PRESIDENT S ADDRESS — SECTION J. 



227 



SECTION J. 



MENTAL SCIENCE AND 

 EDUCATION. 



ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT : 

 Professor Alexander Mackie. M.A 



Professor of Education in the University of Sydn 



THE STUDY OF EDUCATION. 



It was after considerable hesitation that I accepted the position 

 of President of the Education Section of the Australasian Science 

 Congress, partly because of my inability to be present in person, 

 and partly because the work of administering a large college and 

 teaching the subject of education to University classes leaves little 

 leisure for original work. I am very sensible of the great honour 

 which the Education Committee has done me, and much regret my 

 absence from this gathering. The opportunity for discussion with 

 those interested in education comes so rarely in Australia that one 

 is loath to miss it. I had. however, already planned a visit to 

 Great Britain which was long overdue. 



The science of education appears to be entering on a further 

 stage of development. Hitherto^ measurement has played but a 

 small part in the organization, of this branch of knowledge. Now, 

 however, there appears the possibility of measuring educational 

 facts which hitherto have been mainly matters of traditional 

 opinion and individual judgment. I propose to- devote some time to 

 a survey of those branches of educational science' to which measure- 

 ment has been most successfully applied ; thereafter I shall con- 

 sider very briefly some of the problems which confront the 

 educational administrator and the practising teacher, but which 

 as yet the student of education cannot solve with any precision, 

 though there is every reason to believe that they, too, in time will 

 be open to investigation by more precise methods. 



