66 The Concept of Method 



the individual child's parsonaHty through the method of gradually 

 giving form to it in accordance with these fundamental types of 

 social experience, in such a way as to make the child a free 

 personality, and at the same time an active and responsible mem- 

 ber of the social whole. There is then this more or less external 

 or objective attitude to the world of experience implied in the 

 former method of considering the question as to what we do when 

 we think; but there is also a corresponding subjective side, which 

 is equally fundamental in its implications for educational thought. 

 The fact that we ask the questions at all really suggests this new 

 point of view. Hitherto psychology and educational method 

 have contented themselves chiefly with the analysis of the ob- 

 jects of thought and the materials of instruction, or with the 

 mental processes themselves. As a result of this activity we 

 have been given a classification of the subject-matter of the 

 various elements that constitute the program of the course of 

 study, and a description of the various functions of the mind, 

 such as perception, memory, association, etc. In other words, 

 the attempt has been made to describe our environment and our 

 minds from two different points of view, one objective and one 

 subjective, and there has been this dualism more or less apparent 

 in educational method as a direct result. This is partly due to a 

 failure to work out the psychology of the various educational 

 materials ; and partly to the character of the psychological 

 method employed by the investigators, who collect and arrange 

 facts without having fully become conscious of the standards 

 which underlie their selection, and without being conscious of 

 the philosophical implications which underlie all definite formula- 

 tions of phases of experience and which alone can give them 

 practical value. 



What then do we do when we think? Does or does not the 

 question involve more than a mere analysis of mind and material, 

 — of the individual and his environment? Can it be answered 

 by considering both elements as interacting factors in a process 

 of development? 



The most satisfactory way of answering the question is actu- 

 ally to put it to the test: to take our own experience and see^ 

 whether it will not yield its secret when we ask the question in 

 the right way. For we currently speak of the world as being 

 full of secrets. The scientist is said to be engaged in discover- 



