502 - REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



Mental and Physical Factors involved in Education. — Report of the 

 Committee, consisting of Professor J. J. Findlay {Chairman), 

 Professor J. A. Green {Secretary), Professor J. Adams, Sir E. 

 Brabrook, Dr. W. Brown, Professor E. P. Culverwell, Mr. 

 G. F. Daniell, Miss B. Foxley, Professor R. A. Gregory, Dr. 

 C. W. Kimmins, Mr. T. Loveday, Dr. T. P. Nunn, Dr. Slaughter, 

 Mr. Bompas Smith, Dr. Spearman, Mr. Twentyman, Miss L. 

 Edna Walter, and Dr. F. Warner, appointed to inquire into 

 and report upon the viethods and results of research into the Mental 

 and Physical Factors involved in Education. 



PAGE 



Appendix. Typical Problems for Research in Education . . . . . . 309 



In their Report for last year, your Committee drew attention to the great 

 movement towards the independent investigation of pedagogical problems 

 which is going on all through the civilised world. They pointed to the 

 foundation of institutions for pedagogical research in Antwerp, Milan, 

 Leipsic, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and elsewhere — institutions with 

 special funds available for the prosecution of pedagogical inquiries — and 

 in addition to these they showed the trend of interest among many Conti- 

 nental and American psychologists towards problems that concern the 

 schoolmaster very closely. 



This new field of inquiry is the natural outcome of the successful 

 application of experimental methods to the investigation of mental 

 phenomena, but it is, in the Committee's view, important to understand 

 quite clearly whether or not there is a body of doctrine which can be 

 separately regarded and called the science of education, or whether the 

 schoolmaster's practice is to be based on contributions from various 

 branches of science without any common centre of reference which shall 

 give them the inner unity which belongs, for example, to such a science 

 as agriculture. It seems to your Committee that the particular point of 

 view from which Education interprets its subject-matter is so distinct 

 from the points of view of the psychologist and the sociologist for 

 example, in dealing with the material of their sciences, that the inde- 

 pendence of the science of education must follow, if, indeed, the exist- 

 ence of this Section of the British Association is not already an admis- 

 sion of its claim. 



Until the present time, however, although much has been written 

 upon educational theory and educational procedure, there has been 

 little or no attempt to deal with its materials in a scientific spirit. Its 

 facts have not been collected in any orderly way ; tradition, rather than 

 the results of independent observation, has guided the schoolmaster in 

 his classroom. The d priori view has dominated the mind of the educa- 

 tional reformer; he has, indeed, been most concerned with the question 

 of the end to be reached, interpreting thereby the current philosophical 

 and religious notions of his time in educational terms. The study of 

 the persons to be educated and their attitude towards methods of in- 

 struction was left aside; it was sufficient to rely on the sympathetic 



