This article is concerned with the question of how understandings achieved through the researches of natural scientists, and social scientists as well, may become increasingly parts of a total culture to be used by the people for a fuller realization of the ways of democracy.

An introduction to this edition of the TEACHERS COLLEGE RECORD. In the articles which follow, the social role of science teaching is interpreted against the somewhat varied background of experience of nine science teachers.

Science-trained teachers must play an important part in helping youths to find their place in life. These teachers will improve their services to youth as they learn more about the immediate and practical problems of today, and about how to use their special competence in science in dealing with them.

Current staff publications.

This article addresses the question, can science teachers help young people to think, feel, and act in the situations that arise in their lives in ways that are, in larger measure, in agreement with personal and social welfare?

The most vital problems of educational policy relate to the development of instructional materials and the arrangement of desirable learning and teaching situations.

Although scientifically planned studies have, to a large extent, replaced classical studies, and though practical activities of various kinds have been introduced into the curriculum, many of the assumptions underlying the older tradition continue to rule the practice of education.

This article describes The Bureau of Educational Research in Science.

Investigations in science teaching have been carried forward on a fairly broad front through the interval of the past fifteen years. They have been concerned (1) with the evaluation of subject matter and methods used in current practices in teaching, (2) with the continuous revision of subject matter and methods, and (3) with the study of the learning process. The contributions to science teaching from these investigations will be considered under these three headings.

UNDER the influence of Marxist philosophy, the State Planning Commission in the U.S.S.R. developed an extensive program of scientific research. The motive was to achieve a synthesis of science and philosophy, and to use this synthesis as a means to the furtherance of a socialistic state.

The public-school administrator and the teachers must consider the problems of the program of studies in relation to the general purposes of the public-school system and more particularly in relation to the aims and purposes of the various units of the system.

Current statements of aims and objectives of science for the elementary school show the influence of the points of view that have been formulated during the past half century by workers in the field of nature study. Guided as they were by the philosophy of education formulated under the influence of psychological postulates no longer tenable, many of these statements are inconsistent with the principles of education accepted for guidance today.

This analysis of the educational values is given in an effort to call to mind some of the situations and some of the problems of everyday life and to show something of the background out of which they have come. Its aim is to illustrate how tested ideas have contributed to building up the things that are secure in our institutions and in our behavior. It illustrates some of the accomplishments in building security and some of the methods that have been the basis of attitudes that are functioning in human behavior.

From these presentations it is clear, we trust, that practices are not abreast of the best thought in curriculum work. Indeed, many prevailing practices in the schools find their only support in philosophical and psychological postulations that are recognized not only as obsolete but even as directly opposed to the postulations on which the organization of our school system is based. A problem of first rank importance to the educational worker, especially in the field of curriculum, is to define the aim of education in such a way that the definition will function as a guiding thought, will direct the teacher in choosing what to do in order to attain the aim.

In a discussion of the psychology of learning the question of what to teach—of what knowledge is of most worth—rises to a place of prominence. Current practices in science teaching and in other fields have been severely and justly criticized for overemphasis on memory work for the purpose of enabling the pupil to reproduce unrelated facts. Moreover, there has been so much looseness in claims for various impracticable and vaguely defined outcomes of science teaching that it would seem as if the real materials of education—problems in which methods may be used and situations and conditions toward which attitudes may be developed—have too small a place. Knowledge that has been, and that may be, tested for truthfulness is essential in educa- tion as a basis for problem solving and for understanding.

A program for the education of teachers must be so planned as to meet the needs of teachers preparing for service in the schools. These needs are defined in the program that is set down and developed in the preceding pages of this volume. The teachers of the elementary school, of the junior high school, and of the senior high school should obtain an education that will prepare them for the work of these respective levels. Throughout the foregoing pages the Committee has stressed the liberalizing function of the school. Education should liberate from ignorance. Speaking positively, the liberally educated person should be able to make intelligent adjustments to the stimuli which are associated with rich living.

IN HIS treatise on education, Herbert Spencer raised the question, "What knowledge is of most worth?" His analysis of this question recognized educative values for (1) health; (2) vocation; (3) discharge of parental functions; (4) interpretation of national life; (5) enjoyment; and (6) intellectual, moral, and religious discipline. In answer to his own query he said, "The uniform reply is Science.

RESEARCH in science education is necessary in the first place to determine what people need to know about science, and in the second place to determine how the people (children in particular) may most economically and effectively learn what they need to know.

AS an instrument for measuring accomplishment and for predicting success in general ability the General Science Test has been developed. It has been prepared in two forms, Form A and Form B, each of which very closely approximates the same degree of difficulty. Each form consists of 100 items arranged as multiple choice statements.

TEXTBOOKS in high school science are often criticized because of their difficulty, but until recently no effort has been made to define the elements which occasion difficulty.

The Thorndike vocabulary studies have produced a list of the 10,000 most important words. These were selected from an enormous amount of reading material on the basis of range and frequency of use.

A significant measure of the functional value of a subject of study is the extent to which it is mastered by those who study it. If a majority fail to acquire any mastery of its contents, it is clear that the subject is lacking in value for the particular group.