J. Daley McDonald

“ The student would enter upon this course with the intention of becoming a teacher, just as does any student enter upon his professional course with the intention of becoming the professional man for which his training is preparing him. Few freshmen now come to the University of California with the intention of becoming teachers in the secondary schools, that I admit, but the reasons and the remedy for that are not for discussion here. Suffice it to say that when reward is adequate, then the profession will grow and come to be made up of the highest type of men and women. ”

“ Students of the high school age should never be compelled to follow a set laboratory outline with detailed instructions for procedure; it will kill every whit of initiative. The teacher must be so prepared, then, that he is able to steer a free course, employing books for reference and supplementary reading almost exclusively. He will cause the student to realize that the books are the result of human effort and therefor not infallible, and that they must always take second place to first hand observation and experiment. ”

“ As an inevitable result there are to be found in the curricula of high schools too many science courses that are mere dilutions of the college type, with no modification of purpose, and just enough change in method and subject matter to bring them partially within the power of understanding of the less mature mind. This situation in turn reflected upon the higher institutions of learning in such a way that it seemed that they were giving adequate training of the correct type. ”

“ Laboratory is at best merely a substitute for the great out-of-doors, so the more work that can be done in the field the better. Aside from exploration to discover what parts of the particular locality will yield the largest fund of valuable biological information, the problem here is mainly one of method.
The teacher to be at his best must be somewhat of a naturalist. Upon his fund of interesting stories about the animals and plants that the children all know, will depend very largely the appeal of the work to the pupil. ”

“ An educator of high standing in California is credited with making the criticism of the Normal Schools of the State; that they attempt to teach a person how to teach intelligently something about which he knows nothing. When teachers have adequate preparation in subject matter as well as in methods, and when they are employed to teach only those subjects for which they are fitted, then the problem of maintaining a high standard of teaching will be well nigh solved. ”

“ A course in the aims and values of science should be introductory, for in the absence of general knowledge concerning values, such as has grown up with other professions, the student must be given early in his work an enthusiasm for it and a sort of guide for future choice of subjects for study. The difference in aim between university and secondary school science must be clearly understood at the start. ”

“ The aim of the teacher should be to develop a self-sustaining, self-directing, altruistic individual keenly alive to the interests of humanity. Such an ideal is progressive, scientific, and fits one through studies of yesterday and today to live the best and truest life tomorrow. To see and appreciate this ideal, research is necessary. ”

“ It is clear that the real problem in the problem-method is the teacher's. Practically, it is quite impossible to handle individual projects in large classes. In the writer's experience, he has had on the average 80 different pupils per day in four separate classes. It is clearly beyond the power of any teacher to direct simultaneously eighty different projects, and it would be a physical impossibility to furnish the necessary laboratory apparatus. ”

“ It will be too late to prepare at the moment the problem has to be met. Few new teachers will find a well planned course awaiting their arrival in a new field, and without previous experience a new teacher is likely to build up a course without due respect to relative values which comes only with a perspective of a course in its entirety. To illustrate, in the course given by an inexperienced teacher there is too much chance of [Pg 27] six weeks time being spent on the study of the grasshopper, with only four weeks left at the end of the school year to be devoted to the biology of the human. ”

“ A knowledge, though not an intensive knowledge, of each of the subjects that make up the three groups included in the requirements is quite necessary but it is out of the question for a person to take them all unless he specialize in Zoology. Not all can be expected to major in Zoology, and those that do will find it necessary to omit much that is essential in the other departments of biological science. Each department should have a general course covering fully its field of work so that those majoring in some other department may in minimum time gain a fair knowledge of its field. ”

“ If a person were directed to make preparation for the teaching of biology, he would be at a loss in searching for the Biology Department, or even a department that gave a good comprehensive course in biology. The subject as best taught in the secondary schools is subdivided into various components, each with its special aim. The prospective teacher has no carefully prepared course of study for his pursuit, as has the prospective doctor, engineer, or farmer. The state provides a specially adapted course of training for its veterinarians, those who care for its livestock. ”

“ A paramount aim is the improvement of living conditions, both as it concerns measures for group sanitation and factors in the health of the individual. This should be the almost exclusive aim in those parts of the course dealing with bacteria and disease, and the biology of man, or physiology and eugenics. Biology has many applications in our economic life. It is the very foundation of agriculture. ”

“ The brief literal translation of the word biology, science of life, is full explanation of its scope. A course in the subject is not Zoology, nor Botany, nor Bacteriology, nor Physiology—but rather all of these in one. Biology should logically follow the nature study of the elementary grades. The course must be so planned that it will give the pupils the maximum of serviceable fundamentals and at the same time be a basis for further study in advanced courses, if he desires to continue ”

“ Here we find adequate preparation for a teacher of Zoology, but in no secondary school of the state will a teacher be employed for Zoology alone. In high schools the biological science curriculum the first course must be Biology, and it must be all-inclusive, for it is all of the biological science that the majority of the pupils will take. ”

“ If, besides, it has yielded some valuable useable information, the solving of the problem has been a marked success. The laboratory method has been such an emancipation from the textbook slavery that there is some tendency to elevate it to an end in itself, whereas it must serve only as a very valuable means to an end. "The ideal laboratory is only a reasonably good substitute for the out-of-doors."
So far as preparation in the methods of science teaching is concerned, much good may be accomplished in teachers courses and in practice teaching. ”

“ It follows.
"In order that teaching may be intelligent and in harmony with the laws of nature there must be a deeper and clearer knowledge of human growth and development. The teacher must know the nature of the individual to be taught and the ends to be reached in proper nurture. This can not be gained through the study of books alone, but may come through properly directed research in the workshop of life."
One of the aims of present day education is "to develop a man, the best man possible under the conditions; to assist nature through nurture ”

“ Why not a special course of high standard for those who plan to devote their lives to the direction of the formative years of its children? It is probably explained in large part by the failure to recognize [Pg 21] teaching as a profession. The Schools of Education throughout the country have been insisting upon real professional training for teachers but other departments are deplorably slow in cooperating. ”

“ Being a mere helper is probably not the best way to secure such ability. Investigation may be broadening and developing to the individual or it may prove to be quite the reverse, but that lies within the control of the individual. Research for the teacher must emphasize equally actual additions to knowledge and personal attitude. ”

“ Something of the spirit that distinguished John Muir as the great naturalist is an inestimable asset to the teacher. If it is not among his natal blessings, he need not be completely discouraged for it can be acquired to some degree at least. ”

“ A biology course may be readily standardized for national problems, but for any given community the course must be somewhat unique. A course planned for a rural population would not be fitted for a school in an overcrowded section of a city. Where there are differences in social and biological problems there also must be fitting adaptive changes in the course in biology. In addition to these community relations, the teacher must keep in mind the relations between the biology course and the other courses in the curriculum of the school. ”

“ The quantity of preparation is fairly assured by the five-year requirement for the Teacher's Recommendation, but the quality of the preparation is not so certainly assured. With the possible exception of the Education Department, no department considers the training of teachers even nearly equal in importance to the production of specialists in the subject who shall devote their lives to research. ”

“ Ability to adapt ones procedure so as to most nearly meet these requirements, will come about only through experience. Ability to profit by experience, the human attribute which makes possible the progress of civilization, is a no less valuable asset to a teacher than to any other member of society.
Balliet points out that science teaching has passed through three stages in the past generation. The first stage is characterized by the textbook method, occasionally supplemented by illustrative experiment, performed by the teacher. ”

“ Social service. These last two aims are most important to the teacher. So, his problem for investigation should have some practical bearing, and should be of his own choosing, not pointedly suggested by the professor in charge as is too often the case. If the research student is given a problem which is some minor part of a larger problem being investigated by his professor it will preclude the very thing the prospective teacher [Pg 15] needs, namely practice in recognizing, analyzing, and solving a problem in its entirety and solely on his own resources. ”

“ The fundamental life processes are the same the world over, but varying environmental conditions necessitates a variation in emphasis, in application, and in the choice of problems which make up the course. If the teacher is well prepared in subject matter, there is little use for a laboratory manual except as it may suggest new methods and new experimental materials. ”

“ The next question concerns what constitutes adequate preparation for the direction of studies of animate nature. First and foremost is a realization of the aims, or better, the values, and relations of biology. It is a socializing subject and must be so taught—man is social. Biology affects man vitally, directly his behavior follows natural laws, and indirectly by illustration and comparison brings him to a better understanding biologic laws underlying the organization of society. ”

“ In the past there have been many failures, mainly because the person conducting it has never had secondary school experience, knows little or nothing of the problems, and has no sincere enthusiasm for the teaching of science to boys and girls below the university age. ”

“ Advisor would be more fitting than supervisor, for they should remain in the background except for rendering helpful service, and making constructive criticism in excess of destructive.
In order for practice teaching to be effective there must be nothing of an artificial sort enter in. Conditions must be of the regular sort met every day in the teaching game. This statement seems superfluous, but a visit to some of the classes where practice teaching is being done will justify its insertion here. The practice teacher should not be handed over a laboratory properly equipped. ”

“ The course to fulfill the requirements will necessarily be to some extent new, and just to such extent may the teacher feel something of the inspiration of the pioneer. Relative values must be established; emphasis must be properly placed—life of distant regions should not be taught except as local material may not be available to illustrate some very essential point, yet too often a carefully pickled grasshopper is transported from Florida to California, there to be dissected by some unfortunate high school lad. ”

“ By way of illustration we need only to cite the struggle for existence and the division of labor with their far reaching influence in determining the course of evolution. It would be impossible, I believe, to teach biology so poorly that it did not have some socializing value ”