ON STUDIES MOST SUITABLE FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 507 



teaching, to be effective it requires an enthusiastic teacher who will take 

 the trouble to organise it regularly. 



In any school where the discipline is sound such individual work 

 causes no interruption after the novelty of the hrst few lessons has worn 

 oflF. All the experimental results obtained should be recorded and 

 tabulated in a Log Book, in which the teacher also enters his results 

 obtained at the demonstration lesson. No conclusions or generalisations 

 should be drawn until a number of puj^ils have repeated the experiment 

 and recorded the results. The teacher should then make these results the 

 basis of his next lesson, endeavouring to trace the reason for the want of 

 agreement of any particular result with the rest ; conclusions should then 

 be drawn, so far as possible, by the class, and the whole piece of work 

 reviewed and suggestions made as to the method of writing an account of 

 the work which has been done. It is necessary at first for the teacher 

 to summarise on the blackboard the various points in order with which 

 the composition should deal, but anything in the way of dictation or 

 transcription is valueless. The compositions must represent the children's 

 thoughts in their own words. The experiments which the pupils repeat 

 individually should, as a rule, be those that yield a detinite quantitive 

 result ; there is little to be gained by repeating individually merely quali- 

 tative effects. 



Preparation of Lessons. 



In a subject in which the methods of instruction are of greater 

 importance than the intrinsic value of the information conveyed, the 

 preparation of careful teaching notes is an essential element in success. 

 It is impossible that science teaching can be fully effective unless careful 

 consideration of every lesson is given beforehand. As year by year the 

 teacher acquires increased experience, the amount of time that he will 

 find it necessary to devote to the prepai'ation of his lessons will diminish, 

 but the more skilful he becomes the more will he appreciate the neces- 

 sity for thought in his teaching. In the preparation of lessons he 

 must consider carefully how he is to lead from what has been learned 

 already to the subject-matter of the new lesson. Before suggesting any 

 experiment he must make it absolutely clear why it is to be performed ; 

 the problem to be solved should be kept prominently in the minds of the 

 pupils throughout the lesson. He must, further, consider all the difficul- 

 ties the pupils are likely to meet in acquiring new ideas, and, finally, lay 

 considerable emphasis upon the application of the results of the lesson 

 to daily experience. But notes of lessons are not popular with teachers. 

 The reason is not far to seek. In training colleges students often have 

 been taught to write highly elaborate and highly artificial notes upon 

 extremely simple subject-matter. The only useful notes are those which 

 will help the teacher in his teaching ; a few short sentences will 

 usually be sufficient to indicate the train of ideas he intends to follow. 

 Elaborate columns of heads, matter, and method have probably done at 

 least as much harm as good. 



In our General Report last year the following reference was made to 

 the special importance of the teaching of experimental method in girls' 

 schools : — 



' The science le.ssons to be given in connection with the subject should 

 have for their main object the inculcation of habits of accuracy and 

 cleanliness. The importance of exact method, and of using vessels which 



