Methods of Teaching

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Abstract

THE CONCEPT OF GENERAL METHODS OF TEACHING is so broad as to need empirical delimitation in any summary of research data. In one sense the teacher's method includes everything that he does in the classroom as well as the maintenance of many nonclassroom conditions that affect learning and over which the teacher has some control. Broadly conceived, part of the teacher's instructional method might involve his ability and willingness to regulate the amount of fresh air in the room. The term is not so broadly defined, however, in the pages that follow. They summarize the research reported within the past three years which has been concerned with evaluating the relative effectiveness of certain general procedures employed by teachers. The best practical definition of these general procedures or general methods is the following list of names that have been applied to various ones of them-the activity method, the case method, the conference plan, the demonstration method, the discussion method, the laboratory method, the lecture method, the problem method, the project method, the seminar method, supervised study, the unit plan, and the recitation method. Each of these methods has been variously described. One of the chapters in this REVIEW is devoted entirely to a consideration of the "activity method." Consequently, the considerable body of literature in this area is omitted here. Inasmuch as any investigation of general methods always involves some particular instructional materials or subjectmatter, the line between "general" and "special" methods is a vague one. During the three years 1939, 1940, and 1941, few research articles dealing with general methods were published. Under eighteen different headings in the Education Index there were forty titles so worded as to imply research, but of this total only fifteen reports actually involved scientific investigation. While there was a rather large number of titles such as "An Experiment with the Project Method," "An Experiment with the Laboratory Method," or "An Experiment with the Lecture-Demonstration Method," the word "experiment" was used loosely. Statistical data were not reported and the experimenters usually confined themselves to discussing the relative merits of the various methods and describing subjective impressions of effectiveness.