PSYCHOLOGY IN EDUCATION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 111, 12 May 1909, Page 3

PSYCHOLOGY IN EDUCATION.

LECTURE BY PROFESSOR HUNTER. Last night Professor T. A. Hunter, M.A., delivered to the Teachers' Institute a lecture on "Some Aspects of Experimental Psychology and Education." The practical nature of the question, and its application to modern methods of education, drew a large and representative gathering of teachers. Mr. Parkinson, M.A., presided. Professor Hunter, after disclaiming any intention to convince, rather than to suggest, pointed out that man was what 'he was because nis methods of thought had given him superiority over the rest of the animal kingdom. The separation of psychology from general philosophy and metaphysics was the starting-point in its progress, and, partly for philosophical reasons, and partly for theological reasons, the experimental method had been co^iderably delayed. In the training of said the Professor, great prominence had been given to a knowledge of Latin, English, and Greek, while the immense benefits of a training in mental science had been almost entirely overlooked Knowledge of this latter had to be picked up in a desultory way. The English people would, in the inevitable time of stress, feel the consequence of neglecting scientific education. The fact, however, that England was allowing many of her teachers to be imbued with American and Continental methods showed that she was awakening. At the present time a number of subjects on the school syllabus should give way to others really necessary, and to place any one. m charge of children without a crained knowledge of the facts of mental development was, the Professor thought, little short of criminal. What the psychologist wanted to know was not what mind was, but how it acted. Whan,evei might be the ultimate value qf psychology as a science, and whatever its future, it was vm»doubted that scientific psychology had shown the importance of the following principlesn ciples in education, and had thrown- ligh/c on their proper development : (1) The enormous importance of interest as a determinant of attention and the conditions of interest; (2) the necessity of concentrating attention and of avoidance of its dissipation and the conditions r>f those , (3) the value and condition Vif suggestion ; (4) the absolute necessity/ of the continuing and grading of work if the best results were to be obtained ; (5) the amazing individual differences that must as far as possible, be provided for, and (6) the overthrow of the old view that man was a rational machine, and the importance now placed m the feeling and aspects of the developing character. Surroundings, said the lecturer, had a. great deal to dfj with i,he amount of attention shown by pupils in school, as well as with 'che disposition of the teacher. Them was no reason why education should not be utilitarian — nou in the sense of & s d, but in the wider sense of training for one's profession and a nobler citizenship. The needs of our present system of education were scientific kr/owledge of the development of the eliil.d, co-ordination of the parts of our system, the concentration of attention, and the union of the teaching and examining functions. The -Professor's remarks were followed with the keenest interest and attention, and at the conclusion of the lecture a hearfcy vote of thanks, on the motion of Mr. Fosttu, was accorded the lecturer.

ißftbiei liks Phoiphol Emulsion. It quickly cures thoir couch and gives them etrength and vitality.— Advt. i