302 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 



Formal Training. — Interim Report of Committee (Dr. C. W. Kimmins, 

 Chairman ; Mr. H. E. M. Icely, Secretary ; Prof. R. L. Archer, 

 Prof. Cyril Burt, Prof. F. A. Cavenagh, Miss E. R. Conway, 

 Sir Richard Gregory, Prof. T. P. Nunn, Prof. T. H. Pear, 

 Prof. Godfrey Thomson and Prof. C. W. Valentine) appointed to 

 consider the Bearing on School Work of recent views on Formal Training. 



The object of the Committee is to prepare an authoritative statement as to the 

 disciplinary value of various elements in the curricula of the schools, about which 

 much confusion of thought exists. 



It is evident that, in the light of modern research, the extravagant claims made 

 in the past for the unique value of certain subjects from the point of view of mental 

 discipline, apart from their intrinsic value in the scheme of education, cannot be 

 sustained. 



In many schools an erroneous and extreme doctrine of Formal Training is still 

 resulting in much wasted time and effort. An excessive amount of the time table is 

 frequently devoted to subjects of relatively little importance with the main object 

 of securing that mental discipline for the production of which they are imagined to 

 possess special qualifications. 



For this preliminary report the following special papers have been prepared which 

 have been approved by the Committee : — • 



' Formal Training : the Psychological Aspect '... Prof . Cyril Burt. 



' Some practical Applications ' ... ... ... Prof. F. A. Cavenagh. 



' Latin and Formal Training ' ... ... ... Prof. R. L. Archer. 



' General and Special Training in the Application 



of Skill' Prof. T. H. Pear. 



In the second and final issue of the report, which it is hoped to present in 19.30, 

 Prof. T. P. Nunn will deal with a very important section, viz. : Mathematics and 

 Formal Training ; and other elements of the curriculum will be considered from the 

 disciplinary point of view. An account will also be given of the experiments which 

 have been carried out by Thorndike, Sleight and other workers on the subject of 

 Formal Training. 



Formal Training : The Psychological Aspect. 

 By Prof. Cyril Burt, M.A., D.Sc. 



The traditional view, known as the doctrine of ' mental discipline ' or 

 ' formal training,' assumes that the effects of mental exercise are general. 

 It maintains that, by practising a mental capacity on some particular 

 subject, we strengthen that capacity as a whole, and so improve its 

 efficacy for any subject on which it may be employed in future. Thus, 

 it has been claimed that the teaching of mathematics trains the powers 

 of reasoning, so that the child becomes more logical, not only in dealing 

 with other branches of the curriculum, but also in dealing with the 

 problems of everyday life. 



In the past this doctrine has been widely held among teachers aud 

 educationists ; but during the last twenty years it has been severely 

 criticised on the basis both of general theoretical principles and of 

 experimental results. 



The theoretical objections run briefly as follows : Mental processes, 

 (those of memory, for example) do not depend upon simple capacities 

 — ' faculties ' lodged in some phrenological organ of the brain ; and, even 



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