The training of teachers in the United States of America

The lectures in philosophy and experimental psychology are also open under the same conditions. Among them are the following courses:

The courses at the Teachers’ College, open to all Columbia University Students, are:

The following can be taken only by advanced students:

Candidates for the A.B. degree of Columbia University may specialize for the last year in the department of pedagogy. They are required to take two subjects, one as major or principal subject, one as minor subject. A third optional subject may be taken.

To gain a Diploma of the Teachers’ College, a two years’ course of study is required. This includes:

The college is distinctly and solely a professional school. There is no direct instruction in the subject matter of study, the admission qualification being such as to exclude all persons who have not had a satisfactory secondary education. Each college department provides training in the principles and practice of teaching the subjects which more especially belong to it; but all instruction is entirely from the standpoint of the teacher. It is particularly stated in connection with this teaching, that no student is admitted to a course in the methods of any particular subject unless he can show himself to be proficient in the subject matter of that branch of instruction. For those not qualified, by training or academic standing, to pursue the ordinary work of the college, it has been found advisable to arrange an introductory course to occupy one year. The preparatory course includes the study of English, an introduction to science, either drawing, domestic science, or wood-carving, and either constructive geometry, with the solution of original problems, or one branch of science with laboratory work. I spent several days in this college and heard some of the teaching in psychology, and in science. The psychology and history of education are both two years’ courses. In psychology the students begin by learning to make records of their individual observation of children. The chief use of psychology to the teacher is regarded as the making him conscious of processes of thought, which before might have been accurate, but were not known. As the end of education is assumed to be a moral end, in so far as it has to do with character and conduct, the will is made the basis of educational psychology and is treated first in order. One advantage of such an order of treatment is that the practical value of the study of psychology to education can be early shown. As the whole question of education is a question of the guiding and controlling of action, great importance is given to the practical study of action in its three phases of instinct, will and habit. Each of these is followed out as far as possible by means of the observation of children at play, or by the study of the student’s own willed movements. All questions of physiological psychology are avoided as much as possible in the study of psychology for educational purposes, the two reasons given being:

The students use Sully, James, and Höffding as text-books. The lines of work, however, are not those of any particular writer or school. The students have ample opportunities of wide reading and research, not only in psychology, but in all branches of pedagogy. These are afforded by the Bryson Pedagogical Library in the college building. This library, founded in connection with the Teachers’ College, for the purpose of affording opportunities of research to students of the college, is open to all teachers of the city and to the public generally. It contains 5,000 volumes, including books on pedagogy and connected subjects, text-books of all kinds, and the current literary, scientific and educational periodicals published in America and Europe.

In the study of the history of education, the plan adopted is a thorough and exhaustive treatment of one or two great educational reformers, with mere outline sketches of others. The reformers specially considered are regarded, not only as educators, but in all other possible aspects. Their lives and works, their ideas, the contemporary history of their own and other countries, are fully discussed. When this has been done, all other facts of educational history are as far as possible compared with, and illustrated by, the facts connected with the reformer who has been specially considered. Such a method seems very stimulating and interesting to the student, and much more satisfactory, than a general treatment of the whole, suggested by many text-books on the history of education.

Methods of chemistry, physics, physiology-botany, geology, are taught by means of actual lessons in the various subjects, given by the heads of departments and their assistants, to children in the practising school. Students are required to observe the teaching, to attend lectures and discussions upon the methods pursued, to learn the art of experimenting, and to prepare themselves for directing laboratories. They are also guided and helped in making a careful inspection of the science teaching in the public schools of the city. In addition to this, they are introduced to some of the practical problems of science teaching in the school-room, such as the difficulties of teaching science without a laboratory, or without fixed times for experimenting. All students who take science as their major or principal subject are required also to take courses in:—(i.) The use of tools for constructing home-made apparatus; (ii.) fundamental principles of drawing and their applications for students who take special work in other departments; (iii.) the specified courses in psychology, history of education, and science and art of teaching; (iv.) outlines of the lives and work of eminent scientists, as illustrating methods of scientific research. A Time-Table for the Two Years’ Course in Science is as follows:—

The practice department of the Teachers’ College is one of its most important features, for a fundamental assumption is that practice is the key-note of all training, that no one can consider himself trained who has not taught, and that the future teacher must observe good teaching, and must teach under normal conditions. The Horace Mann School for the observation and practice of the students of the Teachers’ College comprises kindergarten, primary, grammar and high school grades. The heads of departments arrange the teaching of the students, and great care is exercised in keeping the school efficient, as the observation of good teaching is considered only second in importance to actual practice.

I heard a botany lesson in the practising school, given by the instructor in methods of botany. The class, numbering about twelve children, of about ten years of age, was furnished with lenses, and needles, and a plentiful supply of flowers. Each child was required to see and examine all the flowers that were given to him, to describe carefully and exactly what he had observed, and to take nothing for granted. The methods adopted were such as to make the children original investigators, and the attitude of the teacher towards her subject was such as to develop a spirit of reverence in the children, and to arouse an interest æsthetic as well as scientific. No technical terms were used in descriptions. The botany lessons are adapted to the different seasons of the year. For example, the scheme of work for the Autumn term is:—

The herbarium is not much used, but in autumn each child and student brings a specimen of one tree or plant. All the specimens are kept and are used for the study of seeds during the winter. Twigs are brought into the school-room and made to grow in water, seeds are grown in shavings, and plants of all kinds are watched during the year.

The work in geology is a special feature of the practising school. Courses of work have been adapted by the head of department to the lowest grades of the grammar school—viz., to children about nine years old. The work is closely connected with the geography teaching, and children are encouraged to collect specimens of different kinds of building stone they see, or to bring any other specimens of rock or minerals. Trays of quartz, felspar and mica are provided for each child, for beginning practical work in geology. After examination of these minerals, granite is studied, and afterwards gneiss, as leading the way to the general history of rocks. Slag structures are given for examination, as specimens to illustrate the effects of heat. Artificial geodes and lavas are also studied, when connecting the history of rocks with their structure. Students who are preparing to become specialist teachers in geology have special work with the children. They prepare lessons under the guidance of the teacher—submitting written notes of the subject matter, but talking over with their head of department the proposed methods of dealing with the facts. They have also special laboratory work, in constructing simple apparatus, and making maps, charts and drawings.

The physiology lesson I heard was given to a high school class, by the director of the department of physiology. It was a revision lesson, conducted with the special object of making the class discover the general position of Man in the Animal Kingdom. The particular features I noticed about the lesson were:—

It is evident to those who have watched the movement of the training of secondary teachers in the Eastern States that the Teachers’ College of New York has done a work peculiarly its own. It was organized on the present lines, to combat the idea, even still existent to some extent, that college graduation equips for successful teaching. It has done this, not by emphasizing the value of professional training in itself, apart from its connection with scholastic equipment, but by insisting that the secondary teacher can only be fully prepared for his work when careful scholastic preparation is supplemented by a consideration of principles and methods of teaching, and by actual class work. Much of the successful work of the Teachers’ College is probably due to the thorough preparation required before beginning work, and to the maturity of the students who take the courses. With such material, and under such conditions, it is possible to make training thorough and very valuable. This is especially so in an institution, such as this, which can extend its interests, and broaden its outlook, by alliance with a University like Columbia, securing by this means the philosophical as well as the practical standpoint.

The School of Pedagogy of the University of the City of New York, established to give opportunities of higher training to graduates of colleges or of Normal Schools, differs fundamentally from other departments of Universities already considered, in only offering its pedagogical degrees to those persons who can show evidence of three or four years’ successful teaching experience. This is a necessary qualification for admittance to the junior or senior pedagogical course of the University. A student who has a college degree, and who is credited with a sufficient number of attendances during two years’ membership of the senior class, becomes “Doctor of Pedagogy,” after passing an examination on five prescribed courses of work, and presenting a satisfactory thesis on some educational subject. Students of the junior class are required to pass an examination in four subjects, and to attend the required number of lectures during one year, in order to obtain the degree of “Master of Pedagogy.” The courses studied are:—

Opportunities are given for visiting schools in the city, and observing teachers and children, but no practice department is connected with the University.

At Cornell University, at Ithaca, New York, systematic instruction in pedagogy is given as a part of the Department of Philosophy. There is a professor of pedagogy, who gives courses of lectures on:—Institutes of Education; School Systems and Organization; Logic and Methodology; History of Education. Simple problems for experimental investigation in the psychological laboratory are discussed. Pedagogical conferences, somewhat on the lines of the German “Conferenz,” are arranged, for criticism of school reports and plans of teaching various subjects; and seminaries of pedagogy and psychology have been instituted for laboratory work and original research. Beyond these strictly professional courses, there are courses in English, mathematics, Latin, etc., with direct reference to those who wish to become teachers in these subjects. Attendances at such courses counts towards a “Teachers’ Certificate.” The “Teachers’ Certificate” is given to graduates of Cornell University, who have successfully pursued the first course on the Science and Art of Teaching, or that portion of it which relates to the general theory of education; and have also attained marked proficiency in a course of five hours’ advanced work per week, for two years, in each subject for which the “Teachers’ Certificate” is given.

At Syracuse University, New York, pedagogy is an elective subject during the third terms of the third and fourth university year, for those who take the philosophical course. There are also Normal Courses given by the university professors in their various subjects.

The introduction of pedagogy as a definite branch of the philosophical department at Harvard University, is perhaps one of the most important movements in the progress and development of the Science of Teaching in America. In establishing its course, “adapted to the purpose of teachers and persons intending to become teachers,” Harvard has made recognition of the fact that something more than pure scholarship is needed to produce the successful teacher or professor. Accordingly, it has established two departments of training:—

Connected with the lectures on methods, and the organization and management of public schools, is the systematic inspection of designated schools by students, and a detailed report on some phase of school life observed there. Each student is required to make a comparative study of the teaching of a chosen subject, in all the grades of at least two schools; or he may make a study of supervision and discipline in two schools. Students must also make a comparative study of not less than three city school systems, of three State school systems, and of the school system of England, France, and Germany. This work of inspecting and reporting is considered a very important part of the pedagogical course.

The courses in methods, given by the professors of different college departments, are conducted by means of lectures and conferences in connection with Greek, Latin, English, German, French, history, mathematics, physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, geology and geography. Most of these “Teachers’ Courses” require attendance at some other college course in the same subject, where the professor illustrates his own method. In a few cases, attendance at lessons in the specified subjects, in schools near the University, is required.

The courses in pedagogy have, until the present year, been closed to all but graduates. Lately, however, the regulations have been changed, and pedagogical work may now count towards a degree.

There is no opportunity given to the Harvard pedagogical students for actual teaching; but the connection brought about between the college department and the secondary schools, by the constant attendance of students in the school-rooms of the neighbourhood, may possibly develop into a system wherein trained students may act as substitutes in these schools. Quite apart, however, from this possible future connection, there is even now an important practical relationship between Harvard University and some of the secondary schools—viz., that of supervision. In establishing a system of examination of the teaching in such schools as make application, Harvard has acknowledged the important principle that chief among the functions of an university is that of directing and stimulating secondary education.

The Department of Education at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, is a branch of the Department of Psychology. While doing much to advance the cause of the professional training of teachers, it does not strictly adapt its courses to the wants of the future secondary teacher. The fact that Clark University, unlike any other University in the United States, exists solely for the purpose of research, and admits only graduates as its students, determines that the pedagogical work shall also have a special character, well marked off from that of any other university. The department is purely one of higher pedagogy. Its aim is stated to be twofold:—

The work pursued is in six courses, with an additional seminary course. These are:—

The Pedagogical Seminary, an educational magazine edited by Dr. Stanley Hall, the President of Clark University, exists chiefly for the purpose of publishing results of work in this department. There is a special pedagogical library for research, and a complete collection of the current educational literature of America and Europe.

Among the other departments of psychology, there are many of great interest to the student of higher pedagogy.

Some of these are:—

For investigation in these departments, there are four psychological laboratories, a neurological laboratory, and an anthropological laboratory. Opportunities are also given to students to observe patients in State and city lunatic hospitals, and in institutions for the defective and criminal classes. The departments of research, most closely bearing upon the teacher’s work, are perhaps those of experimental psychology and neurology. Investigations on muscle and brain fatigue, the diurnal variations of mental vigour, the memory of children, etc., bring results important to the teacher, and especially so when carried out as at Clark University, by experts in scientific experiment. The American Journal of Psychology, edited by Dr. Stanley Hall, and published quarterly, contains the results of many of the researches in the psychological laboratories of Clark University.

It is to the contribution of new scientific facts to the educational world that Clark University chiefly devotes itself, and in doing this valuable work it has shown itself quite willing to acknowledge the results of observation and experiment of a very different kind from its own—viz., that of parents and teachers in the home and school. The records of the observation of children made by the students of the Worcester Normal School are given to Dr. Stanley Hall to be used in any way that may help true scientific research on the subject. It is evident that results gain by approaching the same problems from the practical and scientific standpoints, will be much more secure than they could be otherwise, and will supply valuable contributions to the educational world.

SUMMER SCHOOLS AS ACCESSORY TO THE WORK OF TRAINING.

Among the most distinctively American educational institutions are Summer Schools for Teachers. They are meetings organized during the long summer vacations by private individuals, or in connection with some University Normal or Training School, for the help and stimulation of teachers who have otherwise no opportunity for training.

The exact character of the work of a school is dependent entirely upon the educational aims and methods of the principal of the school, and the purpose for which teachers give up three or four weeks of their holiday to attend a Summer School may be different in different cases. The teachers of country schools, inadequately prepared for their work of teaching, often attend the Summer School in their county, in order to gain a State training certificate of a higher grade than that which they already possess; while teachers in city schools, most of whom have been trained in Normal Schools, attend a Summer School like that of Colonel Parker, at Englewood, to get stimulation for future work, and to pursue, in addition, a systematic study of pedagogy. Graduates, who are teaching in schools and academies during the year, often attend a Summer School in connection with an University, in order to pursue further study in various branches. The Summer Schools I visited at Benton Harbour, Englewood, Chautauqua, and the Summer School of Cornell University, illustrate the different lines of work mentioned.

At Benton Harbour, a small town on the shores of Lake Michigan, a Summer School was held for four weeks, and was attended by about fifty teachers of the rural districts of Michigan, who came to prepare for a third-grade Teachers’ Certificate of the State of Michigan. Lessons were given in ordinary school subjects, pedagogy and drill from half-past seven in the morning until three or four o’clock in the afternoon. I spent three or four days at this school, heard daily lessons in psychology, physical culture, civil government, English, elocution, and other subjects, and saw the working of the school generally. The teaching in all subjects was very elementary, as little previous knowledge could be assumed.

Daily work began with exercises in which the whole school took part. The singing of a hymn afforded an opportunity for a singing lesson being given to the whole school, the principal acting as instructor. Then came the reading of Holy Scripture, or of selections from literature, and a short discourse by the principal, after which students were called upon to give quotations from the works of famous men and women, or to recite short poems which had been previously prepared. At the end of these public exercises, the students were required to dismiss according to word of command, to turn, march to music, and to drill as a class of children would have been required to do. This was intended to teach the students how to dismiss and drill a school or class.

Lessons in psychology were given by the principal. The treatment of the subject was necessarily very elementary, and, indeed, superficial. I noticed that the teacher constantly digressed on practical points, and seemed to know exactly when digression would be of advantage to his pupils.

Daily lessons on “Experiments” were also given. These were talks on some of the most elementary principles of science, and easy experiments showing how such principles might be illustrated in class. Capillary attraction was illustrated in a lesson I heard, and its bearing on everyday life was shown. Pupils were required to come out of their seats, and to arrange simple apparatus before the class. As they were quite unaccustomed to manipulate even the simplest materials, they seemed to find considerable difficulty even in drawing out glass tubing and clamping together glass plates.

The feature of the school, perhaps, the most interesting, was the anxiety shown by these rural teachers to lose no opportunity for improvement, and the keenness with which they followed their daily lessons. Some of them were so untrained as to find great difficulty in following the word of command during drill, but these, who were painfully conscious of their defects, made rapid progress even in a week’s time. Summer Schools like that of Benton Harbour may give real help to the ill-prepared and untrained country teachers, in increasing their knowledge, and widening their interests. They offer advantages to those who have no opportunity for training, but their conditions are such as to prevent their becoming an adequate substitute for it. Indeed, their very existence acknowledges the fact that country teachers have no opportunities for preparation, and in itself sanctions a certain amount of superficiality.

The principal object of Colonel Parker’s Summer School, held in previous years at Chautauqua, New York, but this year at Englewood, Chicago, is to stimulate teachers of all kinds, and to suggest lines of work to be developed by them during the year. Attracted by the name and work of Colonel Parker, more than 200 teachers, superintendents of schools, and persons interested in education, came from nearly all the States of the Union to attend the Summer School at Englewood. Most of the ordinary school staff of the Cook County Normal School at Englewood acted as teachers in the Summer School, and Colonel Parker himself gave daily lectures in psychology. Daily lessons were also given in the teaching of science, language, and reading, “number” or arithmetic, music, drawing, and also in voice culture, Sloyd, physical culture, blackboard drawing, and other subjects advantageous to the teacher. The methods of teaching taught in the Normal School at Englewood were explained and exemplified in the Summer School, and Kindergarten and primary classes attached to the Normal School were taught during the weeks in which the Summer School was held, in order to show the practical application of the methods discussed. The students selected their courses of study. All, however, were expected to attend the psychology lectures. The classes in methods of teaching science, methods of laboratory work, methods of teaching language and reading, and methods of teaching “number” or arithmetic, were the most largely attended. Very keen interest was also taken in the blackboard drawing.

The work in methods of science was carried on by lectures, laboratory work by students, and field work. An important feature of the science lectures was the attention paid to methods of meteorological observation. Blank charts, to show the daily range and variation of temperature and air-pressure, were filled in by the students; United States Weather Bureau maps were studied; the origin and course of storms in the United States were followed. The relation of science to other subjects, number, reading, modelling, painting, drawing, writing, language, was brought out in the lectures, all the instruction being such as to suggest methods of actually dealing with the subjects before a class of children. The laboratory work was especially suggestive. The Summer School pupils did individual experimental work, and had the same instruction and treatment as a class of children would have had. The practical science course for the Summer School was:

Field excursions were made weekly, and methods of conducting children’s field excursions were suggested and discussed.

The instruction in blackboard drawing, as illustrating geographical forms, was excellent. In all cases, the students worked on paper with charcoal, at the same time as the teacher drew on the wall slate. After making a sketch, the teacher erased her work at once, in order to secure rapidity in those who were copying. The members of the class then distributed themselves round the room at various parts of the wall slate, and were required to reproduce on the wall slate the drawing they had just made, the teacher meanwhile giving individual help and criticising. The subjects for blackboard drawing for the fifteen lessons of the course were:

Through the kind permission of Colonel Parker, I was able to hear all lessons and to see the entire working of the school. Daily visits for nearly a fortnight served to show, that much educational life was centered there, and that teachers who occupied responsible positions in all parts of the States were receiving new light and stimulation for the working out of their own particular problems.

At the college of the well-known summer assembly at Chautauqua, New York, there was no professional instruction for teachers this year. I heard some excellent teaching in physics, German and French; but beyond the fact that many of the Chautauqua college students were teachers taking holiday courses of study to equip themselves better for future teaching, the work that I saw here had no direct bearing upon the training of teachers.

At Cornell University, courses in pedagogy are usually given in connection with the summer course in philosophy. These are for graduate students only. Psychology lectures, with experimental demonstrations, are given every day in the week; lectures on psychological and psychophysical method, with demonstrations and laboratory practice, are delivered three times a week; pedagogy and the history of education are studied by means of lectures and conferences; methods of teaching the special subject of study are discussed in connection with the other summer courses for graduates at Cornell University. I was present at a very interesting meeting of teachers who were attending a summer course in English. Individual members of the class gave their own experience as regards the teaching of English and literature in the schools. The students were mostly specialists in English, and teachers in private academies, or High Schools, and an informal discussion of special difficulties and methods which had been actually tried was very interesting and helpful to the class as a whole.

A general survey of Summer Schools of all kinds seems to show that their work cannot be regarded as that of “Training,” but rather as accessory to it. Where the principal or conductor of the Summer School is a man of enthusiasm and enlightenment, teachers can be refreshed and stimulated in many ways, by a summer course of work; but to regard a course as training which supplies no practice-work, and exists under highly artificial conditions, for a few weeks only, is to overlook some of the most important features of training.

As a general summary of the work of Training, seen in Normal Schools, City Training Schools and University Departments, it may be stated:

(i.) That the State Normal Schools, adhering to old traditions, and failing to insist on adequate and thorough scholarship as an entrance qualification, have been obliged to devote themselves, either to securing that scholarship, or to the pursuance of so-called training under conditions the most conducive to mechanical lines of work, and dead forms of method.

(ii.) That the City Training Schools, being entirely local institutions, supported by local funds, and only supplying teachers to the schools of the vicinity, are in danger of being cramped in their methods by seeking to win public favour.

(iii.) That the University Departments of Pedagogy, especially those belonging to State Universities, are capable of affording the widest and best opportunities for the thorough training of primary and secondary teachers, and in supplying these opportunities, they will not only help forward the cause in which they are immediately engaged, but afford a valuable means of unifying and stimulating education generally.

The existence of the good and the bad side by side is as marked a feature in training institutions as in any other department of American education, and suggests great rapidity of progress in some directions. Where the training is bad, old methods have been retained under new conditions; and where good results have been obtained, they are due to the readiness to try new methods, and to keep in touch with the educational progress of the day. The stimulus to much that is good in the present training of teachers in America is the psychological study of children, which now is being systematically organized in a “National Association for the Study of Children.” Not only scientific workers, but teachers and parents throughout the country, are beginning to realize the important bearing of child-study upon all educational questions, and nowhere is their enthusiasm for matters educational more shown than in their united devotion to the solution of this new problem.

Amy Blanche Bramwell.