574 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 670 



application of those laws which are now 

 correlated under the head of physical chem- 

 istry. At the same time we must not be 

 engulfed by this more recent branch of our 

 science, but must always l^ok to her as the 

 handmaiden and not the mistress. 



Charles L. Paesons 

 New Hampshire College 



THE APPLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD 

 TO EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM S"^ 



Notwithstanding the fact that the 

 greater part of my life has been spent in 

 educational work, in teaching, in examin- 

 ing, in organization, and in the investiga- 

 tion of foreign systems of instruction, I 

 have experienced considerable difficulty in 

 selecting, from the large number of sub- 

 jects that crowd upon me, a suitable one on 

 which to address you as president of a sec- 

 tion of the British Association devoted to 

 educational science. 



At the outset I am troubled by the title 

 of the section over which I have the honor 

 to preside. I can not refrain from asking 

 myself the question, Is there an educational 

 science, and if so, what is its scope and on 

 what foundations does it rest? The object 

 of the British Association is the advance- 

 ment of science, and year by year new 

 facts are recorded in different branches of 

 inquiry, on which fresh conclusions can be 

 based. The progress of past years, whether 

 in chemistry, physics or biology, can be 

 stated. Can the same be said, and in the 

 same sense, of education? It is true that 

 the area of educational influence is being 

 constantly extended. Schools of every 

 type and grade are multiplied, but is there 

 any corresponding advance in our knowl- 

 edge of the principles that should govern 

 and determine our educational efforts, or 

 which can justify us in describing such 



' Address of the president of the Educational 

 Science Section of the Bfitish Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, Leicester, 1907. 



knowledge as science? If we take science 

 to mean, as commonly understood, organ- 

 ized knowledge, and if we are to test the 

 claim of any body of facts and principles 

 to be regarded as science by the ability to 

 predict, which the knowledge of those facts 

 and principles confers, can we say that 

 there exists an organized and orderly 

 arrangement of educational truths, or that 

 we can logically, by any causative se- 

 quence, connect training and character 

 either in the individual or in the nation? 

 Can we indicate, with any approach to cer- 

 tainty, the effects on either the one or the 

 other of any particular scheme of educa- 

 tion which may be provided? It is very 

 doubtful whether we can say that educa- 

 tional science is yet sufficiently advanced to 

 satisfy these tests. 



But although education may not yet 

 fulfil all the conditions which justify its 

 claim to be regarded as a science, we are 

 able to affirm that the methods of science, 

 applicable to investigations in other 

 branches of knowledge, are equally ap- 

 plicable to the elucidation of educational 

 problems. To have reached this position 

 is to have made some progress. For we 

 now see that if we are ever to succeed in 

 arriving at fixed principles for guidance in 

 determining the many difficult and intri- 

 cate questions which arise in connection 

 with the provision of a national system of 

 education, or the solution of educational 

 problems, we must proceed by the same 

 methods of logical inquiry as we should 

 adopt in investigating any other subject 

 matter. 



In order to bring education within the 

 range of subjects which should, occupy a 

 place in the work of this association, our 

 first efforts should be directed towards ob- 

 taining a sufficient body of information 

 from all available sources, past and pres- 

 ent, to afford data for the comparisons on 

 which our conclusions may be based. One 



