Chapter XXVIII: Further Examples of Inductive Lessons

As further illustrations of an inductive process, the following outlines of lessons might be noted. The processes are outlined according to the formal steps. The student-teacher should consider how the children are to approach each problem and to what extent they are likely to generalize as the various examples are being interpreted during the analytic stage.

1. THE SUBJECTIVE PREDICATE ADJECTIVE

_Analysis, or selection:_

Divide the following sentences into subject and predicate:

The man was old.

The weather turned cold.

The day grew stormy.

The boy became ill.

The concert proved successful.

What kind of man is referred to in the first sentence? What part of
speech is "old"? What part of the sentence does it modify? In what
part of the sentence does it stand? Could it be omitted? What then
is its duty with reference to the verb? What are its two duties?
(It completes the verb "was" and modifies the subject "man.")

Lead the pupils to deal similarly with "cold," "stormy," "ill," "successful."

_Comparison, Abstraction, and Generalization, or Organization:_

What two duties has each of these italicized words? Each is called
a "Subjective Predicate Adjective." What is a Subjective Predicate
Adjective? (A Subjective Predicate Adjective is an adjective that
completes the verb and modifies the subject.)

2. CONDENSATION OF VAPOUR

_Analysis, or selection:_

The pupils should be asked to report observations they have made concerning some familiar occurrences like the following:

(1) Breathe upon a cold glass and upon a warm glass. What do you
notice in each case? Where must the drops of water have come from?
Can you see this water ordinarily? In what form must the water have
been before it formed in drops on the cold glass?

(2) What have you often noticed on the window of the kitchen on
cool days? From where did these drops of water come? Could you see
the vapour in the air? How did the temperature of the window panes
compare with the temperature of the room?

(3) When the water in a tea-kettle is boiling rapidly, what do you
see between the mouth of the spout and the cloud of steam? What
must have come through that clear space? Is the steam then at first
visible or invisible?

The pupils should be further asked to report observations and make correct inferences concerning such things as:

(4) The deposit of moisture on the outside surface of a pitcher of
ice-water on a warm summer day.

(5) The clouded condition of one's eye-glasses on coming from the
cold outside air into a warm room.

_Comparison, Abstraction, and Generalization, or Organization:_

In all these cases you have reported what there has been in the
air. Was this vapour visible or invisible? Under what condition did
it become visible?

The pupils should be led to sum up their observations in some such way as the following:

Air often contains much water vapour. When this comes in contact with cooler bodies, it condenses into minute particles of water. In other words, the two conditions of condensation are (1) a considerable quantity of water vapour in the air, and (2) contact with cooler bodies.

It must be borne in mind that in a conceptual or an inductive lesson care is to be taken by the teacher to see that the particulars are sufficient in number and representative in character. As already pointed out, crude notions often arise through generalizing from too few particulars or from particulars that are not typical of the whole class. Induction can be most frequently employed in elementary school work in the subjects of grammar, arithmetic, and nature study.

INDUCTIVE-DEDUCTIVE LESSONS

Before we leave this division of general method, it should be noted that many lessons combine in a somewhat formal way two or more of the foregoing lesson types.

In many inductive lessons the step of application really involves a process of deduction. For example, after teaching the definition of a noun by a process of induction as outlined above, we may, in the same lesson, seek to have the pupil use his new knowledge in pointing out particular nouns in a set of given sentences. Here, however, the pupil is evidently called upon to discover the value of particular words by the use of the newly learned general principle. When, therefore, he discovers the grammatical value of the particular word "Provender" in the sentence "Provender is dear," the pupil's process of learning can be represented in the deductive form as follows:

All naming words are nouns.
_Provender_ is a naming word.
_Provender_ is a noun.

Although in these exercises the real aim is not to have the pupil learn the value of the individual word, but to test his mastery of the general principle, such application undoubtedly corresponds with the deductive learning process previously outlined. Any inductive lesson, therefore, which includes the above type of application may rightly be described as an inductive-deductive lesson. A great many lessons in grammar and arithmetic are of this type.