EDUCATIONAL METHODS. The word 'method' is used in two senses: ( 1 ) to designate those special rules which are applicable to the teach ing of a particular subject: and (11) to designate general modes of procedure applicable to all sub jects. Examples of the first are the various meth ods of teaching reading, as the phonetie method, the sentence method, the word method, etc. Each of these methods can be defended on psychologi cal grounds. yet each is incomplete. The most ef fective method is that which combines the good points of all methods into one. The final test of a method is not, "Can arguments be made in its favor?" but "Will it work?" Under the head of 'general method' belongs the doctrine of the formal steps of instruction. This doctrine is based on the assumption that the mind must follow a certain order of processes in grasping any subject presented to it: there must he preparation. of the ideas already in the mind, presentation of the new facts, mat purism?. ab straction, generaliz-ation, whereby the meaning of the facts is arrived at and stated in terms; and, finally, application, whereby the knowledge thus gained is translated into life. The essential value of this doctrine lies not so much in its assump tion of an unchanging time order of processes. as in its emphasis of the fact that there are certain processes which are essential to a com plete act of instruetinn.
Using 'general method' in the sense of a law of teaching applicable to any subject, the following maxims may serve as examples: 11) In all teach ing, whether in instruction or in training, let spirit be uppermost, and mechanism subordinate to it. This is the first and great commandment; upon it are based a multitude of specific direc tions: such as. thought first, form second; inter est first, then criticism; praise first, if possible, and let blame be simply the subtracting from a fund of praise; let the teacher's first aim be to lead the pupil to love a subject, and afterwards he 111:ly do what lie will: seize the moment of excited curiosity that it may not run to waste— an impulse of the human spirit is a power which the teacher cannot produce at will, but which, unfortunately, he can cramp and suppress: on the other hand, the teacher should make mechanism his ally, not his enemy. 'Drive thy habits, let
them not drive thee.' (2) A second general prin ciple may be stated thus: We learn most ef fectivel• by our own activity under the spur of a practical interest. We learn least effectively when we are least active and least interested. A teacher who applies this principle will multiply opportunities whereby his pupils may learn by experience, by discovery. by executing; by object lessons, laboratory and shop work and the rela tions of school life: whereby they may apply what they have heard or read or gained in any second hand way. thus supplying, though in the reverse order, the element reality. (3) A third general principle of teaching may be described as learn ing by thinking. The teacher who follows this leads his pupils to avoid being swamped by de tails, because, grasping together many particu lars into a convenient bundle duly tagged. he will form in them the habit of foresight and fore thought, and he will develop in them the power to search out meanings and to find the essential point of a problem, a situation. or an argument.
In deciding the order to he followed in teaching the topics in a subject, two conflicting systems have held sway. The first arranges the topics of the subjects in logical order. ignoring the fact that what is first in experience is last in thought, that the order is usually the re verse of logical order. The second arranges the topics with reference to the child's supposed needs; either ( I ) teaching related proc•esseS con currently (as in the Grube method in arithme tic) and carrying a number of topics abreast, re turning to each at more or less regular intervals with increased power, as in the spiral method, or 12) determining the order of topics rather by the need of the child than by the strict develop ment of the subject: for example. in;.rialucing the subject of osmosis at the point when the children are eager to understand how the root of a plant receives nourishment from the earth.