president's address — SECTION J. 235 



aud by Moore; and by Ballard for ability in arithmetic. Mention 

 must also be made of the important work published by Burt in 

 1917, on the " Distribution and Relations of Educational Ability," 

 Burt does not give norms for the various forms of scholastic 

 ability, but his conclusions and his discussion of methods will 

 afford the greatest assistance to^ later investigators. 



From his careful study of the scholastic ability of a selected 

 group he concludes that scholastic achievements are determined by 

 two kinds of mental factors — first, general educational ability 

 which is related to, but not identical with, general intelligence, 

 and which affects in different degrees the pupils' performances in 

 different school subjects; second, specific educational abilities, con- 

 fined to special subjects or groups of subjects. School subjects 

 appear to fall into four groups, each dependent on a specific ability 

 which is largel}^ independent of the others. The four groups are 

 called by Burt (1) arithmetical, (2) manual, (3) linguistic, and 

 (4) literary. 



Burt's study has confirmed the findings of recent American 

 studies as to the great overlapping which exists between the class 

 groups of the ordinary primary school. Teachers are rarely aware 

 of its extent. The amount of overlapping varies for different sub- 

 jects, being least for those subjects which correlate most closely 

 with general educational ability. 



" The subjects in which heterogeneity and overlap appear most. 

 are the more mechanical subjects which, in the higher classes are 

 but little dependent upon general ability, and, in particular, those 

 subjects which are dependent mos{ upon specific capacity. For 

 Iheee subjects it is often desirable to cross-classify either schools 

 or classes."* 



These findings suggest the desirability of altering our present 

 method of a single classification and adopting a four-fold classi- 

 fication of pupils according to the grouping given by a study of 

 the specific correlations of school subjects ; or if that plan is not 

 practicable, of modifying our present procedure of collective class 

 teaching by the adoption of some plan of sets or divisions within 

 the class group. 



An experiment in four-fold classification is to be begun in 

 Sydney at the Darlington Practice School, under Mr. Vout, in 

 January next. 



The four-fold grouping pro}iosed by Burt will be adopted. The 

 second method, that of dividing a class group into sets or divisions 

 and allowing the members of the class to move forward at the 

 pace suited to their rate of mental growth, has been tried with 

 a special class during the past five yeais at the Blackfriars Practice 

 School, and it is hoped that a description of the procedure may 

 be published shortly. 



* Burt, ibid., p. 34. 



