assigned them; or to introduce the class to a new subject, such as
percentage in arithmetic; or to drill them, as upon the multiplication
table. Each of these purposes would demand a different method in the
recitation. Again, if your purpose is to show off a class before
visitors, you will need to use a very different method from what you
will employ if your aim is to encourage the class in self-expression
and independence in thinking.

There are three great purposes to be accomplished through the
recitation: _testing_, _teaching_, and _drilling_. These three aims
may all be accomplished at times in the same recitation, may even
alternate with each other in successive questions, but they are
nevertheless wholly distinct from each other, and require different
methods for their accomplishment. The skillful teacher will have one
or the other of these three aims before him either consciously or
unconsciously at each moment of the recitation, and will know when he
changes from one to the other and for what reason. Let us proceed to
consider each of these aims somewhat more in detail.


3. _Testing as an aim in the recitation_

Testing deals with ground already covered, with matter already
learned, or with powers already developed. It concerns itself with the
old, instead of progressing into the new. It seeks to find out what
the child knows or what he can do of that which he has already been
over in his work. Of course every new lesson or task attempted is in
some measure a test of all that has preceded it, but testing needs to
be much more definite and specific than this.