AUCKLAND DIOCESAN CATHOLIC TEACHERS' INSTITUTE

New Zealand Tablet, 16 August 1917, Page 10

AUCKLAND DIOCESAN CATHOLIC TEACHERS' INSTITUTE

(By a Maiust BnoTiiEi:.)

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS. (Continued.) THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE.

The purpose of this paper is not to outline definite methods of teaching science in the school, especially the primary school, nor is its purpose to set out schemes of work in elementary practical science, but it is sought that it might prove an incentive to an introduction into all schools and all classes in those schools of a more scientific method in imparting knowledge, a method which will make for the cultivation of the habit of accurate investigation and be a means of mental discipline of the highest value. Till recent years, the pupils' powers of observation were left lie dormant, and were it not for the old timed but very useful object lessons, science was practically unknown in the primary school, and as for secondary schools the subject was on the curriculum unfortunately, but was so treated that instead of its promoting interest in the facts of everyday life, of fostering a habit of right reasoning, it was made a "cram" subject for public examinations, with the disastrous result that science for most pupils was nothing more nor less than a number of dry facts and theories, bearing no relation to one another, loosely strung together to bo memorised. Formal science itself need not be introduced into the primary school, at least in the lower standards, but what is there to prevent an enthusiastic teacher being ever on the look out for opportunities of making clear to the child mind the various happenings going on around him. The child's mind is curious and active, seeking in a general way an explanation of all that happens, and the teacher should be ever ready to afford that explanation and present it in such a way as can be grasped by the child mind, and make it more eager to delight in organising by late studies some of the vast store of general knowledge, it has been acquiring during its earlier years. We must develop in the child the desire to find purpose and motive in its occupations ; the motive may be trivial, but what is not so, and what will make it effective is, that it must be felt at the time

to be important. Moreover, if we are in earnest, and desire our children to grow rational, that is, to not© the relations of cause and effect in daily life, then we shall always be seeking to base our scholars’ activities on those motives which lie within their grasp. The real study of true science commences, then, at a very early stage. The children who show a desire to play with boxes of letters, picture blocks, to notice the succession of objects by counting, experience a marked pleasure in all this, and a tactful teacher, far from debarring such enjoyment, will encourage it. At this stage all the science the child needs is such as bears immediately on problems which are presented by his occupation. No wealth of apparatus is needed, all they require is simple material—the simpler the better— they can employ to give concrete expression to their fancy. There must be something tangible, such as chalks, blackboard, bricks, plasticine, with which each might be occupied. Once the child has come to realise that the new acquiiement is really of benefit to himself—an avenue to new experience, it will learn with better success. ihe time is ripe for such teaching when the teacher finds that the pupils have become curious as to the use of the various objects in the home, in the classroom, in his general surroundings. The term correlation in its wide and more important sense is applicable here, for if the young mind is to go forward to new pursuits with its maximum of energy all new information must bo introduced as an interpretation of practical interests, for it is well known that, though science in its various branches has rendered service to practical life, yet the rise of such science was from practical life. We must then seek for some powerful motives which will elicit the best attention and energy of the learner. These are to be found in the varying normal interests, which a boy or girl of seven or eight years manifests, and from then, till the age of thirteen there is a gradual succession of fields of activity leading from the home indoors to the busy world around. It has already been mentioned that science as a separate subject need not find a place on a curriculum covering the .years from seven to twelve—there is no necessity during that time of the boy formulating the ideas, collected from his varied experience—this" belongs to the organised studies of the next stage. That is not to say that the child is to neglect science, for he is ever curious, and the teacher will take time as occasion arises to treat separately of any topics in natural science when explanation seems required in order to help the young mind to master a situation, but all this must be done within limitation, tor in school practice it is often the teacher alone that masters the pursuit, and expounds it to a docile audience : it is treated as matter merely to be read and learned; here it is the textbook discourses and the audience is still more docile. hat is needed is co-operative activity from the pupils while the teacher falls into the background and acts merely as a guide. Apart altogether from the general scientific training which should run through all the lower forms and provide foundation for the more systematic study of elementary science in late school-life, there should be some definite schemes in natural science arranged for the various grades. In formulating these schemes for the different standards, we can be guided largely by realising that the school itself should produce an environment where a love of nature can be fostered and this by means of its garden, its natural history collections, its laboratory, or by means of excursions to neighboring parks or fields, the river side, or sea coast, etc. In the lower classes the studies would be of a very general nature, mainly observations on outdoor life, spring gardening, etc. At the next stage the observations might be more extensivesimple experiments might bo worked in the school garden, in the field or classroom, while enthusiasm might be maintained by well-devised excursions to some neighboring plantation, field, or seaside. A higher course should provide material for connected observation and study ; drawing

should be made and notebooks and weather records kept, or natural history specimens collected, all of, which serve to express the pupil’s growing interest and knowledge. . The one great aim of the teacher ought to be, how to get the problems of science presented to the children so as to bring them to the proper exercise of their powers of observation and thought. It is the teacher’s business to centre the child’s observation and thought on one of these problems, and to keep his thoughts moving in the right direction. The life histories of plants and animals supply a teacher with many of the leading units of study and illustrate life —machinery embodying practical application of science to life furnishes a series of problems. If the teacher is enthusiastic, has an adequate practical knowledge of his subject, prepares his lesson thoroughly, he will find that he will establish in his class habits of close and accurate observation : he will have awakened an interest in applied science by constant reference to the application of the principles and processes studied in the laboratory or workshop, and, moreover, he will have promoted clear thinking and independent judgment, have taught his pupils to give exact expression to their reasoning. Method is needed to secure all this, and in general such method requires a careful and intelligent observation of the facts, a tracing of the casual sequence running through the whole topic, a comparison with other similar phenomena observed in nature, a derivation of the principle illustrated and a broader survey to comprehend the wider application of this law. ' Whether in the field or laboratory, “First hand investigation by each pupil of definite problems should be the keynote of the work,” and at least half the time set aside for the subject should be given to individual work. In general, the heuristic method of teaching might be adopted, but in the science room or laboratory much of the work done must be that of verification rather than of discovery. While the children are encouraged to “find out for themselves,” the teacher must guide the work, but all work should be preceded by such discussion and explanation as will serve to make clear to the pupil the exact nature of the problem to be attacked, and the line of attack suggested: the operation should be followed by comparison of the results—obtained by the students, by discussion of the divergences, by the drawing of conclusions and inferences, and by the examination of the principles involved in the experiments, and the results obtained by the pupils should be confirmed by suplementary demonstrations given by the teacher. The study of things and phenomena is of paramount importance, and the teacher, not the text-book, should be the pupil’s guide—in fact, the teacher ought to be as a fellow-worker with the pupil in the field of investigation, encouraging him to hunt out things worth seeing, not injudiciously telling him what he sees, but dropping a hint here and there to guide his observations. Throughout the work the teacher should use every opportunity to show the practical application of the scientific principles learned—e.g., the specific gravities of pure, and watered milk, the applications of expansion and contraction caused by heating and cooling metals, convective currents in a system of ventilation, the principles underlying the various methods of preparing food and the mechanical principles involved in ordinary tools and machines should be indicated. To carry out this plan, it is necessary where possible that all the pupils of a class should be investigating at the same time a problem of the same general nature ; but in place of having each pupil working at the same experiment, it would be well to vary the particular form of the experiment, and thereby secure a wider basis for subsequent discussion. Individual experiments and independent observations are recommended, so that each pupil is thrown on his own resources, and selfreliance is encouraged. * Under the aids that materially help in the successful imparting of scientific knowledge might be grouped; —(a) Experiments individually worked where possible, (b) The object itself—models and apparatus.

In all cases simple apparatus constructed by the pupils themselves is a powerful means of arousing interest and developing the children’s powers of inventiveness., (c) Specimens especially, where children are encouraged to collect specimens for illustration during'their lessons. Wherever possible a sufficient number of specimens should be available for distribution to every scholar. (d) Pictures, and better still, diagrams, especially those in colored chalk by the teacher, (e) Nature study excursions into the fields, along the shore, into the bush, is a splendid means of opening up the world to children, and of giving stimulus and purpose to other oportunities for observation in the world about them, but before setting out on such an excursion it is well to have some controlling purpose, to which observation is to be chiefly directed—for example, the study of the habits of one of the native birds. (f) Blackboard summaries of pupil’s observations. (g) Oral questioning, revising, the matter taught. (h) Lastly, textbooks which will prove a ready means of recapitulation and should be, as it were, a supplement to knowledge already acquired. In the upper grade, at least, each pupil should keep a notebook in which should be entered a continuous dated record of his laboratory work throughout the year. This book should provide a truthful and clear record of his own individual operations, and observations, entered, preferably, in the science room at the time, and should not be copied from a rough book. The apparatus used should be stated and diagrams given. Every observation made should be entered, and, where possible, the results should be presented in tabular form. A help in the work would be to attach a value to each experiment, and in all examinations, the record-books of the course could be taken into account. ‘ln some experiments the quantitative results of the class might be noted on the board, and the mean arrived at, and recorded. The value of this work as a training in the scientific method should be evident, and at the same time it promotes interest, and a healthy rivalry in securing accuracy in the individual work of the pupils. In a very general paper it is not possible to deal with many important points, but a brief reference must be made to some of the causes of failure in the teaching of science;—(1) No comment is needed on inadequate preparation. (2) Insufficiency of illustration, especially where inner forces in process are not visible—want of forethought in providing necessary apparatus and equipment. (3) Stating facts, which a good question might have elicited, without undue expenditure of time. (4) Performing experiments without making sure that the truths which they illustrate are understood. (5) The use of scientific terms without explaining their meaning, ajid only bewildering the pupils. Such technical terms should be used sparingly, cautiously, and gradually introduced. Plunging a young learner into a sea of technicalities is to disgust him with what should be a most fascinating and useful study. (6) Insufficient use of the blackboard. The science teacher should be expert in the use of graphic methods of illustration— sections, working drawing, models and apparatus, arrangement of flowers, seeds, parts of insects, etc. In the matter of special science teaching, various claims have been put forward prominently of recent years. There seems to have been a great “boom” in “nature study”; but this study seems to have been pursued largely in the elementary schools only, and to have been neglected in the higher schools, though true nature study is one which can be pursued throughout a life-time, for all natural science is nature study, though all “nature study” is not natural science. It is clear that the school boy cannot be expected to get any real knowledge of the whole range of science, physical and biological, but must confine his attention to one or two subjects, and there is general agreement as to the subjects which are of the greatest importance, viz., chemistry and physics, and it is right therefore that any boy beginning the study of science should be taught the elements of chemistry and physics, and for-

tunately such teaching is simple and does not ask for special originality on the part of the teacher, whereas such subjects as botany, agriculture, physical geography where the teaching depends to a considerable extent upon the nature of the surrounding country, and where accordingly it is necessary to supplement the book work by out-door work, which is different for various localities necessitating'a certain amount of originality, and of thought on the part of the teacher himself. In considering the value of a subject in connection with education, we are not however concerned so much with the possibilities of research or of the importance of that subject on account of its application as with its actual use as a means of education. A subject, that should hold a more prominent place in the elementary school curriculum, a science and one that all schools can cope with is physical geography, a study in which a large number of facts must be acquired by oral instruction, Reading and observation and so co-ordinated as to give us that "exact, regular, arranged knowledge" which is science. In cultivating the powers of observation, physical geography shares much in common with the experimental sciences. Inasmuch, however, as it depends little upon experiment, but chiefly upon study of natural physical features, the kind of observation required is somewhat different from that demanded by the sciences of chemistry and physics, and each kind supplements the other, and where possible a combination of the two is desirable for the proper quickening of the observing power. Likewise it is of value as a means in developing the reasoning powers and that in a most instinctive and interesting way. It is, however, as an aid to the appreciation of the beauties of nature that the study of physical geography differs most markedly from that of other sciences taught in the school. The artistic temperament may appear to have little to do with the spirit of scientific enquiry: but one usually finds that the lover of natural beauty has an insight into the meaning of the objects which call forth his admiration, and at all -periods of human history, lovers of nature seem to have had a desire to explain what they saw. Presuming that every school in which natural science is taught possesses its little museum or specimen press and the larger school, especially the secondary school its laboratory, the outlay for furnishing the requisites for teaching physical geography, and its correlated subjects need not be great. The chief instruments for the study of the climate, will be found in the laboratory, and where that is not possible the cost of an elementary set of weather instruments is not prohibitive. Typical weather charts may readily be collected and displayed and also photographs of the principal types of clouds. Photographs and other illustrations are readily obtainable and pupils should be encouraged to make simple models, illustrating their work-—temporary ones may be formed of plasticine or other material. Collections of material which have been modified by wind, water, and ice action and the products of volcanic and other actions will be gradually brought together; and these will enable the teacher to give instruction of real value in those cases, where illustration cannot be obtained in the open country. It scarce needs to be pointed out that science can be a very powerful, and at the same time, interesting factor in the developing of other subjects, and this correlation with other studies also aids to unify the scattered facts that are gleaned throughout the schoollife. What more practical method of teaching arithmetric system, angular measure, measurement of mass, volume and capacity, inter-relation of the units in the metric system ,angular measure, measurement of mass, time, relative density, than by following out the simple experiments in physical measurements provided in an elementary course of physical science and all quite within the reach of Standards V. and VI., some of them of Standards 111. and IV. Geography, I have already treated at length. English, too, profits largely, for one great function of

the science teacher is to cultivate clear and correct thinking, and to do this, the art of exact expression must be fostered. Notebooks may give an excellent training in English composition. It should be insisted that the pupils interpret keenly, express fittingly what observations have been made, inferences drawn, so that a science lesson becomes in this sense, N applied reading. The study lends itself peculiarly in aiding drawing and sketching, for they are essential means of expression and illustration in science studies. Extreme cleanliness in manipulating, order in the use and care of tools and material in the laboratory or workshop is of primary value. And in domestic science we have splendid opportunities for correlation with the general science work of the school, especially in those schools, where a little chemistry has been taught. The imperative need for applying knowledge and habits gained in one study to other studies is universal, and the conclusion may well be drawn that the knowledge gained on one study is chiefly valuable because it can be applied to interpretations of other studies. In conclusion, if the teacher follows the higher aim, to give to each child a personal insight, a sympathetic appreciation of the realm of nature, so far as it can be grasped by his mind, he shall find this phase of culture an essential agency in social equipment and in personal character development. Every child, therefore, should go into nature studies up to the full measure of his powers, and come out enriched in knowledge, discipline, and practical power. The keynote of the paper was the development of the powers of observation and the encouragement of individual work, the teacher merely directing. It was considered that the lack of apparatus in the primary school prevented science holding its proper place, and a '"penny day" was suggested to provide necessary funds. All were agreed that the individual work on the part of the pupil was most essential, and thought the paper helpful in that direction. The need for monetary assistance in the work was brought prominently forward. The Very Rev. Dean Power gathered from the paper that science is not the dry subject it is commonly thought to be. At a meeting of the N.Z. Educational Institute in Wellington, Sir Robert Stout said that whenever religion entered the schools science departed. The Rev. speaker showed that religion is the queen of sciences, therefore instead of banishing all other sciences she fosters and encourages them. The first musician of the day is a Catholic so with the greatest artist and the greatest historian. A fitting conclusion to be derived from the paper is that the study of nature must lead to love of nature's God.