Part 4 (1/2)

These questions were all answered fairly well by the cla.s.s, but the answers contained only so many bits of isolated information, and the pupils did not understand the subject after they had recited upon it.

Another teacher asked the following questions:

Why must the body have air to breathe?

Of what use is oxygen in the body?

Where does this oxidization, or burning up of worn-out cells, take place?

But how is the oxygen carried to every part of the body and brought into contact with the tissues?

Where do the corpuscles of the blood get their loads of oxygen?

What gas do they give up in exchange for the oxygen?

Where do they get the carbon dioxide?

How does air entering the lungs differ from air leaving them?

What corresponding change takes place in the blood while it is in the lungs?

Explain how the change is effected in each case.

Suppose we breathe air that contains too little oxygen, what will be the effect on the corpuscles?

What will be the effect on oxidization in the tissues?

And what is the effect of poor oxidization on physical vitality?

On mental vitality?

The cla.s.s that answered these questions not only had the information belonging to each separate question, but also understood the lesson as a whole, because each question grew out of the ones that preceded it, thus making the recitation a unified whole.

5. _The principle of clearness_

Questions must be made clear, so that their meaning may be understood.

This is not always an easy task, and the teacher frequently misses being wholly clear. This is evidenced by the fact that often when a pupil fails to answer a question asked in one way, he can answer it easily when the wording is changed. This means that the difficulty for the pupil existed in the question, and not in the answer.

Clearness in questioning involves three factors: (1) Freedom from ambiguity or obscurity of wording; (2) adaptation to the age and understanding of the pupil; (3) reasonable brevity.

_a. Freedom from ambiguity or obscurity of wording._--This is fundamentally a matter of the use of good English. It requires such a choice and arrangement of words and clauses that there can be no doubt as to the meaning to be conveyed. a.s.suming a fair command of the language and care in its use, the basis of clearness at this point is thorough mastery of the subject-matter of the questions, so that the teacher himself understands clearly just what he means to ask.

The following ill.u.s.trations show some questions that are faulty from the standpoint of obscurity of meaning:--

What caused Lincoln to issue the Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation in 1863?

(Not clear whether question means why did he issue the Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation at all, or why did he issue it in 1863 instead of at some other time.)

What are the effects of attention to a moving object? (Not clear whether question means effects on the person attending or the effect which the moving of an object has in making itself seen.)

Who chased whom down what valley?