How to Study: Illustrated Through Physics

From INTRODUCTION. Nearly everywhere the principal emphasis in instruction is on knowledge. Tests or examinations on knowledge are the basis of ratings and promotions, and therefore the goal both of private study and of class work. While method is a frequent subject of discussion, it is the method rather of the teacher than of the learner, and even it is judged by the extent to which it leads to acquisition of knowledge. The fact that young people have a method of their own, that its quality is of vital importance, and that it needs great improvement is generally overlooked; for it is unrelated to tests. A very different conception of teaching is represented in this monograph. Physical Science is shown to owe its progress to improvement in the method of studying it; and as a result of such improvement a single day now brings a greater advance in knowledge of the physical world than did the first thousand years of the Christian era. Since method has been the secret of the marvelous progress, the principal object of instruction in Physics should not be merely the comprehension of a lot of facts or even laws, but rather the control of the method of investigation that has proved so fruitful in the discovery of those facts and laws. Furthermore, Physics should be primarily a study of scientific method, because skill in that method has a much broader application than knowledge of subject matter in that field. The implications for general Education in this point of view are far-reaching. If the idea is sound, the principal object of instruction in some or possibly all other subjects might well be greatly modified, and the method of the learner might be brought into prominence. And since Physics offers the most nearly perfect example of the scientific method, it might be taken as the standard for the other subjects; they differ from it rather in degree than in kind. How sound are such implications? Certainly modern Education is moving toward this point of view. For illustration, during the last few years the pupil's method of reading has been extensively studied by educational specialists and in many schools improvement in that method has already become a prominent purpose in the teaching of Reading. The method of the learner is slowly receiving recognition....