■ Cornell University Library LB 2165.N27 Observation and practice teaching in col 3 1924 013 029 479 •A -N '••n»i*s llf ftmpmfmmff MaoNia lanuMVd ailvoasssiid Observation and Pradtice Teaching In College and University Departments of Education by f Frederic Emest Fairington State University of Texas Geoige Drayton Strayer Teachers' CoUese, Columbia University Walter Ballou Jacobs Brown University Papera ptepared for Discussion at the Meetings of the National Society of College Teachers of Education, Auditorium Hotel, Chicago, Tuesday, Februaty twenty^third, at one-thirty p. m., and Wednesday, February twenty-fouith, at one-thirty p. m. Nineteen I^undrrd Nine Published by The National Society of College Teachers of Education Price Fifty Cents. Address the Secretary Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013029479 Observation and Pradtice Teaching In College and University Departments of Education by Frederic Ernest Farrington Slate University ci Texas George Drayton Strayer Teachers' College, Columbia University Walter Ballou Jacobs Brown University Papers piepared (or Discussion at the Meetings of the National Society of College Teachers of Education, Auditorium Hotel, Chicago, Tuesday, February twenty-third, at one-thirty p. m., and Wednesday, February twenty-foirlh, at one-thirty p. m. Nineteen Hundred Nine Published by The National Society of College Teachers of Educaition ! Price Fifty Cents. Address the Secretary 146680 MONOTYPED AND PRINTED BY THE C. A, WEBBER PRINTING COMPANY IOWA CITY, IOWA PRACTICE WORK IN UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION FREDERIC ERNEST FARRINGTON Associate Professor of Education, University of Texas 1. The Problem Only a little less than sixty years ago the first course in education at an American university was inaugurated at Brown. ' This short-lived experiment can hardly be considered a suc- cess, but nevertheless it serves to mark the beginning of a move- ment that has spread consistently for the last quarter of a century, and that has expanded during the latter half of that period with remarkable celerity. It is significant to note that the prospectus of that first course m education was eminently practical in its aim, at least, in spite of the encyclopaedic char- a"cter^f its co nteritTFor it touched upon_fhe fields of psychology, school organiza tion, educational theory mjts_^ynamic aspects, and speciaLmethod , in.-:varioiis subjectSr The first real chair in education, that at the Univer si ty of Michigan,, was likewise established under the asgis of utilitarianism, although the scope of its work was immediately broadened so that it was concern- ed primarily with the more cultural and theoretical aspects, in order that its courses might conform the more readily to the standard of true university subjects. The latter tendency, so marked at that time, seems largely to have determined the trend of subsequent efforts within the same field. It is only within recent years that the early utilitarian basis has again become prominent, and we are brought face to face with the problem of practice work. Th^presence of this_j3ro blem is doubtles s due to two causes: (1) the feeling that the traditional method of work of the normal school in the preparation of elementary teachers would be equally an instrument of good in university work; and (2) the growing conviction that theory without prac- ice impHes lack of efficiency. Despite the widespread though not unanimous conviction that the normal school and the university each has its own 1 HiNDSDALE, Study of Education in American Colleges and Universities. Educational Review, xix,, p. 112 4 Observation and Practice Work field of work, that the function of the former is the training of elementary teachers, and that of the latter is the training of secondary and higher teachers, and furthermore regardless of -the fact that neither one is able to supply the legitimate demand for its own particular product, each one seems to be trenching upon the domain of the other. Thanks to the reprehensible blanket system of certification that prevails in nearly all the states, whereby any certificate carries the right to teach in any grade of school, i the normal schools are aspiring to train teach- ers for secondary schools, and in like fashion, the universities are every year sending their students out into the elementary schools. In fact, more than one normal school is covertly if not openly competing with the universities for this opportun- ity — a- course which must sooner or later give rise to unfortun- ate hard feeling and invidious recriminations. The root of the whole evil lies in the mistaken notion that the secondary teach- er has a higher calling than the elementary teacher. Our Amer- ican teachers ought so to be imbued with the true spirit of democracy that they would steadfastly reject any attempt to inoculate the great teaching body with the serum of such a professional caste spirit. Surely the builder of the superstruc- ture has no more respectable or responsible task than that of the layer of the foundation. That wise old English school- master, Mulcaster, in contending that the early instruction ought to be under the direction of the best teachers who should likewise be most liberally recompensed for their pains, was merely putting in a little different fashion what Plato had main- tained two thousand years earlier, that "in every work the be- ginning is the most important part, especially in dealing with anything young and tender. ' ' 2 The kindergartner has as noble a calling as the college professor; the grade teacher is as worthy of respect as the classical teacher in the high school. The ex- istence of these different classes of teachers is merely a practi- cal recognition that the economic principle of the division of labor applies with equal force to the teaching profession. There are some people that by nature or training are best suited for kindergarten work, others that succeed better with elementary 1 CuBBERLEY, Certification of Teachers. FiftH Yearbook, National Society for the Scientific Study of Education. Pt. II. 1906, p. 59. 2 Republic, II., p. 377. Observation and Practice Work S school pupils, still others that find best expression of their capacities in handling adolescents. The colleges and universities have offended, too, in assum^ ing that they can do the work of the normal schools. True their education departments might be so organized that they could discharge this responsibility, but constituted as they are at present, the emphasis is largely on the side of teaching subjects rather than on teaching children. The normal schooT that requires a four-year high school co urse_Jor__gntr.anc_e _an.31 is thus free to d evote itself largely to the professional side of the elementary school subject-matter has the advantage of the college and univer sity departments of educationj. as they, are constituted a^jresent, in the preparation of teachers for the lower schools. If the elementary schools generally were organ- ized on the departmental plan, some of the disadvantage might be obviated, but at present it is manifestly impossible for the university to give that attention to all the subjects of the ele- mentary school curriculum that is so essential for teachers en- tering upon that particular field. Our best normal schools spend a relatively small amount of time in taking up new sub- jects of study per se, but they devote themselves primarily to reviewing the elementary branches through the media of those more advanced. It is not so much a more extensive study of the lower subjects that is needed as a more intensive study of those same subjects with a view to teaching them. .To the extent that the institutions of higher learning fail to do this — ^it is by no means to their discredit; they have another function in the intellectual world — to that very extent do they fall behind the normal school in the preparation of elementary teachers. Be- cause all our normal schools are not ideal either in their condi- tions for entrance or in the character of their work, does not justify the universities in attempting to assume part of these burdens. Each institution has abundant work in its own par- ticular field. Let us rather work together to build up the standard of these lower professional schools until they attain the highest type of efficiency of which they are capable. The contention often urged that the university students take up elementary work merely as a stepping stone to second- ary work later does not justify the practice. It is simply em- phasizing the notion that teaching is a kind of jack-of-all-trades 6 Observation and Practice Work accomplishment, that the appellation "teacher" is a passport to any grade of activity from the kindergarten to the university, and this is all tending to delay the recognition of the teaching career as a real profession. The attitude of the teachers them- selves is most helpful toward encouraging the all too prevalent feeling that teaching is an avocation rather than a vocation. In many of our states, young men especially take up teaching as a stepping stone to medicine or the bar. Is there any more reason why teaching should be the handmaid of these other professions rather than that they should perform the same ser- vice for her? The argument that if these men were thus ex- cluded the profession would show a still greater preponderance of women teachers, would probably hold true, at least for the present, but is the loss of these particular individuals so much to be deplored? The professional institutions cannot now keep up with the demand. Might they not better devote their time and effort to preparing those that at least enter the pro- fession without the avowed intention of quitting it after a year or two ? The world may owe these temporary teachers a living, but it gives them no right to take this at the expense of the helpless boys and girls on whom they try their unpracticed hand. There might be some slight justification for thus prac- ticing upon the youth, if the succeeding classes were to derive any benefit from the sacrifice of their older brothers and sisters, but just about- the time these temporary teachers are becoming efficient, they leave their avocation, teaching, to take up their vocation, medicine or law. Then the process is begun anew, and another class of pupils form the subjects to be experimented upon in the educational dispensary. Our school trustees and boards of education have no moral right to expose their children to this form of experimentation, and we college and university men, who are presumably all educational experts, have no right to encourage them in this procedure. There is one legitimate avenue by which the university is fully justified in sending its men into the elementary field, and that is by providing supervisory and administrative officers. One of the most effective ways of doing this is to take individ- uals who have already proved their efficiency as teachers, and for such there is no need for the university to provide further practice work. It ought to be a canon of educational adminis- tration that nobody is fitted to supervise or direct an educa- Observation and Practice Work 7 tional system who has not had first hand acquaintance with the work of the rank and file in such a system. The French miUtary academy at Saint-Cyr (corresponding to our West Point) has recently made a most practical application of this principle. Now, the French boy who succeeds in the gruelling competition for entrance is immediately sent out into the army to serve as a private for one year, at the end of that period returning to the academy for his professional training. Only in this way, it is believed, can the future officer properly understand the position and the point of view of the private soldier. The same principle would appear to be applicable with equal force to the training of the educational officers. On the other hand not merely efficient teaching can qualify a person for super- visory or administrative positions in the school system, any more than effective discharge of the private's and petty officer's duties can qualify one for a commission in the army. There are certain other qualities and abilities that are not acquired through mere practice. The ordinary teacher elected to an administrative position is no more fit to plan a course of study than is the corporal to command a regiment. The university in its historical and theoretical courses can and does provide the training which together with the previous practical exper- ience renders one capable of performing the particular task indicated as well as those others that fall to the lot of the school ■administrative officer. In view of the foregoing, the problem of the university with reference to the training of teachers would seem to resolve itself into this : in the first place the training of competent super- visory and administrative officers for the lower schools and the general school system; and secondly, the training of the rank and file of the secondary and the higher teachers. As was implied above, it is this second group for whom the university practice work is primarily intended. II. The Function of Practice Teaching Dr. Dewey in a paper read before a sister organization a few years ago, opened with these words: "I shall assume with- out further argument that adequate professional instruction of teachers is not exclusively theoretical, but involves a certain 1 Dewey, Relation of Theory to Practice. Third Yearbook of the National Society for the Scientific Study of Education. Pt. I., p. 9. 8 Observation and Practice Work amount of practical work." ' Whatever may be the theoreti- cal attitude of the institutions represented in our society toward this question, the present practice today does not seem to jus- tify Dr. Dewey's assumption (for in only eleven of the thirty- seven colleges and universities represented here and reporting does practice teaching form a part of the required work, and only twelve others offer such a course), and one of our members goes so far as to say: "We have no practice teaching whatever (i. e. at our university). We do not think it desirable for sec- ondary training in people of college standing." What is the function of practice teaching in the professional training of secondary teachers? M. Langlois put the whole question in a nutshell when he said: "One has a right to demand three qualifications in prospective secondary teachers: that they should know what they are to teach; that they should know more than they are to teach; and that they should know how to teach." And a little further on he adds: "It is only in England and in the United States, that the respect of personal liberty has been pushed to the point of charlatanism, to the point of tolerating that anybody at all can teach anything at all." ' Truly a rather severe arraignment of our teaching staff, but nevertheless I regret to acknowledge a just criticism. Assume for the moment that these first two conditions have been met. What of the third? Does the keen analysis of even an impartial foreign observer justify us in imposing the practice teaching requirement on our prospective secondary teachers. Let us glance into the outside world of affairs for possible analagous situations. What would we think of a master plumber who attempted to turn out competent work- men by discussing theoretically the relative values of iron and lead pipe under given conditions, by explaining carefully even with practical demonstrations the methods of cutting threads and wiping joints, without giving the learner the chance to try those processes for himself? Would this master work- man think of turning over to such a tyro, the responsibility of selecting the material and installing the system of plumbing in a fine modem dwelling? Yet in case of failure the damage could be repaired at a comparatively slight monetary expendi- ture, and a competent workman could be sent to do the work 1 Langlois, La preparation profkssionnelle a Vensetgnment secondaire, p. 101. Observation and Practice Work 9 properly. Most of our secondary teachers begin their w ork with no morefitness for t heir tasks than t he plumber's helper- Yet the development of social e'ffidency in our children is a far more responsible undertaking than installing the sanitary system of a human habitation. In the former case there is no possible way of repairing a botched piece of work. Turning to the walks of professional life, we find a similar state of affairs prevailing there. It is not so very many years since the young doctor was sent out into the world with his professional equipment derived solely from lecture courses and laboratory work at the medical school. He knew his medical theory and the effect a certain drug ought to have, but it was entirely problematical as to whether he could find a case that exactly fitted into the conditions of his theory, or whether some unexpected contingency might not entirely nullify the ordinary action of the drug in question. Is it any wonder, then, that the country doctor whose skill had been gathered chiefly through common sense, careful observation, and long experience, would be preferred to the young medical school graduate? Now all this earlier preparation of the prospective physician is supple- mented by numerous clinics and an extensive hospital exper- ince before the young man begins the actual practice of his profession. Not that the process of learning by trial and error is any less effective than it was before — for the practitioner — but it is attended with less serious consequences for the patients. Is the responsibility involved in dealing with the human mind any less than that in handling the human body? The physi- cian's skill is immediately measurable; he kills or cures in the individual case, and the incident is closed. The effect of the teacher's treatment is far more subtle; its effects are usually discernible only after the lapse of time, when it is too late to repair the injury. The preparation of the teacher without practice is very much akin to that of the doctor without clinics and hospital experience. The idea underlying the change in the preparation for a medical career is most fundamental, and it is psychologically sound: It is considerably more economical to keep people from making mistakes than it is to correct mis- takes after they have been made. The lessons are perhaps more forcibly learned in the latter case, but at what a waste of energy! One has only to recall the recent growth of parental 10 Observation and Practice Work schools and reformatories with the view of diverting the current that is tending prisonward, in order to find another appUcation of this fundamental truth. This same principle has long ob- tained wide-spread practical recognition in the educational sys- tems of France and Germany, but it is only beginning to be appreciated in our American schools. In the other professions like law, ministry, architecture, and engineering, there is not the same public interest in speci- fic practical preparation for the vocation, for failure or "prac- ticing upon the public" entails few or no deleterious effects on society, but merely reacts upon the individual. In law the neophyte gains this practical training in association with older and more experienced members of his profession, or ekes out a precarious existence through the unimportant cases and the court assignments that may fall to his lot. But in neither condition is the public socially interested in his success. It demands good lawyers and it is going to find them, but it is of no particular moment how many poor ones there are. The conditions are quite different in teaching. Not only does the public welfare demand competent teachers, but it is of vital importance to reduce to a minimum the possibility of having poor ones. In a profession, then, like medicine, where the interest of society in individual excellence is large, and in even other pro- fessions like law, architecture, and engineering, where the so- cial good is less intimately bound up with individual success, practical work as a requisite for obtaining university sanction is coming to play a larger and largei' part. In the professional preparation of the teacher practice is not in the least intended to supplant theory but merely to sup- plement it, to vitalize it, to render it useful, and to give the student some training in applying it. What shall it avail a teacher if he has learned from the history of education that Comenius stood for things, in his sense of the term, as opposed to mere words, and yet find him trying to teach geography, for example, without any reference to the wealth of natural phenomena at his very door? Even Dotheboys Hall did bet- ter than that. As Dickens pointedly observes, not only did the poor wretches there learn to spell "window" but they gain- ed intimate knowledge of what a window was by being sent Observation and Practice Work 1 1 forthwith to wash one! Wherein is there any practical value in a teacher's being able to discuss intelligently the principle of apperception with the various implications contained there- in if he conducts a Latin class with little or no regard for the I English roots that are present on every page of Latin text? An understanding of the basic principles of school hygiene and class control is essential for every teacher, but when one finds a class room where the pupils are listless and inattentive largely because the teacher has neglected to employ the means at her command for obtaining a supply of fresh air, is it any wonder that school authorities often look askance at the university trained teacher? The number of like instances might be increas- ed almost indefinitely if the members of our departments of education would only follow the products of their own theor- etical courses out into the schools. We have tried to teach students to swim by a thorough drill in the principles of buoy- ancy and acquatics, but we have refused to give them even a swimming pool where they might try to see if they could prove the worth of these principles, or even where they could see other swimmers at work. The crying need today in our uni- versity departments of education is for these "swimming pools." However desirable it might be theoretically if we could retain these students of education until they had thoroughly mastered the technique of the teaching process, in other words, until they had completed their apprenticeship and were ready to go forth as real master workmen in their profession, in actual practice such a procedure is manifestly unfeasible and impossi- ble. We have neither time, nor accommodations, nor instruct- ing staff for any such task. All we can hope to do is (1) to give them opportunity to see good teaching, and to know it, and furthermore to know why it is good — in other words, to develop in them the ability to project mere processes upon a background of principle in order to estimate their real worth as educational instruments; (2) to enable the students to verify by their own tests the identical principles that they accepti theoretically; and (3) to give some facility in handling the procesJ ses employed in class room instruction. The first of these needs no elaboration at this point. It falls more properly within the limits of the paper assigned to Dr. Strayer. 12 Observation and Practice Work The so-called laboratory aspect of practice teaching fulfils the same function here that it does in any ordinary laboratory science. Not that students are expected to discover new prin- ciples of the learning process or school control, but the rework- ing of the old principles serves to impress them upon the stu- dent mind as no amount of theoretical study can possibly do. This^econd stage which serves to introduce the student grad- ually to~tEelnichanIcs~crf~crass teaching is divided into several distinct operations-:- — ■ ' (T) Observation in a given class room with a view to taking charge of that particular class. This is quite different from general observation, for it includes learning the names of the various pupils, studying the individual differences and the way of approach to each particular child, not so much disclosing the phenomena of the mental processes in general, as providing a source of information to be drawn upon when the student has to handle these pupils himself. (2) Presence in the class room in the capacity of student assistant, with the idea of making himself useful to the class teacher in any way that offers. Under this head would come, the reading of examination papers, and the correction of com- positions and other written work; in laboratory subjects, the preparation and assembling of materials and actual assistance given to pupils in the laboratory; all of which tasks require an ability to weigh, appreciate, and select that is entirely novel to the student who has always approached a subject from'^the purely academic point of view. Here, too, properly belongs the coaching of individual pupils who have fallen behind through illness or absence, or who need private work. (3) The preparation of lesson plans. Here one element of the teaching process is isolated from an entangling complex. The student is free from the responsibility of class control; he has abundant time for reflection; and he can give his undivided attention to arranging his material in a psychological order for presentation to the pupils. Then for the first time the student begins to appreciate that the teaching order is not necessarily the logical order, that whereas he has heretofore looked at subject matter objectively, he must now change his point of view and regard it subjectively. It is one thing to master a subject in order to pass an examination upon that subject; it Observation and Practice Work 13 is quite a different problem to master it so as to call out the proper responses in the learners. (4) The teaching of a single lesson, one that has been pre- viously worked over as just indicated. At best this must be an unreal sort of procedure. The presence of the critic teacher relieves the student largely if not entirely of the discipline prob- lem, that stumbling block of most young teachers, but by that very fact it allows the student to concentrate his attention upon the presentation of his subject matter. This gradual approach enables the student t o isolate^ the more impor tant elements of the teaching process, to_i:enter his .attention upon them si ngly, and t o acquir e an adequate cora- prehe nsi on of the p roblem involved, if not actually to master each ind ividual s tep, before attempting to combine all into a synthe tic jwhole. - It requires only slight reflection to see the advantage from a scientific point of view that such a method enjoys over that which prevails in many of our colleges and universities today of giving, if you please, even a thorough theoretical equipment, and then casting the student bodily into the school room with the implied counsel, "We have done all we can for you. You have your basis of knowledge; there is the school; go ahead and make your own adjustments." This analvs is that we have just outlined possesses the two- fold advantage of guiding the student when he has most need of such assistance, and of protecting the children from the flounderings of the tyro. The first implies no coddling process, for under intelligent administration, the student must take each of these steps for himself, but it enables him to do this under an economical, ideational process rather than by the longer and more wasteful empirical procedure. It necessitates real teach- ing, and makes practical application of a principle that has al- ready been suggested, "It is distinctly more pedagogical to prevent the student from making mistakes than to correct them, after they are made." The second consideration has not yet been sufficiently appreciated in our educational procedure. This_ideaj3f shielding jthe_pupils fronxthe. practice _t,e.aehgi may be jiistrQed as a. measure of self- protection in a big private school l ike the Horace Mann School at Teachers College, New York, (where many of the tuition fees are considerably greater than those at any of the colleges or universities in the country. 14 Observation and Practice Work and where the parents are paying these large fees in consider- ation of having none but the very best teaching available), but the same conditions do not prevail in our state universities. It is an undebatable fact that the first teaching of every teacher is practice teaching, whether so denominated or not, whether done in a particular school under the control and supervision of educational experts, or in a remote district high shcool where any close supervision is conspicuous by its absence. If the university educational departments do not assume the respon- sibility for this first teaching, and it is thereby forced out into the far corners of the state, is there not unjust discrimination against the modest country school, which if anything is less able to recover from the poorly qualified individual teacher? The State High School, University High School, or whatever may be its appellation, with its superior equipment, its skilled critic teachers, all under the personal supervision of an educa- tional specialist, even when a part of the teaching is in the hands of young and inexperienced teachers, will provide a train- ing for the youth that will compare more than favorably with the best ordinary high schools in the state, and it will enjoy the public confidence. Furthermore, such preliminary work before the certificate is granted will serve as a sieve through which to sift out the undesirables and the incompetents who ought never to be allowed to enter the profession. Si/ch should be firmly told that they would better seek some other field of activity than teaching. Finally comes the synthesizing process of all the profession- al preparation, the actual teaching under as nearly normal con- ditions as possible. Then the student who has passed success- fully through all the various preliminary processes, which, by the way, should be eliminatory at each stage, is put in charge of the class for a period of time, thus reproducing in miniature as nearly as possible the actual conditions of one's teaching experience. The critic still remains near enough to be called upon in case of need, but the supervision is much less close. Then for the first time the student teacher assumes the full burden of class room conduct — teaching, discipline, and all — and he begins to play a part in the educative process in the com- plete sense of the term, to teach with the consciousness that he is responsible for the intellectual, moral, and dynamic growth Observation and Practice Work 1 5 of the pupils entrusted to his care. Practically the only real' condition of actual teaching experience that is not present here is the feeling that the teacher must somehow "make a go" of it. It is indeed questionable how really valuable this condition may be. True, it does spur on some teachers to success, but the large amount of vital energy used up through the wear and tear on the nervous system might better have been expended in some other way. It is not to be expected even at the end of this last stage of the student teacher's professional preparation, that he will have reduced all his class room activities to auto- matic reactions, so to speak, that he will have become a past master in the art of school management, but it is to be expected that he shall have acquired some real appreciation of the teach- er's problem, that he shall have had some practice in projecting processes upon the background of principles, and that he shall have made a fair beginning. The perfection of these processes can only be attained by experience and use, and if we teachers of teachers have done our work faithfully, this growth will con- tinue as long as our students continue to practice the profession. III. What Has Been Done T his prob l em of secondary practice tea ching i s by no means new, however novel its discussion in the United States. When we look at the conditions abroad, we begin to appreciate how far behind we really are. It seems hardto_r ealize that as fa r back as 1826, 1 eve n before the re were any definite plan s for .the es-_ tablis hment of an elementary norm al school in this country, Prussia began to require the Probejahr or year of trial teaching of all candidates for appointment in the secondary schools. In 1890, partly from the fact that the number of men preparing for teaching in these schools had grown so embarrassingly large, and partly from a desire to increase the professional re- quirements, still another year called the seminar year was inserted before the Probejahr. This succeeded in reducing the number of candidates for teaching honors, and henceforth it formed a part of the professional preparation for the secondary service. Here, then, are two years of practical work (following the three years of academic study in the university, and one year of private preparation for the state examination), th 1 Russell, German Higher Schools, p. 363. 1 6 Observation and Practice Work former devoted largely to what has previously been denominated the laboratory aspect of the practice work, and the latter to a year of real practice teaching, six or eight hours per week. The significant points for us to notice here are: first, the amount of preparation for the teaching profession after the work of the Gymnasium- is completed (this carries the pupil con- siderably farther than even our best high schools), — three or four years in the university, one in preparing for the state ex- amination, one in the seminar, and one in the trial teaching, all of this going a long way toward building up a good whole- some conviction that teaching is as real and as worthy a pro- fession as law, medicine, or theology; and second the fact that the practical side of this professional training is given outside the universities and in institutions beyond their control, partly in regular seminaries established for that purpose, and partly in certain selected secondary schools. The extremely central- ized character of the German educational system and the very high professional attainments of the secondary principals and teachers are contributory factors in the success of this latter kind of training. The degree of centralization that prevails in Germany would be quite out of the question with us, nor would it be desirable, but satisfactory substitutes are perhaps within the bounds of possibility. Although the perfection of the German system is beyond our reach at the present, yet I believe one or more teachers capable of doing a part of this work could be found within a reasonable distance of practically every one of the institutions represented in this society. In Germany, the number assigned in any year to any one of these "preferred" schools is small, from three to seven at the- most. Notwithstanding that there is regular theoretical work once a week under the leadership of the director, the chief purpose of the year is to acquaint the studentsWith the practical working of a secondary school. Throughout this period they are required to attend all faculty raeetings, and they are given practical training in school control, the conduct of examinations, and in the use of apparatus, material, and other accessories. The first quarter is spent almost entirely in observation, while the subsequent class room practice includes two or three lessons per week, taught under the eye of the director or some other of the regular teachers, together with certain set lessons which are Observation and Practice Work 1 7 conducted in the preaence of all the students assigned to the school and which form the basis of extended criticism from the director. It should be observed here that by this time every student knows what subjects he intends to teach, in fact, these have all been determined by the result of his state examination. He teaches these and no others. The Prohejahr is passed in much the same fashion, save that it is even more practical in its experience. The students are sent by twos to certain designated schools, and there they teach six or eight hours per week under the oversight of skilled teach- ers. In comparison with these two years of practical work, the amount that we devote to a like purpose seems paltry indeed. The German principle, "Make haste slowly," finds no counter- part in the feverish anxiety to rush our students through the mill at top speed. Germany is still quite content with the hand work, while America seems to prefer the factory, machine- made product, even in the educational field. In France, despite the growing part taken by the provincial universities in the preparation of secondary teachers, the Higher Normal School at Paris still retains much of its former prestige. This school, which in its permanent form antedated the first of the above-mentioned German seminaries by nearly a score of years, was for a considerable period nothing more than a university of a specialized type, fortunate enough to have a selected group of students to work with. Since the reform in secondary education in 1902, the instruction has been taking on a more and more pronounced professional character. For years the scholarship side had been developed so intensely that its graduates were quite as competent to undertake real university teaching as to enter the secondary service. A strong reaction is going on there at this very moment, tending to provide a professional preparation, commensurate with the academic, which latter has at no time been questioned. The "practice" of the normal student which is confined to the third and last year of the course, is of two sorts : in the first place, lessons presented to the student's class-mates of the nor- mal school; and in the second place,' actual teaching in the city lycees. The drawbacks of the former will be at once apparent, but this disadvantage is not so great as might be expected, for, 18 Observation and Practice Work after all, these lessons do not differ materially from the lecture and quiz method generally employed in the secondary schools. The work is so arranged that during the year each student will have to conduct from three to twelve lessons in each subject which he is preparing to teach. The presentation is subse- quently criticized by his fellows and finally by the professor in charge. Inasmuch as each professor is absolutely free to carry on his course as he sees fit, and he has been chosen for his work without any regard to his ability to train up others, it is evident that the practical value of the criticisms from the teaching point of view will depend entirely upon the individual. Some of these cirticisms are based upon a fine appreciation of the needs and capacities of the secondary school boy, while on the other hand, some, however searching and keen they may be, are exactly the sort one might expect to hear passed on a public lecture delivered before a mature audience. The second sort of practice, the actual teaching in the city lycees, has lately taken on new life. Formerly a two weeks' task, disagreeable to the normal student, looked upon as an im- position by the lycee teacher, and often treated as a lark by the pupils, this practice period is now reduced to serious work. The best that can be said, however, is that it is done under com- petent teachers. In the modern languages the practice teach- ing is considerably more extensive. The three weeks for the ordinary subjects are expanded so that the period covers nearly two-thirds of the academic year, the best of the lycee teachers are selected for this purpose, and they are paid four hunrded francs per year extra for their services. This plan for the modern language teachers is yet in the experimental stage. If it succeeds it will probably be extended, at least in some measure, to the other subjects. The great weaknesses here, however, are, in the first case, the unreality of the practice, and in both cases, the chasm existing between theory and prac- tice, for there is no one person in whom the responsibility for this work can be centered. The problem in our own training institutions is widely dif- ferent from that which one meets abroad, the mere numbers involved being of immense significance. The enrollment in the three classes at the Higher Normal School in Paris, for instance, is only slightly in excess of one hundred and fifty, whereas, in Observation and Practice Work 19 the University of Texas alone, the number of students in the education department is upwards of two hundred and fifty. Yet the former is nominally the training school for all the lycees in France with its thirty-eight millions of population, while the latter serves in its own way but a single state. The traditional social conditions which apply with equal force to Germany and France account largely for this striking difference in the mere numerical nature of the problem in the new and the old world. The fact, too, that abroad, education is a national responsibility rather than a state or local question as here, makes possible the high degree of centralization that pre- vails on the continent with its consequent ease of control. With each of the American states the sole arbiter of its educational affairs, there is naturally no uniformity of procedure. In order jt(3^ find out what is being done at the present time in the United States, a series of questions was . seat out . t,a all th e institutions r epresented in the membership of this society, all the state universities and some six other colleges and uni- versities added for various reasons, in all amounting to sixty- nine institutions. The following table, which includes only those institutions replying to the questionnaire, will show some of the more im- portant details of the facilities and conditions of the practice course. With few exceptions, one may fairly assume that in the other institutions no such opportunities are available. The following comments will throw additional light on the categorical answers given above. Adelphi College. The practice teaching, evidently of a sporadic nature, is done in the preparatory department, but this school is used more for demonstration than for practice purposes. The tuition fees, $60 to $180 per year, partially account for this. "At present there are so many who wish license number 1 that we cannot give practice in elementary teaching. We still give occasional practice work in high school subjects." This training may not be taken until the senior year. University of Arkansas. The University Normal School requires daily teaching during the fourth year of the course, which corresponds to the university sophomore class. Brown University has a remarkably effective arrangement 20 Observation and Practice Work for practice teaching. The working agreement which has been in force for several years has now received formal official sanc- tion in a contract entered into June, 1908, between the School Committee of Providence, and the university authorities. By the terms of this contract the university is enabled to use the city high schools for practice work in consideration of an honora- rium paid the teacher to whom the student is assigned. Iti return the city has an assured source of supply for high school teachers and is able to apply a probation test that is fair to the candidate and an effective safeguard for the city. The double authority is unified in the person of the professor of theory and practice at the university who is likewise director of the train- ing department in the Providence high schools. The teaching is carried on simultaneously with the university work, the di- rector meeting the students for regular instruction and visiting them frequently during their class work. The director arranges their assignments in conference with the high school principals, and in case of marked inefficiency in either scholarship or dis- cipline, he initiates the movement for their dismissal. The director, too, nominates the supervising teachers from among the regular staff, the actual appointment being made by the Committee on High Schools. In return for the supervision of the student teachers assigned to their charge, these super- visors receive fifty dollars per year if the student is of the first Jype, and in any case they are entitled to attend courses in the education department without fee, but such free course, in ac- cordance with this provision, may not count toward a degree. These student teachers, of whatever grade, must hold the degree of Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Pedagogy from some reputable college. They must be acceptable alike to the super- intendent and to the professor of education. They must pur- sue at the same time a certain schedule of courses at the uni- versity, which may be counted toward the Master's degree, if they so elect. Successful completion of the teaching and the university work carries with it the teacher's diploma from the university and likewise entitles the student to preferential con- sideration from the school board when regular appointments are made to the teaching staff. The student teachers of the first type already referred to (not less than four in number, and ordinarily divided equally INSTITUTION c f^-n w rt n b >, J= C8 u c CQ >. bc a CM s g ■a S5? '- Adelphi College University of Arkansas Brown University University of California University of Cincinnati Clark University Colorado College University of Colorado Columbia, Teachers College .... Cornell University Drake University University of Florida George Washington University . University of Georgia . Harvard University University of Illinois University of Indiana University of Iowa Johns Hopkins University University of Kansas Lehigh University Leland Stanford Jr TTniv prgjtv . McGill University ^*_ ■. Massachusetts Agricultural College Miami University University of Michigan University of Minnesota University of Mississippi University of Missouri University of Nebraska University of New Mexico .... New York University University of North Dakota Northwestern University Ohio State University University of Oregon University of Pennsylvania University of Rochester University of South Dakota .... Syracuse University University of Texas Ursinus College University of Virginia Washington University University of Washington Wellesley College Western Reserve University University of West Virginia William and Mary College University of Wisconsin University of Wyoming B B B B B B B B S B B B S B B S S s s' s s s B B B B S B S S s s' B s B S s B S B S5 Ss S E 2 o ^ o cs a ,2 b Opt req opt req req no no req opt' no req' no req no opt opt opt no no opt^ opt req req no no no opt req req req no no no-* no req req no opt req no opt no no no opt no no opt req opt* req