322 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 
and also advocated the establishment of institutions of pedagogical 
research, and of experimental schools, for which Kant himself had 
pleaded in still earlier days. 
The connection of Universities with the problem goes back to the 
middle of the eighteenth century, when first Gesner and then Wolf esta- 
blished discussion classes for future schoolmasters in connection with 
their chairs. It was Herbart, however, who, during his tenure of the 
Chair of Philosophy and Pedagogy in K6nigsberg, made the Paédagogisches 
Seminar an essential feature of a German University, and a pupil of his, 
Stoy, founded what is still the most famous School of Pedagogy in Europe, 
if not in the world. For a time the reputation of another Herbartian, 
Ziller, made that of Leipsic still more important; but Ziller’s death led to 
the abandonment of the most essential feature of such a Seminar from 
the Herbartian standpoint, viz.: the Uebungsschule. The University of 
Jena is now the only German University which maintains a permanent 
school in which the teaching of the Professor of Education may take a 
concrete shape, and where experimental work may be carried out. 
In America and in England such schools have been established more or 
less on the Jena model. In Chicago an experimental school was esta- 
blished under the direction of Professor Dewey, and in England, thanks 
to the generosity of a private donor, the University of Manchester has been 
able to place the Fielden Demonstration Schools on a permanent footing. 
Important accounts of work done have issued from both these schools.* 
Schools of this kind have usually been regarded as providing a field 
in which the general principles of education as taught by the Professor 
might take practical shape, not with the idea of attaining finality, but 
rather of showing ways in which principles might be applied, and of 
inspiring the students to fresh and varied effort in the application of 
them to the conditions of the ordinary schools. The existence of the 
school has naturally had a far-reaching effect upon the teaching of the 
Professor, who finds contact with reality a never-failing source of sug- 
gestion, as well as a testing-ground for the adequacy of his theories. In 
the main the problem of these schools is one of organisation in accordance 
with clearly conceived principles; their function is, on the one hand, to 
inspire students with a sense of the importance of basing teaching pro- 
cedure upon rational grounds, and, on the other hand, to discover the 
necessary compromise between principles more or less abstract in 
character and the necessities of the practical situation. 
Thanks very largely to the progress which has been made in experi- 
mental psychology, these schools are already in some cases serving a new 
cause—viz., the effort to base educational theory and practice upon 
ascertained facts in the physical and mental development of the child. 
It is difficult to appraise the work so far accomplished, but the Com- 
mittee have satisfaction in reporting that wide interest has been already 
roused, and no mean yolume of work has been placed upon record. 
They hope to deal with the subject in a later report. 
Recognition is due to those experimental psychologists who, as 
individuals, have taken up this aspect of mind research, and contributed 
largely to securing the recognition of its importance. Amongst 
such men, Professors Binet and Henri in France, Professor Claparéde 
1 The Elementary School Record, University of Chicago Press. The Demonstra- 
tion Schools Record, University Press, Manchester, 
