment he has in making just such suggestions as will result in the best effort and mastery by the pupils without robbing them of the necessity for work.
5. Principles governing the assignment
The following are the chief points to be observed in assigning the lesson:—
1. Go over the lesson with the class in such a way as to give them a bird's-eye view of the whole, a general idea of what the entire lesson is about, or what it is meant to teach. Sometimes this can best be done with the books open in the hands of the pupils, the teacher calling attention to the topics treated. Occasionally the teacher may himself state the aim or scope of the lesson without the use of the text. Getting this synthetic view of the lesson enables the pupil to begin study with better intelligence, and also helps him better to understand the relation of the separate parts to the lesson as a whole. In this bird's-eye view of the lesson its relation to the lesson just recited, or other previous lessons, should be brought out so as to unite the separate lessons into a continuous view of the subject.
2. Suggestions should be given as to the analysis of the lesson into its different topics. If the text uses a system of numerals in designating the points, the pupils should form the habit of using these in studying the lesson. For example, finding I, they should look for II, III, etc., thus getting the main heads. Under these main topic numerals will often be found a series of paragraphs numbered 1, 2, 3, etc., indicating the different topics under each head. The system may even extend to sub-topics lettered a, b, c, etc. The pupil should early learn to look for and make use of these helps in the analysis of the lesson. And even when the author does not introduce any such system of numbering he still follows some outline more or less logically arranged. No better training in analysis, and no better method of mastering a lesson can be found than for the pupil himself to make a written outline of the lesson, using such a system of numbering the topics and sub-topics as that suggested above.
3. Children should be taught to make a final summary, or synthesis, of the lesson after they have analyzed it into its separate points. Of course a large proportion of the details learned and recited in any lesson will finally be forgotten. But this does not mean that such details were unnecessary. It rather means that their part was to help in bringing out the few main facts or points and making them clear. For most lessons can be reduced to a few chief points. These are the ones to be remembered and used in further learning. It is these important points which the pupil should summarize and fix in his memory and understanding as the final act in preparing the lesson. Not to do this is to fail to reap the best results from the work put upon the lesson, for these more important points are lost almost as readily as the less important details unless they are emphasized in some such way as has been suggested.
It is of course not meant that this summary of points should be worked out by the teacher when the lesson is being assigned. That is for the pupils to do as a result of their analysis of the lesson. But the teacher should specifically call attention to the necessity for such a summary until the habit is so fixed that the pupils follow this method of study without further direction. The pupil's summary of the lesson should be tested in the recitation just as much as his analysis of the facts of the lesson. This is done by few teachers.