First, these courses should be so planned that the experience and the special needs of the group are made the basis of the selection of subject matter. If a short course is to have any real meaning, it must en- gage the interest of the members of the class and secure their cooperation in the study of problems. In a class that meets only a few times, with several days between each class period, effective work can be done only when the class work is live and real enough to stimulate the students to carry the class teaching into their daily work or daily living.
This means that the individual experience of the students must enter into all class problems. Second, it is most important that courses should be so graded that students may be able to secure not only work suited to their stage of progress, but also a sequence in courses that will give them, progressively, more advanced work. The teachers of part-time classes must see that their courses have educational as well as practical value. How would the needs of the girls affect your selec- tion of subject matter for a food course given to the follow- ing groups: From the standpoint of social value, criticize or ex- plain the use of the following problems or topics: In a seventh grade food course, 36 lessons: In a seventh grade sewing course: In a ninth grade clothing course: In an eleventh grade food course: In an eleventh grade clothing course: Outline four or five concrete topics that might be used as the basis for a food selection course in an elemen- tary school.
Explain why the making of a cooking apron in an elementary class is usually treated as a concrete topic rather than a project. How could you make this exercise assume the characteristics of a project? In what other elementary school subjects besides home economics is the use of courses consisting of concrete topics increasing? If you were planning a single year's work in art for a secondary school, what would be the character of your course as contrasted with a four-year course?
Discuss sampler making as a method of organizing sewing topics. In a four-year vocational course, would you use a greater number of projects in the first year or in the fourth year? Explain how the problem, selecting a house, may be used as one of the main topics of a housing course or as a practical problem to vitalize a general course in domestic architecture.
The Curriculum, Chapter IV. Teachers College Record September, Vocational Education, pages , Home Economics in American Schools. Supplementary Educational Monograph, Vol. Department of Educa- tion, University of Chicago, Unit courses and projects for home economics classes Bulletins of the Home Economics Education Series. Federal Board for Vocational Education. Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. Vocational Homemaking Education Illustrated Projects. Teachers College, Columbia Uni- versity. Laboratory method of studying ideas.
Exhibits and field trips. The selection of laboratory exercises. Lectures and " telling. Problems in home economics courses. Use of school and home projects. Plans for using home projects and reports. A careful observer of home economics teaching in the elementary and secondary schools is conscious that there has been progressive improvement, not only in the greater richness of content and better organization of subject mat- ter, but also in the methods of teaching that are used. This improvement in methods can be seen in many ways: Though we may still see the cooking or sewing lesson that makes no demand upon the class except to follow directions carefully and to carry out the practical assign- ment as skillfully as possible, we are also seeing increas- ingly lessons in which the principles underlying the prac- tical work are developed by experiment and class discus- sion, and the method of cooking the dish or sewing the seam is formulated by the class rather than by the teacher.
Teachers are beginning to realize that skill in cooking and sewing, and information about household materials, are not the only objectives of class work in home economics courses, and that the ability to find the underlying prob- lems in a given situation and to analyze and solve these problems, the development of appreciation of values and the power to understand social relationships, are equally valuable objectives.
With the broader interpretation of teaching aims has come the equally important realization that only through the careful selection of effective teaching methods can these various objectives be attained. Because home economics courses deal with concrete materials and practical situa- tions, laboratory methods of teaching are used almost uni- versally in cooking and sewing classes and to a smaller extent in the study of food and clothing selection, house- hold management, and child and family problems.
Labor- atory methods, as distinct from lecture, recitation, or discussion, imply the use of concrete materials. In this sense, therefore, a class field trip to study the housing conditions in different parts of a city and the selection of good food combinations from an exhibit of cooked foods are laboratory methods of study- ing housing and food selection topics. The purpose of labora- tory experience is evidently not the same in all home economics classes, for the type of laboratory work differs greatly in different courses. Much of the work that is seen in food and clothing courses is so planned that it serves, primarily, to give students experience in making or producing some practical result, such as cooking certain dishes or making an article of clothing.
Laboratory work of this type has as its ultimate objective the acquisition of skill or ability in production. The amount of constructive thinking that is aroused or created by this form of labora- tory work varies greatly, for with some problems accurate observation, and ability to analyze conditions and make decisions, are essential elements of carrying through the required practical work successfully, while in other lab- oratory exercises, especially those in which the acquisition of hand skill is emphasized, such thinking is not stimu- lated and the activity may be carried on quite mechanically.
In the selection of productive laboratory problems it is a Note. In the more restricted use of the term laboratory, lab- oratory work represents a selected type of experience that admits of an experimental method of study. A laboratory method of teaching cooking, in this case, would mean a technical study of cooking proc- esses as contrasted with a practical method of teaching cooking through the cooking of meals.. Laboratory ex- ercises that have as their purpose the discovery, verifica- tion, or illustration of certain facts, principles, or problems are, also, to be found in home economics courses, just as they are found in other subjects using laboratory methods.
Laboratory problems of this type are used rather generally in food courses and to a smaller extent in clothing, house, and household management courses. The value of exer- cises of this kind will depend upon the degree to which it is necessary to recall and apply previously learned prin- ciples, or the extent to which the exercise stimulates the students to see and formulate new principles or new prob- lems, Laboratory work of this type may be in the form of more or less formal experiments, exhibits, demonstra- tions, etc.
Food courses in which both the experiments and the practical cooking problems are selected because they illustrate or assist in the discovery of the principles of cooking show the use of these two forms. When practical construction problems are used to illus- trate or demonstrate a particular principle there is always danger that, in the student's interest in the productive ac- tivity, she will lose sight of the principle which this activity is supposed to illustrate.
This is particularly true of prac- tical problems that require a good deal of time for their completion, and, in using such problems, the purpose of the laboratory work should be restated in many cases as being, primarily, for the acquisition of ability to produce. That many home economics teachers do not distinguish between these two forms of laboratory work or use them most effectively, is very evident in the organization of courses of study and in laboratory manuals.
The pressure of the popular demand that children be given the ability to cook, sew, or clean has been so great that the acquisition of household technics rather than the study of household problems has been the dominating influence in the planning of laboratory work. In a subject such as home economics, in which manual ability must grow along with power to do accurate and constructive thinking, both of these forms of laboratory exercises will be used by the effective teacher.
Exhibits and field trips are forms of laboratory exercises that are being increasingly used in the schools. To many teachers, an exhibit is a formal use of illustrative material prepared by the teacher which calls for little more than a passive interest on the part of the class. A great deal of the prepared exhibit material used in class work is based on the idea of showing processes or materials that are unusual or difficult to make clear without some form of illustration.
Such material is valuable, but it should, more accurately, be called illus- trative material, for an exhibit that is to provide laboratory experience must call for some activity on the part of the students themselves. Whether an exhibit is selected and organized by the students, or whether materials from which choices can be made are assembled by the teacher for the use of the class, an exhibit is a most useful form of class exercise, since in the first case it represents the results of METHODS OF TEACHING 33 careful planning, weighing of values, and making choices, and in the second case it provides a diversity of sugges- tions and concrete data for the solution of practical prob- lems that involve the making of choices.
A field trip is a valuable means of showing, in a nat- ural setting, conditions, activities, or objects that have been studied or are to be studied in the classroom, thereby mak- ing such study more vital and significant. A field trip may be a class exercise under the personal direction of the teacher, or it may be an assignment for a group or for an individual member of the class. The usual purpose of such special assignments is to secure data to be used in class discussions, or that will be used by the student or group of students in the analysis of a special problem, the final results of which will be reported to the class.
The amount and type of laboratory work that should be used in the study of a topic may vary greatly. The teacher who under- takes to work out her own laboratory manual finds that the selection of laboratory exercises requires as clear an analy- sis of values as the selection of subject matter. She must see clearly the purpose of the laboratory work that she is planning, and decide whether it is to be used as an end in itself, to give manual experience, or whether it is to be used as a means of arriving at accurate ideas about the topic under discussion. Her next problems are to decide what ideas are the most valuable ones to develop through laboratory experience, and to select the particular exercises that will make these ideas clear and significant, and that, also, will stimulate the thinking of the students.
In other words, there is quite uniform agreement as to the ideas that should be emphasized by laboratory experience and as to the particular exercises that will develop these ideas most effectively. There is much less agreement as to the laboratory exercises that should be used in the study of household management, food and clothing selection, house- wifery and housing courses. Teachers of these subjects are experimenting constantly with different forms of lab- oratory exercises, and reports of these experiments are appearing gradually at educational conferences and in pub- lications. Many of these experiments illustrate a selec- tion of laboratory exercises adapted to a particular school or a particular situation, and some of them illustrate over- emphasis of a minor topic, but all of them show that home economics teachers are increasingly realizing the value of home projects, exhibits, field trips, experiments, and dem- onstrations as a means of giving clear concepts and accu- rate data for the study of problems.
The amount of laboratory work that should be used in the study of a given problem depends upon many fac- tors: It is just as great a loss to the students to use too much laboratory work as to use too little. The experiments that the students perform perfunctorily because the result is obvious or because its purpose is not clearly seen, the laboratory exercise that is not preceded or followed by METHODS OF TEACHING 35 sufficient discussion of the results, or laboratory work that can be done with little thought by the students, illustrate losses in teaching.
The teacher who uses laboratory work most successfully selects each exercise because it is neces- sary to the effective presentation of a problem. In all courses some type of class work is used to supplement laboratory experience. In those courses in which laboratory work is used as a means of studying ideas, class work and laboratory work are com- plementary to each other and are given equal emphasis in the planning of the course. When skill in production is the primary objective of laboratory work, there is a marked tendency for teachers to subordinate the discussion of prob- lems and to give greater emphasis and a larger proportion of the time of the course to laboratory work.
The use of separate periods for recitation and labora- tory work is of great assistance in maintaining the proper balance between these two types of exercises. The occa- sional use of a demonstration or a simple experiment during a recitation period or a short discussion on some problem given during the laboratory period may be most valuable, but it is difficult to achieve a satisfactory discussion of prob- lems when the attention of a class is divided between the discussion and laboratory activities. When the time sched- ule of a school allows double periods for all class meetings in home economics courses, the wise teacher will use a number of these periods for class work and supervised study rather than plan for a laboratory exercise each day.
In making this distinction between laboratory work and class discussion, it is not implied that discussions of prob- lems should not take place during a laboratory period. The teacher, who realizes that a laboratory as well as a recitation room is a place to train students to think, will constantly stimulate discussions by asking questions and by presenting new applications of principles or prob- lems.
Such discussions may take place between the teacher and one or two students, or between small groups of stu- dents. It is a group exercise and not a class exercise, Lectures and " telling! The giving of information through dictation, lecture, or demonstration has taken far too large a propor- tion of the class time in home economics classes, in the past. In many school systems, home economics courses are designated as unprepared courses. This has made it impossible for the teacher to require her students to secure information outside of the class period, and she has relied upon "telling" as a means of giving the class knowledge of the many facts and principles that are related to the topics under discussion.
To show a pupil how to do a piece of work is a much quicker and simpler method than to teach her how to think out each step in the process for herself and to modify her methods of METHODS OF TEACHING 37 working accordingly, yet it is this very ability to analyze a problem and work out a practical solution that is an essential quality of intelligent workmanship. That a cer- tain amount of time in productive laboratory classes must be spent in giving directions or in demonstrating processes is quite evident; classroom experience must always be se- lected experience, and it would be distinctly unprofitable for a class to attempt to work out through discussion or experi- ment all of the technical problems that are to be found in cooking or sewing classes.
There seems little excuse, how- ever, for the use of detailed instructions how to make various seams in clothing classes or for the continuous use of ready-made recipes in cooking classes. The use of the recitation period for class discussion of problems rather than for the giving of information is steadily increasing in home economics classes.
A discussion on a subject presupposes some knowl- edge on the part of the class of some of the facts or prin- ciples related to the topic under discussion, and the exist- ence of a particular problem that needs to be solved. The experience of the members of the class, data secured from observation of home or community conditions, information from text-books or previous class or laboratory work, should all be used in the discussion of problems, if they are to become live and vital to a class.
Discussions may be concerned with working out the practical problems of the laboratory or with the more theoretical aspects of the topic. The class discussion may precede or follow the labora- tory work. A discussion of this kind prepares the class for lab- oratory work, and makes it purposeful and intelligent. This method of approach is particularly valuable when a labora- tory exercise is used for its illustrative value or to demon- strate the adequacy or inadequacy of some familiar prin- ciple or situation.
Most of the laboratory work asso- ciated with the study of household methods of working is of this type, and in the study of such problems as the fol- lowing the discussion of household practices should precede the laboratory work: Students will not only carry out an ex- periment with enthusiasm when it will prove some closely debated point, but they will also be able to formulate the conditions of the experiment and outline the procedure of the class. WVhen the main discussion of a problem follows the laboratory work, it helps the students to analyze the results of their work, and to compare and test the con- clusions or general principles that they have drawn from it.
The ability to weigh the data secured in the laboratory, and to draw sound and logical conclusions from it, should be one of the most valuable results of the laboratory study of problems. Class exercises should be so planned that students will see the need of securing accurate data about a problem, of weighing evidence, and of formulating ade- quate conclusions. The facts found in laboratory work are not ends in themselves, and they must be related to new situ- ations and other experiences of the class in the discussion that follows the laboratory exercise. Both of these methods of relating laboratory and class work should be used in home economics classes.
Whether the main discussion of a problem should precede or follow laboratory work must depend upon the needs of the class rather than upon any special requirement of the problem itself. Students must learn to form sound conclusions from apparently scattered and slightly related situations, and they must learn to prove the worth or falsity of many accepted principles or conclusions. The formation of motor habits is one of the definite objectives of home economics teaching. Some degree of skill in manual activities should result from the training given in all food preparation, clothing making, housewifery, and home nursing courses.
It is important, therefore, that the most effective methods of securing such skill should be used in these courses, in order to bring students most rapidly to accuracy and facility in perform- ing household activities. Some of the processes of cooking and cleaning require rather simple muscular control, that can be acquired without much time or attention being given to the details of the processes, while most sewing processes and some in cooking and cleaning require such complex movements, that carefully planned and long continued ex- perience in performing them is necessary before a student can become skillful.
With no formal training, the acquisition of skill or knack in doing a piece of work is secured, usually, by repeated trials that are regulated, sometimes consciously and at other times unconsciously, by the success or failure which accompanies each attempt. The problem of motor training is to economize as much as possible the time and effort that must be spent in secur- ing skill. The first step in acquiring good motor habits is to initiate the use of the best positions of working and the most effective movements.
This is done, usually, by giving a demonstration of the positions and movements, accompanied by verbal instructions. Possibly, because of the great number and the variety of the activities required in home economics courses, home economics teachers have failed to make a clear analysis of the positions and move- ments involved in performing most of them, and, as a re- sult, a great deal of the training given in these courses shows no improvement over the wasteful methods seen out- side of the classroom.
Even hand sewing shows this lack of analysis, in spite of the fact that it is taught in the majority of schools and that it requires highly specialized and complex muscular control. The second step is to assist the student in modifying her movements until she becomes skillful.
Full text of "Home economics in the elementary and secondary schools"
This may be done by centering attention on the results of her work, or by centering it upon adjustments in the movements them- selves. Both of these methods should be used, and the skillful teacher is one who understands when to use either of them. Unevenness in the spacing of a hemming stitch may be due to failure to judge the distance between stitches, or it may be due to lack of control of the material by the left hand.
In the first case, attention should be directed to the appearance of the stitch itself, while, in the other, attention given to the method of using the hands will be more profitable. There are dangers in the over-use of each of these methods of correcting faults in working; emphasis given too exclusively to the results of an activity gives a METHODS OF TEACHING 41 student no way of judging her particular difficulties and makes her attempts to modify her movements hit or miss rather than purposeful; and, on the contrary, too much emphasis put on positions and movements may result in a wasteful exaggeration of movements.
Models or scales that show desirable standards of the results of an activity and demonstrations of a skillful per- formance of a piece of work are extremely valuable in giv- ing students a basis for criticizing the quality of their own work. They should be used at frequent intervals in motor training, in order to make students analyze their difficulties and to stimulate self -correction of faults.
Fail- ure to acquire skill may be due, in many cases, to lack of proper standards and, in others, to allowing poor or wrong muscular control to become a habit. Some degree of speed or facility in doing a piece of work should result from motor training. This means that students must be given an opportunity to repeat an activity enough times so that it is carried beyond the point of con- scious adjustments, and becomes fairly automatic.
In the de- sire to give a class variety of experience in several activities, many home economics teachers do not provide sufficient repetition of processes or else plan the repetitions with such long intervals between that the student is unable to carry over the last experience. This situation is seen most often in cooking and housewifery classes. When skill in produc- tion is one of the objectives of a course, it is most important that activities using similar movements or similar methods of working should be so grouped or so presented in sequence that the acquisition of motor habits is emphasized.
Yet there are many situations where muscular control can be secured much more rapidly and economically, if the at- tention of the class is centered for a short time upon a par- ticular movement or upon securing facility in some elemen- tary movement. From the standpoint of economy in learning, it would seem to be most important that motor training in the school should be given under the same conditions as those to be found in the home, in order to prevent loss in skill in transferring the activity from the school to the home.
Home economics teachers are beginning to realize this point and they are trying to meet it in two ways: Though motor training is only one of the factors to be considered in planning a home economics course, it is de- sirable that comparative difficulty in manipulation should be considered in the selection of the sequence in which practical problems are to be presented to a class. This point has not been recognized in the organization of many courses, especially in sewing courses, where handwork usually precedes machine work, and the selection of the sequence in which stitches are presented to a class and the type of materials on which the sewing is done have often had no relation to the comparative difficulty of the motor con- trol that is involved.
Problem Solving and Problem Finding. The need of a problem as a stimulus to thinking is a re- quirement not only of an adult mind, but equally of a child's mind. Teachers are realizing this, and the value of problems and problem-solving methods of teaching is in- creasingly emphasized in educational literature. The fol- lowing quotation 1 illustrates this attitude: Home economics instruction can be so closely related to the children's home activities and interests, that it is comparatively simple to find problems that will engage the interest of all the members of the class, and to the study of which they can contribute much that is valuable from their home ex- perience.
How effectively such problems will be used as teaching material depends upon two points: Ability to solve problems can be developed only through experience in the analysis and solution of similar situations. Far too often in home economics classes such ability has been expected to result as a by-product without any attempt being made to plan courses in such a way as would secure the greatest number of problem-solving situ- ations. Teachers have been more concerned with the giving of information about household materials and with the acquisition of manual skill in household activities than with the study of home problems.
Norsworthy, "How to Teach," page If home economics courses are to give experience in studying home problems, it is most important that the problems in these courses should show progressive difficulty as students are able to solve more complex problems. The teacher who wishes to emphasize problem solving must not only select vital prob- lems, but she must see also that the problem is so clearly stated that every child understands the characteristics and limitations of the problem.
Nothing creates so much in- exact thinking as failure to understand the problem. The statement of the problem on which the class is to work should be made at the beginning of the lesson, in order to focus the interest and the thinking of the class from. This does not mean that only small prob- lems should be studied, but that in the study of large prob- lems, which need the work of the class through several periods, the work of each period should be defined clearly.
In many cases it is of great value to extend the study of a problem through several periods, in order to allow time to secure needed data from observation, reference reading, experiments, or other sources. The next step in the use of problem-solving methods is to guide the class in the analysis of all the elements enter- ing into the problem.
If the study of problems in home economics courses is expected not only to give experience in thinking, but to help students to interpret fundamental home problems, the home and social experience of the class, as well as school experience, must contribute to dis- cussions. In this way the study of a problem becomes many-sided, and students are stimulated to analyze their own experience and its relation to the problem under dis- cussion. This many-sided study of a problem demands a constant consideration by the class of the relevancy or value of the points brought forward by different students, and the testing of opinions and suggestions.
The class study of a problem should result in a clearly formulated statement of a usable solution of the problem, whether the purpose of the problem was to work out the best method of doing a piece of practical work, to find the basic principles involved in some practical situation or ac- tivity, or to arrive at an understanding of some social or economic condition or attitude. The steps of a problem-solving method that are out- lined above correspond closely to those used in what is known as an experimental method.
A problem- solving method, on the contrary, may or may not use ob- jective material, but it requires the same kind of clear, accurate, logical thinking. The teacher who wishes to give her students a scientific attitude toward home problems will use problem-solving methods. The effective person in any activity or in any social relation is the one who is able to find new problems in any situation, as well as to solve the problems that are evident and pressing; he is unwilling to accept a condition because it is usual or familiar, and is constantly questioning the methods of working or thinking that he finds around him.
Problem finding as well as problem solving is an essential element of active mental life and of a trained mind. It is in the development of the initiative and the prob- lem-finding attitude on the part of students that the value of the project lies. One of the requirements of a project, as we have noted before, is that the initiative of the student in an individual project, or of the class in a class project, rather than that of the teacher, should be the basis for the selection of the sub-topics or problems that are considered.
This does not mean that the teacher should not assist or make suggestions, but that she should use her suggestions to stimulate the students to discover or formulate the prob- lems for themselves. There are no special points of class procedure that need to be considered in the i J. In the use of home projects, however, such uniform class needs do not exist.
The physical conditions of the home, the standard of living of the family, the family needs and re- quirements, and the differing abilities of the students may create wide differences in the problems that each member of the class will undertake to solve in carrying out her project. As a result, the most difficult problem that con- fronts the teacher using home projects is to provide class exercises that will keep home projects effectively related to the school work of the course.
Many home economics teachers feel that any close rela- tion between class work and home projects is impossible or unsatisfactory. They argue that home projects are so in- dividual that they should be carried out entirely outside of the class, and that the supervision and teacher assistance given to the home project should all be done in the girl's own home. While apparently this may constitute the sim- plest solution of the situation, it presents two difficulties: Home supervision of projects is most valuable; it gives the teacher an oppor- tunity to see the limitations and opportunities of each home, helps her to understand the needs of her students, creates a close relationship between the teacher and home interests and activities, and makes it possible for the teacher to see the student working under home conditions.
When these visits are repeated for every member of the class, this rep- resents a tremendous amount of time that must be spent by the teacher in individual instruction, and some definite allowance must be made for such visits in planning the teacher's schedule. In various places, teachers of vocational courses have undertaken to meet this issue in different ways.
Vendor Information
One plan is to engage the teacher for eleven months' service, and defer all home projects until after the formal school year. This gives the teacher about two months that can be de- voted entirely to home supervision of projects. Another plan is to arrange the weekly schedule so that only four days are given to class work and one day is given to home supervision. This plan has the great advantage of allowing home projects to be carried along with general class work.
Because of the amount of time necessary for home supervision, there is great danger that in many classes home projects will not be used, unless, in some way, home visits. The friendly visit to secure the cooperation of the girl's mother and to get some idea of the standards of the family is of the greatest assistance in the use of home projects. If such a visit could be made to the home of each member of a class, it should be pos- sible to use home projects without further visits to the home.
The progress of the student in carrying out the project can be estimated by such means as individual con- ferences, classroom exercises, school tests, and reports. Home projects may be individual problems, or they may be group or class problems. A home project that is made a class or group problem needs a care- fully developed plan that will include a clearly defined co- ordination with the work of the school, and provide for some form of report or test on the results of the work on the project.
Several such plans 1 have been worked out for agricultural projects, and they are suggestive of the type of plans needed in home economics. The following outline illustrates a plan for an elementary home project: Keeping the family silver clean 1. Observe the methods used at home and assist in the process.
Class demonstration at school to give school standards and to compare with home methods suggested by the members of the class. Experiment at home to study conditions of work and the advisability of modifying equipment or other factors to meet school standards. Conference with teacher in regard to problems that arise. Class discussions of common problems, experiments to settle disputed points, etc. Report on project and its results.
Rasmed Basic Home Economics for Primary Schools Book 1
The requirement of a report on home projects intro- duces another element for which a clearly outlined plan is needed. A statement of the number of times a job is re- peated or of the amount that is accomplished is plainly inadequate, for it gives no idea of how effectively the girl has met the problems or emergencies that may have arisen.
Report on silver cleaning project 1. Conditions of job ; improvement that was made in conditions or that might have been made. Tools, equipment, and cleansing agents that were used, and additions to equipment which were advisable. How such tools were used most effectively. Sequence in processes used in the job, and suggested modi- fications of the sequence. Amount of time spent on the job. Did any increase in speed result from change in methods?
Cost of materials used in cleaning, and estimated cost of keeping silver clean if work was performed by paid service. References consulted in study of project A project, such as is outlined above, does not require much initiative on the part of the individual student. This is due not so much to the use of a class plan as to the char- acter of the project itself, which is of an elementary type.
It is most important that home projects become progres- sively more difficult as the student develops power and initiative in the analysis and solution of problems. The following types of problems show the possibility of such progressive treatment: Single processes carried through a stated period of time: Simple constructive projects, such as designing and making a simple garment. Multiple processes carried through a stated period of time: In many home economics courses the development of appreciation is as definite an objective as the acquisition of skill or the abil- ity to think clearly.
There is, however, far less clear under- standing of the methods that should be used to acquire ap- preciation. Methods of teaching should be based on the psychology of learning, and the educational psychologist has given little assistance to the formulation of effective methods in teaching appreciation.
Most of the discussions on appreciation in educational literature are concerned with the development of aesthetic enjoyment, but in a few cases this term is used more broadly to cover also social appreci- ation, or realization or understanding of social situations. We realize, also, that narrow or limited experience does not lead necessarily to growth in appreciation of wider issues, and that generalized expe- rience may not lead to appreciation in a specialized field. The person who has read "Macbeth" does not necessarily have appreciation of Shakespeare as a dramatist, and the person with good general art training may not have appre- ciation of good taste and good design in clothing.
Another element that seems to enter into appreciation is a sensation of enjoyment or satisfaction, or a feeling of realizing fundamental values. The person having this sensation, however, may be quite unable to analyze the factors to which it is due. Any training that will focus attention on the characteristics of a thing, situation, or condition so as to lead to discrimination of values, and that at the same time offers so rich and varied an experience that satisfac- tion in discrimination grows steadily, should lead towards the development of appreciation.
Skill in pro- duction and appreciation are not synonymous, but comple- mentary, and a careful study of their relationship may re- sult in absolute change of some present teaching practices. In all probability, some elementary experience with mate- rials and industrial processes is necessary to realizing the problems of a constructive activity; this does not, however, imply the necessity of giving extended experience.
The following quotation 1 expresses a point of view that should be weighed carefully by home economics teachers: I suspect that the contention referred to above is merely an assumption not founded at all upon facts of observation or experience. I believe, for ex- ample, that it is entirely possible to teach appreciation of good poetry without taking any steps whatever in the direction of teach- ing young people to write poetry.
We endeavor to- teach apprecia- tion of the beauty of landscapes without, of course, undertaking to have our pupils shape such landscapes. In the world of more homely affairs, I am convinced that it is worth while to train the taste and discrimination of our young people in order that they may appreciate and value simple and good standards in cooking, dress, and the ordinary paraphernalia of life, but that these ends can be achieved quite independently of any effort to make our pupils dress- makers, cooks, or interior decorators.
Text-books illustrate in a concrete form the changes that are constantly taking place in the schools, in the subject matter of courses and in its organization for teaching pur- poses. Snedden, "Problems of Secondary Education," page The teacher who finds that text material for the topics that the class is studying is not available, or can only be secured from widely separated sources, writes a text-book that presents a specialized se- lection of subject matter adapted to the needs and capac- ities of her students.
A study of the text-books in any subject, therefore, should show a gradual evolution of im- proved methods of teaching, and more specialized adapta- tion of subject matter to the needs of different groups. Text-books for elementary and secondary school classes in food, clothing, household management, and the house can be classified under two headings: The amount of space that is given to the text in this last type of book varies greatly; in some cases it is very limited, while in others a fairly adequate exposi- tion of many topics is included.
Though the number of subject matter texts for use in home economics courses is steadily increasing, lack of good text material has been one of the most serious handicaps of home economics teaching. This deficiency of material to use for classroom and outside preparation of lessons is much greater in some divisions of the subject than in others. There is a great deal more text material for food courses than for clothing, housing, household management, or family problem courses. The teacher of clothing finds an exhaustive treatment of fabric manufac- ture in several books, but little on the selection of clothing ; and the teacher of house problems finds material on house planning, but little on house selection.
One of the greatest weaknesses of most of the text ma- terial for home economics subjects has been that in many of these texts a concise statement of facts has been given rather than an explanatory treatment of problems. Some of the newer home economics text-books not only include text material on topics that are not found in the older texts, but they, also, show a selection and organiza- tion of topics adapted to the capacities and interests of children.
They are written not only to give information about the materials or problems that are being studied, but to explain the many problems that cannot be answered by the laboratory experience of students and to arouse the interest and stimulate the thinking of the students. The purpose of such a text is more comprehensive than to serve as a reference book; if the topics are selected wisely and are adapted to the needs of the group, it can be used as the basis of a course and the laboratory work of the stu- dents can be so organized that it will supplement and expand the text.
This has resulted in the production of many laboratory manuals of varying degrees of excellence; most of these books, however, include text material, and they are planned evidently to serve as the sole text-book of the class rather than to serve merely as a laboratory manual.
There are two types of material to be found in lab- oratory manuals for food and clothing courses: I detailed directions how to do the practical work, such as direc- tions for making seams, plackets, etc.
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A laboratory manual that con- sists mainly of directions for carrying out the practical work or for performing experiments is valuable only as a means of saving work for the teacher, who otherwise would have to provide such information in another form; in sew- ing classes, such directions are usually given by demon- 56 HOME ECONOMICS IN THE SCHOOLS strations and the sewing manual is used mainly for refer- ence, while in cooking classes directions may be dictated by the teacher, written on the board to be copied by the class, or given to the class on mimeographed sheets, the last being the most effective method.
The food teacher that is satisfied with a recipe book for a laboratory manual, and the clothing teacher that is satis- fied with detailed direction for making different garments, fail to appreciate that the primary purpose of laboratory work is to give objective experience that will assist in the realization and understanding of problems. If laboratory work is to be used as a means of studying problems, the most effective laboratory manual is one which outlines the basic problems under each topic that is being studied, and suggests the experiments, demonstrations, projects, exhib- its, or investigations that can be used in the study of these problems.
It should include, also, enough questions about the problems to stimulate intelligent and purposeful labora- tory work on the part of the students. For food preparation courses, there are a few effective laboratory manuals on the market. One of the greatest needs of home economics teachers, however, is for labora- tory manuals for courses in food selection, clothing selec- tion, house selection and furnishing, housewifery and household management.
Laboratory manuals are in great demand not only because of their value in class work, but because they present a method of approach to the study of a subject. The inexperienced teacher sees in the labora- tory manual an answer not only to the question, "What to teach? Another disadvantage of this plan is that it gives little opportunity for the teacher to control her method of approach to the study of a topic.
In some books, laboratory exercises merely illustrate or demonstrate the principles that are discussed in the preceding text material, while in others the study of every topic is approached through laboratory experience.
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The separation of text material and the laboratory manual makes it possible for a teacher to select her own method of relating laboratory work and discussion. A still more inflexible arrangement of subject matter is to be found in several of the food texts. This is the division of the material into lesson assignments. Books of this type may be of assistance to the inexperienced teacher in giving some idea of the possible achievement of a class in a single laboratory or recitation period, but they are most difficult to use as a class text unless the purpose of the course and the conditions under which the class is conducted are similar to those that governed the writing of the text-book.
Another disadvantage of this form of text is that effective teaching is often subordinated to cov- ering the amount of material that is outlined in a given lesson. The prospective home economics teacher should make a thorough study 1 of the text-books that are available in her own subject, and of the reference material in her own and related subjects that should be used by her classes.
She should learn to analyze not only the excellence of a given text-book, but its adaptability to the needs of different 1 " Home Economics in American Schools. Department of Edu- cation, University of Chicago, This study presents a definite method of evaluating the content of text-books. From the preceding discussions on the selection and organization of subject matter, it is quite evident that a large number of the text-books that are available at the present time can be used only as reference material by the teacher who sees the necessity of adapting her subject mat- ter to the capacities and interests of her classes.
It is evi- dent, also, that few text-books are so planned that they can serve as the basis of a course for the teacher who is interested in problem-solving methods. Make a list of the main problems that you think would be interesting to a group of tenth grade girls studying the general topic of clothing selection. Make out a similar list for a seventh grade class. Explain your reasons for any differences in these problems. Outline some laboratory exercises that might be used in the study of house selection.
From the standpoint of motor training, explain the dis- advantages of teaching the making of several hand stitches on a piece of muslin before starting work on an article. How advisable is it to have a class become fairly skillful in using one stitch on various materials before attempting to teach more difficult stitches?
Observe a cooking class and analyze the effectiveness of the motor training that has been given. Outline a plan for this class that will provide the best conditions for increasing skill. Would you make any distinction in the use of the terms problem-solving method and scientific method? From the standpoint of good selection and organiza- tion of subject matter, what text-books would you recommend for the following courses and how would you use each of them?
Types of Teaching, Chapter X. Methods of Teaching in High Schools. Experiments on methods of cooking. Methods of using experiments. Relation of experiments and practical work. The lunchroom as a cooking laboratory. A distinction has been drawn between food preparation and food selection in some of the discussions in the pre- ceding chapters.
In actual practice, food preparation courses may include material that is more accurately re- lated to the choice of foods than to their preparation, for discussions of such problems as food manufacture, mar- keting, the nutritive value and use of foods, etc. In spite of this incidental material in food selection found in food preparation courses and of the food prepara- tion problems used in food selection courses, these two types of courses show a great contrast, both in the char- acter of the material that they contain and in the methods that are used in teaching them.
Food preparation courses consist, primarily, of the study of food materials and the principles underlying their, cooking, and of selected experience in the cooking of foods. All dvds and books sold as is. Home Economics Education by Moerchen, B. Book has wear, and stains, and is missing all blank pages in front and back. We usually take multiple photographs of an item. Publisher - Favorite Recipes Press, Inc. Publication Date - These are pictures of the actual All in excellent condition.
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