NATURE 



493 



,NATl 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1920. 



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The Practical Teaching of Science. 



THE resumption by the Board of Education 

 of the publication of memoranda prepared 

 for the Office of Special Inquiries and Reports is 

 to be welcomed. Before the war a constant 

 stream of valuable information on educational 

 f progress and experiment at home and abroad 

 issued from this source, and if not much more 

 came of each individual contribution than is ex- 

 pected from the reports of most Govcrnmtnt in- 

 quiries, these memoranda were, in the mass, 

 sensibly affecting educational thoii{,'ht and prac- 

 tice. The war inevitably checked the stream in 

 it.-i course, and it is one more encouraging' sign 

 that we arc, however slowly and painfully, re- 

 turning to a time of peaceful development, or at 

 least preparing for such a return, when we note 

 that the stream has begun to flow again. 



ri)f recent appearance of a modest pamphlet, 

 ill the familiar green paper covers, entitled "Some 

 Experiments in the Teaching of Science and Hand- 

 work in Certain Elementary Schools in London,"* 

 is of peculiar value at the present moment. It is 

 true that the experiments dcsrrilx-d were cut short 

 by the war, but it is impori.mi i! n iIh ronclusions 

 U> be drawn from them should la- studied now, 

 when not only in clemtnf.iry and central and 

 secondary schools, but mIso in the new day con- 

 tinuation schools, we are faced by the problem 

 how Ixst to combine efficiency and economv in 



1 Fxluc.iional I'j.ni.lik; No. j',. Pp. 54. (H.M. SiuioKry OOcc) 



NO. 2668, VOL. 106] 



the effort to stimulate intellectual development 

 through science, not as an isolated study, but 

 as a branch of the humanities. Before 19 14 we 

 had tended to give up the idealistic dream that 

 if all schools were fitted up with laboratories, or 

 had access to laboratories, equipped for the aca- 

 demic study of chemistrv and physics, progress 

 was assured. The view was winning acceptance 

 that for perhaps most young people the best ap- 

 proach was through the motor activities, through 

 carrying out in practice the general idea of 

 "teaching science by making things," or, in other 

 words, discovering scientific principles by solving 

 practical problems. The idealist had come to 

 earth, and we may hope that if his head remains 

 in air. his feet will continue to feel the ground he 

 walks upon. 



In the report which we have now before us 

 the claim is made that the experiments carried 

 out in the higher classes of elementary schools 

 and in central schools, the latter of which take 

 young people on to about sixteen years of age, 

 go to show that a scheme of instruction in science 

 which is based largely on handwork, and makes 

 no excessive demand on theory, is far wider in 

 scope than has hitherto been suspected. But the 

 report only confirms the lessons to be drawn from 

 two earlier reports — the invaluable "Manual In- 

 struction in Public Elementary Schools," issued 

 in 1910, and, on a higher plane of studies, the 

 "Report on Science Teaching in Public Schools," 

 isMinl in igog — the most striking scheme in which 

 was one where handwork and brainwork went on 

 together. 



The claim now definitely made is one which is 

 entitled to respect because it is enunciated, not by 

 any mere theorist spinning theories as he contem- 

 plates the ceiling through a cloud of tobacco 

 smoke, but by skilled ob.servers speaking on be- 

 half of actual practitioners in the art of teaching. 

 The principle involved is commended to the 

 earnest consideration of those who are anxiously 

 thinking out what kind of practical rooms and 

 what sort of laboratories are to be installed in the 

 new part-time day continuation schools for young 

 people between the .iges of fourteen and sixteen 

 who spend iiKis! Ill' iliiii time' ill the office or 

 workshop an<i imly ,1 precious seven Or eight 

 hours a week in m liool. They have the choice 

 between text-book instruction supplemented by a 

 modi<:iiin of experiment in a formal laboratory 

 and prartii;il instruction in a workshop which is 

 cquippetl with ilu- .-sential fittings of a labora- 

 tory. Thev ni.i\ ucll come 10 the conclusion that. 



