e teacher is to conduct the process in order to obtain
this desired result. Three different modes of directing the selecting
activity of the student are recognized and more or less practised by
teachers. These are usually designated the lecture method, the text-book
method, and the developing method.

THE LECTURE METHOD

=Example of Lecture Method.=--In the lecture method so-called, the
teacher tells the students in direct words the facts involved in the new
problem, and expects these words to enable the pupils to call up from
their old knowledge the ideas which will give the teacher's words
meaning, and thus lead to a solution of the problem. For example, in
teaching the meaning of alluvial fans in geography, a teacher might seek
to awaken the interpreting ideas by merely stating in words the
characteristic of a fan. This would involve telling the pupils that an
alluvial fan is a formation on the floor of a main river valley,
resulting from the depositing of detritus carried down the steep side of
the valley by a tributary stream and deposited in the form of a fan,
when the force of the water is weakened as it enters the more level
floor of the valley. To interpret this verbal description, however, the
pupil must first interpret the words of the teacher as sounds, and then
convert these into ideas by bringing his former knowledge to bear upon
the word symbols. If we could take it for granted that the pupil will
readily grasp the ideas here signified by such words as, formation, main
river valley, depositing, detritus, steep side, etc., and at once feel
the relation of these several ideas to the more or less unknown
object--alluvial fan--this method would undoubtedly give the pupil the
knowledge required.

=The Method Difficult.=--To expect of young children a ready ability in
thus interpreting words would, however, be an evident mistake. To
translate such sound symbols into ideas, and immediately adjust them to
the problem, demands a power of language interpretation and of
reflection not usually found in school children. The purely lecture
method, therefore, has very small place with young children, whatever
may be its value with advanced students. Pupils in the primary grades
have not sufficient power of attention to listen to a long lecture on
any subject, and no teacher should think of conducting a lesson by that
method alone. The purpose of the lecture is merely to give information,
and that is seldom the sole