The Teaching of General Science. E-book. Formato PDF William Lewis Eikenberry   -  Forgotten Books, 2017  - 

Never before in this country has there been so insistent a demand for a more thorough and more comprehensive system of instruction in practical science. Forced by recent events to compare our education with that of other nations, we have suddenly become aware of our negligence in this matter. Now industrial and educational experts and commissions are united in demanding a change. While on the whole there has been a steady increase in the amount of time given to science work in the secondary and elementary schools, the attention paid to it, especially in the elementary schools, has been some what spasmodic, and its administration has been more or less chaotic. This is not due to lack of interest on the part of school officials but to their dissatisfaction with the methods of instruction employed. There is no doubt that superintendents would gladly introduce more science if they felt sure that the educational results would be commensurate with the time expended. This is indicated by a recent survey of about one hundred and fifty cities in seven states of the Central West. The survey shows that two-thirds of them have nature study in the elementary schools and that all are re quiring some science for graduation from the high school. The average high school is offering three years of science. Since 1900 there has been a greater increase in the percentage of students enrolled in science in the high schools than in any other subject with the one exception of English. Moreover, greater attention is now being paid to the training of teachers in methods of presentation of science. X The chief needs in science instruction today are a more efficient organization of the course of study with a View to its socialization and practical application, and a clear-cut realization on the part of the teacher of the aims, the principles of organization, and the methods of instruction; it is to meet these needs that this series is being issued. The books attempt to present such generalizations of science as the average pupil should carry away from his school experience and to organize them for the preparation of the teacher and for presenta tion to the class. The volumes will therefore be of three kinds: (1) source books with accompanying field and laboratory guides for the use of students in normal schools and schools of education, and of teachers, (2) pupils' texts and notebooks, and (3) books on the teaching of the various science subjects. In the first the material will be organized with special reference to the training of the teacher and the most effective methods of presenting the subject to students. In the second the matter will be simplified, graded, and arranged in such a way that the books will serve as guides in science work for the pupils themselves. Moreover, they will furnish texts for the grades and high school that will simplify the teacher's task of presentation and will assure well-tried and well-organized experiences, on the part of the pupil, with natural objects. This series of texts for elementary and secondary schools will have dependent continuity and the subject-matter will gradually increase in difficulty to accord with the increasing capacity of the pupils. It will furnish a unified course in science. The third type of book is for the teacher and deals with the history, aims, principles of organization, and methods of instruction in the several sciences.