Some Thinking Processes of Grade Children
- Author:
Benson, A.M.,
Superintendent of City Schools, Lexington, Neb.
In looking over the field of work done in experimental pedagogy and psychology of children, we are astonished at two things, first the recent date of the beginning of this kind of work: secondly, the scant amount of work attempted and accomplished, especially in experimental pedagogy. That the work is one of vast practical importance must be admitted. The notice given to experimental pedagogy by psychologists has been small, and by those engaged in the teaching of children, little if anything has been contributed. The question of whether or not our public school system is educating for efficiency is receiving considerable attention at the present time. Does school training develop all the senses and possibilities of the child, or does it develop a few of the senses at the expense of the others? Another question, which is receiving and will continue to receive attention more and more, is whether school training helps the child to think independently, or whether it makes him mechanical and automatic in his mental efforts. Is common sense made an important factor in child development?
Whether we are educating for efficiency or not, is a question which experimental pedagogy must answer. Before we attempt to determine standards of performance in the different branches of our public school course, more attention must be given to tests of intelligence. There is a need for a set of standard tests for the children of our schools. At present the teachers have no way of telling whether their class is above or below the average. They have no standard by which to judge. We also need a standard whereby the individual may be judged and allowed to take the work needed to develop his weakest points as well as his strongest.
Throughout our school system we have children of approximately the same age in each of the first eight grades. What is the difference in the mental and physical development of these children, and wherein does the difference lie in their development and growth? Education is largely individual and since there are great individual differences it becomes the business of investigators, first to find the chief points of difference, and secondly to suggest a possible remedy. Retardation when judged by the age standard is taking into consideration but one side of the argument. Arrested mental and physical development is the factor in retardation worthy of the best efforts of the thinkers today. To develop the thinking and doing capacity of the children should be the chief work of the public school. During the years 1910-12 it was my privilege to carry on two series of investigations, under the direction of Dr H. K. Wolfe.*
The first was by means of a questionnaire sent to a large number of rural schools and to the city teachers of Lincoln. This investigation was to ascertain, if possible, the difference between rural and city children of the seventh and eighth grades. The second investigation was to study some of the effects of school training on the development of children. It was recognized in both investigations that it would be impossible to investigate and perform experiments in all the various school subjects. Only a limited number of fields could be entered. Experiments and tests were made in sense training, judgments, and knowledge applied to the work of every-day life. The investigations were undertaken to find, if possible, what our schools are doing in the field of education, rather than to give a solution of the problems. Both investigations gave splendid illustrations of the thinking processes of grade children. In the first investigation age was not taken into consideration. In the second all were about the same age, an average of ten years and six months. In the first only the seventh and eighth grades were included, in the second all the grades from the first to the eighth inclusive were tested.
Time will not permit going into details regarding methods or material or the arrangements necessary to carry on the investigations with the best results. Everything was done to make the child as natural as possible. An equal number of boys and girls were tested. The majority of the tests and experiments which will be given, were made in the psychological laboratories of the University of Nebraska. Throughout this series of experiments it must be kept in mind that the children were all approximately the same age. Up to the sixth grade they were all the same, and the average age of all the pupils was a fraction over ten years six months. Again the children came from all the first eight grades, and the test was the same for all. With these points clearly in mind no difficulty should be experienced in following the results of the experiments. The psychological tests which were given were mostly those of Head Professor of Psyoholoy, University of Nebraska.
judgment, including the weight-size experiment, time and space, middle of lines and visual apprehension. The pedagogical tests covered work in arithmetic, geography, reading and interpretation of pictures, tests of skill in drawing, and a physical test. Some of the experiments and results may seem too simple and of no importance, but by a little reflection the psychological and pedagogical relations to mental development will be seen.
American children have been pronounced good guessers but poor thinkers, and to a large degree this is true. Exercises which will cause children to think outside of the regular systematic school work are not offered in many schools. The following simple exercise was given to test the children’s judgment:?A small glass 60 mm. high with a base 40 mm. in diameter was filled with BB shot. The glass filled contained 219 shot. It was placed before the child and he was asked to estimate the number of shot in the glass. He was allowed to look all around the glass, but was not permitted to lift it. In this experiment, a large majority of the first and second grades made a guess of one hundred. Those estimating the number at one hundred gradually decreased as we go up the scale of grades until we reach the eighth grade; here the girls are almost on a numerical equality with the girls of the second grade. The lower grade pupils were quicker in their response than those of the upper grades. After the second grade the estimations vary and begin to differ with the individual. There is a marked sex difference in the upper grades. There is an almost constant increase in the pupils who estimated approximately the correct number throughout the grades. However, the proportion is very small who made such an estimate.
Less guessing and more thinking is evident as the grade advances. This does not mean, however, that many estimate it more nearly correctly, but rather the contrary. One hundred and seventy-nine out of two hundred and eighty made an estimate of one hundred or less,?less than half the actual number. It is evident that our schools do very little to develop this kind of thinking or judging.
School training should show a progress in accurate thinking for the majority as the grade advances, and this test indicates its failure to do so. More time could profitably be spent in similar kinds of sense training.
The motor side of education has been sadly neglected, and to test the accuracy of the muscle sense in its relation to intelligence the following experiments were made:?
A wooden disk 100 mm. thick, weighing 60 grams, and a series of lead weights ranging from 1 to 660 grams, were used. The child was given the wooden disk and asked to select a lead weight (or a number of lead weights, if one could not be found that was satisfactory), equal in weight to the wooden disk. In all cases he held the wooden disk in the left hand and the lead weight in the right. It would be interesting, if it were possible, to present a table of the individual results. The lower grades were more accurate in their judgments than the higher. The first grade ranks first and there is a gradual decrease through the grades, including the forty advanced university students, who performed the same experiments. In the first five grades the girls used better judgment than the boys. There is a gradual increase in the selection of lighter weights as we go up the scale of grades.
It seems almost beyond belief that only 43 out of 280 children selected a lead weight over 30 grams (one-half of the weight of the wood) and 237 selected a lead weight less than 30 grams as equal to 60 grams.
In this test sex differences are very marked in the upper grades. In the lower grades the illusion is not as great for the girls as in the higher grades. This is contrary to Wolfe* who found that with adults the illusion is greater for women than for men. For the eighth grade pupils and university students the results agree with Wolfe, while in the lower grades the results differ. It seems probable, therefore, that this illusion may have some direct relation to wider and more varied sense experiences.
To test the muscle sense still further the child was given a card-board box 12 x 12 x 14 inches weighing 1028 grams, and was asked, as with the wooden weight, to find a lead weight (or more than one lead weight) which was as heavy as the box. The same method was used here as with the wooden weight. The results are more interesting as well as more astonishing than those of the wooden weight. Sight is a universal sense and rules the judgment with a tremendous force. The largest lead weight selected by any one was equal to 660 grams. This was selected by two first grade pupils, two second grade, and one university student. Only five out of 320 persons selected a weight a little over one-half the real weight of the box. One hundred and eight selected a weight less than twenty-five grams as equal to 1028 grams.
The same statement holds true with the box as with the wooden weight, i. e. the lower the grade the heavier the lead weight selected. In this the boys used better judgment in their selection than the girls. Very little difference exists between the children of the *H. R. Wolfe. “Some effects of Size on Judgment of Weights.” Pay. Rev. V, 26. upper grades and the university students. Another striking point is that many selected weights smaller than the same person selected for the wooden disk of 60 grams.
It can be plainly seen that size affects the judgment. To test this still further the following experiment was given:? Five brass cylinders were placed before the child. One cylinder was one inch high. The other four were each five inches high. All were one inch in diameter. The small one weighed 170 grams, and one of the large ones was the same weight. The weight of the others were respectively 250 grams, 345 grams, and 507 grams. The child was told that one of the large cylinders was just as heavy as the small one and he was asked to find this one. He used only the right hand in lifting the cylinders. He first lifted the small cylinder and then lifted the large cylinders. He was permitted to lift the cylinders as often as he wished.
The results here are again astonishing. The conflict, as in the other two experiments, is between the sense of sight and the muscle sense, with victory for the eye. Again the same statement must be made, that the lower the grade the better the judgment. Seventy-four selected a cylinder of 507 grams as equal to a cylinder of 170 grams. Only 12 out of 320 selected the correct cylinder. Four of these were in the first grade, two in the second, and two in the third with one in the fourth and fifth each, and two in the sixth. In the first six grades the girls excel the boys. In the first grade it was the girls who made the proper selection.
The question arises at once:?To what causes can we ascribe the increase of the illusion as intelligence advances? Has the school training developed the sense of sight at the expense of the muscle sense to such an extent that in the conflict the eye rules where muscle should govern? . It would appear that common sense has also been sacrificed. Certainly common sense should be a factor in education. For example, one eighth grade student selected a lead weight of 10 grams as equal to a box of 1028 grams, and many selected a brass cylinder of 507 grams as equal to one of 170 grams. That school training may be responsible for the lack of knowledge through the muscle sense is suggested by the fact that children who have never had school training often do far better than those who have attended school. Out of the realm of their peculiar thinking, children merely guess rather than think. The muscle sense is too important to be neglected. It is too useful in every-day life. Time will not permit mentioning the other psychological tests made. Changing to the more strictly pedagogical the following were given.
Each child was given a piece of paper 4x6 inches and a pair of child’s scissors. He was asked to cut out of this paper one square and two triangles and have no paper left over. This proved to be a very difficult task, beyond the ability of most children. Only 20 cut it correctly, and but seven out of the 280 children folded the paper first and then did the cutting. A very small percentage were able to cut the triangles. Most of them cut rectangles, showing that they were not familiar with the terms triangle and rectangle. The first grade did better work than the second, third and fourth, and fully as well as the fifth grade. The sixth, seventh and eighth grades were nearly equal.
More boys cut the triangles than girls. Only 59 boys and 48 girls cut the triangles, or 107 out of 280 were able to perform this simple test. The conclusion is so clear that little need be said, except that the schools are not developing the skill or the thinking ability of children to solve a problem of this character. It proved to be outside of their realm of experience. Children should be allowed to handle, cut, and make these forms until they become a part of their usable and workable knowledge.
In the test of the triangles and the square, school training does not show to advantage. The success of the first grade pupils is undoubtedly due to kindergarten training, but the work with forms is neglected in the intermediate grades. The most noticeable point was the lack of knowledge of the shape of a triangle and the inability throughout all grades, to think clearly enough to fold the paper and cut it into the three required pieces.
It is always interesting to find out what children think about nature and the world about them. The following question was asked to find out the children’s ideas about the size of the moon:? “How large do you think the moon is?” Exceedingly interesting answers were given. In the lower grades the moon is thought to be small, very much as it appears when viewed from the earth. As the grade advances the size increases until it has grown entirely out of proportion. It is surprising that so many who had studied geography considered the earth and moon to be the same size. Very few children know approximately the size of the moon, and not a single one gave the correct answer. The large majority thought it was as big as the earth. Three answered that there was no moon, just a reflection of the sun.
It is evident that the moon is not receiving any marked consideration in the teaching of geography. It is a question which answer is entitled to more credit from the standpoint of intelligence, the one answering one foot in diameter, or the one saying that it is as big as the sky, or millions of miles in diameter. More attention could profitably be given to this phase of geography.
No subject of our public school course is receiving as much attention as arithmetic. The results of this attention have not been as satisfactory as could be desired. It was thought advisable to test the children as to their knowledge of every-day problems. Several problems were selected, some of a practical nature, of common sense, and mental alertness. The problems were all oral. The children were allowed all the time they wished.
The following is one of the practical problems given: “If your mother should send you down town to buy two books, and they were each to cost 65 cents, and she sent $2.00 with you, how much change would you bring back?”
The first and second grades of course failed completely to work it, and for the third and even the fourth grade it proved too difficult. Only five out of the fifty pupils in the third grade worked it correctly, and eleven in the fourth grade. The fifth grade did better than the sixth, and the seventh better than the eighth. The boys excel the girls in handling this problem.
Another problem was given in the same manner as the first:? “If three men standing on top of the state capitol building and all looking south, can see six miles, how far can one of them see?” A glance at results will show that the lack of application of common sense is evident throughout the grades. The first grade girls did as well as the sixth grade, and the second grade did better than the third, fourth, and fifth grades. Only 50 per cent of the sixth grade pupils, 75 per cent of the seventh, and 80 per cent of the eighth answered correctly. The girls did better than the boys. The large majority who failed to work it correctly gave as their answer, two miles. Their thinking was mechanical and followed routine book methods in solving it.
To show still further that common sense is not generally used by school children, the results of one of the problems given in the first investigation which was written not oral, will be interesting. This problem was given to seventh and eighth grade, rural and city pupils:?”My horse weights 1200 pounds when standing on four feet; how much will he weigh standing on three feet?”
Taking the results from the rural and city pupils separately we have interesting figures. Of the rural seventh grade boys, 71 per cent worked it correctly, and of the girls only 28 per cent, a total of 54 per cent for the grade.
In the city seventh grade we have 54 per cent boys and 10 per cent girls, a total for the grade of 35 per cent. In the rural eighth grade, 86 per cent boys and 40 per cent girls solved it, a total of 48 per cent for the grade. In the rural and city schools together for both grades, only 52 per cent worked it correctly. The work in arithmetic shows a decided need for more emphasis on practical problems, problems which come within the experience of children in every-day life. The results indicate that when problems are given out of the usual text-book wording, children do not comprehend their meaning. That more attention should be given to problems of common sense is self-evident. There seems to be a great deal of unthinking and mechanical execution of mathematical processes without regard to the significance of the data, the operations, or the results. Reading is the subject around which our entire course should center and in many respects reading is poorly taught. Throughout the entire investigation evidences of poor teaching in this subject could be seen. To get an insight into the interpretive ability of children, the following passage was read to each child:?”As the life boat returned from the wreck, the men on shore shouted themselves hoarse, the women laughed and cried.”
This question was asked of each child: “What do you think has happened?” The answers were taken down verbatim and graded,?wrong, poor, fair, good, or excellent.
The interpretation proved too difficult for the first and second grades. As the grade progresses it becomes easier and many see the real meaning. School training shows to better advantage in this than in arithmetic, geography, history or morals. If more work of this nature could be done, more thinking on the part of children would result.
A physical test with the dynamometer was given to secure an index to the general bodily strength of the children, both right and left hands were tested and each hand was allowed three trials, the highest being recorded. It was found, as might be expected, that bodily strength and intelligence on the average increase with the grade for pupils of the same age. The results show very little difference in right and left handedness. With increased school training there is an increase in the hand grip.
In looking over the investigation as a whole the following conclusions were drawn:? Throughout the entire investigation the results show that school training has not accomplished as much as would be expected. The individual is lost in the grade. It is the grade that advances rather than the individual.
Our present system of gradation is wrong. This is shown throughout the entire experiment. Many children in the first and second grades did fully as well as those several grades above them. Geography work should go beyond the outline of the book and take in the physical universe as seen by the child outside of the school room.
Arithmetic is either poorly taught or else taught too much. More emphasis should be laid on practical and common sense problems. The chief aim of arithmetic should be to make children think, rather than to follow some mechanical rule or method laid down by the teacher or text book. The work in arithmetic is mechanical and not vital to the majority of children.
Throughout the school system the motor side is neglected. A recognition of its value seems to be lacking. The school trains in mechanical action instead of educating the child to think. The fear that a child will miss something by being promoted over a grade or two seems evident.
Many children are misjudged as to their native ability, a mistake which in individual cases may result in the most serious consequences. We need some measure of intelligence which will test the intellectual, volitional, motor, personal, social, and all other phases of human efficiency, and which will enable us to relate all these at every point to individual peculiarities of instincts and interests, and to all important accidents of experience.
We should have tests which will enable us to differentiate all degrees of intellectual ability, and all kinds of intellective unevenness. With tests of this kind in the hands of experienced, competent teachers, the individual child could be placed to his best advantage where he would develop his weak points as well as his strong ones. A system with the development of the individual child as its aim, would eliminate into special classes a large number of the so-called retarded children, who when given an opportunity to develop would do as well as many who are several grades ahead. More work should be given to develop the thinking and doing ability of children. The school should develop all of the senses throughout the first eight grades. The individual, rather than the subject, should occupy the center of the field of action.
School training should develop the ability to think independently and to work with some degree of skill. Everything else is relative to intelligence, and because of this it becomes the chief business of the school to develop a high degree of intelligence. Tests of intelligence are necessary to ascertain the full extent and true nature of mental retardation or of acceleration. The individual child receives insufficient consideration. He is only a unit of a number. His real strength is left undeveloped, and only his average ability receives attention.
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