Study group

“ You can make the group as simple or as difficult as you wish, and make it include any phase of study. The advantage of its possible variety, scope, and particularly, its convenience and cheapness and manageableness, make it the fundamental work for the beginner. ”

“ All freshmen in the School of Commerce and Administration of the University are given a course in Methods of Study, in which practical discussions and demonstrations are given regarding the ways of studying the freshman subjects. In addition to the group-work, cases presenting special features are given individual attention, for it must be admitted that while certain difficulties are common to all students, there are individual cases that present peculiar phases and these can be served only by personal consultations. ”

“ On the other hand, it can be shown that even where the motive of economy is not pressing, there are valid educational grounds for grouping pupils into classes. Pupils help each other through their natural social relations. The wholesome rivalry and mutual suggestiveness provided by the class furnish a much better atmosphere for teaching than does the isolation of individual instruction.
Somewhere between the huge class dictated by economy and the small class diminishing to a single individual is the ideal group in point of size for successful teaching. ”

“ A very good incentive to study is found in making assignments to individuals or groups for report to the whole class. Even if the problem itself is not of surpassing interest, the desire to contribute one’s share to the group project, and the wish to do as well as one’s neighbor, will stimulate to greater effort. It would be well if teachers tested their own work and the children’s comprehension of the assignments made by asking frequently during the study period for a statement of the problem. ”

“ In the lower grades, especially in the first, where grading is least able to place children on the basis of their ability, there is the greatest demand for group work. As many as three or four classes in reading may be necessary in the first grade. It must be remembered that such grouping should never be made to apply to all subjects, nor is it necessary to apply the group plan to any subject without variation. Children divided into three groups for reading may do very well in two for arithmetic, and may all work together in nature study or constructive work. ”

“ Through this arrangement it is possible for a child who is backward in a single subject to withdraw from the group with which he spends most of the day and to go for the period to another class where he receives a different type of instruction in the subject in which he is behind. ”

“ After the teacher has in hand an abundance of interesting material, the next step in the plan is to organize the data to be presented. Some organization is usually found in textbooks and courses of study, and it is possible simply to try to fit any additional material which may have been collected to the scheme provided. The difficulty with this ready-made organization is found in the fact that it has little or no relation to the needs or problems of the particular group of children to be taught. ”

“ The only effective form of classroom management is that which anticipates the act and develops a social atmosphere in which condemnation or approbation is naturally and spontaneously contributed by the whole group. ”

“ Any psychology that recognises these facts and attempts to display the reciprocal influences of the individual and the society in which he plays his part may be called Social Psychology. Collective or Group Psychology is, then, a part of this larger field. It has to study the mental life of societies of all kinds; and such understanding of the group life as it can achieve has then to be used by Social Psychology in rendering more concrete and complete our understanding of the individual life. ”

“ Group Psychology itself consists properly of two parts, that which is concerned to discover the most general principles of group life, and that which applies these principles to the study of particular kinds and examples of group life. ”

“ It is the unanimous view of the Iraq Study Group that these recommendations offer a new way forward for the United States in Iraq and the region. They are comprehensive and need to be implemented in a coordinated fashion. They should not be separated or carried out in isolation. The dynamics of the region are as important to Iraq as events within Iraq.
The challenges are daunting. There will be difficult days ahead. But by pursuing this new way forward, Iraq, the region, and the United States of America can emerge stronger.
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Assessment
There is no guarantee for success in Iraq. ”

“ The final comment which may be made in this connection is that the teacher must recognize that school discipline is a professional and educational problem, not a matter of purely personal relations between pupil and teacher. The teacher is dealing with a problem of group organization; he cannot allow the fractious pupil to pull him down to the level of a personal controversy. ”

“ Instead, the Support Group would assist Iraq in ways the government of Iraq would desire, attempting to strengthen Iraq's sovereignty—not diminish it.
It is clear to Iraq Study Group members that all of Iraq's neighbors are anxious about the situation in Iraq. They favor a unified Iraq that is strong enough to maintain its territorial integrity, but not so powerful as to threaten its neighbors. None favors the breakup of the Iraqi state. Each country in the region views the situation in Iraq through the filter of its particular set of interests. ”

“ In this consensus report, the ten members of the Iraq Study Group present a new approach because we believe there is a better way forward. All options have not been exhausted. We believe it is still possible to pursue different policies that can give Iraq an opportunity for a better future, combat terrorism, stabilize a critical region of the world, and protect America's credibility, interests, and values. Our report makes it clear that the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people also must act to achieve a stable and hopeful future. ”

“ There are various systems of individual promotion which advance a pupil whenever he is ready.
Recently Principal Allen40 of the high school of Springfield, Illinois, has developed a system of supervised study in which the students put themselves through certain111 prepared exercises and in this part of their work receive individual help and are allowed to progress at their own individual rate. Later the class meets for recitation as a group. The recitation group is made to depend for its composition on the rate at which students complete the individual exercises. ”

“ The teacher naturally puts in one group the pupils who are for the first time taking up school work. In other groups he puts those pupils who have approximately the same attainments in each subject. In the classes beyond the first many complications arise. There are some pupils who read well but98 seem to be deficient in knowledge of number. Other pupils with a taste for arithmetic are very forward in that branch and do only indifferently well in reading and spelling. ”

“ When schools grow to the size where pupils are put into different rooms, as in an eight-room building, a problem arises which was never faced in the one-room school. It is the problem of carrying a group of pupils through all the subjects at the same rate. Thus, when the pupils in an99 ordinary city school have been grouped together in arithmetic, there are obvious advantages from an administrative point of view in keeping them together in reading and in geography. ”

“ People can be brought together here for study and discussion of questions of citizenship, government, civic betterment, and all questions pertaining to social adjustment. Study groups can be formed for regular and systematic study under the direction of competent teachers. ”

“ I suggest to all students the value of much conversation and council in the departments of study. Is there not some teacher or other specialist in your community who would be glad occasionally to give you helpful hints in history, or other branch of study? Is there not, for example, some one who takes a special interest in geology, and who, during the months devoted to this study, would be glad to guide you to a more practical knowledge than you can get from mere books? Learn to utilize the talent of your community. Ask questions. Do not be ashamed to betray ignorance. ”

“ The work of the groups will of necessity overlap each other. For, as soon as a pupil finishes one problem in a group, he begins another problem in the same group, unless he is the slowest in the class. When the class is ready to begin a new group we are confronted with the question of whether to give the instruction belonging to the new group and allow the boys to proceed with the unfinished work of the old group, or to start them on problems of the new group. ”

“ The group plan seems to be the only logical method of reaching all pupils with the instruction necessary to their peculiar needs. The advanced group will be learning to act independently, while the other will be learning basic principles. Friendly criticism and rivalry should be fostered, by comparing the method by which results were obtained. Let one group watch the other work. Let the group watching count for the other and change about. ”

“ Students should after a year's class-room work be made to investigate and report upon actual conditions, should be delegated to study social movements, report upon them, and to lead in discussing them. ”

“ What duty has the less mature student in regard to organization? Should the statements that he receives be put into order by him? Are some to be selected as vital, others to be grouped under these, and still others to be slighted or even entirely omitted from consideration, because of their insignificance? And is he to determine all this for himself, remembering that thorough study requires the neglect of some things as well as the emphasis of others? Or do all facts have much the same value, so that they should receive about equal attention, as is the case with the multiplication tables? ”

“ Again, no college or university is properly equipped that is not furnished with a complete series of the objects and implements of instruction and research. In regard to instruction, the impressions made through the eye are the most definite and indelible, and may serve as nuclei around which by association to group facts and suggestions the most varied. ”

“ Dealing with Iran and Syria Dealing with Iran and Syria is controversial. Nevertheless, it is our view that in diplomacy, a nation can and should engage its adversaries and enemies to try to resolve conflicts and differences consistent with its own interests. Accordingly, the Support Group should actively engage Iran and Syria in its diplomatic dialogue, without preconditions. ”

“ As far as possible, in your studying or reading, group those subjects together which belong together. If you are inclined to the physical sciences, bring into your work natural philosophy, general chemistry, general physiology, biology, geology, and mineralogy. If you desire to know more of one branch of natural science, as, for example, biology, why not group zoology, conchology, anatomy, physiology, botany, microscopy? I would always be careful not to make the group too large, though learning from one science helps in another. ”

“ Let us strive in every way to make study thoroughly enjoyable. Let us make it one long holiday in honor of the Goddess of Wisdom! One grand harvest-home of our gathering of the golden fruit from the tree of knowledge. Let us be as earnest as we are enthusiastic—let us be thorough, and withal methodical and systematic.
"The ten sets of text-books, suggest the formation of the membership of the company into that number of scientific clubs; which I recommend. This division would give fifty adults as the average membership of each club. ”

“ At the summit of the Universe stands the Head. After him come the senior masters—or, as they prefer somewhat invidiously to describe themselves, the permanent staff—then the junior masters. The whole body are divided and subdivided again into little groups—classical men, mathematical men, [39] science men, and modern-language men—each group with its own particular axe to grind and its own tender spots. ”

“ No one is kept back by the rest. Each class goes on regularly and systematically, all its members keeping exactly together in that study, but the various members of it will have joined a greater or less number of other classes, according to their age, or abilities, or progress in study, so that all will or may have full employment for their time. ”

“ Reviewing, then, the branches of science in which we wish our youth to obtain some instruction, we must distribute them into so many groups as we can employ Professors, and as equally too as practicable. ”

“ This new organization aims to promote habits of reading and study in nature, art, science, and in secular and sacred literature, in connection with the routine of daily life (especially among those whose educational advantages have been limited) , so as to secure to them the college student’s general outlook upon the world and life, and to develop the habit of close, connected, persistent thinking. ”

“ The object of the division into classes is instruction. Whenever it is desirable that several individuals should pursue a particular study, a list of their names is made out, a book selected, a time for recitation assigned, a teacher appointed, and the exercises begin. In this way a large number of classes have been formed, and the wishes of parents or the opinion of the Principal, and in many cases that of the pupil, determines how many and what shall be assigned to each individual. ”