Training the Teacher Part 35

The test of the law is the way the soul acts under repet.i.tion. Does the learner gain in clearness of knowledge by repet.i.tion? If so, the law is true. If not, the law is not true.

#57. Kinds of Methods.#--Methods are of two kinds: _general_ and _special_. A general method may be followed in teaching all the different subjects that make up a course of study. A special method is followed in teaching one particular subject or a part of a subject. A device is merely a temporary resort to some special act to accomplish an immediate result. Methods, general and special, may be used again and again. A device rarely can be repeated, since the same conditions may never again arise.

#58. a.n.a.lytic and Synthetic Method.#--A lesson, like a jack-knife, is made up of a number of parts. We may begin the recitation by presenting first the object or lesson as a whole and follow with a study of the parts; this is the _a.n.a.lytic method_. Or we may begin the recitation by presenting first the parts, one at a time, and follow with a study of the object as a whole. This is the _synthetic method_ in teaching. These two general methods are usually combined in a complete lesson. That is to say, we usually consider first the whole thought, then a.n.a.lyze it into its several parts, and when each part is understood, we combine by synthesis the parts into the general thought. If, for example, we begin by citing the golden text, and then a.n.a.lyze the lesson to find the parts that ill.u.s.trate the meaning in the golden text, and finally combine these parts into a fuller understanding of the golden text, the process is a.n.a.lytico-synthetic.

The purpose of this thought exercise is to enlarge the learner's comprehension of the general truth in the lesson. In the earlier years teaching should be largely synthetic; in later years, a.n.a.lytic. A study of the growth of the powers of the soul will show why this is so.

#59. Inductive and Deductive Method.#--When once the mind is trained to a.n.a.lyze fairly well it is possible to use another set of general methods. In reasoning we may begin with particular facts, with simple sensations, with the individual notions based upon concrete experience, and rise step by step to a general law. If we pursue this plan in the recitation, we use the _inductive method_ in teaching. If we pursue the opposite order, beginning with some general law or principle and proceed by reasoning to special or particular facts, we use the _deductive method_ in teaching. The parable of the sower is a good example of inductive teaching. The seventh chapter of Matthew contains a number of excellent examples of deductive teaching. Note carefully the method by which Jesus makes plain the words, "Beware of false prophets." These general methods are followed always in one order or another by every good teacher.

#60.# The recitation also affords opportunity for the exercise of special methods. We may or we may not ask _questions_. We may or we may not a.s.sign _topics_, we may or we may not draw _pictures_ on a blackboard. We may or we may not ask pupils to _consult the text_ of the lesson in reciting the same. These facts suggest methods that the wise teacher will consider carefully.

#61. Questioning.#--If the teacher asks and requires the pupils to answer a series of questions he is using the _question method_. It is a good method because it compels the pupils to think and to give expression in proper language to their thoughts. It is vastly better than telling, for telling things to pupils is not teaching, since it fails to cause the pupil's mind to act in any creative way. It is a much abused method because many questions that an unwise teacher asks do not lead by synthesis to a common general truth or law. It is to be noted that the simplest form of questioning seeks only to obtain in answer a statement of fact, as when one asks how many miles it is from Jerusalem to Jericho, or who betrayed Jesus, or any similar question that calls for a statement of fact. A better question is one that sets all the currents of thought aflow, that causes one to stop, think, weigh, ponder, deliberate, before framing an answer. A careful study of Jesus' method of asking questions is of the utmost value in mastering the fine art of teaching by the question method. In Luke 9 Jesus asks the question, "Who do the mult.i.tudes say that I am?" After the disciples had reported all the guesses of the people, he asked, "But who say ye that I am?" This question went to the heart of the subject of his ident.i.ty. It forced from Peter a great declaration.

Wise questioning always touches the very center of discussion and crystallizes thought.

#62.# For more advanced cla.s.ses it is a good plan to a.s.sign in advance certain subjects to be recited by the pupil in the recitation. When this is done, the teacher uses the _topical method_. It requires a maximum of effort and should not be used with young pupils. It is an excellent method in the Bible cla.s.ses.

#63. Ill.u.s.trations.#--If the teacher uses objects, pictures, or drawings to make meaningful his language in teaching, he is using the _ill.u.s.trated method_. This is especially valuable in the primary grades. The one necessary caution is that the objects, pictures, or drawings shall be wisely selected, and that in their use special care be taken that the interest of the pupils is focused upon the thought or fact to be taught and not upon the ill.u.s.tration.

#64.# If the teacher allows the pupils to consult the text while reciting, his method is likely to produce little permanent good. To fix the lesson in memory, to lay aside all books, to face the anxious and earnest teacher, is to secure the best results. Of course, there are times when the text is to be studied and when it is necessary to refer to the printed lesson, but a wise teacher will remember that when soul looks into soul the greatest possible good comes from teaching.

Test Questions

1. What is meant by a teaching method?

2. What is meant by the _a.n.a.lytic_ method?

3. The _synthetic_ method?

4. What is meant by the _inductive_ method?

5. The _deductive_ method?

6. Why is the _question_ method a good one?

7. Why is mere telling not teaching?

8. What kind of question is better than that which merely draws out a fact?

9. What is the topical method, and with what pupils should it be used?

10. What is the gain in using ill.u.s.trations? What the danger?

11. Should the lesson text be consulted by the pupil when reciting?

Why?

Lesson 8

What the Concrete Means in Teaching

#65. Value of the Concrete.#--The world is made up of concrete things; that is, things which can be recognized by the senses. The first impressions the soul gets of this world are concrete. We call them individual or perceptual notions. The soul compares, cla.s.sifies, generalizes these concrete notions into general or conceptual notions.

These thought products are abstract. But all knowledge begins in these individual notions and hence all first presentations of a new lesson or a new object of thought must be in the concrete. The richer and more varied the concrete data, the more valuable is the mental result in abstract thought. When an abstract notion is presented to a cla.s.s it is of no educational value unless it can be referred back in the mind of each pupil to some concrete experience in his own past. The teacher, knowing this, will always aim to interpret general truths, which are abstract, into terms of experience, which are concrete. When David wishes to express the thirst of his soul for G.o.d he says, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O G.o.d." To a people familiar with Palestine and the habits of the hart this language at once made vividly real, in a concrete image, the great longing the pure soul has for its Creator.

#66.# All the tentacles of the soul seem to find in the concrete thing great sources of nourishment. Note the crowds that throng the zoological gardens, the flower expositions, the picture galleries, the museums of one sort or another, to see the potency of the concrete as a great teaching power. Explore a boy's pocket to learn what the concrete is worth. Why all these "sc.r.a.ps," broken gla.s.s, rusty nails, old knives, b.u.t.tons, peculiar pebbles, colored strings, parts of a watch or clock, odd sticks, bits of chewing gum, ends of pencils, broken buckles, speckled beans, colored papers, bits of fur, and other things that he treasures? Because in a most potential way they are nutrition to his yearning soul. One will never fathom the real depths of the concrete as teaching data until he can appreciate why the son of a President of the United States gladly traded rare exotic flowers from the White House conservatory for the discarded paper caps of common milk bottles.

#67.# The trouble we all experience is to discover just what concrete thing the general statement figures in the soul of the child. When our pupils read

"Up from the meadows rich with corn, Clear in the cool September morn,"

what does it mean to them? Instance a poor child whose life is pent within the narrow walls of a city tenement, one who has never seen the park, much less the great, grand farms of the country; what can even this simple language of Whittier's figure to that child? Do you not see that first of all the needed thing in teaching is to bring new thoughts into terms of old thoughts, to interpret the new by the old, to translate all abstract truth into terms of conduct and into terms of real concrete experience. If then the pupil's personal experience is meager, how very difficult it is to teach him, and how very important it is that we should be wise enough to supply the concrete data necessary to make meaningful our teaching.

#68. Tools for the Teacher.#--The agencies at the teacher's disposal are objects, pictures, drawing, and stories. These demand extended study. Do you have a collection of objects and of pictures for teaching purposes? These are your tools. Be sure you carry a goodly store of them. Select them with care and use them with caution. If you cannot draw beautiful pictures, do not worry. But be sure you can, with a few strokes of the crayon, make concrete the thought you wish to emphasize. This power is of immeasurable value and the training of every teacher should include lessons in simple graphic ill.u.s.tration.

#69. Stories.#--But above all else, as equipment to teach, can you tell a story? The story is an abstract truth dressed in concrete garments. When Jesus was asked to define the word _neighbor_ he might have answered in some such definition as may be found in any dictionary. He was too wise a teacher to do that. He immediately translated the meaning of neighbor into the concrete story of the good Samaritan and gave us an example of the loftiest teaching power the world has ever known. Every parable is an example of great skill in teaching the abstract by means of the concrete. Go over the series and note in how many ways the Kingdom of heaven is concreted into terms of the common experience of the people Jesus taught.

#70.# A good story, well told, at once attracts marked attention. The pupil unconsciously turns to a concrete incident and from that obtains the richest nutrition for his spirit. But the story must be well told.

It must contain abundant elements of specific detail and must be packed with incidents that thrill with action. The old Mother Goose rhymes are excellent examples of stories full of action, and, as a result, of interest. The child personifies all things, that he may find in them the elements of life, of action, of things in the process of doing. If you will spend an hour with a boy who is riding a stick that is to him a horse, or a girl who is playing with a rag-doll, you will learn the method and value of action in the concrete materials of instruction.

#71. Rhyme and Song.#--If to the story is added the attractive appeal of rhythm, rhyme, and song the concrete materials of teaching become almost ideal. It is a good thing to conclude a well-told story with a short, simple poem and a song, both of which should relate to the same truth the story sets forth in the concrete. Through story, rhyme, and song the growing soul climbs most surely and securely to the lofty and illuminating vistas of G.o.d's universal laws. Maxims, precepts, proverbs, mottoes, laws, become meaningful and potential only when the soul moulds these ma.s.s motives of guidance from the plastic and suggestive data of a rich and varied contact with concrete experiences and things. "I am the vine," "I am the good shepherd," "I am the way,"

contain the very essence of all great method in the art of building a soul for the Kingdom of G.o.d and of service.

Test Questions

1. Give an ill.u.s.tration of a "concrete notion"?

2. What may be learned by the study of a boy's pocket?

3. By what means should we bring new thoughts to the pupil?

4. What are four tools at the teacher's disposal?

5. What const.i.tutes a "good story"?

6. What appeal may well be added to the story?

Lesson 9

What Instruction, Drill, and Examination Can Do

#72.# The two processes at work in every good recitation are #teaching and learning#. The first of these processes is the work of the teacher; the latter is the work of the pupil. Learning includes study proper and practise in the use of knowledge learned. The learning process should, of course, be directed by the teacher.