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those who have sought, not only to follow the road of research 

 themselves, but also to incite others to use similar methods ; to 

 approach the unknown in an unprejudiced, open-minded manner. 

 Formerly, such teachers were lone individuals who might leave 

 behind a few disciples to carry on their teaching tradition. Within 

 the last few decades, however, during which the numbers of stu- 

 dents in science classes has multiplied thousands of percent, there 

 has come an increasing recognition of the potential value of sci- 

 ence teaching as a possible medium for training in habits of thought 

 and in attitudes of mind. To some extent, this trend has been 

 marked by a deal of visionary and wishful thinking ; the dififerences 

 between what would be ideal and what might be practical and pos- 

 sible has been overlooked ; wagons have been hitched to stars with- 

 out any means of traction. Gradually, however, common sense has 

 begun to catch up with inspiration, and pedagogical literature today 

 includes an increasing number of pages of discriminating analysis 

 and stimulating, useful suggestion. 



The Heiss, Osbourn, and Hoffman text-, "Modern methods and 

 materials for teaching science," definitely belongs in this class. 

 With the declared purposes ( 1 ) "to be a textbook for those courses 

 in the methods of teaching science which are now being given in 

 many colleges and universities; (2) to be a source book of infor- 

 mation for those teachers of science, at whatever level they may 

 be working, who wish to keep up with modern trends in the teach- 

 ing of science," this should prove a useful introduction to the sub- 

 ject as it stands at present. For the experienced biology teacher, 

 its chief value will be found in the introductory part in which the 

 writers explore the general principles of science education ; the 

 detailed suggestions of the other parts can necessarily be only 

 sketchy so far as any single science is concerned, but the bibliog- 

 raphy at the back of the book can furnish plenty of additional 

 sources relating to specific sciences. 



The text is presented in three sections as follows : ( 1 ) Prin- 

 ciples of science teaching; (2) Materials and devices for teaching 

 science; (3) Sources of materials for teaching science. 



