METHOD IMPLIES KNOWLEDGE OF MIND

Before we proceed to such a detailed study of the educative process as a
process of teaching, it should be noted that the existence of a general
method is possible only provided that the growth of conscious control
takes place in the mind of the child in a systematic and orderly manner.
All children, for instance, must be supposed to respond in the same
general way in the learning process when they are confronted with the
same problem. Without this they could not secure from the same lesson
the same experiences and the same relative measure of control over
these experiences. But if our conscious acts are so uniform that the
teacher may expect from all of his pupils like responses and like states
of experience under similar stimulations, then a knowledge on the part
of the teacher of the orderly modes in which the mind works will be
essential to an adequate control of the process of learning. Now a full
and systematic account of mind and its activities is set forth in the
Science of Psychology. As the Science of Consciousness, or Experience,
psychology explains the processes by which all experience is built up,
or organized, in consciousness. Thus psychology constitutes a basic
science for educational method. It is essential, therefore, that the
teacher should have some knowledge of the leading principles of this
science. For this reason, frequent reference will be made, in the study
of general method, to underlying principles of psychology. The more
detailed examination of these principles and of their application to
educational method will, however, be postponed to a later part of the
text. Each of the four important steps of the learning process will now
be treated in order, beginning in the next Chapter with the problem.