470 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 



APPENDIX I. 



The Report of the Committee on Science Teaching in Secondary 

 Schools, published in the Report of the Association for 1917, contains so 

 much that is of value and so clearly indicates the spirit which should 

 animate the science teacher to-day, that the present Committee has 

 included a part of that Report below. 



Experimental and Descriptive Teaching. 



Methods of Instruction. — School instruction in science has, in 

 England, taken the form of individual practical work, laboratory 

 demonstrations, and lectures. In some cases laboratory work is carried 

 on independently of the lectures as regards subjects, while in others it 

 is arranged to run parallel with the theoretical course. Frequently 

 all lessons are given in the laboratory by means of demonstrations 

 and discussions in conjunction with practical work, and there is little 

 lecturing in the usual sense of the term. The basis of the instruction 

 in science in schools where this plan is adopted is the laboratory work, 

 and points are explained or elaborated as they are reached in the 

 practical course. 



Another plan is to make the laboratory work ancillary to the lectures, 

 and to regard it as a necessary means of making the pupil understand 

 clearly some points dealt with in them or met with in his reading. 



The Unique Value of Laboratory M'ork. — The primary value of 

 laboratory work in schools is that it brings the pupil into direct contact 

 with reality through his own senses and his own manipulation. In 

 this way only can he learn to see things in their right proportions, to 

 distinguish the essentials of an experiment from the non-essentials, 

 and obtain a firm grasp of a scientific subject. Reading about an 

 experiment, or even seeing an experiment performed, cannot give that 

 security of knowledge which practical contact affords. 



Experience shows that when scientific knowledge has been secured 

 by practical work it becomes part of the permanent mental equipment 

 of the pupil. The laboratory is, further, the one place where the pupil 

 learns to acquire first-hand evidence, and to distinguish between that 

 and information obtained verbally or by reading; for this reason also 

 it alone fulfils an essential function in an educational course. 



It is possible to use scientific method in the study of history, lan- 

 guages, and other literary subjects, but applied in this way the method 

 can never be accepted as providing the same means of training as 

 laboratory experiment. 



Distinction between Manual Training and Experiment. — Although 

 the principle of ' learning by doing ' is followed also in courses of 

 manual instruction in which each pupil is impressed with the necessity 

 of relying upon himself, of arranging and carrying out his work in an 

 orderly manner, and of interpreting instructions accurately, and though 

 other advantages may be justly claimed for such work, yet there is 

 always a decided difference between the best scheme of workshop 

 exercises and the experimental work of a rightly arranged experimental 

 course. In the laboratory the development of dexterity and skill is 

 only a secondary consideration, and the attention is fastened on the 



