The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 262 The Educational Screen Jj, n an d fox tkz uLi a±±%oom Conducted by Wilber Emmert Director Visual Education, State Teachers College, Indiana, Pa. Teach with Comparison //QTOOD like a stone wall"; "Clear as a crystal"; iD "Ran like a deer"; "Swam like a fish"; "With clock-like precision"; "Patient as Job"; "Fought like a tiger"; "Cunning as a fox"; "Pretty as a picture"; "Roar like a lion"; "Similar ...."; "Equal to . . ." Why do people use such expressions? Can teachers find in this technique a valuable teaching tool? What is significant, educationally, about these figures of Hundreds of FILMS For You to Choose From tailCafiOnai_And your choke need not be limited. Literature, science, travel, nature, music, art — in fact any type of picture you -w^ish. Our extensive library of 16 mm. films, both sound and silent, is made up of "proven pictures" used by accredited schools throughout the country. Enf erfainment_Because we add many ne-w entertainment films to our library every month you are able to rent the latest produc- tions as soon as they are released. Literary classics, cartoons, -westerns, mysteries, sports, musicals, dramas, religion — and all carefully selected for both school and home show^ings. Free Cataloas ^ * *%»%i^ -^^^i^fc^i**^^^ ** .— Pqj. yQur convenience we have prepared two catalogs — one devoted to education and the other to entertainment. Rental rates are included for all films. Send for either or both of these catalogs. Please mention cata- log number 12E (education) and number 2IE (entertainment). INCORPORATED 234 Clarendon St. Boston^ Mass. speech ? Undoubtedly the user is seeking to impart in- formation, create attitudes, and develop appreciations by resorting to the well-known principle of teaching that the new is learned in terms of the old—i.e., build- ing new concepts on a background of past experiences. There is no doubt but that eiTective teaching really begins when the teacher uses such words as "like", "as", "equal to", "resembles", "similar to", "stronger than" and other comparisons. In short, when the teacher begins to compare the unknown with the known, the new with the old, the strange with familiar, the general with the specific, children are given a real basis for understandings. Obviously, comparisons need not be limited to the verbal method of communication, but may be used with all concrete materials and pictorial and graphic repre- sensations. The alert teachers in every subject will find opportunities for using comparisons in the presentations of new materials. The excursion, object, pictorial, and graphic presentations will fvu-nish situations to teachers for developing effective comjiarison techniques. In addition to the illustrations of comparison techni- ques given below, teachers will find in the methods used in textbooks, laboratory manuals, the newspapers, the magazines, posters, billboards, wall charts, exhibits and displays, demonstrations, the motion pictures, and radio presentations, fundamental similarities, points of essen- tial diflferences, contrasts, and other comparisons. Even though sensory experiences are provided, there is no assurance that the teaching will be effective unless the pupils are taught to observe all the factors carefully, to draw inferences, develop insights and see relation- ships of both the concrete and of an abstract nature. The teacher must lead the pupils to further activities, insights, interests and the solution of new problems upon the basis of the sensory experiences, and through comparisons drawn from these experiences. One plan for using comparisons can be based upon a series of activities which enable the pupils to study environmental relationships by using themselves as the standards for comparison. This will not only provide information, but will aid in clarifying concepts, develop- ing attitudes, and gaining fvmdamental skills. For example, a clear concept of time intervals may be gained by counting the pulse. The pulse rate comparison technique is widely used, to cite one instance, by the amateur photographers in timing some of their work which nuist be carried on in absolute darkness. Hot and cold are relative terms, with the bodily temperature taken as the basic standard for determining whether a thing is hot, cold, or hike warm. Likewise a sense of distance and a plan for measuring distance can be gained by having the pupil pace a predetermined distance, (Continued on page 264)