The training of teachers in the United States of America
John Stuart Mill · en
the making him conscious of processes of thought, which before might
have been accurate, but were not known. As the end of education is
assumed to be a moral end, in so far as it has to do with character
and conduct, the will is made the basis of educational psychology and
is treated first in order. One advantage of such an order of treatment
is that the practical value of the study of psychology to education
can be early shown. As the whole question of education is a question
of the guiding and controlling of action, great importance is given to
the practical study of action in its three phases of instinct, will and
habit. Each of these is followed out as far as possible by means of
the observation of children at play, or by the study of the student’s
own willed movements. All questions of physiological psychology are
avoided as much as possible in the study of psychology for educational
purposes, the two reasons given being:
i. That most students have not a sufficient knowledge of physiology
to take up physiological psychology.
ii. That those who have a sufficient knowledge of physiology find
the correlation difficult. In beginning to study psychology, the two
aspects of one set of facts and their bearings upon each other cannot
be easily seen. Much work in both sciences is needed before good work
can be done in physiological psychology.
The students use Sully, James, and Höffding as text-books. The lines
of work, however, are not those of any particular writer or school.
The students have ample opportunities of wide reading and research,
not only in psychology, but in all branches of pedagogy. These are
afforded by the Bryson Pedagogical Library in the college building.
This library, founded in connection with the Teachers’ College, for
the purpose of affording opportunities of research to students of
the college, is open to all teachers of the city and to the public
generally. It contains 5,000 volumes, including books on pedagogy and
connected subjects, text-books of all kinds, and the current literary,
scientific and educational periodicals published in America and Europe.
In the study of the history of education, the plan adopted is a
thorough and exhaustive treatment of one or two great educational
reformers, with mere outline sketches of others. The reformers
specially considered are regarded, not only as educators, but in
all other possible aspects. Their lives and works, their ideas, the
contemporary history of their own and other countries, are fully
discussed. When this has been done, all other facts of educational
history are as far as possible compared with, and illustrated by, the
facts connected with the reformer who has been specially considered.
Such a method seems very stimulating and interesting to the student,
and much more satisfactory, than a general treatment of the whole,
suggested by many text-books on the history of education.