inter on Eduction: ‘Thinkers on Faeaton (2004). Trre_corvrevlum studtes Reader (24d EL), Wew Yrale: Rovtleclye . 1 Scientific Method in Curriculum-making FRANKLIN BosBitT Sunice TH OPENING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, the evolution of our social order has beeen proceeding with great and ever-accelerating rapidity. Simple conditions have been growing complex. Small institutions have been growing large. Increased specialization has been multiplying human interdependencies and the consequent need of codrdinating effort. Democracy is increasing within the Nation; and growing throughout the world, All classes are aspiring to a full human opportunity. Never before have civilization and humanization advanced so swifly As the world presses eagerly forward toward the accomplishment of new things, educa- sion also must advance no less swifly It must provide the intelligence andthe aspirations nceessary forthe advance; and for stability and consistency in holding the gains, Education must take apace et, not by itself but by social progres. ‘The present program of public education was mainly formulated during the simpler conditions of the nineteenth century. In details ithas been improved, In fundamentals iis not greatiy different. A program never designed for the present day has been inherited, Any inherited system, good fr its time, when held to after its day, hampers social progres, Itis not enough that the system, fundamentally unchanged in plan and purpose, be improved in details. In education this has been done in conspicuous degree. Our schools to-day are better than ever before. Teachers are better trained, Supervision is more adequate. Buildings and equipment are enormously improved, Effective methods are being introduced, and time is being economized. improvements ate visible on every hand. And yet to do the nineteenth-century tsk better than it was then done is not necessarily to do the twentieth-century task. New duties li before us, And these require new methods, new materials, new vision. ‘The old education, except as it conferred the tools of knowledge, was mainly devoted to filling the memory with facts, The new age is more in nced of facts than the old; and of Public Domain, Preface and Chapter VI in Franklin Bobbitt, The Curriculum, Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press, 1918 From: Fliaders, D3. % Thornton, S.3. (éls.).FRANKLIN BOBBITT more facts; and it must find more effective methods of teaching them. But there are now other functions. Education is now to develop a type of wisdom that can grow only out of participation in the living experiences of men, and never out of mere memorization of verbal statements of facts. It must, therefore, (rain thought and judgment in connection with actual lfe-stuations,a task distinctly different from the clostral activities of the past. It is also to develop the good-will, the spirit of service, the social valuations, sympathies, and atitudes of mind necessary for effective group-action where specialization has created endless interdependency. Ithas the funetion of training every citizen, man or woman, not for knowledge about citizenship, but for proficiency in citizenship; not for knowledge about hygiene, but for proficiency in maintaining robust heath not for a mere kmowledge of abstract science, but for proficiency in the use of ideas inthe control of practical situa- tions. Most ofthese are new tasks. In connection with each, much is now being done in all progressive school systems; but most of them yet are but partially developed. We have been developing knowledge, not function; the power to reproduce facts, rather than the powers to think and fee! and will and actin vital relation to the world's life. Now we must look to these latter things as wel ur task in this volume is to point out some of the new duties, We are fo show why education must now undertake tasks that until recently were not considered needful; why new methods, new materials,and new types of experience must be eroployed. We here try t0 develop ¢ point of view that seems to be needed by practical school men and women as they make the educational adjustments now demanded by social conditions; and needed aso by scientific workers who are seeking to define with accuracy the objectives of education. Iti the feeling of the writer thet in the social reconstructions of the post-war years that lie just ahead of us, education is to be called upon to bear a hitherto undreamed-of burden of responsibility; and to undertake unaccustomed labors. To present some of the theory needed for the curriculum labors of this new age has been the task herein attempted. ‘This ia first book in a field that until recently has been too little cultivated. For along time, we have been developing the theory of educational method, both general and specials and we have required teachers and supervisors to be thoroughly cognizant of it. Recently, however, we have discerned that there isa theory of curriculum-formulation that is no less extensive and involved than thet of method; and that it s just as much needed by teachers «and supervisors. To know what to dois as important a io know how to doit. This volume, therefore, is designed for teacher-training institutions as an introductory textbook in the theory of the curriculums; and for reading circles in the training of teachers inservice. Itis hoped also that it may assist the general reader who is interested in noting recent educa tional tendencies, ‘The technique of curriculum-making along scientific lines has been but little devel- oped. The controlling purposes of education have not been sufficiently particularized, We have aimed at a vague culture, an ill-defined discipline, a nebulous harmonious develop- ‘ment of the individual, an indefinite moral character-building, an unparticularized social efficiency, or often enough nothing more than escape from a life of work. Often there are xno controlling purposes; the momentum of the educational machine keeps it running. So long as objectives are but vague guesses, or not even that, there can be no demand for anything but vague guesses as to means and procedure, But the era of contentment with large, undefined purposesis rapidly passing, An oge of seience is demanding exactness and particularity above enur isthe deten thisis being The cant of specific adequately any social ¢ fis ad « ties, attitud the objectiv curriculum way of atti ‘The wor series of de imustdoanc alfaies of ac ‘The dev. general exp this way th munity life amuch of the trainin directed tre gand thy ‘The cun riences, bo! ‘ual; or (2) for comple later sense and asthe more utiliz enceis api not direct When th then its obj that one s‘ut there are now grow only out of nemorization of at in connection Vities ofthe past. ions, sympathies, zation has created mor woman, not >t for knowledge ‘mere knowledge of practical situa ‘being done in all ped, Weave been srthan the powers ve must look to 2 are to show why Tered needful; why ‘yed. Wehere try 0 and women as they and needed also by sof education, Itis ar years that lie just med-of burden of ome of the theory attempted. tivated. For along, general and specials zant of it. Recently, lation thatis no less needed by teachers + doit. This volume, cory textbook in the thers in service. Itis toting recent educa: ‘een but little devel- ly particularized. We armonious develop- pparticularized social ‘ork. Often there are ‘keeps it running. So fn be no demand for of contentment with anding exactness and SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN CURRICULUM- MAKING ‘The technique of scientific method is at present being developed for every important aspect of education, Experimental laboratories and schools are discovering accurate methods of measuring and evaluating different types of educational processes. Bureaus of educational measurement are discovering scientific methods of analyzing results, of diagnosing specific situations, and of prescribing remedies. Scientific method is being applied to the fields of budget-making,child-accounting, systems of grading and promo- tion, ete, ‘The curriculum, however, is a primordial factor. If tis wrongly drawn up on the basis merely of guess and personal opinion, all ofthe science in the world applied to the factors above enumerated will not make the work efficient. The scientific task preceding all others isthe determination of the curriculur, For this we need a scientific technique. At present this is being rapidly developed in connection with various fields of training. ‘The central theory is simple. Human life, however varied, consists in the performance of specific activities. Education thet prepares for life is one that prepares definitely and adequately for these specific activites, However numerous and diverse they may be for any social las, they can be discovered. This requires only that one go out into the world of affairs and discover the particulars of which these affairs consist. These will show the abili- ties, attitudes, habits, appreciations, and forms of knowledge that men need, These will be the objectives ofthe curriculum. They will be numerous, definite, and particularized. The curriculum will then be that series of experiences which children and youth must have by way of attaining those objectives. ‘The word curriculum is Latin for a mce-course, or the race itself a place of deeds, or a series of deeds, As applied to education, itis that series of things which children and youth ‘must do and experience by way of developing abilities to do the things well that make up the affairs of adult fe; and to be in all respects what adults should be. ‘The developmental experiences exist upon two levels. On the one hand, there is the sgeneral experience of living the community life, without thought ofthe training values. In ‘his way, through participation, one gets much of his education for participation in com- ‘munity life. In many things this provides most ofthe training; and in all essential things, ‘uch oft. But in all fields, this incidental or undirected developmental experience leaves the training imperfect. It is necessary, therefore, to supplement it with the conscious directed training of systematized education. The first level we shall call undirected train ing and the second, directed training, ‘The curriculum may, therefore be defined in two ways: (1) itis the entire range of expe- Fences, both undirected and directed, concerned in unfolding the abilities of the individ- ual or (2) itis the series of consciously directed training experiences that the schools use for completing and perfecting the unfoldment. Our profession uses the term usually in the latter sense. Butas education is coming more and more to be seen as « thing of experiences, and as the work: and play-experiences of the general community life are being more and ‘more utilized, the line of demarcation betiveen directed and undirected training experi- ‘ence is rapidly disappearing. Education must be concerned with both, even though it does not direct both. ‘When the curriculum is defined as including both directed and undirected experiences, then ts objectives are the total range of human abilities, habits, systems of knowledge, ete, that one should possess. These will be discovered by analytic survey. The curriculum. Aiscoverer wil frst be an analyst of human nature and of human affairs. His task at this »FRANKLIN BOBBITT point is not at all concerned with “the studies’ —later he will draw up appropriate studies 45 means, but he will not analyze the tools to be used in a piece of work as a'mode of discovering the objectives of that work, His frst task rather, in ascertaining the education appropriate for any special class, isto discover the total range of habits, skill, abilities, forms of thought, valuations, ambitions, etc, that its members need for the effective per~ formance of their vocational labors; likewise, the total range needed for theie civic activi ties; their health activites; their recreations; their language; their parental, religious, and general social activites. The program of analysis will be no narrow one. It will be wide as life itself. Ast thus finds all the things that make up the mosaic of full-formed human life, it discovers the fall range of educational objectives. Notwithstanding the fact that many of these objectives are attained without con: scious effort, the curriculum-discoverer must have all of them before him for his Jabors. Even though the scholastic curriculum will not find it necessary to aim at all of them, it is the function of education to see that all of them are attained. Only as he Jooks to the entire series can he discover the ones that require conscious effort. He will bbe content to let as much as possible be taken care of through undirected experiences. In- ‘deed he will strive for such conditions that 2 maximum amount of the training can be so taken care of ‘The curriculum of the schools will aim at those objectives that are nor sufficiently atained as a result ofthe general undirected experience. This is to recognize that the total range of specific educational objectives breaks up into two sets: one those arrived at through one’s general experiences without his taking thought as to the training; the other, those that are imperfectly or not at all attained through such general experience. The latter are revealed, and distinguished from the former, by the presence of imperfections, errors, short- comings. Like the symptoms of disease, these point uncrringly to those objectives that require the systematized labors of directed training. Deficiencies point to the ends of conscious education. As the specific objectives upon which education is to be focused are thus pointed out, we are shown where the curriculum of the directed training is to be developed Let us illustrate. One of the most important things in which one isto be trained is the effective use of the mother-tongue. It is possible to analyze one's language activities and find all of the things one must do in effectively and correctly using it. Each of these things then becomes an objective of the training. But it is not necessary consciously to train for each of them. Let an individual grow up in a cultivated language-atmosphere, and he will learn (o do, and be sufficiently practiced in doing, most of them, without any dicected training, Here and there he will make mistakes. Each mistake isa call for directed training The curriculum ofthe directed training iso be discovered in the shortcomings of individu als after they have had all shat can be given by the undirected training. This principle is recognized inthe recent work of many investigators as to the curriculum of grammar, One of the earliest studies was that of Professor Charter! Under his direction, the teachers of Kansas City undertook to discover the ertors made by pupils in their oral and written language, For the oral errors the teachers carried notebooks for five days of one week. and jotted down every grammatical error which they heard made by any pupil at any time during the day. For the errors in writing they examined the writen work ofthe pupil for a period of three weeks. They discovered twenty-one types af errors in the oral speech 9. 10. Ln 2. B. 4. 15, 16. ” 8, 19. 20. a. Confasi Failure ‘Wrong Double Syntacti Wrong: Confusi Subject Confust Predicat First per Wrong! Confisi Objecte Wrong} Incorrec Failure Tncorrec Misplac: Confusi Confusi- Fach error valuation, ore the abilities ar the use ofthe toa needed o ‘which the gen Which must th Scientifien provide atthe the children & portance, and proportion of toteach the gr their grammat type of experi Inthe spelb words that chi they have beer are of unequal ence of the chi are words thatapropriate studies “ork as a mode of ving the education its, sls, abilities, + the effective per 1 their civic activi tal religious, and Tt be wide as formed human life, ined without con- yefore lim for his zssary to aim at all tained. Only a8 he Jous effort. He will sted experiences. In- xe training can be 0 1t sufficiently attained sat the total range of ived at through one’s other, those that are he latter are revealed, tions, errors, short- those objectives that point to the ends of on isto be focused are scted training is 10 be isto be trained is the language activities and it, Fach of these things ty consciously to train suage-atmosphere, and of them, without any take isa call for directed hortcomings of individu ining. This principle is cculum of geammar. One s direction, the teachers in their oral and written | ir five days of one week’ by any pupil at any time: cen work of the pupils fo errors in the oral sp and twenty-seven types in the written. The oral erzors.in the order of their frequency were as follows: — 1, Confusion of past tense and past participle a 2. Failore of verb to agree with its subject in mumber and person 4 3. Wrongverb n 4. Double negative n 5. Syntactical redundance 10 6. Wrong sentence form 5 7. Confusion of adjectives and adverbs 8. Subjectof verb not in nominative case 9. Confusion of demonstrative adjective with personal pronoun 10, Predicate nominative notin nominative case 11, First personal pronoun standing first in a series 12, Wrong form of noun or pronoun 13. Confusion of past and present tenses 14, Object of verb or preposition not inthe objective case 15, Weong part of speech due toa similarity of sound 16. Incorrect comparison of adjectives 17. Failure of the pronoun to agree with ts antecedent 03 18, Incorrect use of mood. 03 19. Misplaced modifier 03 20. Confusion of preposition and conjunction 02 21. Confusion of comparatives and superlatives ol Each error discovered is a symptom of grammatical ignorance, wrong habit, imperfect valuation, or careless attitude toward one's language. The nature ofthe deficiency points to the abilities and dispositions that are to be developed in the child by way of bringing about the use ofthe correct forms. Each grammatical shortcoming discovered, therefore, points to a needed objective of education. It points to a development of knowledge or attitude which the general undirected language experience has not sufficiently accomplished and ‘which must therefore be consciously undertaken by the schools, Scientific method must consider both levels ofthe grammar curriculum. One taskis to provide at the school as mach as possible of a cultivated language-atmosphere in which the children can live and receive unconscious training. This i rally the task of major im- portance, and provides the type of experience that should accomplish an ever-increasing Proportion of the training. The other task is to make children conscious of theie errors, to teach the grammar needed for correction or prevention, and to bring the children to put their grammatical knowledge to work in eliminating the errors. In proportion as the other type of experience is increased, this conscious training will playa diminishing role. Inthe spelling field, Ayres, Jones, Cook and O'Shea, and others have been tabulating the ‘Words that children and adults use in writing letters, eports, compositions, etc. In this way they have been discovering the particularized objectives of training in spelling, But words ‘are of unequal difficulty. Most are learned in the course of the reading and writing experi- ‘nce ofthe children without much conscious attention to the spelling, But here and there ‘are words that are not so learned. Investigations, therefore, lay special emphasis upon the 524 PRANKLIN BOBBITT words that are misspelled, Bach misspelled word reveals a directed-curriculum task. Here, as in the grammar, error is the symptom of training need and the complete error-list points unerringly tothe curriculum of conscious training. Jn the vocational field, and on the technical side only, Indianapolis has provided an ‘excellent exaraple of method of discovering the objectives of training, Investigators, wth- ‘out pre-suppositions as to content of vocational curriculum, set out to discover the major ‘occupations of the city the processes to be performed in each, and the knowledge, habits and skills needed for effective work, They talked with expert workmen; and observed the work-processes, In their report, for each occupation, they present: (1) a list of tools and ‘machines with which a workman must be skillful; (2) a list of the materials used in the work with which workers need to be familiar; (3) alist of items of general knowledge needed concerning jobs and processes; (4) the kinds of mathematical operations actually «employed in the works (5) the items or portions of science needed for control of processes; (6) the elements of drawing and design actualy used in the work; (7) the characteristics of the English needed where language is vitally involved in one’s work, asin commercial occupations; (8) elements of hygiene needed for keeping one's self up to the physical stan- dards demanded by the work; and (9) the needed facts of economics. Many of the things listed in such a survey are learned through incidental experience. Others canmot be sufficiently learned in this way. It is by putting the workers to work, whether adolescent or adult, and by noting the kinds of shortcomings and mistakes that show themselves when training is absent or deficient, that we can discover the curriculum tasks for directed vocational education. ‘The objectives of education are not to be discovered within just any kind or quality of human affairs. Occupational, civi, sanitary, or other activity may be poorly performed and productive of only meager results, At the other end of the scale are types of activity that are as well performed as itis in human nature to perform them, and which are abundantly fruitful in good results, Education is established upon the presumption that human activities exist upon different levels of quality or efficiency; that performance of low characteris not goods that it canbe eliminated through training; and that only the best or at least the best attainable is good enough. Whether in agriculture, building, trades, housekeeping, commerce, civic regulation, sanitation, or any other, education presumes that the best that is practicable is what ought to be. Education is to keep its feet squarely upon the earth; but this does not require that it aim lower than the highest that is practicable, Let us take a concrete illustration. The curriculum-discoverer wishes, for example, to draw up a course of training in agriculture, He will go out into the practical world of agr culture asthe only place that can reveal the objectives of agricultural education. He will start out without prejudgment as to the specific objectives All that he needs for the work is pencil, notebook, and a discerning intelligence. He will observe the work of farmers; he will talk with them about all aspects of their work; and he will read reliable accounts which tive insight into their activities, From these sources he will discover the particular things that the farmers do in earrying on each piece of work: the specific knowledge which the farmers employ in planning and performing each specific task; the kinds of judgments at which they must arrive; the types of problems they must solve; the habits and skis ‘demanded by the tasks; the attitudes of mind, appreciations, valuations, ambitions, and desires, which motivate and exercise general control tionto perforr to that of thei ~ “beyond that of additional fun «What we he pational worle ahalyze not th carried to itsh of all legitima typesof brickl ‘When state it presents dif types of work. tiveness as the ‘contentment 1 attitudes. The invite the curr tion to costs is alongside of tt at the best an characteristics the investigatic ‘The genera’ dren and men curriculum of such as promu with the hight shortcomings areyet so vago of the scienti from alack of call for direct. training, Theculum task Here, omplete error-list, + has provided an avestigators, with- fiscover the major knowledge, habits sand observed the alist of tools and terials used in the eneral knowledge aperations actually yntrol of processes; the characteristics sas in commercial the physical stan- idental experience. e workers to work, sand mistakes that wer the curriculum iy kind or quality of © poorly performed are types of activity tem, and which are xe presumption that that performance of rd that only the best are, building-trades, education presumes keep its feet squarely 1 the highest that is shes, for example, to tactical world of agri- al education. He will needs for the works + work of farmers; he Siable accounts which the particular things knowledge which the ¢ kinds of judgments 5 the habits and skills ations, ambitions, and SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN CURRICULUM-MAKING 15 Facts uponal ofthese matters can be obtained from a survey of any agricuiturl region, however primitive or backward. But primitive agriculture isthe thing which exists without any education. Itis the thing education isto eliminate. The curriculum-discoverer, there- fore, will not investigate just any agricultural situation, He will go to the farms that are most productive and most successful from every legitimate point of view. These will often be experimental or demonstration farms which represent what is practicable forthe com- munity, but which may not be typical of actual practices in that community. Where such general practices are inferior, agricultural education isto aim not at what is but at what ought to be, ‘When the farming practices are already upon a high plane, education has but a single fanetion: it is to hand over these practices unchanged to the members of the new generation. ‘Where the practices of region are primitive or backward, education has a double func- tion to perform. Itis not only to hand over to the new generation a proficiency that isequal to that of ther fathers, but itis also to lift the proficiency of the sons to a height much beyond that oftheir fathers. Within such a region, therefore, agricultural education has the additional fanction of serving as the fundamental socal agency of agricultural progress. What we have said concerning agriculture is generally applicable throughout the occu- pational world, For discovering the objectives fora training course in bricklaying one will analyze not the activities of bricklayers in general, but those where bricklaying has been carried to its highest practicable level of eicency—as this eficiency is judged on the basis of all legitimate standards, Education will aim, not at average bricklayers, but atthe best types of bricklayers. ‘When stated in broad outline, the general principle is obvious. In practical application, it presents difficulties, Men do not agree as to the characteristics of the most desirable types of work. The employers of the bricklayers will be inclined to use maximum produc- tiveness as the criterion of superior work; and unquestioning obedience to orders arid contentment with any kind of hours, wages, and working conditions as proper mental attitudes. The employees will judge otherwise as to some of the factors The employers will invite the curriculum-discoverer to investigate situations where productiveness in propor- tion to costs is greatest; the employees, where the total welfare of the worker is considered alongside of the factor of productiveness. Both sides will agree that education should aizn at the best and that scientific investigations as to objectives should seek to discover the characteristics of only the best. They disagree as to what is the best, and therefore where the investigations are to be made. ‘The general principle of finding the scholastic curriculum in the shortcomings of chil- dren and men is quite obvious and entirely familiar to teachers in its application to the curriculum of spelling, grammar, and other subjects that result in objective performance, such as pronunciation, drawing, music, computation, tc. I is not so clear in connection with the highly complex subjects of history literature, geography, etc. What are the social shortcomings that are tobe eliminated through a study ofthese social subjects? Our ideas are yet so vague, in most cass, that we can scarcely be said to have objectives. The first task of the scientific curriculum-maker isthe discovery of those social deficiencies that result from a lack of historical, literary, and geographical experiences. Each deficiency found isa ‘all for directed trainings it points to an objective that isto be set up for the conscious ‘taining. The nature ofthe objectives will point to the curriculum materials to be selected= 6 for these subjects. A major obstacle is lack of agreement as to what constitutes social deficiency. There is however no justification for scholastic training of any kind except as a gap exists between the training of general experience and the training that ought to be accomplished. Society agrees sufficiently well as to many social shortcomings. Education needs to assemble them in as accurate and particularized a form as possible. They can then be used 4s the social symptoms which point to the objectives of history, literature, geography, eco- nomics, and other social studies. Society will disagree as to many suggested deficiencies, A program can be sciemtfic, however, without being complete. The thousand spelling ‘words presented by Mz. Ayres is a good list notwithstanding the fact that it presents not ‘more than a quarter of the words needed. It isa secure beginning that can be completed by further studies. Inthe same way in our social training, we shall do very well if we can set up a quarter of the desirable objectives. That would be a great advance over none at all, as at present; and would provide the nucleus, the technique, and the vision of possibilities, nec- essary for gradually rounding out the list. ‘The principle involves us in similar difficulties in its application to civic, moral, voca- tional, sanitational, recreational, and parental education. It is equally valid, however in connection with each of these. Only as we agree upon what ought to be in each of these difficult fields, can we know at what the training should aim, Only as we ist the errors and shortcomings of human performance in each of the fields can we know what to include and to emphasize in the directed curriculum of the schools. NOTE 1, Charters, W. We and Mille, Edith. A Course of Study in Grammar based upon the Grammatisl Errors of School Children in Kansas City, Missouri. Univesity of Missour, Education Ballet, no 9. ARTICLE ONI Believe that ‘consciousness ¢ ally shaping the ing his ideas, x the individual Jhumanity has s civilization. Thy this general pro + The only t demands c is stimulat action and group to activities h is reflecteé child’ inst aretransfo solidatedv + This educ: that neithe ing. OF the powers fur efforts oft own initia From "My Ped: p.291-298,De