PART II.--METHODOLOGY




CHAPTER VIII

GENERAL METHOD


=Meaning of Method.=--In the last Chapter it was seen that, in relation
to the child, education involves a gaining of control over experiences.
It has been seen further, that the child gains control of new experience
whenever he goes through a process of learning involving the four steps
of problem, selecting activity, relating activity, and expression.
Finally it has been decided that the teacher in his capacity as an
instructor, by presenting children with suitable problems, may in a
sense direct their selecting and relating activities and thus exercise a
certain control over their learning processes. To the teacher,
therefore, method will mean an ability to control the learning process
in such a way that the children shall, in their turn, gain an adequate
control over the new experience forming the subject-matter of any
learning process. Thus a detailed study by student-teachers of the
various steps of the learning process, with a view to gaining knowledge
and skill relative to directing pupils in their learning, constitutes
for such teachers a study of General Method.