346 J. C. MERRIAM THE TEACHING OF HISTOEICAL GEOLOGY 



training of nearly all investigators, and particularly given to wide range 

 of researches among a great variety of fundamental subjects. Their 

 activities in constructive work will often run parallel with those of other 

 kinds of organizations; but breadth of interest, wide range of contact, 

 unusual freedom of relationship, and spontaneity will always be among 

 their characteristics. 



Functions of Teaching 



Having defined in some measure the position of the educational insti- 

 tution with reference to research, one naturally inquires further concern- 

 ing the more intimate relation of the methods of teaching to research in 

 the institution. This discussion may be introduced by a brief analysis of 

 the function of instruction as we may interpret it for the institution of 

 higher learning. 



The principal objects of teaching in a university or college, as under- 

 stood by many of us, may be considered as of four kinds: (1) informa- 

 tional, (2) organization and presenting of perspective, (3) stimulative, 

 (4) constructive. 



(1) Informational teaching is a descriptive process concerning the 

 transmission of facts which may or may not be available elsewhere. 

 There are many cases in which the inadequacy of existing information 

 and the position of the instructor as an expert justify the presentation of 

 data which may not be obtained otherwise. The reiteration of statements 

 already set down in text-books or in other literature easily available may 

 in many cases be of importance because of the touch of personal relation 

 in the presentation. On the other hand, a large part of the information 

 transmitted in purely informational courses may be dangerous to the 

 student, as it inhibits personal effort to go to the available sources for 

 knowledge; and dangerous to the instructor, because it takes his time 

 from other kinds of instruction which may be more valuable. 



(2) Organizational instruction begins with masses of fact available 

 and teaches their grouping and use as more or less complicated organized 

 bodies. It represents in some respects a higher use of knowledge and 

 involves a more difficult kind of presentation. 



One of the important phases of instruction consists in that type of 

 organization which permits one to see knowledge in the simplest form 

 of statement, and at the same time to realize the infinity of detail and 

 the position, of details with reference to the larger principles involved. 

 Not too many individuals recognize the importance of organization of 

 information and the impossibility of effective use of knowledge without 

 understanding the interrelation of its elements. Not a few individuals 



