Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education

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HABITUAL REACTION

A second form of reaction is known as habit. On account of the plastic
character of the matter constituting the nervous tissue in the human
organism, any act, whether instinctive, voluntary, or accidental, if
once performed, has a tendency to repeat itself under like
circumstances, or to become habitual. The child, for example, when
placed amid social surroundings, by merely yielding to his general
tendencies of imitation, sympathy, etc., will form many valuable modes
of habitual reaction connected with eating, dressing, talking,
controlling the body, the use of household implements, etc. For this
reason the early instinctive and impulsive acts of the child gradually
develop into definite modes of action, more suited to meet the
particular conditions of his surroundings.

=Habit and Education.=--Furthermore, the formation of these habitual
modes of reaction being largely conditioned by outside influences, it is
possible to control the process of their formation. For this reason, the
educator is able to modify the child's natural reactions, and develop in
their stead more valuable habits. No small part of the work of formal
education, therefore, must consist in adding to the social efficiency of
the child by endowing him with habits making for neatness, regularity,
accuracy, obedience, etc. A detailed study of habit in its relation to
education will be made in Chapter XXII.

CONSCIOUS REACTION

=An Example.=--The third and highest form of human reaction is known as
ideal, or conscious, reaction. In this form of reaction the mind,
through its present ideas, reacts upon some situation or difficulty in
such a way as to adjust itself satisfactorily to the problem with which
it is faced. As an example of such a conscious reaction, or adjustment,
may be taken the case of a young lad who was noticed standing over a
stationary iron grating through which he had dropped a small coin. A few
moments later the lad was seen of his own accord to take up a rod lying
near, smear the end with tar and grease from the wheel of a near by
wagon, insert the rod through the grating, and thus recover his lost
coin. An analysis of the mental movements involved previously to the
actual recovery of the coin will illustrate in general the nature of a
conscious reaction, or adjustment.

=Factors Involved in Process.=--In such an experience the consciousness
of the lad is at the outset occupied with a definite problem, or felt
need, demanding adjustment--the recovering of the lost coin, which need
acts as a stimulus to the consciousness and gives direction and value to
the resulting mental activity. Acting under the demands of this problem,
or need, the mind displays an intelligent initiative in the selecting of
ideas--stick, adhesion, tar, etc., felt to be of value for securing the
required new adjustment. The mind finally combines these selected ideas
into an organized system, or a new experience, which is accepted
mentally as an adequate solution of the problem. The following factors
are found, therefore, to enter into such an ideal, or conscious,
reaction:

1. _The Problem._--The conscious reaction is the result of a definite
problem, or difficulty, presented in consciousness and grasped by the
mind as such--How to recover the coin.

2. _A Selecting Process._--To meet the solution of this problem use is
made of ideas which already form a part of the lad's present experience,
or knowledge, and which are felt by him to have a bearing on the
presented problem.

3. _A Relating Process._--These elements of former experience are
organized by the child into a mental plan which he believes adequate to
solve the problem before him.

4. _Application._--This resulting mental plan serves to guide a further
physical reaction, which constitutes the actual removal of the
difficulty--the recovery of the coin.

=Significance of Conscious Reactions.=--In a conscious reaction upon any
situation, or problem, therefore, the mind first uses its present ideas,
or experience, in weighing the difficulties of the situation, and it is
only after it satisfies itself in theory that a solution has been
reached that the physical response, or application of the plan, is made.
Hence the individual not only directs his actions by his higher
intelligent nature, but is also able to react effectively upon varied
and unusual situations. This, evidently, is not so largely the case with
instinctive or habitual reactions. For efficient action, therefore,
there must often be an adequate mental adjustment prior to the
expression of the physical action. For this reason the value of
consciousness consists in the guidance it affords us in meeting the
demands laid upon us by our surroundings, or environment. This will
become more evident, however, by a brief examination into the nature of
experience itself.

EXPERIENCE

=Its Value.=--In the above example of conscious adjustment it was found
that a new experience arises naturally from an effort to meet some need,
or problem, with which the mind is at the time confronted. Our ideas,
therefore, naturally organize themselves into new experiences, or
knowledge, to enable us to gain some desired end. It was in order to
effect the recovery of the lost coin, for example, that conscious effort
was put forth by the lad to create a mental plan which should solve the
problem. Primarily, therefore, man is a doer and his ideas, or
knowledge, is meant to be practical, or to be applied in directing
action. It is this fact, indeed, which gives meaning and purpose to the
conscious states of man. Hour by hour new problems arise demanding
adjustment; the mind grasps the import of the situation, selects ways
and means, organizes these into an intelligent plan, and directs their
execution, thus enabling us:

Not without aim to go round
In an eddy of purposeless dust.

=Its Theoretic or Intellectual Value.=--But owing to the value which
thus attaches to any experience, a new experience may be viewed as
desirable apart from its immediate application to conduct. Although, for
instance, there is no immediate physical need that one should learn how
to resuscitate a drowning person, he is nevertheless prepared to make of
it a problem, because he feels that such knowledge regarding his
environment may enter into the solution of future difficulties. Thus the
value of new experience, or knowledge, is often remote and intellectual,
rather than immediate and physical, and looks to the acquisition of
further experience quite as much as to the directing of present physical
movement. Beyond the value they may possess in relation to the removal
of present physical difficulty, therefore, experiences may be said to
possess a secondary value in that they may at any time enter into the
construction of new experiences.

=Its Growth: A. Learning by Direct Experience.=--The ability to recall
and use former experience in the upbuilding of an intelligent new
experience is further valuable, in that it enables a person to secure
much experience in an indirect rather than in a direct way, and thus
avoid the direct experience when such would be undesirable. Under direct
experience we include the lessons which may come to us at first hand
from our surroundings, as when the child by placing his hand upon a
thistle learns that it has sharp prickles, or by tasting quinine learns
that it is bitter. In this manner direct experience is a teacher,
continually adjusting man to his environment; and it is evident that
without an ability to retain our experiences and turn them to use in
organizing a new experience without expressing it in action, all
conscious adjustments would have to be secured through such a direct
method.

=B. Learning Indirectly.=--Since man is able to retain his experiences
and organize them into new experiences, he may, if desirable, enter into
a new experience in an indirect, or theoretic, way, and thus avoid the
harsher lessons of direct experience. The child, for example, who knows
the discomfort of a pin-prick may apply this, without actual expression,
in interpreting the danger lurking in the thorn. In like manner the
child who has fallen from his chair realizes thereby, without giving it
expression, the danger of falling from a window or balcony. It is in
this indirect, or theoretic, way that children in their early years
acquire, by injunction and reproof, much valuable knowledge which
enables them to avoid the dangers and to shun the evils presented to
them by their surroundings. By the same means, also, man is able to
extend his knowledge to include the experiences of other men and even of
other ages.

=Relative Value of Experiences.=--While the value of experience consists
in its power to adjust man to present or future problems, and thus
render his action more efficient, it is to be noted that different
experiences may vary in their value. Many of these, from the point of
their value in meeting future problems or making adjustments, must
appear trivial and even useless. Others, though adapted to meet our
needs, may do this in a crude and ineffective manner. As an
illustration of such difference in value, compare the effectiveness and
accuracy of the notation possessed by primitive men as illustrated in
the following strokes:

1, 11, 111, 1111, 11111, 111111, etc.,

with that of our present system of notation as suggested in:

1, 10, 100, 1000, 10000, 100000, 1000000, etc.

In like manner to experience that ice is cold is trivial in comparison
with experiencing its preservative effects as seen in cold storage or
its medicinal effects in certain diseases; to know that soda is white
would be trivial in comparison with a knowledge of its properties in
baking.

=Man Should Participate in Valuable Experiences.=--Of the three forms of
human reaction, instinctive, habitual, and conscious, or ideal, it is
evident that, owing to its rational character, ideal reaction is not
only the most effective, but also the only one that will enable man to
adjust himself to unusual situations. For this reason, and because of
the difference in value of experiences themselves, it is further evident
that man should participate in those experiences which are most
effective in facilitating desired adjustments or in directing right
conduct. It is found, moreover, that this participation can be effected
by bringing the child's experiencing during his early years directly
under control. It is held by some, indeed, that the whole aim of
education is to reconstruct and enrich the experiences of the child and
thereby add to his social efficiency. Although this conception of
education leaves out of view the effects of instinctive and habitual
reaction, it nevertheless covers, as we shall see later, no small part
of the purpose of formal education.

INFLUENCE OF CONSCIOUS REACTION

=A. On Instinctive Action.=--Before concluding our survey of the various
forms of reaction, it may be noted that both instinctive and habitual
action are subject to the influence of conscious reaction. As a child's
early instinctive acts develop into fixed habits, his growing knowledge
aids in making these habits intelligent and effective. Consciousness
evidently aids, for example, in developing the instinctive movements of
the legs into the rhythmic habitual movements of walking, and those of
the hands into the later habits of holding the spoon, knife, cup, etc.
Greater still would be the influence of consciousness in developing the
crude instinct of self-preservation into the habitual reactions of the
spearman or boxer. In general, therefore, instinctive tendencies in man
are subject to intelligent training, and may thereby be moulded into
effective habits of reaction.

=B. On Habitual Action.=--Further new habits may be established and old
ones improved under the direction of conscious reaction. When a child
first learns to represent the number four by the symbol, the problem is
necessarily met at first through a conscious adjustment. In other words,
the child must mentally associate into a single new experience the
number idea and certain ideas of form and of muscular movement.
Although, however, the child is conscious of all of these factors when
he first attempts to give expression to this experience, it is clear
that very soon the expressive act of writing the number is carried on
without any conscious direction of the process. In other words, the
child soon acquires the habit of performing the act spontaneously, or
without direction from the mind. Inversely, any habitual mode of
action, in whatever way established, may, if we possess the necessary
experience, be represented in idea and be accepted or corrected
accordingly. A person, for instance, who has acquired the necessary
knowledge of the laws of hygiene, may represent ideally both his own and
the proper manner of standing, sitting, reclining, etc., and seek to
modify his present habits accordingly. The whole question of the
relation of conscious to habitual reaction will, however, be considered
in Chapter XXII.

CHAPTER III

THE PROCESS OF EDUCATION

CONSCIOUS ADJUSTMENT

From the example of conscious adjustment previously considered, it would
appear that the full process of such an adjustment presents the
following characteristics:

1. _The Problem._--The individual conceives the existence within his
environment of a difficulty which demands adjustment, or which serves as
a problem calling for solution.

2. _A Selecting Process._--With this problem as a motive, there takes
place within the experience of the individual a selecting of ideas felt
to be of value for solving the problem which calls for adjustment.

3. _A Relating Process._--These relevant ideas are associated in
consciousness and form a new experience believed to overcome the
difficulty involved in the problem. This new experience is accepted,
therefore, mentally, as a satisfactory plan for meeting the situation,
or, in other words, it adjusts the individual to the problem in hand.

4. _Expression._--This new experience is expressed in such form as is
requisite to answer fully the need felt in the original problem.

EDUCATION AS ADJUSTMENT

=Example from Writing.=--An examination of any ordinary educative
process taken from school-room experience will show that it involves in
some degree the factors mentioned above.

As a very simple example, may be taken the case of a young child
learning to form capital letters with short sticks. Assuming that he has
already copied letters involving straight lines, such as A, H, etc., the
child, on meeting such a letter as C or D, finds himself face to face
with a new problem. At first he may perhaps attempt to form the curves
by bending the short thin sticks. Hereupon, either through his own
failure or through some suggestion of his teacher, he comes to see a
short, straight line as part of a large curve. Thereupon he forms the
idea of a curve composed of a number of short, straight lines, and on
this principle is able to express himself in such forms as are shown
here.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

In this simple process of adjustment there are clearly involved the four
stages referred to above, as follows:

1. _The Problem._--The forming of a curved letter by means of straight
sticks.

2. _A Selecting Process._--Selecting of the ideas straight and curved
and the fixing of attention upon them.

3. _A Relating Process._--An organization of the selected ideas into a
new experience in which the curve is viewed as made up of a number of
short, straight lines.

4. _Expression._--Working out the physical expression of the new
experience in the actual forming of capitals involving curved lines.

=Example from Arithmetic.=--An analysis of the process by which a child
learns that there are four twos in eight, shows also the following
factors:

1. _The Problem._--To find out how many twos are contained in the
vaguely known eight.

2. _A Selecting Process._--To meet this problem the pupil is led from
his present knowledge of the number two, to proceed to divide eight
objects into groups of two; and, from his previous knowledge of the
number four, to measure the number of these groups of two.

3. _A Relating Process._--Next the three ideas two, four, and eight are
translated into a new experience, constituting a mental solution of the
present problem.

4. _Expression._--This new experience expresses itself in various ways
in the child's dealings with the number problems connected with his
environment.

=Example from Geometry.=--Taking as another example the process by which
a student may learn that the exterior angle of a triangle is equal to
the two interior and opposite angles, there appear also the same stages,
thus:

1. _The Problem._--The conception of a difficulty or problem in the
geometrical environment which calls for solution, or adjustment--the
relation of the angle _a_ to the angles _b_ and _c_ in Figure 1.

[Illustration: Fig. 1]

[Illustration: Fig. 2]

[Illustration: Fig. 3]

2. _A Selecting Process._--With this problem as a motive there follows,
as suggested by Figure 2, the selecting of a series of ideas from the
previous experiences of the pupil which seem relative to, or are
considered valuable for solving the problem in hand.

3. _A Relating Process._--These relative ideas pass into the formation
of a new experience, as illustrated in Figure 3, constituting the
solution of the problem.

4. _Expression._--A further applying of this experience may be made in
adjusting the pupil to other problems connected with his geometric
environment; as, for example, to discover the sum of the interior angles
of a triangle.

EDUCATION AS CONTROL OF ADJUSTMENT

The examples of adjustment taken from school-room practice, are found,
however, to differ in one important respect from the previous example
taken from practical life. This difference consists in the fact that in
the recovery of the coin the modification of experience took place
wholly without control or direction other than that furnished by the
problem itself. Here the problem--the recovery of the coin--presents
itself to the child and is seized upon as a motive by his attention
solely on account of its own value; secondly, this problem of itself
directs a flow of relative images which finally bring about the
necessary adjustment. In the examples taken from the school, on the
other hand, the processes of adjustment are, to a greater or less
extent, directed and regulated through the presence of some type of
educative agent. For instance, when a student goes through the process
of learning the relation of the exterior angle to the two interior and
opposite angles, the control of the process appears in the fact that the
problem is directly presented to the student as an essential step in a
sequence of geometric problems, or adjustments. The same direction or
control of the process is seen again in the fact that the student is not
left wholly to himself, as in the first example, to devise a solution,
but is aided and directed thereto, first, in that the ideas bearing upon
the problem have previously been made known to the student through
instruction, and secondly, in that the selecting and adjusting of these
former ideas to the solution of the new problem is also directed through
the agency of either a text-book or a teacher. A conscious adjustment,
therefore, which is brought about without direction from another,
implies only a process of learning on the part of the child, while a
controlled adjustment implies both a process of learning on the part of
the child and a process of teaching on the part of an instructor. For
scientific treatment, therefore, it is possible to limit formal
education, so far as it deals with conscious adjustment, to those
modifications of experience which are directed or controlled through an
educative agent, or, in other words, are brought about by means of
instruction.

REQUIREMENTS OF THE INSTRUCTOR

Formal education being an attempt to direct the development of the child
by controlling his stimulations and responses through the agency of an
instructor, we may now understand in general the necessary
qualifications and offices of the teacher in directing the educative
process.

1. The teacher must understand what constitutes the worthy life; that
is, he must have a definite aim in directing the development of the
child.

2. He must know what stimulations, or problems, are to be presented to
the child in order to have him grow, or develop, into this life of
worth.

3. He must know how the physical, intellectual, and moral nature of the
child reacts upon these appropriate stimulations.

4. He must have skill in presenting the stimuli, or problems, to the
child and in bringing its mind to react appropriately thereon.

5. He must, in the case of conscious reactions, see that the child not
only acquires the new experience, but that he is also able to apply it
effectively. In other words, he must see that the child acquires not
only knowledge, but also skill in the use of knowledge.

CHAPTER IV

THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM

=Valuable Experience: Race Knowledge.=--Since education aims largely to
increase the effectiveness of the moral conduct of the child by adding
to the value of his experience, the science of education must decide the
basis on which the educator is to select experiences that possess such a
value in directing conduct. Now a study of the progress of a nation's
civilization will show that this advancement is brought about through
the gradual interpretation of the resources at the nation's command, and
the turning of these resources to the attainment of human ends. Thus
there is gradually built up a community, or race, experience, in which
the materials of the physical, economic, political, moral, and religious
life are organized and brought under control. By this means is
constituted a body of race experience, the value of which has been
tested in its direct application to the needs of the social life of the
community. It is from the more typical forms of this social, or race,
experience that education draws the experience, or problems, for the
educative process. In other words, through education the experiences of
the child are so reconstructed that he is put in possession of the more
typical and more valuable forms of race experience, and thus rendered
more efficient in his conduct, or action.

PURPOSES OF CURRICULUM

=Represents Race Experiences.=--So far as education aims to have the
child enter into typical valuable race experiences, this can be
accomplished only by placing these experiences before him as problems
in such form that he may realize them through a regular process of
learning. The purpose of the school curriculum is, therefore, to provide
such problems as may, under the direction of the instructor, control the
conscious reactions of the child, and enable him to participate in these
more valuable race experiences. In this sense arithmetic becomes a means
for providing the child with a series of problems which may give him the
experiences which the race has found valuable in securing commercial
accuracy and precision. In like manner, constructive work provides a
series of problems in which the child experiences how the race has
turned the materials of nature to human service. History provides
problems whose solution gives the experience which enables the pupil to
meet the political and social conditions of his own time. Physics shows
how the forces of nature have become instruments for the service of man.
Geography shows how the world is used as a background for social life;
and grammar, what principles control the use of the race language as a
medium for the communication of thought.

=Classifies Race Experience.=--Without such control of the presentation
of these racial experiences as is made possible through the school and
the school curriculum, the child would be likely to meet them only as
they came to him in the actual processes of social life. These processes
are, however, so complex in modern society, that, in any attempt to
secure experience directly, the child is likely to be overwhelmed by
their complex and unorganized character. The message boy in the
dye-works, for example, may have presented to him innumerable problems
in number, language, physics, chemistry, etc., but owing to the
confused, disorganized, and mingled character of the presentation, these
are not likely to be seized upon by him as direct problems calling for
adjustment. In the school curriculum, on the other hand, the different
phases of this seemingly unorganized mass of experiences are abstracted
and presented to the child in an organized manner, the different phases
being classified as facts of number, reading, spelling, writing,
geography, physics, chemistry, etc. Thus the school curriculum
classifies for the child the various phases of this race experience and
provides him with a comprehensive representation of his environment.

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