The pedagogical experiment has shown clearly enough that the
subjective feeling of easier or quicker learning may be entirely
unreliable and misleading. If the task is to learn a page by heart, we
may proceed after many different methods. We may learn very small
fractions of the text, repeating only a few words, or we may read
whole paragraphs every time; we may repeat the whole material again
and again, or we may put in long periods of rest after a few
repetitions; we may frequently recite it from memory and have some one
to prompt us; we may give our attention especially to the meaning of
the words, or merely to the sounds, or we may introduce any number of
similar variations. Now the careful experiment shows that of two such
methods one which appears to us the better and more appropriate in
learning, perhaps even as the easier and more comfortable, may prove
itself the less efficient one in the practical result. The psychology
of learning, which won its success by introducing meaningless
syllables as experimental material, has slowly determined the most
reliable methods for impressing knowledge on memory. Where such
results have once been secured, it would surely be a grave mistake
simply to stick to the methods of so-called common sense and to leave
it to the caprice of the individual teacher to decide what method of
learning he will suggest to his pupils. The best method is always the
only one which should be considered.
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