TEACHING AND LEARNING 25 



vidual, system gives better training, but less knowledge, since 

 students, in fact, learn little from one another in this way. The 

 collective system gives better knowledge, but poorer training, 

 the more especially as the necessarily imperfect apparatus makes 

 really accurate work impossible, and hence soon removes the 

 desire for it. In my own experience during the past few years 

 I have gradually approached a combination system, which seems 

 to me to keep most of the advantages with only a modicum of 

 the defects of each plan, and this I have had in mind in arrang- 

 ing the details of the second part of this book. In brief the 

 students are always carrying on certain topics together, especially 

 those of a markedly quantitative character, on which they com- 

 pare results and to which the didactic part of the instruction is 

 adjusted; at the same time they are each carrying on a special 

 problem with much more thoroughness. It is now becoming 

 possible to procure enough apparatus, and at moderate cost, 

 to permit of profitable work upon this plan. 



This discussion of the method of work in a college course 

 in Plant Physiology brings up the question as to corresponding 

 procedure in the elementary courses in Botany, involving the 

 topics outlined on an earlier page (page 5). Where the classes 

 are very large it seems at first sight quite impracticable to teach 

 physiology at all, and certainly actual individual work is not 

 possible. But after trial of different methods, I have had good 

 success, even with over one hundred students in a class, by 

 using a modification of the demonstration system, after the 

 following plan.* With the entire class assembled, and only 

 the bare materials for the experiment upon the table, I first do 

 my best to make sure that the importance and general bearing 

 of the problem is clearly before the students; in fact I try to 

 make the experiment seem both a logical and a necessary step 

 in their progress. Then I set up the experiment from the very 

 beginning, explaining the reason for each step, the use of each 

 piece of apparatus, and the action of each chemical involved. 



* I have discussed the procedure more fully in School Science, 1, 1902, 463. 



