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THE TEACHERS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

WHOSE EXCELLENT TEACHING HAS FURNISHED
MANY SUGGESTIONS TO THE AUTHOR

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PREFACE

Readers. This book has been prepared for use in normal schools, kindergarten training schools, and teachers' reading circles. Hence it has been made quite elementary in content and adapted to the understanding of freshman and sophomore students of approximately eighteen to twenty years of age.

Origin. The work is the outcome of some fifteen years' experience by the author in teaching students of this typefive years in the State Normal College at Oxford, Ohio, and the rest in The University of Chicago. In the latter institution many of the students have been preparing for unified kindergarten-primary teaching.

Scope. The term "elementary school" is used by the author to denote the grades below the seventh, including the kindergarten. The seventh and eighth grades are conceived as part of the junior high school. Teachers of these grades would probably find the author's "Methods of Teaching in High Schools" (Ginn and Company, 1915) and his Exercises for "Methods of Teaching in High Schools" (1918) more suggestive than the present volume.

Continuation. The author has in preparation further chapters dealing with the training of pupils in writing, spelling, reading, acquiring ideas and meanings, problem solving, expression, enjoyment, moral behavior, the use of books, etc. These will be issued at a later date as a continuation of the present work.

Scientific basis. - The scientific basis for a part of the discussion in the book is found in modern experimental and statistical studies in education and psychology, such as the investigations of relative values in arithmetic and spelling, of drill processes in formal subjects, and of individual differences in capacities for learning. In many cases, however, where precise, objective, scientific investigations are lacking, I have relied on authoritative analytical discussions such as the works of William James.

Influences. The author's general point of view has been determined by a number of influences, including a year of training in experimental psychology and education under Professor C. H. Judd at the University of Cincinnati (1901– 1902) and two years of graduate study under Professors John Dewey and E. L. Thorndike of Columbia University. The latter's textbook entitled "Principles of Teaching (1905) has been especially influential, since I have used it as a basis of discussion in my classes for many years. Five years' experience in administrative work in The University of Chicago served to impress upon me the importance of scientific business management in any social organization.

Point of view. In general, the author takes the point of view that efficiency and economy in instruction are facilitated by (1) radically adapting all instruction to contemporary social needs; (2) basing methods of instruction on sound psychological principles which have been determined, as far as possible, experimentally; and (3) applying principles of scientific business management to the conduct of all teaching. The first of these standards eliminates processes that have no direct social value; the second eliminates waste of effort resulting from the use of uneconomical and ineffective methods of learning; the third eliminates waste of time which results from failure to standardize materials and processes.