TRAINING HIGH-SCHOOL CHEMISTRY STUDENTS TO DRILL THEMSELVES BRUCEP. LAMONT, HAZLBTON HIGHSCHOOL HAZLETON, PENNSYLVANIA No feature of high-school work requires more thought than the aim and character of drills and review. In drill work we attempt to make association or skills automatic, and in reviews we reteach old material with the aim of getting a new view or of gaining new associations. I n the study of high-school chemistry there is constant need for repetition of ideas a t properly timed intervals; acquisition of new terms, writing formulas and equations, and chemical problems all demand frequent drill. Our outstanding aim in all drill work is to get high-school pupils to learn to drill themselves. The inability of high-school pupils to do this is undoubtedly an outstanding weakness of all high-school instruction, resulting in untold failures on the part of first-year college students. High school is the place where students should he taught correct habits of drill. If we can get high-school pupils to drill themselves so that the response desired becomes automatic, we shall be placing in their hands the means of securing mastery of subject matter. In many instances a t the end of a high-school course pupils fail to display the thorough knowledge of a subject that we teachers desire. Lack of interest on the part of students is frequently due to incomplete mastery of the subject. If we can instil habits of self drill, we overcome the pupil's lack of interest, and mastery of subject matter will result. I n his classes in chemistry, the writer plares in the hands of his pupils a t the beginning of the school year mimeographe6 copies of what he terms "Basic Requirements in Chemistry." The subject matter is divided into nine units as follows: (1) definitions; (2) laws and theories; (3) preparations and properties; (4) industrial processes; (5) tests; (6) equations; (7) experiments; (8) formulas for common substances; and (9) problems. Under these topics the actual fundamentals are listed. It is not a mass of detail, but just the very essential ideas of the suhject. At the conclusion of each unit is the statement: "the student, in order to make a passing grade, is expected t o know, without error, these requirements." It is this statement and the insistence with which the teacher holds the pupils to the fulfilment of the requirement that brings results. It must not be understood that this is the order in which the content is studied. The purpose of it is purely for drill and review. A little tactful and sympathetic discussion of the requirements will convince pupils that their work will be made easier; anyway i t will he more definite and specific. However, the use of such a scheme as basic requirements does not necessarily mean that our teaching aim is the acquisition of facts. Facts, though, must he acquired before the pupil can he taught to think in terms of chemical principles. The mimeographed copies of the basic requirements state the objectives of our course as follows: 1315
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1. To see that the requirements of the basic facts are so well learned that mastery will result. 2. The acquisition of these facts will better enable the student to appreciate science in the service of civilization. 3. To overcome the pupil's reluctance for further reading in science. 4. To help pupils to discover whether they have an aptitude for further study in chemistry. 5. To encourage students to keep notebooks containing an accurate record of work done. 6. To bring the other sciences into close relationship with chemistry. 7. To train in the scientific 'method. 8. To show the service of chemistry to the home, to health, to medicine, to agriculture, to industry-in a word, to show the service of chemistry to civilization.
By means of frequent tests, the pupils are brought to a realization of their lack of mastery and their need for the acquisition of the association to be taught. These tests not only show the pupils the need for further drill, but serve the purpose of diagnostic tests. By classifying the content into units and insisting upon the students knowing these essentials without error, their weaknesses are definitely pointed out to them. In using this method we are placing in the hands of the student definite and specific material which is to be mastered. The student knows definitely wliat is to be done. The zeal and interest of the student is usually aroused because there is a challenge. The teacher takes time to explain the laws of drill and habit formation. High-school students are old enough to understand and appreciate the learning process. Frequent sympatheticrtalks by the teacher keep up enthusiasm, and the urge to master the fundamental principles listed in their basic requirements. A device like this, besides being an aid to students in drilling themselves, serves to motivate the work. They know definitely what is to be accomplished and they set about doing it with zeal and interest. For they know that in order to secure credit they must pass without error-all items listed in their basic requirements. Frequent class reviews are held, but here the aim is to re-teach old material in a way so as to f o m new associations, and thus get a new view. These reviews supply a background for the students' drill work. They present the old material which is to be acquired by drill with a new view; correlating all facts where possible, and thus provide new associations making the drill work on the part of the student somewhat easier. Most content subjects lend themselves to a division of subject matter into units, and under these units can be classified all essential facts. By holding the pupils responsible and insisting that they know these facts, without error, teachers, I believe, will undoubtedly find self-improvement on the part of their students. It tends to secure accuracy of detail and expression, aims are clarified, the work is motivated and becomes more definite and specific.
