with their present knowledge.


KNOWLEDGE OF PROBLEM

=Relation to Pupil's Knowledge.=--Since the conscious apprehension of
the problem by the pupil in its relation to his present knowledge
constitutes the best motive for the learning process, a question arises
how this problem is to be grasped by the pupil. First, it is evident
that the problem is not a state of knowledge, or a complete experience.
If such were the case, there would be nothing for him to learn. It is
this partial ignorance that causes a problem to exist for the learner as
a felt need, or motive. On the other hand it is not a state of complete
ignorance, otherwise the learner could not call up any related ideas
for its solution. When, for example, the child, after learning the
various physical features, the climate, and people of Ontario, is
presented with the problem of learning the chief industries, he is able
by his former knowledge to realize the existence of these industries
sufficiently to feel the need of a fuller realization. In the same way
the student who has traced the events of Canadian History up to the year
1791, is able to know the Constitutional Act as a problem for study,
that is, he is able to experience the existence of such a problem and to
that extent is able to know it. His mental state is equally a state of
ignorance, in that he has not realized in his own consciousness all the
facts relative to the Act. In the orderly study of any school subject,
therefore, the mastery of the previous lesson or lessons will in turn
suggest problems for further lessons. It is this further development of
new problems out of present knowledge that demands an orderly sequence
of topics in the different school subjects, a fact that should be fully
realized by the teacher.