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
On the other hand, it is evident that, in attempting to present the
problem in a form in which the pupils may recognize its connection with
their previous experiences, care must be taken not to tell outright the
whole point of the lesson. In a lesson on the adverb, for instance, it
would not do to say: "You have learned how adjectives modify, or change
the meaning of, nouns. To-day we shall study words that modify verbs." A
more satisfactory way of proceeding in such a lesson would be to have on
the black-board two sets of sentences exactly alike except that the
second would contain adverbs and the first would not. Then ask: "What
words are in the second group of sentences that are not in the first?
Let us examine the use of these words." In the same way, to state the
problem of an arithmetic lesson as the discovery of "how to add
fractions by changing them to equivalent fractions having the same
denominator" is open to the objection of telling too much. In this case
a better method would be to present a definite problem requiring the use
of addition of fractions. The pupil will see that he has not the
necessary arithmetical knowledge to solve the problem and will then be
in the proper mental attitude for the lesson.
EXAMPLES OF MOTIVATION
A few additional examples, drawn from different school subjects, are
here added to illustrate further what is meant by setting a problem as a
need, or motive.
=A. History.=--The members of a Form IV class were about to take up the
study of the influence of John Wilkes upon parliamentary affairs during
the reign of George III. As most of the pupils had visited the Canadian
Parliament Buildings and had watched from the galleries the proceedings
of the House of Commons, the teacher took this as the point of departure
for the lesson. First, he obtained from the class the facts that the
members of the Commons are elected by the different constituencies of
the Dominion and that nobody has any power to interfere with the
people's right to elect whomsoever they wish to represent them. The same
conditions exist to-day in England, but this has not always been the
case there. There was a time when the people's choice of a
representative was sometimes set aside. The teacher then inquired
regarding the men who sit in the gallery just above the Speaker's chair.
These are the parliamentary reporters for the important daily
newspapers throughout the Dominion. They send telegraphic despatches
regarding the debates in the House to their respective newspapers. These
despatches are published the following day, and the people of the
country are thus enabled to know what is going on in Parliament. Nobody
has any right to prevent these newspapers from publishing what they wish
regarding the proceedings, provided, of course, the reports are not
untruthful. These conditions prevail also in England now, but have not
always done so.
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