EDUCATION 



1938 



EDUCATION 



Measurement of Reading and Spelling. Tests 

 for measuring reading are being rapidly devel- 

 oped. Among the names most prominent in 

 connection with the reading tests are Gray, 

 Kelley, Jones, Courtis and Thorndike. 



Spelling tests are likewise being standardized. 

 Among the names in this connection are Ayres, 

 Buckingham and Courtis. In measuring high 

 school subjects, the names of Starch, Ballon, 

 Monroe and Breslich stand out prominently. 



Measurements a Check on Methods. Educa- 

 tional measurements are being used not only 

 to check the gross efficiency of the teachers, 

 but they are coming to be used more and more 

 as a means of checking the effectiveness of 

 certain methods. For example, it is possible 

 by means of modern educational tests to meas- 

 ure the comparative efficiency of text-books 

 or of different pedagogical methods. One of 

 the best-known examples of the latter is found 

 in the investigation of Mr. J. C. Brown, who 

 by means of the Stone test measured the value 

 of the three-minute daily drill period in the 

 teaching of arithmetic, Mr. Brown and Mr. 



Pierson of the Horace Mann School measured 

 the value of two different methods of teaching 

 spelling by means of a spelling test. The 

 investigations of Rice, Stone and Courtis agree 

 that a large time expenditure is not necessarily 

 associated with a high type of product, regard- 

 less of method. 



Thus it may be seen that with the develop- 

 ment of the technique of educational measure- 

 ment, it is becoming more and more possible 

 for schools to develop a high type of efficiency. 

 Great interest is being shown in educational 

 surveys ; this is expressed in legislative demands 

 for state-wide surveys, such as have been made 

 in Ohio; surveys of higher education, as found 

 in Wisconsin, Iowa, Washington and Missouri; 

 surveys of city school systems as found in New 

 York, Portland, Cleveland, Baltimore and San 

 Francisco. The surveys are evidences of the 

 fact that the citizen is becoming interested in 

 getting an adequate measurement of education. 

 Educators everywhere are responding to this 

 demand by developing an elaborate technique 

 for accomplishing this end. W.A.J. 



Modern Tendencies in Education 



There are many definitions of education 

 almost as many as there are men and women 

 who have written books about education. 

 Most of these definitions, however, may be 

 reduced to one or the other of two general 

 forms: In the first place, education may be 

 looked upon as the process of directing or con- 

 trolling the natural growth of the child ; in the 

 second place, education may be thought of as 

 giving to the child some of the knowledge and 

 skill that the race has acquired in its long 

 experience. Those who emphasize natural 

 growth as the fundamental factor in education 

 will care for children very much as the good 

 gardener cares for plants; that is, they will 

 aim to provide opportunities for healthful and 

 natural growth ; they will find in the process 

 of education a large and important place for 

 freedom; they will let education follow the 

 child's interests and desires, just as far as these 

 can be safely trusted; and they will look with 

 disfavor upon the use of force or compulsion 

 in stimulating "learning." 



On the other hand, those who view the pass- 

 ing on of knowledge and skill as the funda- 

 mental educational aim will not be likely to 

 trust the child's interests and desires so far; 

 they will see to it that the knowledge and 

 skill which the race has accumulated are well 



organized and made as palatable as it is pos- 

 sible to make them, but they will also insist 

 that the child make an effort to learn, even 

 if the lessons do not always appeal to him, and 

 they will insist especially that the learning be 

 undertaken systematically and progressively. 



Education as Natural Growth. Modern edu- 

 cation combines these two points of view, al- 

 though the emphasis at the present time is 

 rather more heavily upon "natural growth" 

 than upon the systematic mastery of knowledge 

 and skill. This is probably because knowledge 

 and skill have been the important aims of the 

 schools for centuries, while the claims of nat- 

 ural growth have been looked upon with favor 

 only within a comparatively short time al- 

 though these claims have been recognized by 

 students of education for centuries. 



Probably the most important differences be- 

 tween modern education and the education of 

 the past are to be found in the improved 

 methods of teaching which have, come with 

 this recognition of the importance of natural 

 growth. Modern education is not blind to the 

 fact that children must master knowledge and 

 acquire skill; in this respect, it accepts the 

 older educational aim, but it does insist that, 

 this mastery shall make as much use as possible 

 of the child's natural capacities for growth as 



