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
=Nature of Text-book Method.=--In the text-book method, in place of
listening to the words of the teacher, the pupil is expected to read in
a text-book, in connection with each lesson problem, a series of facts
which will aid him in calling up, or selecting, the ideas essential to
the mastery of the new knowledge. This method is similar, therefore, in
a general way, to the lecture method; since it implies ability in the
pupil to interpret language, and thus recall the ideas bearing upon the
topic being presented. Although the text-book method lacks the
interpretation which may come through gesture and tone of voice, it
nevertheless gives the pupil abundance of time for reflecting upon the
meaning of the language without the danger of losing the succeeding
context, as would be almost sure to happen in the lecture method.
Moreover, the language and mode of presentation of the writer of the
text-book is likely to be more effective in awakening the necessary old
knowledge, than would be the less perfect descriptions of the ordinary
teacher. On the whole, therefore, the text-book seems more likely to
meet the conditions of the laws of apperception and self-activity, than
would the lecture method.
=Method Difficult for Young Children.=--The words of the text-book,
however, like the words of the teacher, are often open to
misinterpretation, especially in the case of young pupils. This may be
illustrated by the case of the student, who upon reading in her history
of the mettle of the defenders of Lacolle Mill, interpreted it as the
possession on their part of superior arms. An amusing illustration of
the same tendency to misinterpret printed language, in spite of the time
and opportunity for studying the text, is seen in the case of the
student who, after reading the song entitled "The Old Oaken Bucket," was
called upon to illustrate in a drawing his interpretation of the scene.
His picture displayed three buckets arranged in a row. On being called
upon for an explanation, he stated that the first represented "The old
oaken bucket"; the second, "The iron-bound bucket"; and the third, "The
moss-covered bucket." Another student, when called upon to express in
art his conception of the well-known lines:
All at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze;
represented on his paper a bed of daffodils blooming in front of a
platform, upon which a number of female figures were actively engaged in
the terpsichorean art.
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