Part 7 (1/2)
3 Combination of lecture and develops and the presentation of papers by students
5 Laboratory work by students, together with lectures and quiz sections
Teachers have long debated the relative merits of these methods or combinations of the upon the ai circuical wisdom; no method, used exclusively, is free froed by its ability to arouse and sustain self-activity and to attain the ai a , we must stop to su
=Lecture method evaluated=
The _lecture et for ainst its use by the sophists, and educators since have repeated the attack The reasons are legion: (_a_) The lecture e the pupil's activity The student feels no responsibility during the lecture; he listens leisurely, and makes notes of the instructor's contribution The student's judge on the authority of the instructor The sense of comfort and security experienced in a lecture hour is fatal even to aggressive and assertive minds Sooner or later the students succumb to the inertia developed by the lecture system
(_b_) A second limitation of an exclusive lecture method is its inability tothe lecture hall, has cootten even the thee is retained only when it is obtained by the expression of self-activity To offset this weakness notes must be taken, but these prove to be the bane of the lecture method Some students, in their efforts to record a point just concluded, lose not only the thought of what they are trying to write but also the new thought which the instructor is now explaining; they drop both ideas from their notes and wait for the next step in the developaps in the notes kept by students Soe lost by students, resort to dictation devices Others, realizing the pedagogical weakness of such teaching, distribute raphed outlines of carefully prepared summaries of the lectures Now the student is relieved of the tediu, but the temptation to let his mind wander afield is intensified An outline, scanty of detail, but so devised as to keep the organization and sequence of subject matter clear in the minds of students, is, of course, helpful
But detailed outlines distributed a
(_c_) In teaching by lectures only there is no contact between student and teacher The student does not recite; he does not reveal his type of rasp of subject matter He is merely a passive recipient To this third weakness of the lecture method we may add a fourth: (_d_) it tends to emphasize quantity rather than reat ht nor does he see the iven subject is developed (_e_) The lecture method, therefore, inculcates in students an attitude of mental subservience which is fatal for the developht And finally (_f_) itthe instructor is not testing the accuracy of the students' conceptions nor is he able to judge the efficacy of his own methods
But, on the other hand, it must be admitted that with an effective lecturer, possessed of coives a point of view of a subject and an enthusiasm for it which other devices fail to achieve The lecture method makes for economy of time and enables one to present his subject to his class with a succinctness absent froht in a limited tiiven, when certain types of responses or mental attitudes are desired, the lecture serves well
=Final worth of lecture method=
Experience teaches that an exclusive lecture systeular classes ought to be punctuated by questions whenever interest lags; that the occasional and even the unannounced lecture isup assignular collateral study are of vital iular lectures are followed by detailed analyses in quiz sections the best results are obtained when the lecturer himself is the questioner Where quiz sections are turned over to assistants, wise procedure requires that quiz leaders attend the lectures and decide, in conference with the lecturer, the specific ained readings which iven to students in preparation for each quiz hour
Unless this is done, the student is frequently confused by the divergent points of view presented by lecturer, quiz master, and textbook
_The development method_ has much to commend it It stimulates activity by its repeated questions Few or no notes are taken There is constant contact with the student At every point the mental content of the pupils is revealed The teacher sees the result of his teaching by the intelligence of successive responses The pupil is being trained in systeht and in concentration But it must be remembered that the developmentor irrelevant It norance of a basic principle, and the aierness to patch up this misconception Then, too, in subject matter that is arbitrary, as in descriptive and narrative history, no developned to test the student's knowledge of the text, and the lesson becomes a quiz rather than a development
It is plain, therefore, that a judicious coive better results than the exclusive use of either one The analysis of the pedagogical advantages of each leads to the conclusion that the development method should predoly and alith so devices described
=Place of reference reading in college teaching=
=Evaluation of development--Socratic or heuristic method=
A coe subjects emphasizes _reference study and research_ The entire course is reduced to a series of problems, each of which deals with a vital aspect of the subject Each student is made responsible for a topic
The initial hours are devoted to an examination of the common sources of infor these, the standards to be attained in writing a paper on one of the topics, and siiven over to seminar work: each student reads his paper and holds himself in readiness to answer all questions his classmates may ask on his topic The aie of sources and an ability to use intelligently the unorganized data found by the student The results of these pseudo-seh investigation of such a course will soon convince the teacher that the se, e teaching Let us see why
Successful reference reading requires a knowledge of the field studied, anization The university student is not only e than raduates Without this equipe thediscrepancies A student who has no ample foundation of econo on the proble of value he would read the psychological explanations of the Austrian schools and the materialistic conceptions of the classical writers He would then find hi to what seemed to him to be a superfluity of explanations of value When one understands one point of view, an added viewpoint is a source of greater clarity and a norant of fundamental concepts, two points of view presented simultaneously become two sources of confusion In the university only the student of tried worth is permitted to take a see, mediocre students are often welcomed into a se elective
=Li=
The college seminar is usually unsuccessful because few students have ability to hold the attention of their classe lie of subject matter, inability to illustrate effectively, and the skeptical attitude of fellow students allby apapers often select uniive too uidly, take occasional notes, and ask a few perfunctory questions to help bring the session to a close A successful hour is rare The student who prepared the topic of the day undoubtedly is benefited, but those who listen acquire little knowledge and less power The course ends without a coe which comes from the teacher's leadershi+p and instruction This type of reference reading and research has value when used as an occasional ten or fifteen minute exercise to supplement certain aspects of class work But as a steady diet in a college course, the seminar usually leavesin favor today in college teaching
It is ey, in econoy, in education, as well as in the physical and the biological sciences Where it is followed the aim is clearly twofold; viz, to teach theand to develop in the students e
=Value of laboratory method=