628 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— L. 



Afternoon. 



Stow Commemoration Meeting and Garden Party, Glasgow Provincial 

 Training College, Jordanhill. 



Opening statement — Rev. Alexander Andrew. 



Address — Dr. Cyril Norwood. Plantation of Commemorative Trees. 



Friday, September 7. 



Presidential Address by Dr. Cyril Norwood on Education: The 

 Next Steps. (See p. 200.) 



The Methods and Results of Educational Research. Papers — 

 (a) Dr. J. Drever. — Definition and Statement. 



Research in science is not mere ' fooling around ' with novelties in the hope that 

 something will turn up. It must always be guided by a clear and definite question. 

 Moreover, the methods employed must be such that an answer to the question is 

 possible. In particular it is important that conditions should be known and controlled 

 80 that only those which are relevant to the question are varied, and the variation 

 is under control. These are general principles of all scientific research. 



Research in education difiers in the same way as research in any other applied 

 science from research in the pure sciences. Its problems are definitely practical 

 problems. In every case they have their origin, directly or indirectly, in the practice 

 of education. Their solution also must be capable of direct translation into terms 

 of educational practice. Like some of the other appUed sciences educational science 

 has to deal with problems which are really in the fields of various pure sciences, such 

 as psychology and physiology. But it differs from all other applied sciences in that 

 its aims are determined in the last resort by a philosophy of Ufe, which is scarcely 

 amenable to research in the ordinarily understood scientific sense. 



The problems of educational research may be classified in various ways, as : 



1. Problems of (a) organisation, (6) classification, (c) instruction, 



or 



2. Problems of (a) analysis, (6) method, (c) testing and statistics, 



or 



3. Problems of (a) character, (6) knowledge, (c) skill. 



(6) Dr. J. H. Steel. — The Routine Work of the Classroom. 



(c) Dr. R. R. Rusk. — The Technique and Organisation of Research. 



What research is, and what term ' technique of research ' connotes. Common 

 factors in research : specific factors in educational research. Relation of educational 

 research to psychological research. Aspects of educational research — history, 

 administration, finance, curriculum, learning process, discipline. 



Methods of educational research. 'Mass' versus' individual 'methods. Statistical 

 methods. 



Organisation of research. Necessity for Bureau, or Institute, of Educational 

 Research. Functions of Institute — assist and inspire individual workers, organise 

 co-operative research, collect data, record failures, collect, collate and disseminate 

 reports of research work in forms suitable for application in schoolroom, act as clearing 

 house for new instructional methods, devices, apparatus, equipment, &c. 



Function of Pedagogical Clinic and its relation to Institute of Educational 

 Research . 



What teacher may expect from educational research, and what educational 

 research may require of the teacher. 



Discussion (Mr. D. Kennedy Fraser, Dr. R. H. Thouless). 



