COLLEGE TEACHING

 

STUDIES IN

METHODS OF TEACHING IN

THE COLLEGE

 

Edited by

PAUL KLAPPER, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Education

The College of the City of New York

 

with an

Introduction by

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, LL.D.

President of Columbia University

 

 

Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York

WORLD BOOK COMPANY

1920

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WORLD BOOK COMPANY

THE HOUSE OF APPLIED KNOWLEDGE

Established, 1905, by Caspar W. Hodgson

Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York

2126, Prairie Avenue, Chicago

A treasure of wisdom is stored in the colleges of the land. The teachers are the custodians of knowledge that makes life free and progressive. This book aims to make the college teacher effective in handing down this heritage of knowledge, rich and vital, that will develop in youth the power of right thinking and the courage of right living. Thus College Teaching carries out the ideal of service as expressed in the motto of the World Book Company, "Books that Apply the World's Knowledge to the World's Needs".

 

 

Copyright, 1920, by World Book Company

Copyright in Great Britain

All rights reserved

 

 

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PREFACE

The student of general problems of education or of elementary education finds an extensive literature of varying worth. In the last decade our secondary schools have undergone radical reorganization and have assumed new functions. A rich literature on every phase of the high school is rapidly developing to keep pace with the needs and the progress of secondary education. The literature on college education in general and college pedagogy in particular is surprisingly undeveloped. This dearth is not caused by the absence of problem, for indeed there is room for much improvement in the organization, the administration, and the pedagogy of the college. Investigators of these problems have been considerably discouraged by the facts they have gathered. This volume is conceived in the hope of stimulating an interest in the quality of college teaching and initiating a scientific study of college pedagogy. The field is almost virgin, and the need for constructive programs is acute. We therefore ask for our effort the indulgence that is usually accorded a pioneer.

In this age of specialization of study it is evident that no college teacher, however wide his experience and extensive his education, can speak with authority on the teaching of all the subjects in the college curriculum, or even of all the major ones. For this reason this volume is the product of a coöperating authorship. The editor devotes himself to the study of general methods of teaching that apply to almost all subjects and to most teaching situations. In addition, he coördinates the work of the other contributors. He realizes that there exists among college professors an active hostility to the study of pedagogy. The professors feel that one who knows his subject can teach it. The contributors have been purposely selected in order to dispel this hostility. They are, one and all, men of undisputed scholarship who have realized the need of a mode of presentation that will make their knowledge alive.

Books of multiple authorship often possess too wide a diversity of viewpoints. The reader comes away with no underlying thought and no controlling principles. To overcome this defect, so common in books of this type, a tentative outline was formulated, setting forth a desirable mode of treating, in the confines of one chapter, the teaching of any subject in the college curriculum. This outline was submitted to all contributors for critical analysis and constructive criticism. The original plan was later modified in accordance with the suggestions of the contributors. This final outline, which follows, was then sent to the contributors with the full understanding that each writer was free to make such modifications as his specialty demanded and his judgment dictated. This outline is followed in most of the chapters and gives the book that unifying element necessary in any book and vital in a work of so large a coöperating authorship.

The editor begs to acknowledge his indebtedness to the many contributors who have given generously of their time and their labor with no hope of compensation beyond the ultimate appreciation of those college teachers who are eager to learn from the experience of others so that they may the better serve their students.

TENTATIVE OUTLINE FOR THE TEACHING OF —— IN THE COLLEGE

other than the experimentation by the instructor?
Should students in the social sciences study the subject
deductively from abook or should the book be postponed
and the instructor present a series of problems from the
social life of the student so that the analysis of these may
lead the student to formulate many of the generalizations
that are given early in a textbook course?
Should college mathematics be presented as a series of
subjects, e.g., algebra advanced), solid geometry,
trigonometry, analytical geometry, calculus, etc.? Would it
be better to present the subject as a single and unified
whole in two or three semesters?
Should a student study his mathematics as it is developed in
his book,—viz.,as an intellectual product of a matured
mind familiar with the subject,—or should the subject
grow gradually in a more or less unorganized form from
a series of mechanical, engineering, building, nautical,
surveying, and structural problems that can be found in the
life and environment of the student?

V. Moot Questions in the Teaching of this Subject.

VI. How judge whether the subject has been of worth to the
student?
How test whether the aims of this subject have been realized?
How test how much the student has carried away? What means,
methods, and indices exist aside from the traditional
examination?


VII. Bibliography on the Pedagogy of this Subject as Far as It
Applies to College Teaching. The aim of the bibliography
should be to give worth-while contributions that present
elaborations of what is here presented or points of view
and modes of procedure that differ from those here set forth.

Paul Klapper
The College of the City of New York

 

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CONTENTS

    page   Introduction xiii   By Nicholas Murray Butler, Ph.D., LL.D. President of Columbia University. Author of The Meaning of Education, True and False Democracy, etc. Editor of Educational Review               PART ONE—THE INTRODUCTORY STUDIES       CHAPTER     I History and Present Tendencies of the American College 3   By Stephen Pierce Duggan, Ph.D. Professor of Education, The College of the City of New York. Author of A Student's History of Education         II Professional Training for College Teaching 31   By Sidney E. Mezes, Ph.D., LL.D. President of The College of the City of New York. Formerly President of University of Texas.Author of Ethics, Descriptive and Explanatory         III General Principles of College Teaching 43   By Paul Klapper, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Education, The College of the City of New York. Author of Principles of Educational Practice, The Teaching of English, etc.               PART TWO—THE SCIENCES       IV The Teaching of Biology 85   By T. W. Galloway, Ph.D., Litt.D. Professor of Zoölogy, Beloit College. Author of Textbook of Zoölogy, Biology of Sex forParents and Teachers, Use of Motives in Moral Education, etc.         V The Teaching of Chemistry 110   By Louis Kahlenberg, PH.D. Director of the Course in Chemistry and Professor of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin. Author of Outlines of Chemistry, Laboratory Exercises in Chemistry, Chemistry Analysis, Chemistry and Its Relation to Daily Life, etc.         VI

href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@29604@[email protected]#VI" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">The Teaching of Physics 126   By Harvey B. Lemon, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Physics, University of Chicago         VII The Teaching of Geology 142   By T. C. Chamberlin, Ph.D., LL.D., Sc.D. Professor and Head of Department of Geology and Director of Walker Museum, University of Chicago. Author of Geology of Wisconsin, The Origin of the Earth. Editor of The Journal of Geology         VIII The Teaching of Mathematics 161   By G. A. Miller, Ph.D. Professor of Mathematics, University of Illinois. Author of Determinants, Mathematical Monographs (co-author), Theory and Applications of Groups of Finite Order (co-author), Historical Introduction to the Mathematical Literature, etc. Co-editor of American Year Book and Encyclopédie des Sciences Mathématiques         IX Physical Education in the College 183   By Thomas A. Storey, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Hygiene, The College of the City of New York. State Inspector of Physical Training, New York. Secretary-General, Fourth International Congress of School Hygiene, Buffalo, 1913. Executive-Secretary, United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board. Author of various contributions to standard works on physiology, hygiene, and physical training               PART THREE—THE SOCIAL SCIENCES       X The Teaching of Economics 217   By Frank A. Fetter, Ph.D., LL.D. Professor of Political Economy, Princeton University. Author of Economic Principles and Modern Economic Problems         XI The Teaching of Sociology 241   By Arthur J. Todd, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology and Director of the Training Course for Social and Civic Work, University of Minnesota. Author of The Primitive Family as an Educational Factor, Theories of Social Progress         XII The Teaching of History       A. American History 256   By Henry W. Elson, A.M., Litt.D. President of Thiel College. Formerly Professor of History, Ohio University. Author of History of the United States, The Story of the Old World (with Cornelia E. MacMullan), etc.           B. Modern European History 263   By Edward Krehbiel, Ph.D. Professor of Modern European History, Leland Stanford University. Author of The Interdict, Nationalism, War and Society         XIII The Teaching of Political Science 279   By Charles Grove Haines, Ph.D. Professor of Government, University of Texas. Author of Conflict over Judicial Powers in the United States prior to 1870, The American Doctrine of Judicial Supremacy, The Teaching of Government (Report of Committee on Instruction, Political Science Association)         XIV The Teaching of Philosophy 302   By Frank Thilly, Ph.D., LL.D. Professor of Philosophy, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell University. Author of Introduction to Ethics, History of Philosophy       XV

class="smcap">The Teaching of Ethics 320   By Henry Neumann, Ph.D. Leader of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture. Formerly of the Department of Education, The College ofthe City of New York, Author of Moral Values in Secondary Education       XVI The Teaching of Psychology 334   By Robert S. Woodworth, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Columbia University. Author of Dynamic Psychology, Le Mouvement, Care of the Body, Elements of Physiological Psychology (with George Trumbull Ladd)       XVII The Teaching of Education     A. Teaching the History of Education 347   By Herman H. Horne, Ph.D. (Harvard). Professor of the History of Education and the History of Philosophy, New York University. Author of The Philosophy of Education, The Psychological Principles of Education, Free Will and Human Responsibility, etc.           B. Teaching Educational Theory 359   By Frederick E. Bolton, Ph.D. Dean of the College of Education, University of Washington. Author of Principles of Education, The Secondary School System of Germany             PART FOUR—THE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES       XVIII The Teaching of English Literature 379   By Caleb T. Winchester, L.H.D. Professor of English Literature, Wesleyan University. Author of Some Principles of Literary Criticism, A Group of English Essayists, William Wordsworth: How to Know Him, etc.         XIX The Teaching of English Composition 389   By Henry Seidel Canby, Ph.D. Adviser in Literary Composition, Yale University. Author of The Short Story in English, College Sons and College Fathers, etc.         XX The Teaching of the Classics 404   By William K. Prentice, Ph.D. Professor of Greek, Princeton University, Author of Greek and Latin inscriptions in Syria         XXI The Teaching of the Romance Languages 424   By William A. Nitze, Ph.D. Professor and Head of Department of Romance Languages, University of Chicago. Author of The Grail Romance, Glastonbury and the Holy Grail, Handbook of French Phonetics, etc. Contributor to New International Encyclopedia         XXII The Teaching of German 440   By E. Prokosch, Ph.D. Late Professor of Germanic Languages, University of Texas. Author of Teaching of German in Secondary Schools, Phonetic Lessons in German, Sounds and History of the German Language, etc.               PART FIVE—THE ARTS       XXIII The Teaching of Music 457   By Edward Dickinson, Litt.D. Professor of History and Criticism of Music, Oberlin College. Author of Music in the History of the Western Church, The Study of the History of Music, The Education of a Music Lover, Music and the Higher Education      

class="x-ebookmaker-pageno" title="[Pg xi]"/> XXIV The Teaching of Art 475   By Holmes Smith, A.M. Professor of Drawing and the History of Art, Washington University. Author of various articles in magazines on art topics               PART SIX—VOCATIONAL SUBJECTS       XXV The Teaching of Engineering Subjects 501   By Ira O. Baker, C.E., D. Eng'g. Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Illinois. Author of Treatise on Masonry Construction, Treatise on Roads and Pavements         XXVI The Teaching of Mechanical Drawing 525   By James D. Phillips, B.S. Assistant Dean and Professor of Drawing, College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Author of Elements of Descriptive Geometry (with A. V. Millar), Mechanical Drawing for Secondary Schools (with F. O. Crawshaw), Mechanical Drawing for Colleges and Universities (with H. D. Orth) and Herbert D. Orth, B.S. Assistant Professor of Mechanical Drawing and Descriptive Geometry, University of Wisconsin. Author of Mechanical Drawing for Colleges and Universities (with J. D. Phillips)         XXVII The Teaching of Journalism 533   By Talcott Williams, A.M. LL.D., Litt.D. Director, School ofJournalism, Columbia University         XXVIII Business Education 555   By Frederick B. Robinson, Ph.D. Professor of Economics and Dean of the School of Business and Civic Administration, College of the City of New York         Index   577

 

 

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INTRODUCTION

It is characteristic of the American people to have profound faith in the power of education. Since Colonial days the American college has played a large part in American life and has trained an overwhelming proportion of the leaders of American opinion. There was a time when the American college was a relatively simple institution of a uniform type, but that time has passed. The term "college" is now used in a variety of significations, a number of which are very new and very modern indeed. Some of these uses of the term are quite indefensible, as when one speaks of a college of engineering, or of law, or of medicine, or of journalism, or of architecture. Such use of the word merely confuses and makes impossible clear thinking as to educational institutions and educational aims.

The term "college" can be properly used only of an institution which offers training in the liberal arts and sciences to youth who have completed a standard secondary school course of study. The purpose of college teaching is to lay the foundation for intelligent and effective specialization later on, to open the mind to new interpretations and new understandings both of man and of nature, and to give instruction in those standards of judgment and appreciation, the possession and application of which are the marks of the truly educated and cultivated man. The size of a college is a matter of small importance, except that under modern conditions a large college and one in immediate contact with the life of a university is almost certain to command larger intellectual resources than is an institution of a different type. The important thing about a college is its spirit, its clearness of aim, its steadiness of purpose, and the opportunity which it affords for direct personal contact between teacher and student. Given these, the question of size is unimportant.

There was a time when it was felt, probably correctly, that a satisfactory college training could be had by requiring all students to follow a single prescribed course of study. At that time, college students were drawn almost exclusively from families and homes of a single type or kind. Their purposes in after-life were similar, and their range of intellectual sympathy, while intense, was rather narrow. The last fifty years have changed all this. College students are now drawn from families and homes of every conceivable type and kind. Their purposes in after-life are very different, while new subjects of study have been multiplied many fold. The old and useful tradition of Latin, Greek, and mathematics, together with a little history and literature, as the chief elements in a college course of study, had to give way when first the natural sciences, and then the social sciences, claimed attention and when even these older subjects of study were themselves subdivided into many parts.

These changes forced a change in the old-fashioned program of college study, and led to the various substitutes for it that now exist. Whether a college prefers the elective system of study, or the group system, or some other method of combining instruction that is

regarded as fundamental with other instruction that is regarded as less so, the fact is that all these are simply different kinds of attempt to meet a new condition which is the natural result of intellectual and economic changes. Just now the college is in a state of transition. It is not at all clear precisely what its status will be a generation hence, or how far present tendencies may continue to increase, or how far they may be counteracted by a swing of the pendulum in the opposite direction. Therefore this is a time to describe rather than to dogmatize, and it is description which is the characteristic mark of the important series of papers which constitute the several chapters in the present volume.

A careful reading of these papers is commended not only to the great army of college teachers and college students, but to that still greater army of those who, whether as alumni or as parents or as citizens, are deeply concerned with the preservation of the influence and character of the American college for its effect upon our national standards of thought and action.

American colleges are of two distinct types, and it may be that the future has in store a different position for each type. The true distinction between colleges is according as they are separate or are incorporated in a university system, and not at all as to whether they are large or small. A separate college, such as Amherst or Beloit or Grinnell or Pomona, has its own peculiar problems of support and administration. The university college, on the other hand, such as Columbia or Harvard or Chicago or the college of any state university, has quite different problems of support and of administration. It is not unlikely that the distinction between these two types of college will become more sharply marked as years go by, and that eventually they will appear to be two distinct institutions rather than two types of one and the same institution.

Meanwhile, we have to deal with the college as it is, in all its varied forms, but characteristically American whatever its form. The American college has little or no resemblance to the English Public School or to the French Lycée or to the German Gymnasium. It is something more than any one of these, and at the same time something less. It differs from them all very much as the conditions of American life differ from those of English or of French or of German life. The college may or may not involve residence, but when it does involve residence, it is at its best. It is then that the largest amount of carefully ordered and stimulating influence can be brought to bear upon the daily life of growing and expanding youth, and it is then and only then, that youth can get the inestimable benefits which follow from daily and hourly contact with others of like age, like tastes, like habits, and like purposes. Indeed, it has often been said that the college gives more through its opportunities which attach to residence, than through its opportunities which attach to instruction.

Almost every conceivable problem that can arise in college life and college work, is discussed in the following pages. It is now coming to be understood that the health of the college student is as much a matter of concern as his instruction, and that a college is not doing its full duty by those who seek its doors, when it merely provides libraries, laboratories, and skillful teachers. It must also provide for such conditions of residence, of food, of exercise, and of frequent medical examination and inspection, as shall protect and preserve the health of those who come to take advantage of its instruction.

There is one other point which should not be overlooked, and that is the literally immense influence exerted in America by that solidarity of college sentiment and college opinion which is kept alive by organizations of former college students scattered throughout the land. This, again, is a peculiarly American development, and it serves to unite the college and public sentiment much more closely than any formal tie could possibly do. Indeed, it illustrates how completely the American people claim the college as their own. The man or woman who has once been a college student never ceases to be a member of that particular college or to labor to extend its influence and to increase its usefulness.

Every reader of this volume should approach it in a spirit of sympathetic understanding of American higher education, and of the college as the oldest instrument of that higher education and still one of the chief elements in it.

Nicholas Murray Butler
Columbia University

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PART ONE

The Introductory Studies CHAPTER   I History and Present Tendencies of the American College
Stephen P. Duggan II Professional Training for College Teaching
Sidney E. Mezes III General Principles of College Teaching
Paul Klapper

 

 

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I

HISTORY AND PRESENT TENDENCIES OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE

1. THE COLONIAL PERIOD