In addition to the psychological types of exercises mentioned above, exercises are conducted in the classroom which may be designated under the following heads:  lecturing, the recitation lesson, examination and review lessons.  In any one of these the mental process involved may be any of those mentioned above as belonging to the purely psychological types of lessons or a combination of any two or more of them.  It has seemed worth while to treat briefly of both sorts of lesson types, and to discuss at some length, lecturing, about which there is considerable disagreement, and the additional topic of questioning, which is the means employed in all of these different types of classroom exercises.

The Inductive Lesson.  It has been common in the discussion of the inductive development lesson to classify the stages through which one passes from his recognition of a problem to his conclusion in five steps.  These divisions have commonly been spoken of as (1) preparation; (2) presentation; (3)comparison and abstraction; (4) generalization; and (5) application.  It has even been suggested that all lessons should conform to this order of procedure.  From the discussions in the previous chapters, the reader will understand that such a formal method of procedure would not conform to what we know about mental activity and its normal exercise and development.  There is some advantage, however, in thinking of the general order of procedure in the inductive lesson as outlined by these steps.

The step of preparation has to do with making clear to the pupil the aim or purpose of the problem with which he is to deal.  It is not always possible in the classroom to have children at work upon just such problems as may occur to them.  The orderly development of a subject to be taught requires that the teacher discover to children problems or purposes which may result in thinking.  The skill of the teacher depends upon his knowledge of the previous experiences of the children in the class and his skill in having them word the problem which remains unsolved in their experience in such a way as to make it attractive to them.  Indeed, it may be said that children never have a worthy aim unless it is one which is intellectually stimulating.  A problem exists only when we desire to find the answer.

The term “presentation” suggests a method of procedure which we would not want to follow too frequently; that is, we may hope not simply to present facts for acceptance or rejection, but, rather, we want children to search for the data which they may need in solving their problem.  From the very beginning of their school career children need, in the light of a problem stated, to learn to utilize all of the possible sources of information available.  Their own experience, the questions which they may put to other people, observations which they may undertake with considerable care, books or other sources of information which they may consult, all are to be thought of as tools to be used or sources of information available for the solution of problems.  It cannot be too often reiterated that it is not simply getting facts, reading books, performing experiments, which is significant, but, rather, which of these operations is conducted in the light of a problem clearly conceived by children.