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Recent Books
ADiagnostic Study of the Subject Matter of High School Chemistrv. Bv S. R. Powsas. P h D . Teachers College Contribution to Education, No. 149. Published by Teachers Collepe, Columbia University. 1924. viii. 84 pages
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This monograph is a report of a study mad. a t University of Minnesota. It comprise. 9 chapters, 25 tables and an appendix. T o a~cer. tain t h e relative difficulty of topics taught in elementary ehemiotry, the ability in different schools, and t h e degree of retention of subject matter, 8 tests were run i n 1920-22 in 15 Minnesota high schools and 28 high schools outside Minnesota. I n all 350 items were u e d , from 20 t o 102 per test. These were selected from t h e most widely used texts a n d covered valence, elements mixtures and comoaunda. chemical composition, definitions, activity series, biography, chemical changes (laboratory and commercial), uses of substances, solubility, numerical ratios and calcalations, names for formdaa, formulas for names, completing equations and writing entire equations. The percentages of correct answers t o each item are given in full, are tabulated in different ways and then are discussed a t length from t h e point of view of t h e difficulty of t h e items. They are given as follows: (1) t h e achievement in different schools, (2) d o t h e itemr of the t e s t s fairly represent t h e subject matter of t h e tertbooks? (3) how long d o students retain t h e facts which they have learned about ehemirtryl and (4) achievement of university students. Succeeding chapters deal with summaries, rceommendation. and construction and stud" of t h e scales T o t r y t o abstract here t h e concluaion~ derived from t h e tables would not do justice t o t h e wealth of information found in these pages. The showing made by the students i n many cares is rather discouraging. "A large proportion of t h e textbook material menns little or nothing t o 50% or mare of t h e student" who have studied one of these texts in high school for one year."
The investigation reveals, however, t h a t radical changes in content of high school chemistry and methods of instruction are much needed and indicated where some of these changes might be made. Conrtruetive teaehers would do well t o familiarize themrelves with results of Dr. Power.' work. The monograph must he read closely t o get all the points. Adverse viticisms are: certain items tend to confuse t h e reader and make him lose the point, c. 8 , . wide variation in t h e number of students taking tests, and i n t h e number of questions in different sections of t h e teats, failure t o bring out clearly t h e difference between t h e terms per eent correct, per eent scores, grade scores, scale scares, ranks, rank order., medians, media" scores, ability levein, quartilea, etc. I n a few instance. abbreviation. are used without showing what they signify. Misprints were found on pages 4, 18, 19, 27, 46 and 55, b u t t h e context makes t h e meaning clear. The phrase -the
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t h e monograph is intended for a limited and ~pecializedreading public rather t h a n for general reading by teachers. The reviewer regrets t h a t so many of the items Dr. Power. h a selected deal with nomenclature, fact., and t o some extent withprineiples. Many of these are easily forgotten. One wonder3 how t h e students would have farcd on items testing their ability t o reason or to think chemically. Many high school teachers trust t h a t they are gettingacrorr some of t h e reasoning ability rather than straight memory work. This does not condemn the monograph under review b u t simply suggests another angle of approach. This monograph should be in t h e hands of every chemistry teacher and i t should prove of much help in t h e correlation work now being done by the Division of Chemical Education of t h e American Chemical society.
W n m ~ SBcHas~ov x
