75

E.—7A

is not so much to conduct researches as to train students to that inquiring attitude ofjmind^which inevitably makes them investigators. In Huxley's words, " The chief business of the teacher is not so much to make scholars as to train pioneers." No better means of kindling the spirit of research and of inculcating the research method can be more effective than university teaching of the kind indicated by the Inspectors of the Board of Education in 1910. "We may assume that university teaching is teaching suited to adults ; that it is scientific, detached, and impartial in character ; that it aims not so much at filling the mind of the student with facts or theories as at calling forth his own individuality, and stimulating him to mental effort; that it accustoms him to the critical study of the leading authorities, with, perhaps, occasional references to first-hand sources of information ; and that it implants in his mind a standard of thoroughness, and gives him a sense of the difficulty as well as the value of truth. The student so trained learns to distinguish between what may fairly be called matter of fact, and what is certainly mere matter of opinion, between the white light and the coloured. He becomes accustomed to distinguish issues, and to look at separate questions each on its own merits and without an eye to their bearing on some cherished theory. He learns to state fairly, and even sympathetically, the position of those to whose practical conclusions he is most stoutly opposed. He becomes able to examine a suggested idea, and see what comes of it, before accepting it or rejecting it. Finally, without necessarily becoming an original student, he gains an insight into the conditions under which original research is carried on. He is able to weigh evidence, to follow and criticize argument, and put his own value on authorities."* It would appear, however, that university teaching in New Zealand is not always actuated by these high ideals, and that the cause of this has been largely the external examination system with its rigid syllabus, resulting in the conception of the aim of education as the obtaining of degrees rather than culture and mental discipline. So long ago as 1886f the Eight Hon. Sir Kobert Stout, for many years Chancellor of the New Zealand University, said, " The main fault in our university system is that it regards examinations as the beginning and end of the function of a university." If this be correct it is idle to expect much in the way of research. Under the evening-lecture system too many of the students are engaged also in earning a livelihood. They have t(.o much on their hands to indulge in independent thinking or investigation, or in gaining an insight into that scientific method which is so much more important than text-book information. They have a definite practical objective, the passing of their final examination. When the examination is over, the inevitable tendency for such students is to cease to read or to work at a subject. They will have gained from their university little mental training and little interest in knowledge for its own sake. The popular view of the work of a professor is that it is his duty to get students veady for examinations by giving them lectures, whereas his work should be concerned " not so much with filling the mind of the student with facts or theories as with calling forth his own individuality and stimulating him to mental effort." " The best teacher is one who imparts to his pupils his own sense of the living interest in their common subject. The subject should be regarded not as a fixed body of knowledge, but as a territory increased day by day under the accretion of new discoveries and new speculations. The proper interaction of teaching and research is of the very essence of the highest education."! When scholarly men have been appointed to be professors in a university, the first condition for developing the research habit in the university is to make the conditions such that they can teach in the best way. They must be free to teach the subject they profess in the manner that appeals to them ; they must not be cribbed ani confined by external examinations ; their classes must be of such a size that they can come into intimate mental touch with individual students. Lectures must be supplemented by " tutorials. ' The professor will not confine his teaching to the work of the advanced students. The position is admirably put by the London University Commission : —■

Definition of University education.

Work of professoj

* London University Commission .Report, sec. 67. p. 28. f N.Z. Parliamentary Debates, Vol. liv, p. 601 (18th June, 1886). } Oxford and Cambridge Commission Iteport, sec. 38, p. 50.