Part 3 (1/2)
THE TEST OF EFFICIENCY IN SUPERVISION[10]
I
I know of no way in which I can better introduce my subject than to describe very briefly the work of a superintendent who once furnished me with an example of a definite and effective e” superintendent It was impossible for him to visit his schools very frequently, and so he did the next best thing: he had the schools brought to hi over a pile of papers that had just come in from one of his schools I soon discovered that these papers were arranged in sets, each set being made up of samples taken each week from the work of the pupils in the schools under his supervision The papers of each pupil were arranged in chronological order, and by looking through the set, he could note the growth that the pupil in question hadof the terment of the amount of improvement shown both in form and in content
I was particularly i vague or intangible about them Every annotation was clear and definite If penmanshi+p happened to be the point at issue, he would note that the lines were too close together; that the letters did not have sufficient individuality; that the spaces between the words were not sufficiently wide; that the indentation was inadequate; that the writing was cra that the pen had not been held properly; that the in needed correction If the papers were defective froe, the criticisms were equally clear and definite
One pupil had misspelled the same word in three successive papers ”Be sure that this word appears in the next spelling list,” was the comment of the superintendent Another pupil habitually used a bit of false syntax: ”Place this upon the list of errors to be taken up and corrected” Still others were uncertain about paragraphing: ”Devote a language lesson to the paragraph before the next written exercise” On the covers of each bundle of class papers, he wrote directions and suggestions of a eneral nature; for example: ”Improvement is not sufficiently marked; try for better results next time”; or: ”I note that the pupils draw rather than write; look out for free movement” Often, too, there ords of well-merited praise: ”I like the way in which your pupils have responded to their drill This is good Keep it up”
And not infrequently suggestions were reater detail next tiain”; or: ”The forood, but the nature study is poor; don't sacrifice thought to forone over and annotated
Every pupil in this systeular and frequent intervals by the superintendent Every teacher knew just what her chief deain the results de the position that the results that were dehest ideals of what the eleood spelling and good language, in the light of conte like happiness--you get the them But this possible objection aside, the superintendent in question had developed a system which kept hi done in widely separated schools
He told me further that, on the infrequent occasions when he could visit his classrooave most of his time and attention to the e” He found out how the pupils were i, and especially in oral expression, in its syntax, its freedom from errors of construction, its clearness and fluency He listed the co his teachers to take them up in a systematic manner and eradicate theress had been made He noted the condition of the blackboard work, and kept a list of the iested He tested for rapidity in arithave him only an index of accuracy He noted the habits of personal cleanliness that were being developed or neglected In fact, he had a long list of specific standards that he kept continually in ress tohich he constantly watched And last, but by no means least, he carried with hiood nature and cheerfulness, for he had mastered the first principle in the art of both supervision and teaching; he had learned that the best way to prorowth in either pupils or teachers is neither to let them do as they please nor to force theet them to please to do what you please to have them do
I instance this superintendent as one type of efficiency in supervision
He was efficient, not simply because he had a systerowth, but because that scrutiny really insured growth He obtained the results that he desired, and he obtained unifor, untrained teachers We have all heard of the superintendent who boasted that he could tell by looking at his watch just what any pupil in any classroo at just thatBut the boast did not strike the vital point It is not what the pupil is doing that is funda fro in the way of habits, in the way of knowledge, in the way of standards and ideals and prejudices, all of which are to govern his future conduct The superintendent whom I have described had the qualities of balance and perspective that enabled him to see both the woods and the trees And let h school, and that practically all of his supervision was accomplished after school hours and on Saturdays
Buthis work as a type is that it represents a successful effort to supervise that part of school hich is most difficult and irksome to supervise; namely, the formation of habits Whatever one's ideals of educationis the most important duty of the ele can be tested in no other way than by the means that he employed; naes of the process
II
The essence of a true habit is its purely automatic character Reaction ht, reflection, or judg is automatic, until the correct form flows from the pen without the intervention ofis his ability to spell the word correctly when he is thinking, not about spelling, but about the content of the sentence that he is writing Consequently the test of efficiency in spelling is not an exah this may be valuable as a means to an end, but rather the infrequency hich misspelled words appear in the co, and other written work of the pupil Sirammar, it is not sufficient to instruct in rules of syntax This is but the initial process
Grammatical rules function effectively only when they function autoe and reflect upon the form of one's expression, the expression is necessarily aard and inadequate
The same rule holds in respect of the fundamental processes of arithmetic It holds in pennition, in ood manners; in fact, in all of the basic work for which the eleer in the newer methods of education lies in the tendency to overlook the ih to a successful issue The reaction against drill, against formal work of all sorts, is a healthful reaction in many ways It bids fair to break up the rades, and to introduce soor, and wholesomeness But it will sadly defeat its own purpose if it underrates the necessity of habit building as the basic activity of early education
What is needed, now that we have got away from the lock step, now that we are happily eless thralldom of mechanical repetition and the worshi+p of drill for its own sake--what is needed now is not less drill, but better drill And this should be the net result of the recent reforms in elementary education In our first enthusias book, poked fun at the , and relieved ourselves of ranition of the true purpose of drill And in the wake of this newer conception, we are learning that its drudgery htened by the introduction of a richer content that shall provide a greater variety in the repetitions, insure an adequate motive for effort, and relieve the dead monotony that frequently rendered the older methods so futile I look forward to the time when to be an efficient drillmaster in this newer sense of the term will be to have reached one of the pinnacles of professional skill
III
But there is another side of teaching that h habit is responsible for nine tenths of conduct, the relected In situations where habit is not adequate to adjustment and reflection must come to the rescue, or should co without thought, as in the case of habit, one analyzes the situation and tries to solve it by the application of soained either from one's own experience or from the experience of others This is the field in which knowledge comes to its own; and a very important task of education is to fix in the pupils' minds a number of facts and principles that will be available for application to the situations of later life
How, then, is the efficiency of instruction (as distinguished fro) to be tested? Needless to say, an adequate test is impossible from the very nature of the situation The efficiency of ie can be tested only by the effect that this knowledge has upon later conduct; and this, it will be agreed, cannot be accurately determined until the pupil has left the school and is face to face with the problems of real life
In practice, however, we adopt a more or less effective substitute for the real test--the substitute called the examination We all know that the ultimate purpose of instruction is not primarily to enable pupils successfully to pass exah this were the ht as well believe it to be Now the examination may be made a very valuable test of the efficiency of instruction if its linized and if it does not obscure the true purpose of instruction And if we remember that the true purpose is to impart facts in such a manner that they may not only ”stick” in the pupil's mind, but that they may also be amenable to recall and practical application, and if we set our examination questions with some reference to this requirement, then I believe that we shall find the examination a dependable test
One important point is likely to be overlooked in the consideration of examinations,--the fact, namely, that the form and content of the questions have a very powerful influence in deter the content and methods of instruction Is it not pertinent, then, to inquire whether examination questions cannot be so framed as radically to ie, as is often the case, ically unsound? Granted that it is well for the child to memorize verbatim certain unrelated facts, even toupon his life, granted that this is valuable (and I think that a little of it is), is it necessary that an entire year or half-year be given over al up”
on old questions? Would it not be possible so to fra” process would be practically valueless?
What the pupil should get froraphical facts, but also, and more fundamentally, the power to see the relation of these facts to his own life; in other words, the ability to apply his knowledge to the improvement of adjustment Now this power is very closely associated with the ability to grasp fundamental principles, to see the relation of cause and effect working below the surface of diverse phenoraphy, to be practical, must impress not only the fact, but also the principle that rationalizes or explains the fact It must emphasize the ”why” as well as the ”what” For example: it is well for the pupil to know that New York is the largest city in the United States; it is better that he should knohy New York has becoest city in the United States It is well to know that South America extends very much farther to the east than does North America, but it is better to know that this fact has had an i the commercial relations that exist between South Aer relations of cause and effect ” will alone insure correct answers
They may be so fra for hiinary situation very much as he would solve a real situation