A Civic Biology, Presented in ProblemsHunter, George W. (George William)
Science
A Civic Biology, Presented in Problems
Hunter, George W. (George William)
Biology; Sanitation
But in our eagerness to develop the power of logical thinking we must not
lose sight of the previous training of our pupil. Up to this time the
method of induction, that handmaiden of logical thought, has been almost
unknown. Concepts have been formed deductively by a series of comparisons.
All concepts have been handed down by the authority of the teacher or the
text; the inductive search for the unknown is as yet a closed book. It is
unwise, then, to directly introduce the pupil to the method of induction
with a series of printed directions which, though definite in the mind of
the teacher because of his wider horizon, mean little or nothing as a
definite problem to the pupil. The child must be brought to the
appreciation of the problem through the deductive method, by a comparison
of the future problem with some definite concrete experience within his own
field of vision. Then by the inductive experiment, still led by a series of
oral questions, he comes to the real end of the experiment, the conclusion,
with the true spirit of the investigator. The result is tested in the light
of past experiment and a generalization is formed which means something to
the pupil.
For the above reason the laboratory problems, which naturally precede the
textbook work, should be separated from the subject matter of the text. A
textbook in biology should serve to verify the student's observations made
in the laboratory, it should round out his concept or generalization by
adding such material as he cannot readily observe and it should give the
student directly such information as he cannot be expected to gain directly
or indirectly through his laboratory experience. For these reasons the
laboratory manual has been separated from the text.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
A Civic Biology, Presented in Problems — John Shaqi
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