State a number of psychological facts which you have discovered as a result of psychological investigation. Write educational principles based upon each of these facts and show how these principles may be applied in the school-room. In determining which of two studies (e.g., Algebra or Botany) a certain child should study at a certain time (it being possible to take only one of them), what facts should be known regarding (a) the relation which these studies respectively bear to mental development; (b) the stage of mental development reached by the particular child who is to begin the study? How would Psychological study aid in discovering these facts? Give examples of ways in which Psychological study would aid the teacher in discovering what branch of study was best fitted to a particular child at a particular time. In what way would Psychological study aid in determining at what time a child should begin a certain study, e.g., Geometry? In what way would Psychological study aid the teacher in determining the best method of teaching a particular subject (e.g., multiplication of fractions) to a particular child? References: Adams-Herbartian Psychology applied to Education. Bagley-The Educative Process. Dewey-The School and Society. James--Talks to Teachers on Psychology. CHAPTER IV Analysis of the Individual Life Process We have found that education has to do with the control of changes in the individual life process. Let us next proceed to an analysis of the process and to an investigation of ways in which these changes are brought about. I.—NON-CONSCIOUS ACTIVITIES: Give examples of mental or bodily changes which have taken place in your own life history and of which, at the time, you had no immediate knowledge. A.-Natural Non-conscious Activities.— 1. Instinctive.-Describe the action of a person when he suddenly and unexpectedly hears a loud noise behind his back. Is his action due to reason? Is it due to heredity? Can he train himself not to be so startled? Give examples of other instinctive activities. 2. Reflex. If the sole of the foot of a person who is asleep is tickled, the foot is drawn up without any conscious knowledge or effort on the part of the sleeper. Give similar examples of muscular activities which are performed in direct response to stimulation of the end organ of the nerve without any conscious direction on the part of the individual. Such acts are called "reflex." 3. Automatic. The circulation of the blood is said to be due in part to stimulation of the muscles as a result of the chemical composition of the blood. Give examples of other changes which go on within your body and concerning which you have no conscious knowledge. Such activities are said to be "automatic." B.-Acquired Non-conscious Activities.— (a) Reflex.-Can you walk without paying any attention to the walking? Could you always do so? Could you do so if the soles of your feet were paralyzed? Give examples of other acquired reflexes, as the result of repetition. Why may they be called habits? (b) Automatic.-When you are asked to add 16 and 9, do you think of 16 objects and 9 objects? Were you always able to state the sum without hesitation as you now do? Why may the activity be said to have become automatic? Give examples of other acquired automatic activities. Why may they be called habits? II. PARTIAL OR ABNORMAL CONSCIOUSNESS: A.-Sub-conscious Activity.-A physician, who is superintendent of a hospital, has one bell as his call signal. The assistants have signals of two, three and four bells, respectively. The superintendent sleeps soundly, and is entirely oblivious to the calls of two, three or four bells, but if the one bell signal rings at any time of the night, he immediately wakes up. Can you form a habit of shutting out or exhibiting certain sounds when asleep, and of attending to others? Can you waken earlier than your usual time by making up your mind to do so? When you thus decide to waken at a certain time, do you sleep as well as you do when you attach no importance to the time of waking? Do you sometimes find in the morning that a problem which was unsolved when you retired the previous night now presents an easy solution? Give other examples of so-called sub-conscious activity. B.-Absent-mindedness.-A distinguished distinguished mathematician was observed walking along the street in a pouring rain, at the same time using his umbrella as a walking-stick. Give other examples of extreme concentration and accompanying absent-mindedness. C.-Abnormal Consciousness.-The recorded experiences of those who have been deaf, blind, and dumb from their birth, and who have subsequently learned to converse, shows that they have no true conception of sound or color, and that before learning language the content of consciousness was at all times vague and fragmentary. D.-Infant Consciousness. The study of children reveals the fact that at birth the content of consciousness (if the child may be said to be conscious at all) is confused and indistinct. As time goes on the undifferentiated, vague, 'sensuous continuum" begins to assume definite conscious form. It is some time before the senses perform their functions sufficiently well to render sensations explicit in consciousness, and throughout all the years of infancy, childhood and youth we may say that education is nothing more nor less than a growth toward fuller consciousness. III. ENTIRE CONSCIOUSNESS: What do you mean by the term Conscious when, in performing the reaction time experiment, described on p. 23, you say you were conscious? Repeat the experiment and make an analysis of the mental changes which you experienced. Did you know during this experience that you were yourself and not someone else, and that no one else was having the same experience, that you were the same person that you were the previous day, that the signal stimulus came from outside your body, that you were putting forth an effort to convey the signal to the next person as quickly as possible, and that you really did pass the signal on? Speaking generally, full or complete consciousness may be said to be the possession of any individual when he can synthetize the elements of this present experience, connect the present with the past and respond properly to stimulus received, when he knows who he is, what he is doing, what he has done in the past, what stimulus he is now receiving, what reactions should be made, and when he is capable of making such adequate response as the needs of the situation demand. The term "Consciousness" cannot be defined. Its meaning can be explained somewhat by such characteristics as those to which we have just referred. We can, however, study various forms of consciousness and the conditions under which they arise, and (as we have seen) this is the phase of the subject which is of special interest to the educator. IV. THE GROWTH OF CONSCIOUSNESS: Observe an infant for the first few years of his life, or study the recorded observations of others and state what you have learned regarding the growth of consciousness. Similarly study the life of someone whose consciousness has been abnormal, e.g., Helen Keller, and notice its development. Call to mind, also, the ways in which people who have lost consciousness slowly resume the conscious condition. When you are reading and walking, without paying attention to the walking, and come in contact with an obstacle, (e.g., a chair), what change takes place in your consciousness? Why do you notice the beating of your heart when it beats more rapidly than usual? Give other examples where an habitual, automatic or reflex activity becomes a conscious activity when anything occurs to interfere with the ordinary process and to require reconstruction. Does consciousness |