Section J. 



AUSTRALASIAiN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



MENTAL SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 



ADDRESS BY THE VICE-PRESIDENT : 



L. A. ADAMSOIS', M.A., LL.B. 



{Head Master, Wesletj College, Melbourne). 



lu every profession, as, for instance, in medicine, engineering-, 

 and dentistry, real advance has always been accompanied by- 

 parallel development in two ways, namely, in corporate organiza- 

 tion and in scientific examination of the principles on whicl* 

 the actual work is based. The birth of educational science is so> 

 recent that it is, I should say, well within the memories of all 

 jjresent; but it is now admitted that the evolution of an accepted 

 science of education is necessary to tlie progress of the teaching; 

 profession. Now in the meetings of this section, the scientific 

 point of view will naturally be the most prominent, and its work 

 assumes a new importance when we realize that we are assisting: 

 to develop what is, comparatively speaking, a new science; a most- 

 needed and practical one. " As theory grows in scientific precision 

 it gains a closer hold on facts and grows more eflftcient as a guide 

 to action." 



At the meeting of the Educational Science Section of the 

 British Association last September, Prof. John Adams, in his 

 presidential address, summed up the present position of education 

 as a science. " Educational theory," he said, " is consolidating. 

 There already exists a body of educational doctrine that is of 

 general acceptation." He did not claim that education had yet. 

 justified her demand to be recognised as a fully developed science,, 

 but that she had at least entered upon the stage of scientific 

 method; she was seeking to free herself from mere empiricism. 

 We had reached the point in education theory when we were 

 passing from an appeal to experience to an appeal to experiment. 

 Experiment was really a system of tentative prophecy under rigidly- 

 determined conditions. Psychology was often spoken of as a 



