Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of EducationOntario. Department of Education
Science
Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education
Ontario. Department of Education
Education; Educational psychology
=Induction and Conception Interrelated.=--Although as a process,
induction is to be distinguished from conception, it either leads to an
enriching of some concept, or may in fact be the only means by which
certain scientific concepts are formed. While the images obtained by
ordinary sense perception will enable a child to gain a notion of water,
to add to the notion the property, boiling-at-a-certain-temperature, or
able-to-be-converted-into-two-parts-hydrogen-and-one-part-oxygen, will
demand a process of induction. The development of such scientific
notions as oxide, equation, predicate adjective, etc., is also dependent
upon a regular inductive process. For this reason many lessons may be
viewed both as conceptual and as inductive lessons. To teach the adverb
implies a conceptual process, because the child must synthesise certain
attributes into his notion adverb. It is also an inductive lesson,
because these attributes being formulated as definite judgments are,
therefore, obtained inductively. The double character of such a lesson
is fully indicated by the two results obtained. The lesson ends with the
acquisition of a new term, adverb, which represents the result of the
conceptual process. It also ends with the definition: "An adverb is a
word which modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb," which indicates
the general truth or truths resulting from the inductive process.
=Deduction and Induction Interrelated.=--In our actual teaching
processes there is a very close inter-relation between the two processes
of reasoning. We have already noted on page 322 that, in such inductive
lessons as teaching the definition of a noun or the rule for the
addition of fractions, both the preparatory step and the application
involve deduction. It is to be noted further, however, that even in the
development of an inductive lesson there is a continual interplay
between induction and deduction. This will be readily seen in the case
of a pupil seeking to discover the rule for determining the number of
repeaters in the addition of recurring decimals. When he notes that
adding three numbers with one, one, and two repeaters respectively,
gives him two repeaters in his answer, he is more than likely to infer
that the rule is to have in the answer the highest number found among
the addenda. So far as he makes this inference, he undoubtedly will
apply it in interpreting the next problem, and if the next numbers have
one, one, and three repeaters respectively, he will likely be quite
convinced that his former inference is correct. When, however, he meets
a question with one, two, and three repeaters respectively, he finds his
former inference is incorrect, and may, thereupon, draw a new inference,
which he will now proceed to apply to further examples. The general fact
to be noted here, however, is that, so far as the mind during the
examination of the particular examples reaches any conclusion in an
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