942 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 



' Observation' as the foundation of teaching practice has received much atten- 

 tion. By using pictures, Stern found that what children see depends more on 

 inner factors than upon the pictures themselves. Up to seven, children take 

 in only isolated objects; about eight, they begin to notice action; at ten, time, 

 space, and other abstract relations begin to appeal to them ; and, last of all, they 

 notice the characteristic qualities of individual things. Kerschensteiner's researches 

 into the development of children's drawing powers are an interesting confirmation 

 of these results. The accuracy of children's observing powers, the influence of 

 suggestion upon them, their educability, Sec, are points of importance at which 

 Binet, Lobsieu, Weumann, and others have worked, Meumann comes to a con- 

 clusion which reads like a paradox — ' From the general notion to the particular 

 application is tbe true order of mental development, and not vice versa.' Waise- 

 manu's investigation into the sensory approach to ideas of number shows the 

 difficulties underlying concrete teaching. He finds tbat the special grouping of 

 dots is a better avenue than varieties of things, the form, colour, &c., of which 

 distract. 



Children's associations have been investigated, and much light has been thrown 

 upon the workings of their minds under school influences by Ziehen, Meumann, 

 AVinteler, Schuyten, and others. 



The memory of pupils at school has been tbe subject of much inquiry. On 

 the side of acquisition, it is found to grow steadily during school age, reaching its 

 approximate maximum just at the point where elementary school training breaks 

 otf (Meumann). The value of the additional year in the higher primary school 

 is thus not a mere time function. The acquisitive power of memory develops 

 more rapidly under formal training than under the ordinary influence of the 

 school (Van Biervliet). 



The importiince oi a fuller knowledge of individual difierences in children will 

 hardly be questioned, and various suggestions have be^n made for the objective 

 determination of relative capacity. Kraepilin's attempt to express a man in 

 figures, as a steam-engine is expressed in horse-power, though objectionable from 

 many points of view, is a bold attempt to sum up the quantitative study of mental 

 phenomena — attention, grasp, productivity, fatigue-resistance, educability, reten- 

 tiveness, &c. Binet's work upon intelligence approaches the same problem from a 

 different though highly suggestive standpoint. 



Laboratories have already been instituted in Antwerp, St. Petersburg, Leipsic, 

 Milan, and Buda Pesth for experimental inquiry into the problems which confront 

 the teacher. 



(ii) Scientific Method in the Study of Education.^ 

 By Profe.ssor J. J. Findlay, M.A., Ph.D., and P. Sandiford, M.Sc. 



In the paper presented at York, Mr. P'indlay confined his attention to experi- 

 mental studies in school teadiing, and indicated the lines on which he and others 

 were at work in Demonstration Schools,- associated with Departments of Education 

 or training colleges. The time now seems ripe for a wider review of methods for 

 tlie improvement of education which, in a broad sense, may be described as ' experi- 

 mental' or ' scientific' : experiments in teaching form only one section of a laro'e 

 field which is being tentatively worked in many parts of the world. 



1. A first group consists of investigations which do not directly raise questions 

 of education at all, but are concerned solely with the physical powers of childhoods 



and iheir development ; they are really questions of physiology and hygiene a 



branch of anthropometry. To these may be added inquiries into feedina:, clothing, 

 sleep, &c. It must be borne in mind that while such inquiries are invaluable as 

 material for educational proposals, they are not of themselves directly of service, 



' A sequel to a paper read at the York Meeting of the British Association. Vid.e 

 Transactions, 1906, p. 793. ' '. 



' Some of the results of the work in Manchester, as well as an account of the 

 methods employed, are to be found in The Demonstration School Record, No. 1 

 (The University Press, Manchester, 1908). 



