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METHODS OF TEACHING

IN HIGH SCHOOLS

METHODS OF TEACHING

IN HIGH SCHOOLS

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

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SCOPE OF THE BOOK

Purpose. The purpose of this textbook is to introduce students to a study of the principles which underlie instruction in high-school subjects. Hence it is concerned primarily with the work of classroom teachers and only incidentally with the curriculum and organization of high schools.

Possibility of applying general principles to high-school instruction. The principles which underlie methods of teaching have been discussed very thoroughly in many excellent books from the standpoint of elementary schools, but there have been relatively few books which have performed the same service for high-school methods in general. A similar contrast exists between the large number of books dealing with high-school organization and the small number dealing with high-school methods in general.

This situation is partially due to the fact that the methods of teaching in high schools may vary greatly with the nature of the subjects taught. Striking examples of this variation are found in the problems of method involved in teaching manual training, a foreign language, and geometry. Each of these subjects has peculiar problems of method different from those in the other subjects. In the case of many highschool subjects there is no lack of discussion of these special

methods. Thus we have numerous books dealing with the teaching of English, history, mathematics, and the sciences in high schools, but few discussions of general methods of high-school instruction.

Moreover, it has been generally assumed that all that a high-school teacher needs in order to be successful is a thorough knowledge of his subject matter plus the ability to make pupils behave. Persons who have held this point of view have often been willing to admit that a knowledge of the principles of method may improve the work of teachers in kindergartens and in elementary schools, but they have held that such pedagogical considerations could contribute little to the improvement of high-school teaching.

There are, however, many phases of high-school teaching in which general principles of method play as important a part as they do in elementary school work. In the chapters that follow, an endeavor will be made to demonstrate this fact in detail.

Main topics to be discussed. The principal topics which will be taken up are the following:

1. The purposes to be attained by high-school instruction. 2. The importance of economy in classroom activity; the attaining of a given purpose with the minimum of time and energy.

3. Standards determining the selection and arrangement of subject matter within a given subject; that is, what to teach and how to organize it.

4. The most economical and effective methods of learning to be employed in different subjects.

5. How to stimulate pupils to learn most economically, that is, with effective concentration of energy.

6. Provisions for individual differences in class instruction, so that each pupil may advance at a pace suited to his capacities.

7. Supervision of study to eliminate misdirected effort.

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