A GUIDE TO METHODS AND OBSERVATION IN HISTORY

STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL OBSERVATION

By

CALVIN OLIN DAVIS

Assistant Professor of Education in the University of Michigan

RAND McNALLY & COMPANY
NEW YORK        CHICAGO

Copyright, 1914,
By Rand, McNally & Company

The Rand-McNally Press
Chicago

INTRODUCTION

The outlines herewith presented have grown out of the necessities of a course conducted by the writer in the training of teachers in the University of Michigan. The course has been styled "Methods and High School Observations in History." It has been open only to seniors and graduate students who have specialized in history and who expect to teach that subject in high schools. The work has consisted of one class meeting per week for eighteen weeks, and of twenty hour-observations of history teaching in the Ann Arbor High School. The outlines, therefore, were designed to serve as a guide to these observations and as a basis for subsequent discussions.

In order that the students might have a deeper appreciation of the meaning of history and the various conceptions that have been held regarding it, and in order that they might possess at least a general knowledge of the place history has occupied in the schools, the elements composing historical events, and the values attributed to historical study, it seemed appropriate to preface the special queries respecting method by some introductory suggestions of a general character. This fact explains the inclusion of such material as is found in the first few pages of the present booklet.

In the hope, therefore, that students of Education in other colleges, universities, and normal schools may find suggestions in the material here brought together, and that teachers in active school work may also receive some practical help therefrom, the writer has been encouraged to place the outlines at the disposal of the public. If they shall prove of service to his colleagues and their students elsewhere, his aim and purpose will be fully met.

Calvin Olin Davis

University of Michigan
April, 1914

THE CONTENTS