The Ecological Method in Teaching Botany 103 
the lack of methods for ascertaining results. While there is no hope 
for the teacher who knows that the results are good because they 
are his, such fortunately are rare, and the great majority will 
doubtless welcome methods that enable them to know what their 
results are. Many a professor has admitted that his teaching did not 
secure tangible results, but has insisted that he did obtain intangible 
ones, which are much the more important. Likewise it has often 
been conceded that a year or two of elementary work left the student 
with little or nothing of value, but stoutly maintained that this was 
not true of the professional student. In this connection it will suffice 
to call attention to the general dissatisfaction as to the preparation 
of young botanists expressed by the heads of scientific bureaus. The 
actual measurement of results shows that we do no better by pro¬ 
fessional than by general students, when allowance is once made 
for their greater incentive and the cumulative effect of advanced 
courses. 
The progressive teacher who would measure the value of his 
teaching must at the outset divest himself of prepossession, his own 
as well as that of his best students who especially affect his courses. 
More than one such student has been known to speak glowingly of 
the merits of this or that course, only to fumble miserably when 
asked to give concrete evidence of its value in his own thinking. 
The teacher may first wish to determine merely the extent to which 
the students retain the knowledge of the course, and this is readily 
done by unexpected questions, written or oral, during the term. Much 
more important is to ascertain what is left of the course after a 
summer’s vacation and after the lapse of a year or more, as it is this 
alone that can materially affect the student’s thinking or his habits. 
Tests of this are more difficult to apply, except where the student 
continues with the same teacher. They require cooperation through¬ 
out a department or a college, and can be made successfully only 
when there is general appreciation of the necessity of research in 
teaching. By far the most important tests are those that have to 
do with the student’s complete progress rather than with the memory 
primarily. These are termed practical, applied, and correlation tests, 
and are directed especially to the skill and accuracy with which he 
can organise his results and apply them to other problems of the 
same and different categories. With this are associated progress 
tests of the various learning processes, namely, observing, experi¬ 
menting, reasoning, remembering, etc., which enable both student 
and teacher to follow the actual advance in each, and to direct 
