A brief course in the teaching process

CHAPTER IV
THE DRILL LESSON

Many responses of thought and action must be reduced to an automatic basis. It is the function of the drill lesson to accomplish this result. In some schools this type of work has been overemphasized, while in others it has been neglected. It is a mistake to spend the whole of a child’s time and energy drilling him upon that which some one else has thought. He must think for himself while a child, if he is to show intellectual strength as a man. And it is just as much a mistake to believe that the greatest progress in thought or action can be achieved without careful attention to the formation of desirable habits. Probably there is little need to-day to argue against this conception of teaching, which makes the teacher simply and solely a drill master. Our respect for the native tendencies and for the experiences of children, our emphasis upon doing, our belief that the best preparation for future efficiency is to be found in present childish efficiency, all refute any such narrow view of the educative process. There is, however, in some quarters a danger that this insistence upon thinking and doing may be construed to mean that drill work is no longer necessary. There are children who are terribly handicapped in their later work because they have not learned to spell common words, to write a legible hand, to give without hesitation the addition combinations, to reproduce the multiplication tables, to use without much thought the processes commonly employed in arithmetic work. They find difficulty in reading, because they lack that knowledge of phonetics which would make easy the recognition of unfamiliar words in their reading; they stumble in geography, fail in music, lack ability to comprehend their work in nature study or history, all because facts essential to further progress, once presented and understood, were not reduced to an automatic basis by carefully conducted drill exercises. If it is clear that much of the knowledge which children acquire must be reduced to the basis of habit, we may next inquire just how this drill work is to be related to the other part of the school work.

Question of motive: In the formation of habits not provided for by native tendencies to react, the occasion for making the adjustment is, as in the case of our thinking, the recognition of a need. Our first attempts to talk or to use our limbs were due solely to the compelling force of instinct, but later we learned a foreign language or achieved success in the high jump because we had a definite aim in mind. So far as the teacher is concerned with habit formation, she can hope to utilize instinctive tendencies, but may not depend upon them alone to secure the result. A motive must be provided for the work. The stronger this incentive, the greater will be the attention given to the work in hand and the sooner will the desired result be secured. Very much of the drill work which is done is well-nigh futile because it is imposed upon children. They do not see its significance, and feel little interest in the accomplishment of the results demanded.

Ideally, drill lessons should come when the children see that their future progress is conditioned by successful formation of the habits involved. And this is not so impossible of accomplishment as might appear at first sight. If the material given to children to read in the first grade is of such a nature that they really care to read it, they are very quick to see that word drill, and later phonetic drill, will help them to secure the end desired. Of course the reply may be made: “What is the use of bothering one’s self with this attempt to make a rational appeal to children? They will be completely satisfied if you simply keep them at it. It is a game for them. They enjoy it simply because they delight in accomplishment.” One might reply to such a statement by calling to mind the fact that the school exists to develop rationality. You may be perfectly sure that frequently enough the children, and later the men and women, will be driven or led without any appeal to reason. It will undoubtedly be true that we shall have to appeal to motives other than rational; but surely this appeal to reason should be made, and, if our education is successful, should be increasingly potent as we advance from grade to grade. Even when a rational motive has been made the point of departure, we shall have to use many devices to keep alive the child’s original intention. But let us frankly admit, both to ourselves and to the children, that these subsidiary aims are merely aids in helping us to achieve the more worthy aim. If such a standard of motive were applied throughout our work, we should probably find it necessary to postpone certain activities which we insist upon for no reason which a child can understand, until there was some real use for the habit to be formed. We might even find ourselves compelled to eliminate much which finds no application in real life. The occasion for drill is found in the demand for automatic control of thought or action, and much of the later success of the children in thinking and doing will be conditioned by the quality of the work done in these drill exercises.

Knowing what to do: A clear idea of the result to be accomplished is, of course, involved in the notion or aim as it has been discussed above. The importance of this element in habit formation cannot be overemphasized. It may seem superfluous to call attention to the fact that every child should have a clear idea of what is to be done before the drill work begins; but it sometimes happens that the teacher takes too much for granted. Children stumble and fail, or do nothing at all, simply because they do not know what it is all about. It would seem impossible that any group of pupils should be asked to commit to memory anything which they did not understand, and yet we are constantly reminded by their later interpretations that they have not understood. Such logical organization is not always possible, nor, indeed, even desirable, as, for example, in learning addition combinations. In such a case the value of the habit is largely due to the fact that we no longer attempt to rationalize the process nor attempt to fix it in a logical series. But whether the task be the memorizing of a poem, the learning of addition combinations, the formation of the habit of neatness, or the gaining of skill in handling a saw, it is essential that the child know just what is to be done and that he be provided with an adequate motive for doing it.

Repetition with attention: After a child knows what to do, has the right idea, and the greatest possible motive for doing has been provided, the teacher’s problem consists in keeping alive the desire to achieve the result while the process of repetition is going on. A child learns to spell a word not simply because he repeats the letters or writes them in the correct order a hundred times. We all have knowledge of cases in which this sort of repetition has seemingly resulted in no advancement. The most economical method of learning to spell requires that the maximum of attention be given while the letters are repeated. The story of the boy who, after he had written after school the phrase “I have gone” a hundred times, wrote at the bottom of his paper for the information of the teacher, who had left the room, “I have went home,” is a case in point. The trouble with this boy was not that he had not repeated the correct form often enough, but that he had not attended to it. He had failed to realize the significance of what he was doing. Doubtless his attention, instead of being fixed on the work in hand, was more largely given to the game of baseball his companions were playing, or to the prospect of the delights of the swimming pool. Much of the concert work that one hears shows a lack of attention on the part of the larger part of the class except in so far as is necessary to follow the leaders. Such work is undoubtedly helpful to those who lead, but it is of little use to the others who take part. It is a very good plan to test concert work by listening closely to distinguish those who are carrying the burden, have them stop, and measure the success of the work by the result which can then be had.

Means of holding attention: No matter how strong the motive with which we start, any one of us will grow weary when the task imposed requires many repetitions. It is even more difficult for children to keep their attention fixed for any considerable length of time. We must, therefore, plan carefully to conduct the drill in such a way that the maximum of attention may be secured. Among the devices which are employed, one of the most important is variation in procedure. Suppose, for example, we wish to spend ten minutes in drilling children on addition combinations. The best results will not be secured by spending the whole time in either oral or written work. Probably the maximum of attention and consequently of result could be secured by dividing the period into three parts: one devoted to oral work, holding every one responsible for every answer; one to written work on a series of problems provided on number cards or mimeographed sheets; and one to work of the same sort placed on the blackboard. Of course there is nothing peculiarly good in the order of exercises suggested above, beyond the fact that they give variety. The next day the teacher would want to change the order or to introduce a new type of exercise.

Another means of securing the maximum of attention is to place a time limit. Have the children see how many problems they can solve, how many stanzas they can commit to memory, or how many words they can learn to spell in a period of ten minutes. It makes a very great difference whether the teacher says “work on this task for ten minutes,” or “see how much you can get done in ten minutes.”

This leads us to consider a third means commonly employed to secure earnest work, the appeal to emulation. The desire of a pupil to do as well as other members of his class, or the desire of a class to equal the record of another class of the same grade, will do much to keep attention fixed on the work. Neither the devices mentioned nor any others will avail unless the teacher is wide-awake and alert herself. The greatest single reason for lack of interest and attention on the part of the class is found in the indifference and lack of energy on the part of the teacher. It is useless to expect vigorous action on the part of pupils, when the teacher is half asleep or otherwise either physically or mentally incapacitated for good work. It is possible at times for a teacher to arouse her own flagging interest by just such appeals as have been suggested above as applying to children.

Necessity for accuracy in practice: Our nervous system is so constructed that to do anything once leaves a tendency to do the same thing the same way when next we are placed in a similar situation. It is bad to allow careless work or random guessing, not simply because the result in this one case may be wrong, but more especially because the tendency to the wrong reaction is there and must be overcome before the correct action can be fixed as a habit. If a child, the day after he has studied the word foreign, has occasion to write the word and does not know how to spell it, it is a mistake to permit the word to be written incorrectly. It would be better to have the child discover for himself or find out from the teacher the correct form before attempting to write the word. It is well to insist on the necessity for absolute accuracy. Better by far discontinue the drill while every one is still fresh enough to give close attention to the work in hand and while the responses are accurate, than to make the serious mistake of allowing the work to be done carelessly or to flatter one’s self that approximately accurate results are good enough. Better be sure that in the drill work on the multiplication table to-day the children have invariably given the correct response when we have asked them how many are six times three and six times four, than to have attempted to teach the whole table with the knowledge that one fourth of the answers have been wrong. We should not be misled; the child who gave us a wrong answer is not simply wrong this time, but, what for us is more important, will tend to be wrong ever after. We have more than doubled the task we set out to accomplish. We must now get rid of the tendency to give the wrong answer, and then teach the correct one. In our later consideration of the moral life of the child, we shall have occasion again to point out the significance of this principle.

The periods elapsing between repetitions or series of repetitions should be gradually lengthened: The fixing of a habit so that it shall always thereafter be available to determine our thought or action requires that we do more than arrive at a point where the response can be readily secured in a given situation. The word which your pupils spell so readily, the table which they recite so glibly, the poem which they have so completely mastered, will apparently have completely disappeared next week or next month. Of course the work you have done is not without effect. It will be easier to learn the word, table, or poem again. But the child should command these results for which we labored now. There is a body of knowledge, a group of actions, which ought to be available automatically at any time. If we are to succeed in fixing this body of habits, if they are to be made permanently available, we must recognize the fact that when we have first secured the result desired we have only begun the process. The boy who recites Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address without any mistakes to-day has made a good beginning; but if that address is worth remembering always, he must recite it several times during the next week, and go over it again next month, next term, and next year. There will come a time, depending upon his native retentiveness and upon his method of memorizing, when it will no longer be necessary to repeat it for the sake of fixing the address in memory. It will not take a great deal of time to recall that which we believe we have fixed permanently last week or last month, and by doing this we shall add greatly to the probability of possible recall a year or ten years from now, and incidentally discover, much to our surprise, how much has already escaped.

Teachers often unconsciously follow the cramming method in their attempt to have children advance rapidly; and, as is always the case when this method is employed, what has apparently been learned is soon forgotten. Fortunately for all concerned, many of the responses which need to be reduced to an automatic basis are demanded over and over again as the child progresses from grade to grade, and are thus provided for. But much that is now lost could be retained, and each succeeding teacher could accomplish more than is now customary, if only this principle of habit formation were commonly observed.

In the case of a series of responses to be made automatic, be careful to include each member of the series: Much of our work is weak because it lacks system. If we are engaged in teaching addition combinations, we should be absolutely certain that we have taught every possible combination. If we want to be sure that children know how to write numbers up to one million, we must have given them drill on all of the possible difficulties. If children are always to respond correctly when problems involving two steps in reasoning are presented, we must have been careful to provide for the purpose of drill all of the combinations of situations involving addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division which can occur. For any other similar field, the same care must be exercised.

The greater part of the time should be spent in drilling upon that part of the work which presents special difficulty. There is no use in spending one’s time equally on all of the words included in any list. Some of them can probably be spelled with little or no drill, while others may require very careful study and many repetitions. In any other field the same situation will be found. Many of the responses desired will be reduced to the basis of habit readily, and a few will require continued attention. It is the function of the teacher to discover these special difficulties as soon as possible, to clear up any obscurity in ideas which may stand in the way, and then to drill with special reference to these special cases.

Briefly summarized, it is the function of the teacher in guiding pupils in the formation of habits to see to it that they have the correct idea of the thing to be done; to secure the maximum of motive and to maintain the maximum of attention during the process; to guard against carelessness and lapses by insisting upon the accuracy or the adequacy of the responses; to provide occasion for repetitions from time to time with gradually lengthened intervals; to be careful not to omit any of a group or series of responses equally important; to spend the greater part of the time and energy of both herself and pupils upon those cases which present special difficulty.