[ 98 1 
THE ECOLOGICAL METHOD IN TEACHING 
BOTANY 
By FREDERIC E. CLEMENTS 
A quarter of a century ago a young instructor in botany was 
beginning to question teaching methods at the same time that 
he was seeking a quantitative basis for ecological research. The 
endeavour to measure the responses of plants in their habitat sug¬ 
gested the desirability of applying measures to student response. 
At the outset it was found that a change from the apparently 
universal practice of announcing examinations beforehand to that 
of testing the progress of the student by unannounced questions 
showed a serious discrepancy between supposed and actual accom¬ 
plishment. In the attempt to remedy this and to make the student’s 
knowledge certain and available at all times, a series of experimental 
studies was begun which continued until 1917. The essentials of this 
method of research were summed up as follows in 1911: “I cannot 
close without pleading that we make the teaching of botany a matter 
of experiment. We should be ecologists who study the student, the 
method, the matter, and the results, both as to knowledge and 
training, in an exact, quantitative manner. If we do this we shall 
get rid of our loose opinions that for the beginner in botany any 
method is as good as any other method,- and that the results must 
be good because we have done the work. I feel sure that the use of 
experiment in connection with our methods of teaching, and the 
measurement of results will go a long way toward changing our 
present methods and improving our present results 1 .” 
It is impossible to understand why botanists and scientists 
generally, who are familiar with the methods and principles of 
research in their own fields, should never have thought of applying 
these to the problems of teaching. While tradition and inertia 
perhaps account for this in some degree, they do not explain why 
the brilliant advances in science have not been accompanied by 
corresponding progress in teaching. Some teachers will maintain 
that they do carry out experiments in teaching, but if published 
results are to be taken as an index, such experiments are altogether 
1 Science , 33 , 645, 1911. 
