An Experiment in Predicting Student Performance in General Chemistry MAUDEB. SCOBIXLD
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The data were cathered from a freshman chemistrv class of over 200 students, all of whom had studied chemistry in high school. The final grades in college chemistry have been compared with individual grades in high-school chemistry, physics, and mathematics and with the grades obtained in a preliminary placement examination conducted by the chemistry department of Syracuse University in September. Several correlations warrant serious consideration.
A METHOD OF EDUCATION Dr. A. J. Carlson,' in a recent address before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, cited research as a method of education. In speaking of education he said: There is some dissatisfaction with the results of present-day formal education. on the part of the educators, on the part of society, and possibly on the part of those in the process of being "educated." I n consequence of this, our educational methods are being subjected t o destructive and wnstructive analysis as never hefore. Notwithstanding the dissatisfaction, we have extension of formal education to more and more people; the period during which young men and young women are subjected to our formal educational processes is gradually lengthened, we are making increasing financial investments in educational institutions, and despite the criticism we still appear to have an abounding faith that education will somehow save society from many of its errors and follies.. . An "educated" man is supposed to have a certain fund of information plus a certain controlled behavior or disciplined emotions. He is supposed to have acquired a certain degree of critical judgment a s a matter of automatic cerebration; a certain method of arriving a t wnclusians by analysis. He is supposed to weigh evidence, t o keep an open mind in regard to the unknown. When we survey the behavior of humans today, i t is very obvious that critical judgment, except in matters of immediate practical interest t o the individual, is largely conspicuous by its absence. The scientific method has not yet hewme a tool in everyday human behavior. We know more facts than ercr heforc, h u t , on the whulr, w r do not seem to be much wiser, more sane and nmm just than our more i&mornntancestors. This applies to the so-called e d u ~ t e dmemhers of society as well as t o those who have come in the least wntact with the formal educational processes of today.
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Our present educational methods are designed to impart the maximum amount of information in the minimum of time. I n formal education the student is seldom permitted to learn by doing. Education by dictation begins in the home. Dr. Carlson continues: "Research as a Method of Education," Science, 65, 125-8 (Feb. 4, 1927).
Even students in the colleges or professional schools, preparing themselves far the so-called scientific professions (engineers, chemists or physicians) may, and usually do, so through the four years of college, and the four or more years of their special pro. fessional schools, without being compelled, without having the privilege as a part ol their formal training of meeting and solving problems where the answer is not known. I speak with some knowledge of the situation in the field of medical education. Here (and I presume this is typical in chemistry and in engineering), the rate of inaease of f a d s and theories is so great that if we expect even the ablest of our students to master them all or even a considerable fraction of them, before he is admitted t o the practice of his profession, he will have neither time nor energy to practice science. Science is a recent adventure in education. Philosophy, mathematics, languages laid down the general methods of education hefore science was admitted to the curriculum. Now, science itself has largely assumed the easier method of the older university disciplines, the method of memory-cramming, lecturing and spoon-feeding, even for those who are on the way t o become more or less professional scientists (engineers, chemists, physicians) instead of holding on to the method hy means of which science grows, namely, the method of doing.
Dr. Carlson does not contend that the student a t any stage should cease to profit by past experience or should cease to learn from books. He believes that the student should be permitted, if not compelled, to answer questions, not from books or lectures, but by field investigation or laboratory experimentation. He examines the objections which naturally arise as follows: The weaknesses of my thesis are partly known, and mare may develop if a universal attempt should he made t o put i t into practice. I n the first place, there would be some loss of time. The student, left partly to himself t o learn, would en; as do even the wisest of adults, in unknown territory. If part of the student's time is t o he taken up by making errors and correcting them, he will have less timp to Ham his brain with "ten thousand useful facts," and this will handicap him in the race with his fellows in all tests based on memorizing these "useful facts." Secondly, the life of the teacher would he made more distracting and laborious. It is easy t o lecture to a group of a hundred pupils, t o quiz such a group on a textbook or to assign "required reading." Turn the same hundred students lwse on problems and the same teacher will have an interesting time, indeed! Thirdly, the introduction of even a small modicum of direct field or laboratory work on the part of every pupil will call for enlarged material facilities all along the line, and tax the ingenuity of the teaching force to the utmost in supplying materials. This will make the plan unpopular with the teacher who is inoculated with the perverted union labor ideal of the least effort that the traffic will bear, but I believe i t would make hetter teachers of us all.
It is obvious that not all people who have been trained in the method of science by actually doing new work show that this training has materially affected their conduct in every-day life or their judgment in practical affairs. To this Dr. Carlson replies: This seems to challenge my primary assumption t h a t training and practice in research will establish the scientific method as part and parcel of the behavior mechanism. We have, indeed, the phenomena of "double personality" or "water tight cornpart-
ments" in the brain, in consequence of which a man may be rational in one particular field, but foolish and unfair when he steps outside of this field, and training in scientific research has not yet eradicated this defect in the scientists themselves. Must we, therefore, abandon the idea t h a t such training modifies behavior in the direction of sanity? Without knowing all the factors in the phenomena, and hence admitting t h a t the question is a n open one, I nevertheless venture the following suggestion. Foolish or unfair behavior of normal persons who have adequately assimilated the scientific method is not inherent in the physiological mechanism and therefore irreparable.. . . Accordingly, I do not claim that the introduction of research as a part of education a t all stagis will make all normal men sane all the time. I think it will help to make more men sane on more matters for a greater part of the time.
Dr. Carlson concludes his address by saying: I am not sufficiently myopic to promise that individual research as a part of education a t all levels will be a panacea against all the credulity and unreason of normal men. I n urging i t as a hopeful experimental therapy, I do not put undue emphasis. on the hope, because society will interfere or t r y to interfere with the experiment. There will be interference on the part of teachers who are satisfied with present methods. And in any event we start with material already processed in education by didation a t the hands of parents and priests. ~
W. R . W.
ANNIVERSARIES OF SCIENCE Among the anniversaries of science listed by Science Service as "Today in Science" for the month of February we find the following: Mme. Curie was elected a free associate member of the French Academy on February 7, 1922. She was the first woman so honored. We quote the following from a sketch of Madame Curie written for Science Service by Paul Appell, President of the Academy of Paris, in 1022: At the close of the year 1906, Madame Curie was appointed a professor in the scientific department of the University of Paris. She continued her splendid work in a tiny laboratory-far too small-established in Rue Cuvier. Later, upon the University acquiring the land between Saint Jacques and Ulm Streets, a new street named for Pierre Curie was laid out through the length of this property, and a laboratory specially designed for the use of Madame Curie was started in coordination with the Pasteur Institute. The present arrangement is this: on one side is the special laboratory for Madame Curie's research work. On the other side is a wing belonging to the Pasteur Institute where researches are carried on in the application of radium and its emanation in the treatment of diseases, particularly those of a cancerous nature. Between these two buildings is a small structure containing the precious substance. . . . At the present Madame Curie is devoting herself entirely to her work; t o her scientific researches, to teaching, and to the organization of a radio-therapeutic service that she is conducting in collaboration with Dr. Regault of the Pasteur Institute. ~
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On February 8, 1672, Isaac Newton reported t o the Royal Society his discovery that "Light is composed of a heterogeneous mixture of
