the freshman year, and in three institutions in the sophomore year, although usually in curricula for high-school teachers this course is offered in the senior year. Educational psychology is offered in the freshman year in 4 institutions, and in the sophomore year in 17 institutions; although, again, the course ordinarily comes somewhere during the last two years of the 4-year curriculum. Although most commonly offered in the junior or senior years, other courses in education are similarly distributed over the four college years.

TABLE 35.-Sequence in which the most commonly required courses in education are offered

institutions does not wholly explain this condition. It is clearly evident that the existing diversity of practice in determining course sequences, while of some value from the experimental viewpoint, indicates a lack of definite knowledge concerning just what such sequences should be. The determination of the proper sequence of courses in teacher training and answers to related problems must await much more intensive research than has ever been accorded these problems.

Chapter XI. Student Teaching and the Training School

The average duration of the course in student teaching is one semester or one quarter. Each student teacher conducts five class sessions per week on an average. The typical length of practice class periods taught by student teachers is 60 minutes; the range is from 30 to 120 minutes. The amount of college credit required of each student teacher in the course ranges from two semester hours to seven semester hours. The approximate median number of credits required is three semester hours. There is substantial variation among institutions relative to the number of clock hours practice required for a given number of semester hours credit; 3, 4, or 5 clock hours per week for 1 semester may be required for 3 semester hours credit. With such variations the semester hour unit of credit is an extremely crude measure of student achievement in this course and it is difficult to see how one institution can accept statements of credit in student teaching from other institutions with any certainty as to what such credit really signifies.

Training Schools and Training Classes

In Table 36 is shown the nature and characteristic features of schools or classes untilized for student teaching. Practically all the institutions reporting make use of senior or regular 4-year secondary schools for practice. The recent rapid growth of junior high schools in the United States has necessitated the provision of junior high school classes for practice. Twenty-four land-grant institutions also utilize elementary schools for practice.

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TABLE 36.-Nature and characteristic features of school utilized by 48 landgrant institutions for observation and practice teaching

Items relative to schools utilized

Three or four year secondary school__.

Junior high school_.

Elementary school____.

Smith-Hughes vocational high school___

Rural school (center of fewer than 2,500 population).

Consolidated school____‒‒

Urban school (town or city of 2,500 or more population)_.
Public school____

Private school.

Owned by institution___.

Controlled but not owned by institution___.

Joint control by institution and other agency.

Not controlled by institution__-_-.

Utilized for actual practice teaching and observation_

Utilized for observation only..

Vocational classes utilized___
Nonvocational classes utilized_.

Utilized for appreciate teaching only-.

Number of institutions reporting

45

24

17

29

21

15

34

40

5

11

0

10

35

48

12

39

31

5

Thirty-nine institutions report the use of vocational classes; of these, 29 utilize vocational high schools; 31 report the use of nonvocational classes, for the most part along with other classes in vocational work.

It is worthy of note that only 21 institutions report practice facilities in centers of fewer than 2,500 population. The typical landgrant institution is located in a town of 6,000 or 7,000 population. The problems of country schools are more or less removed from the consideration of the student teachers in more than one-half of the land-grant institutions.

Local public high schools appear to afford the chief reliance for student teaching facilities in land-grant institutions. Forty institutions partially or wholly make use of such schools for practice, while 17 of a total of 50 institutions have institutionally owned practice or laboratory schools. These are commonly utilized in conjunction with the public schools.

The 17 institutions reporting institutionally owned practice schools enroll a total of slightly more than 3,000 pupils, or an average of about 176 pupils per institution having such schools. Of the total number of pupils, at least 1,000 are in grades below high school, while a maximum of 2,000 are in high-school grades. The inadequacy of this number is indicated by the fact that the institutions reported for 1928 a total of 2,822 baccalaureate degrees conferred upon students in general education and 250 in vocational education. Practically all of these should have had the course in student teaching. Adding to the total number a very conservative estimate of

1,000 teachers not reported as enrolled in education a total is secured of more than 4,000 student teachers in all institutions, as contrasted with an enrollment of 3,000 practice pupils in the institutionally owned training schools.

No standards relative to the number of practice pupils necessary in land-grant institutions that train teachers have been accepted by these institutions. The standards of the American Association of Teachers Colleges require a minimum group of 30 children for every 18 college students to be given 90 clock hours of student teaching, either in the campus training school or in affiliated urban or rural schools under the supervision of the teachers college. While some of the land-grant institutions meet this standard, it is higher than present practice in the land-grant institutions as a whole.

The typical land-grant institution makes use or partial use of one or two schools for observation, demonstration, or practice. Among the several teacher-training units, elementary education is served by the largest number of schools utilized for training purposes; 11 elementary education departments or other units report the use of 58 schools, or an average of slightly more than 5 schools per unit. Commercial education is served by the fewest number of training schools or classes; an average of less than one school is utilized for training; three institutions that offer commercial "teacher-training" curricula report no training-school facilities. Occasionally teacher-training curricula are reported, but no practice facilities, in other teacher-preparing units. Since student teaching is probably the most characteristic element of a complete training program, it is difficult to see how the assumption can be made that a teacher-training program is offered when no provisions are made for observation and practice. No Smith-Hughes programs are reported without such provisions, although practice facilities do exist of widely varying effectiveness. Schools utilized for training are reported owned by the following 17 institutions: University of Arkansas, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Florida, University of Illinois, University of Kentucky, Louisiana State University, University of Maryland, University of Minnesota, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska, North Dakota Agricultural College, Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, South Dakota State College, University of Vermont, West Virginia University, University of Wisconsin, and University of Wyoming.

Of these campus schools or university training schools, most are senior or regular 4-year high schools, but three include junior high school units, and six include elementary school units. Usually the school building is also used for purposes other than student teaching, such as for offices or for regular class work in education.

It is to be regretted that the number of institutionally owned, maintained, or controlled training schools is not larger. It is true that the expense to the institution of construction, operation, and maintenance of these schools is considerable and that public schools are commonly available to at least some extent for observation and practice. However, of 40 institutions reporting the use of public schools, only 10 report joint control of these schools by the institution and public-school authorities. More than 30 institutions report the use of training schools over which they have little or no administrative control. No institution reports complete control of public schools not owned by the institution. This means that the most significant activity of the entire teacher-training program of the institution is conditioned by the exigencies of purely local public-school situations, with continual possibilities for friction, and even actual hostility toward important and necessary aspects of student teaching. Educational experimentation in the public schools utilized for training is commonly viewed with suspicion by parents, and often effective opposition is encountered on their part and on the part of local school officials. Desired classes and units of instruction for student teachers are often hard to arrange on the high-school schedules. Institutional training officials are frequently unable to secure satisfactory public-school teachers for demonstration lessons. Desired sequences in the presentation of instructional units is difficult when the exigencies of a public-school program must be met. For every unusual departure from the usual public-school routine, timeconsuming arrangements must be made by institutional authorities with public-school teachers or other outside authorities over whom little or no control is exercised. It is small wonder that most staff members and officers engaged in directing student teaching nearly always wish a campus school as one part of their laboratory training facilities.

One difficulty experienced by land-grant institutions in the use of public schools for student teaching is indicated by the number of student teachers spending excessive time in travel to and from practice schools. Time is lost in regular class work, in the limited studentteaching period or in the study periods of student teachers. About three-fourths of the institutions report that they have student teachers spending one-half an hour or more per day in travel to and from training-school classes. It is impossible in some institutions with limited finances and poor location with reference to training classes to remedy this condition at present. Some institutions of this type, however, are making considerable progress toward solving the problem by the provision of school busses for pupils, by school cars for student teachers, by establishing campus training schools, or by organizing a system of apprentice teaching whereby the student