president's address — SECTION J. 243 



In the foregoing brief survey I have sought to indicate a few 

 of the directions along which the science of education is develop- 

 ing, and to show how measurement is being applied to educa- 

 tional data in a way which has till recently not been considered 

 practicable. Nothing has beteii said of the man)^ interesting efforts 

 that are being made by practising teachers to develop new forms 

 of teaching procedure and of school government. The work now 

 being done' in this field is of the greatest interest and importance, 

 and will repay careful study. Unfortunately, descriptive accounts 

 are, as yet, all too scanty. 



There is. however, one other field of study to which some refer- 

 ence ought to be made, and this we may call educational patho- 

 logy. Some attention has recently been given to the study of the 

 errors made by pupils in the simpler forms of scholastic work, 

 particularly in arithmetic and spelling. From this study much 

 will be gained. Teachers will be better able to select suitable 

 preventive or curative measures with greater certainty of success, 

 and the studv of the various forms of scholastic disability may be 

 expected to help us to a better understanding of the ability of 

 normal children, and of the processes on which the growth of 

 knowledge and skill depend. Again, the new science of psycho- 

 analysis seems likely to throw much light on cases of intellectual 

 and moral defect that teachers have hitherto found peculiarly 

 baffling. 



There is need for greatly extended research in education. 

 Scientific study is possible to an extent that has hardly been 

 realized, and any teacher undertaking it will be well repaid by 

 the insight grained into the working of the minds of those for 

 whose scholastic welfare he is responsible. Advance in educational 

 practice cannot be divorced frcm scientific research. It must be 

 our aim as members of this section of the Australasian Association 

 for the Advancement cf Science to further in every way the pro- 

 gress of the science of education. 



1084—17 



