A procedure in presenting special methods of teaching high school subjects

Abstract

The procedure commonly used in presenting the special methods of teaching the different high school subjects follows the usual type of college work; namely, that of lectures, reports, discussions, and questions and answers. All too frequently the larger proportion of time is given to lectures. In many colleges these courses, special methods in English, mathematics, Latin, biology, etc., are taught by the respective heads of the various academic departments. Occasionally a course is taught by an instructor in the department of education. In some centers a few different courses have been taught by strong high school teachers brought in from city schools. These high school teachers seem to do, for the most part, a piece of work superior to that done by the regular college faculty. The reasons for this are not hard to find. The professor in a small college or university is apt not to be particularly trained to offer a methods course. The number of students for special methods is often small for a given year. Too often a methods course of two semester hours is added to a heavy teaching burden. In many cases the college professor is trained in subject matter only. At best he is not in close touch with actual teaching problems and practices of the modern high school. Many college professors very much dislike the courses in special methods. The high school teachers are in daily contact with the high school problem, they make specific observations a definite part of the course, and they present the work from the viewpoint of the learner, not of the learned. The high school teacher has received special training to fit him as a teacher and he can also apply his own teaching experiences. But the high school teacher, under contract with a city school syste'm is not able to give two hours a week to a class at the college. Even if so, the expense of such a plan is unusual considering the small enrollments, especially so in subjects less popular, such as physics and Latin. Time schedules are hard to adjust because of a conflict between college and high school programs. During the past six years the Department of Education at Evansville College has experimented with a plan which now bids fair to solve all the larger aspects of the problem. The head of the department has assumed responsibility for all the special methods courses. Previous to this time the plan of teaching these courses had been similar to that discussed above. The usual