In all courses, the tendency is strongly toward the elimination of any material not bearing directly on the needs of prospective teachers. There is no great necessity to rely on the transfer of training, when so much valuable material is now available bearing directly on specific professional needs. The chief problems that remain are to rid existing courses of material remaining as a heritage from the comparatively recent period when traditional subject-matter fields afforded the chief reliance for professional content, and properly to organize and arrange the wealth of validated material now available as a result of scientific experimentation and study in the field of professional education.

Duplication of Courses and Course Content

A particular danger exists in respect to the duplication of content in the courses in education, especially in the larger institutions in which the establishment of new subdivisions of the field is proceeding rapidly. Many insistent demands, such as those springing from individual instructional interests of teachers, may very easily result in the establishment of courses offered concurrently that treat the same topics. Existing divergencies in course terminology often conceal this undesirable condition.

Numerous recent studies have shown the necessity of improvement in the allocation of content on a more systematic basis. Studies with such improvements in view should, however, include consideration of the possibilities of necessary overlapping and correlation of

courses.

The most common method employed to avoid or reduce duplication of content in courses in education is by departmental or divisional staff conferences. Over 75 per cent of the institutions report this method. In 19 institutions the teachers of educational courses submit written outlines of courses to the heads of departments, deans, or other central authorities. In many institutions, of course, departmental, divisional, or general institutional committees on curricula assist in the avoidance of duplication of subject-matter content.

In Iowa State College a conference of department heads is held to consider the matter of distribution of content and of duplication of courses. In Kansas State Agricultural College every instructor in education is required to outline the objectives for his courses and submit them in conference. In the University of Kentucky all the outlines of courses are brought to the faculty of the college of education for discussion. In the University of Minnesota all courses in curricula are recommended to the faculty of the college of education; approval is by faculty. At Cornell University a member of the staff visits classes in the college of agriculture. In Ohio State University a permanent curric ulum committee is now making a thoroughgoing investigation of the whole problem.

Sequence of Courses in Professional Education

Sequences of courses in professional education are indicated in Table 35. Practically every course in professional education is given in any one of the four college years. For instance, observation, participation, and student teaching is offered in four institutions in

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

The existence of 2-year curricula for teachers in a few land-grant

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.