Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub
[graphic][merged small]

APPERCEPTIONAL TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY ILLUSTRATED BY AN IRRIGATION PROJECT WORKED
OUT IN SAND-PANS BY SIXTH-GRADE CHILDREN

See story on opposite page

"Gee, the Great Lakes are hard to put in; they are so in-regular." After the relief of the United States is completed in the sand-table, it forms a vivid link in helping the children to understand a surface map done in colors; they readily translate the dark browns of the map into the high mountains of the sand-table, and translate the latter into the pictures of mountains with which the study began. Such symbols-pictures, sand-pan relief, and colored surface maps

carry for them much more real ideas of surface formations than are conveyed by the mere words of the book concerning elevations, depressions, mountain systems, and river basins. A four-by-six-foot galvanized-iron pan and the sand and clay which make possible such vivid geographic teaching can easily be secured at small cost for any school. In one school, in which reliefs like those shown on pages 184-186 were worked out by the pupils, the latter brought two pans from private garages where they had been used under automobiles.

Story of the picture on opposite page. This picture shows sixthgrade children engaged in solving an irrigation problem in sand-pans during the geography period. In the large pan you can see at the left a ditch which represents the river. To the right of the river is represented land which is considerably higher than the river. The problem was to irrigate this land from the river without using any mechanical device to pump or lift the water from the lower course of the stream. The children tried building dams at places in the upper course to back up and elevate the water. They then constructed across country, from above the dam, the main supply ditch, keeping it on high ground so that the lateral ditches supplying the farms descended toward the river. The picture illustrates the use of sand-pan modeling to clarify geographical ideas as described on page 185. It also illustrates training in problem solving and construction as well as the utilization of children's instinctive interests in manipulation, problem solving, and group emulation. The latter appears in the contest to see which of the several teams at work on the problem could first achieve a satisfactory solution.

[ocr errors]

Specialized teacher-training makes possible skilled apperceptional teaching. The effective use of modeling as a geographic aid requires more knowledge and training on the part of the teacher than merely hearing recitations of memorized words. This is true of all skilled teaching which properly recognizes the principle of apperception by providing abundant real experiences for children and building instruction upon these. But, as indicated in the introductory chapter, many normal schools now provide specialized training for teaching in primary grades and middle grades, and such training, if properly conducted, is devoted largely to giving students a knowledge of the children, subject matter, and methods of the grades in which they expect to teach. With such full specialized training, teachers may be expected to know enough themselves about realities to make ideas real to children and to secure from the latter mental responses of understanding and evaluation instead of mere words.

Conclusion. This will conclude our second chapter on the learning processes of pupils. In the first of these chapters we noted that the children learn through their selfactivity, through their own mental responses. Hence it becomes important for the teacher to be skilled in inferring just what the inner responses of children are and in understanding the conditions which influence these responses. In the present chapter we traced the influence of past experiences on present responses. In the next chapter we shall trace the influence of the pupil's present frame of mind.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

The references marked with an asterisk are especially recommended to beginners.

Child study. 1. Hall, G. S. Aspects of Child Life. (Ginn and Company, 1907.) Chap. i, pp. 1-52. Printed also in Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. I, pp. 139–173. Influential study of "the contents of children's minds on entering school."

2. THORNDIKE, E. L. Notes on Child Study. (The Macmillan Company, 1903.) Pp. 57-62. Effective discussion of apperception; reports Hall's study mentioned above.

Practical advice.

-3. BACHMAN. The Quality of Instruction versus the Subject Matter. Elementary School Journal, May, 1915, Vol. XV, pp. 491–497, 529-542. Describes prevalence of mechanical memorizing in schools to-day.

4. EARHART, L. J. Types of Teaching. (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1915.) P. 102.

* 5. MCMURRY, F. and C. The Method of the Recitation. (The Macmillan Company, 1903.) Pp. 74-93. The most simple, practical, helpful, and influential discussion of apperception. Should be read by all teachers.

6. THORNDIKE, E. L. Principles of Teaching. (A. G. Seiler, 1906.) Pp. 42-50. Many excellent exercises for discussions in classes of teachers.

7. TEMPLE, ALICE. Survey of the Kindergartens of Richmond, Indiana. (The University of Chicago Press, 1917.) Pp. 29, 43.

Historical. -*8. PARKER, S. C. History of Modern Elementary Education. (Ginn and Company, 1912.) Pp. 188–207, on Rousseau's program for real experiences for children; pp. 323-356, on Pestalozzi's organization of improved methods in object teaching, home geography, arithmetic, based on real experiences; pp. 359-364, on degenerated Pestalozzian methods; pp. 439-441, 457–460, on Froebelian misunderstanding of children's capacities and ideas.

Stories about children.

* 9. KELLY, MYRA. Little Citizens, the Humors of School Life. (Doubleday, Page & Co., 1904.) Fascinating stories of New York slum children.

CHAPTER VIII

PUTTING PUPILS IN A FAVORABLE FRAME OF MIND

in

THE DOCTRINE OF PREPARATION

Main points of the chapter. 1. A pupil's response or reaction any situation is largely influenced by his general frame of mind. 2. Striking examples occur in the very irrelevant answers which a pupil gives to questions even when he knows the correct answers. 3. Consequently the teacher should put the pupil in the proper frame of mind

a. by arousing the general line of thought which she desires him to pursue, and

b. by arousing favorable emotional attitudes, such as curiosity and interest.

Three principles of teaching: self-activity, apperception, preparation.—This chapter introduces the third general fact concerning the learning processes of children. The first fact, discussed in Chapter VI, is that children learn through their own responses, reactions, or behavior; hence teachers must be skilled in determining whether the educative responses which they desire have actually been made by the pupils. This we called the doctrine of self-activity. To secure in pupils specific mental responses, the teacher must understand the conditions which influence these responses. Our second general fact about learning appeared in this connection in Chapter VII, namely, that a pupil's response is influenced by his past experiences; hence the teacher must understand each pupil's past experiences and build upon these. This we called the doctrine of apperception. The third principle of learning will be discussed in this chapter,

« ForrigeFortsæt »