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7. Argue either for or against the position that project teaching as here described is logical.

8. Are the answers given to the objections urged against project teaching valid and convincing? If not, refute them.

9. What do you think of the idea of introducing a general science course by a process of evolution as suggested, rather than by a process of revolution?

10. Outline your views as to the position taken by the author with reference to elementary science in the school grades below the ninth.

11. Briefly discuss the subject, "Science in the Junior High School." Base your discussion on your own convictions, rather than on an outline of the author's views.

REFERENCES

ARMSTRONG, HENRY E. The Teaching of the Scientific Method. Macmillan, N. Y. 1910. 504 pp. $1.75. Contains much information and many suggestions of value to teachers of general science. BARBER, F. D., and others. First Course in General Science. Holt, N. Y. 1916. 7+ 588 pp. $1.25.

BARBER, F. D. The Physical Sciences in Our Public Schools. The Normal School Quarterly, Series 12, No. 49. Normal, Ill. October, 1913.

BARBER, F. D. The Present Status and Real Meaning of General Science. School Review, Chicago, Vol. XXIII, No. 1. January, 1915, pp. 9-24.

BARBER, F. D. Tendencies of General Science Courses. Proc. N. E. A. 1914. pp. 758-764.

BRIGGS, THOMAS H. General Science in Secondary Schools. Teachers College Record, Jan., 1916, Vol. XVII, No. 1.

CALDWELL, O. W., and EIKENBURY, W. L. General Science. Ginn, Boston. 1914. 302 pp. 85.

CLARK, BERTHA M. An Introduction to Science. American Book
Co. 1915. 479 pp. $1.20.

COULTER, JOHN M. The Mission of Science in Education. University
of Michigan. 1900. Also- -same title, School Review, Vol. XXIII,
Jan., 1915, pp. 1-8; and School Science and Mathematics, Vol.
XV, pp. 93–100.
COULTER, JOHN M. What the University Expects of the Secondary
Schools. School Review, Chicago. 1908. Vol. XVII, pp. 81-82.
DOWNING, E. R. The Scientific Trend in Secondary Schools. Science,
N. Y., N. S., Vol. XLI, pp. 232-235.

EIKENBURY, W. L. Some Facts About the General Science Situation.

School Review, Chicago, Vol. XXIII, No. 3. March, 1913, pp.

181-191. EIKENBURY, W. L.

Further Discussion of General Science. School and Society, N. Y. Vol. I, No. 12. March 20, 1915, PP. 417–420. FLEXNER, ABRAHAM. A Modern School. Publications of The General Education Board. Occasional Papers, No. 3, N. Y. 1916. HARTMAN, CARL. The General Science Situation in Texas. School Science and Mathematics, Vol. XVII, No. 2, pp. 141-146. February, 1917.

HUMMEL, W. G. and B. R. Materials and Methods in High School Agri-
culture. Macmillan, N. Y. 1913. 385 pp. $1.25.
HUNTER, G. W. Civic Biology Presented in Problems. American
Book Co., N. Y. 1914. 418 pp. $1.25.

HUNTER, G. W. Laboratory Problems in Civic Biology. American Book Co., N. Y. 1916. 281 pp. (with bibliographies). 80 ¢. IVINS, LESTER S., and MERRILL, FREDERICK A. Practical Lessons in Agriculture. Amer. Book Co., N. Y. 1915. 225 PP. 84 ¢. Contains much of value for general science courses. Book lists and lists of material to be obtained free.

MORRISON, ADELBERT H. Applied Science, and its Relation to the Rest of the Work in an Up-to-date Technical High School. Proc. N. E. A. 1914, pp. 764-771. (Discussion by Comr. P. P. Claxton.)

RANDALL, JOHN A. Project Teaching. Proc. N. E. A. 1915, pp.

1009-1012.

RICHARDS, ELLEN H. Sanitation and Daily Life. Whitcomb and Barrows. 1907. 60 ¢.

SHARP, R. W. A Laboratory Manual for the Solution of Problems in Biology. Amer. Book Co., N. Y. 1911. 352 pp. 75 ¢.

SNYDER, WILLIAM H. The First Year of Science. Allyn and Bacon, Boston. 1914 and later. 493 PP. $1.10.

TIMBIE, WILLIAM H. Tendencies of General Science Courses. Proc. N. E. A. 1914, pp. 752-758.

WOODHULL, JOHN F. Projects in Science. Teachers College Record, January, 1916. Vol. XVII, No. 1.

WOODHULL, JOHN F.

Science Teaching by Projects. School Science and Mathematics, Vol. XV. March, 1915, pp. 225-232. WOODHULL, JOHN F. The Natural Method. School and Society. Vol. III. No. 54. January 8, 1916, pp. 64–65.

WOODHULL, JOHN F., Chairman. Report of Committee on Practical Chemistry to New York Science Teachers Association. School Science and Mathematics, Vol. XIII. 1913, pp. 294-298.

WOODHULL, JOHN F., Chairman. The Committee on General Science of the National Education Association. Science, N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1034. October 23, 1914, pp. 601–602.

WOODHULL, JOHN F. What Specialization has done for Physics Teaching. Science, N. S., Vol. XXXI, No. 802. May 13, 1910, pp. 729-731.

WOODHULL, JOHN F. How the Public Will Solve Our Problems of Science Teaching. Wisconsin State Teachers Assoociation, November 12, 1908. Issued by C. P. Cary, State Supt., Madison, Wis. 21 pp.

WOODHULL, JOHN F., and VAN ARSDALE, M. B. Physical Nature Study
Library: Home-made apparatus; Simple experiments in chemis-
try; Simple experiments in physics-mechanics, heat and fluids;
Simple experiments in physics - sound, light and electricity.
Barnes, N. Y. Each 128 pp. 65 ¢.

Books of Information to Accompany Simple Experiments in Physics.
American Book Co., N. Y. 2 vols.

For references on junior high schools and high school reorganization see list at end of Chapter XI.

CHAPTER XXIV

EXAMINATION AND TESTS

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Teachers' estimates of daily work. In the preceding chapters we have considered the nature of scientific work, and methods of instruction in science. In the present chapter we shall attempt a critical analysis of the various ways in which it is possible to measure the abilities of the pupils receiving the instruction, in order to determine the progress that they may have made in consequence of it. In a very large and important sense, the pupil is measured or tested by the teacher almost daily in connection with his performance and achievements in the classroom and laboratory. He is required to recite on topics or answer questions, or take part in discussions in the classroom; and the teacher while instructing him along with the others, mentally takes his measure or estimates his ability or success by observing what he says and does, and comparing it with a sort of ideal or mental standard representing a satisfactory sum-total of performance or achievement in the classroom duties that have been assigned to him. The teacher keeps in mind, and usually records in his grade book from time to time, numbers or letters representing grades or steps on a scale. On this scale the highest grade represents the teacher's notion of perfection or the best that the student can be expected to do; the lowest grade represents no progress, or failure, and the other grades represent various degrees of positive achievement approximating more or less nearly to perfection.

In a similar manner the pupils are graded with regard to

their success in performing the laboratory experiments, with regard to the quality of the notes that they make on the laboratory work, and with regard to the excellence and promptness of the reports that they make on special library assignments or other pieces of work that they may be required to do.

These estimates by teachers of pupils' achievements are approximate measures of their daily or weekly progress, and are of considerable value; but they are admitted to involve an inherent weakness in that they are almost wholly subjective. That is, they are based wholly on the individual judgment of a single person, and are not expressions of values as to the exact meaning of which all competent observers would agree.

Variability of teachers' estimates. Central tendency. If 25 teachers of, say, geography were to listen to a recitation or conference conducted by one of them, and to estimate the performance of each pupil on a scale, say, from o to 20, the grades that these teachers assigned to any given single pupil would show an astonishingly wide variation. A few would grade him relatively high, and a few relatively low; while the majority of the grades given would probably cluster more or less closely about a grade that would represent a

central tendency." A numerical value for the central tendency may be found in any one of three different ways:

1. By adding together the numbers representing the 25 grades given to this pupil, and dividing the result by 25, the number of such grades. This number is the average of the grades given by the 25 teachers to this one pupil. It is likely to be nearer to the true value of the pupil's performance than the grade assigned him by any one of the 25 observers.

2. By arranging the grades in an ascending or descending series according to their magnitudes and choosing such a number within the series that just as many of the grades lie above it as lie below it. This grade is called the median of the series, or distribution, of grades assigned by the 25 teachers to the given pupil.

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