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
4. In the more advanced classes, the pupils should frequently be
required to make a topical outline of a section or chapter of the
text-book. This demands considerable analytic power, and the pupil who
can do it successfully has mastered the art of reading. The ability is
acquired slowly, and the teacher must use discretion in what he exacts
from the pupil in this regard. If the plan were followed persistently,
there would be less time wasted in cursory reading, the results of which
are fleeting. What is read in this careful way will become the real
possession of the mind and, even if less material is read, more will be
permanently retained.
The facts thus learned from the text-book should be discussed by the
teacher and pupils in a subsequent recitation period. This may be done
by the question and answer method, the teacher asking questions to which
the pupils give brief answers; or by the topical recitation method, the
pupils reporting in connected form the facts under topics suggested by
the teacher. The teacher has thus an opportunity of emphasizing the
important facts, of correcting misconceptions, and of amplifying and
illustrating the facts given in the text-book. Further, the pupils are
given an opportunity of expressing themselves, and have thus an exercise
in language which is a valuable means of clarifying their impressions.
ABUSE OF TEXT-BOOK
As instances of the abuse of the text-book, the following might be
cited:
1. The memorization by the pupils of the words of the text-book without
any understanding of the meaning.
2. The assignment of a certain number of pages or sections to be learned
by the pupils without any preliminary preparation for the study.
3. The employment of the text-book by the teacher during the recitation
as a means of guiding him in the questions he is to ask--a confession
that he does not know what he requires the pupils to know.
=Limitation of Text-book.=--The chief limitation of the text-book method
of teaching is that the pupil makes few discoveries on his own account,
and is, therefore, not trained to think for himself. The problems being
largely solved for him by the writer, the knowledge is not valued as
highly as it would be if it came as an original discovery. We always
place a higher estimation on that knowledge which we discover for
ourselves than on that which somebody else gives us.
THE DEVELOPING METHOD
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