Inductive Method

From Encyclopediak

Inductive Method, that method of reasoning or teaching which is based upon the earliest and most natural operation of the child's mind: that of observing, comparing observations and drawing conclusions based upon these. It is, therefore, the method necessarily followed in primary schools. It is frequently called the observational method and it is used also by teachers of more advanced pupils, especially in subjects which lend themselves easily to laboratory methods, or when a topic new to the class must be presented. The normal child soon develops the habit of cooing and crowing with delight upon the approach of one who has gratified his desires. By inductive reasoning he assumes that enjoyable experiences associated with this person are about to be repeated. After placing one block upon another until he has quite a high pile, the child accidentally disturbs the bottom one, and the pile falls. He is astonished, hut delight succeeds surprise, and day after day he piles up his blocks only to knock them down again. Thus he learns from observations based upon many experiments. It is Nature's way. The kindergarten became successful largely because the instruction was by inductive methods. The success and extension of kindergartens revolutionized the methods of other primary schools. Today, the pupils of grammar and high schools, of colleges, universities and graduate schools are "learning by doing." Manual-training rooms, and rooms for the teaching of domestic science and domestic art, laboratories of botany, zoology, physics, chemistry and other subjects are well equipped. The teacher no longer introduces a subject by dictating rules, which the pupil must write out and commit to memory. He explains the materials that are to be used, points out in a general way about what results will follow from a certain procedure, and then sets the pupils to work for themselves. If capable of learning, and at all interested in the subject, they will soon begin to generalize that is, to reason inductively, basing their conclusions upon the many observations made. It is because of the mirvelously rapid increase in the number of those reasoning from first-hand knowledge, and with that clearness resulting from personal observations of materials, forces and phenomena, that the past century has witnessed so great a development of the world's resources. There are, however, certain subjects which are essentially deductive in their nature. Moreover it is not always necessary for one with a well-trained mind to spend time in observation of phenomena because he can deduce what he wants from the data made available by others. See DEDUCTIVE METHOD.