THE INSTRUCTOR'S PROBLEMS

The end in any learning process being to set the pupils a problem which
may stimulate them to gain such an efficient control of useful
experience, or knowledge, we may note two important problems confronting
the teacher as an instructor:

1. _Problem of Matter._--The teacher must be so conversant with the
subject-matter of the curriculum and with its value in relation to
actual life, that he may select therefrom the problems and materials
which will enable the child to come into possession of the desirable
experiences. This constitutes the question of the subject-matter of
education.

2. _Problem of Method._--The teacher must further be conversant with the
process by which the child gets command of experience or with the way in
which the mind of the child, in reacting upon any subject-matter,
selects and organizes his knowledge into new experience and puts the
same into execution. In other words, the teacher must fully understand
how to direct the child successfully through the four stages of the
learning process.

(_a_) _General Method._--In a scientific study of education it is
usually assumed that the student-teacher has mastered academically the
various subjects of the curriculum. In the professional school,
therefore, the subject-matter of education is studied largely from the
standpoint of method. In his study of method the student of education
seeks first to master the details of the process of education outlined
in the opening Chapters under the headings of problem, selecting