SOME IMPLICATIONS OF EXPERIMENTAL ISM
FOR TEACHING PUBLIC SPEAKING

By
Hugo John Dari4

A THESIS
Submitted to the Sohool of Graduate Studies of Michigan
State College of Agriculture and Applied Science
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
Department of Higher Education

1952

SOME IMPLICATIONS OF EXPERIMENTALISM
FOR TEACHING HJBLIC SPEAKING

By
Hugo John David

AN ABSTRACT
Submittad to the School of Graduate Studiea of Michigan
State College of Agriculture and Applied Science
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
Department of Higher Education
Tear

Approved

1952

f a u l t y

1
Hugo John David
The conversational node of speaking and the educational philosophy
of experimental ism developed, for practical purposes, almost simultan­
eously.

The purpose of this study, therefore, has been to determine in

what ways and to what extent this philosophy has Influenced the writers
of textbooks for college courses in public speaking.
major divisions result:

Accordingly, three

an explanation of the principles of experimei*.

talism, its application to teaching public speaking, and an examination
of six selected textbooks currently in extensive use in college and
university public speaking classes.
Experimental ism, expounded by John Dewey primarily, is founded on
man's experience in interacting with his physical and social environ­
ment .

Intelligent Interaction necessitates Inquiry from which results

learning.

Knowledge, intelligence, and thinking are described in rela­

tion to this method.

The instructor's task is to provide learning ex—

periences which originate in the student's living and constitute prob­
lems whose solution requires the Intervention of intelligence.

In

practice speeches students experiment with speech methods and devices
and have opportunity for intelligent practice of skills.
Fundamentals of Public Speaking by Bryant and Wallace reveals no
important Influence of experimental ism.

The pattern of inquiry receives

scant mention.

The method of learning is preceptive and teaching is

authoritative.

Students learn principles and apply them in practice

speeches.

Evaluation of student effort is based on conformity in prao-

tlce to principles learned.
Crocker's Public Speaking for College Studants, founded on classical
rhetoric, advises conformity to principles and extensive practice of them.

2
Hugo John D&Tld
Evaluation of student* s work is based on application of prescribed
standards, not on the effect of classroom experiences on student growth.
Sarett and Poster In the revised Basic Principles of Speech believe
man Is malleable by experience but they prescribe his experiences for him.
Students should emulate noble examples In thought, language, and style.
In Basic Training In Speechi Brief Edition Thonssen and Gllkinson
seem to accept an experimentalist view of experience and emphasise the
pattern of Inquiry.

Their learning theory, however, reinterprets "ex­

perience '1 as following regulative principles and gives great significance
to the stimnlus-response mechanism.

They accept as fundamental certain

ideas basic to experimentalism but disregard weighty Implications.
The third edition of Monroe* s Principles and Types of Speech advo­
cates the pattern of inquiry as a method of organisation for all types
of speeches, but learning is following principles and directions.
author professes eclecticism despite recognisable Inconsistencies.

The
Ac­

cordingly, an audience can learn via the method of inquiry while the stu­
dent must learn speech-making by accepting and applying prepared principle
Baird and Enower conform extensively to experimental principles In
General Speech: An Introduction.

The pattern of inquiry is the method of

learning and speaking experiences are seen to affect student knowledge,
attitudes, and skills.
non-experlmentallst.

The concepts of knowledge and ultimate truth seem
Of the texts examined, this one leans most heavily

upon the theory of experimentalism.
While textbook authors are under no compulsion to subscribe to ex­
perimental principles, they might, however, give additional thought to
the consistency with which they adhere to some point of view, even if
eclectic*

Hugo John David
candidate for the degree of
Doctor of Education
Final Examination:
Dissertation:

November 21, 1952.

Some Implications of Experimental ism for Teaching Public
Speaking.

Outline of Studies:
Major Subject:
Minor Subject:

Higher Education
Speech

Biographical It«Ms:
Born December 27, 1910, Audubon, Iova.
Undergraduate Studies; Concordia College, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1929-31
University of Missouri, 1937-38*
Graduate Studies: University of Missouri, 1939-^0; University of Den­
ver, 1947-48; Michigan State College, 1949-52*
Experience:. Expediter, Vagner Electric Corporation, St. Louis, Mis­
souri , 1935-37; Teacher of English, Latin, Speech,
Frederlcktoen High School, Fredericlctovn, Missouri, 1 9 3 8 —
39; Graduate Assistant, University of Missouri, 1939-40;
Assistant in Speech, University of Illinois, 1940-43;
Member United States Air Corps and Infantry, 1943-45;
Assistant Professor, University of Denver, 1946-48;
Assistant Professor, Michigan State College, 1949-52*
Member of Hii Delta Kappa, Tau Kappa Alpha, Speech Association of
America, American Association of University Professors.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to express his sincere appreciation and grati­
tude to Dr* Milo ah Muntyan u n d e r who ae continuous Inspiration, thought­
ful guidance, and genuine understanding this study was undertaken and
to whoa the results are herewith dedicated*
Grateful ackaoWled^aent is also due Dean Cecil V. Millard, Drs.
Wilson B. Paul and Clyde K* Campbell and others for their suggestions
and encouragement in innumerable ways*

TIBLI OF CONTENTS
Page
I.

INTRODUCTION ..............................
Purpose ................................
Definitions ............................
Reriew of Literature ..................
Method . . . ........ . . . . . . . . .
Summary............................. . .

II.

TEE PATTERN OF INQUIRY....................
The Concept of Experience • ..............
The Pattern of Inquiry ..................
The Indeterminate Situation • ..........
Instituting a Problem ..................
Determining the Solution . . . . . . . .
Discourse in Inquiry ..................
Experiment in Inquiry ..................
The Consequences of Inquiry ............
Summary ................................

III.

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY IN EXPERIMENTAL ISM

.

Life and Education ....................
The Method of Learning ................
Knowledge ..............................
Impulse fluid Habit . . . . 4 . ..........
Intelligence ..........................
Thinking ..............................
A i m s ..................................
M i n d ..................................
Consciousness ..........................
Capacity and Individual Differences . . .
Interest . . . . . ....................
Discipline ............................
Motivation ............................
Retention and Forgetting • ............
Transfer of Training ..................
The Point of View ......................
S ummary ................................
IV.

...

43

. . .

Ub

. . .
. . .

7b
77

DENEY'S THEORY OF L A N G U A G E ................................ 95

Background Assumptions . . . .
Language— 118 Origin and Status
The Functions of Language . . .

Language and M i n d ...................................... 10U
Language--Instrumental and Consummatory............... 106
Cara In Using L a n g u a g e ................................106
Education and L a n g u a g e ................................109
Summary................................................ 119
V.

VALUE IN EXPERIMENTAL! S U ..................................Il6
The Concept of V a l u e ..................................116
Method and V a l u e ......................................129
Value In E d u c a t i o n ....................................131
Summary ..........
136

VI.

SOME IMPLICATIONS OF EXPERIMENTALISM FOR TEACHING
HJ3LIC SPEAKING IN C O L L E G E ..............................139
The Fattern of Inquiry

........................

1UO

The Concept of Experience............................. lUO
The Problem-SolTing Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Educational P s y c h o l o g y ..................................1 5 8
G r o w t h ................................................ 1 3 8
L e a r n i n g ..............................................161
171
Impulse and H a b i t ................
Intelligence. Thinking,and M i n d ....................... Ijh
A i m s ..................................................I7 9
Capacity and IndividualDifferences ................... 182
I n t e r e s t ............................................. 1 8 3
D i s c i p l i n e ............................................18b
M o t i v a t i o n ............................................188
Retention and F o r g e t t i n g ..............
I8 9
Transfer of T r a i n i n g ................................. 190
The point of V i e w .................................... 1 9 1
The Theory of L a n g u a g e .......................... 193
The Definition of Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Language--Its Origin and Status ............ . . . . . 19h
Language Usage— C o n s u m m a t o r y .......... 4 ............. 196
Language Usage— Ins t r u m e n t a l .................. 196
Values and Public S p e a k ! n g ...................... 199
199
Appreciation.................
Intrinsic V a l u e .................................. .... 203
Instrumental V a l u e ............................ 204
Summary ........................................ 208

Page
VII.

AN ANALYSIS OF SELECTED T E X T B O O K S ........................209
Fundamentals of Public Speaking.......................... 210
Public Speaking for College Studente .................. 223
Basic Principles of S p e e c h .............................. 23^
Basic Training in Speech: Brief Edition ........ . . . . 245
Principles and Types of Speech ........................ 257
General Speech: An Introduction........................ 271
Summ a r y ................................................ 291

VIII.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION................
Sum m a r y............
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . .

....................

293
293
306

APPENDIX

A ....................................................... 3 0 9

APPENDIX

B ....................................................... 3 1 1

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................ 315

CHAPTER I
IINTRODUCTION
Since the turn of the century, two significant developments have
occurred in relation to the teaching of public speaking.

The first

was the shifting from the methods of elocution to those of conversa­
tional manner.

This shift or change culminated, for practical purposes,

in the publication in 1917 of James A. Winans* text Public Speaking.^
The second development was the ideas of John Dewey on education.

These

ideas gained considerable acceptance, particularly through the publica2
tion in 191o of Democracy and Education.
Each of these has received
extensive recognition in its field.

Speech departments have been

established in many colleges and universities, at first usually as
subsidiaries of English departments, but later as separate entities.
The number and variety of textbooks have grown along with this expan­
sion.

At the same time Dewey's philosophy has grown in influence and

popularity especially in the elementary and secondary schools.
Purpose.

The pr-sent study endeavors to determine the implica­

tions and extent of influence of the philosophy of John Dewey, herein
called experimental!sm, upon the teaching of public speaking in the

1James A. Winans.
1917.

Public Speaking. New York:

The Century Company,

-John Dewey. Democracy and Education. New York:
Company, 191b-

The MacMillan

2
colleges as It Is reflected In representative textbooks in public
speaking currently in wide use.

The author has not assumed that such

influence or application is either possible or desirable.

He has,

therefore, proceeded to determine for himself, first, what the essence
of the philosophy of experimentalism is, then what the Implications of
it might be for teaching public speaking, and finally the extent to
which these implications are evident in selected public speaking texts
currently being used in a variety of college public speaking classes.
If, however, experimentalist ideas can be adapted to the public speak*
ing classroom which seeks, upon the foundations of the Winand

text and

its subsequent tradition, to emphasize communication with an audience,
and if greater success can be reasonably expected from the use of its
methods; it is not too much to hope that teachers of public speaking can
increase their contributions to the solution of one of the most press*.
ing problems of the day, which, in the words of Elton Mayo, is:
I believe that social study should begin with careful observation
of what may be described as communication: that is, the capacity
of an Individual to communicate his feelings and ideas to another,
the capacity of groups to communicate e:factively and Intimately
with each other. This problem is, beyond doubt, the outstanding
defect that civilisation is facing t o d a y . 3
Definitions.

Public speaking as used in this context has reference

to speaking done by one speaker before an audience.

It is not considered

to include group discussion, debate of the conventional interscholastic
type, nor oral reading as interpretation.

It is also to be disingulshed

3siton Mayo. The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilization.
Andover, Massachusetts: The Andover Press, 19^5. P» 22.

3
from the Speech Fundamentals course which, to be sure. Includes public
platform speaking but also concerns Itself with a variety of other forms
of speaking such as those Just mentioned; it is more of a survey of
kinds of speaking*
"Experimentalism” is the nAme here used to designate the philo­
sophy, and in this connection particularly, the educational philosophy
of John Dewey primarily and secondarily of some who have aligned them­
selves with it, such as John L. Childs.

The latter maintains that

"experimentalism" is perhaps the best name for the Dewey point of view
when he says, "0n» of the reasons why experimental ism is an appropriate
name for this philosophy is because as a philosophy it desires to pro—
mote a society which will be intelligently experimental in carrying
U
forward this reconstructive movement."
The same author also states
that this philosophy takes a frankly experimental approach to both the
world and man and, from the educational standpoint, represents the meth­
od of experiment in constructing life and knowledge.-*

He further ex­

plains that the foundation for it lies in experience itself:
Experimental ism is a radically empirical philosophy. It main­
tains that the ultimate source, authority, and criterion for all
beliefs and conduct are to be found in ordinary human experience.
Experience stands on its own bottom. Life is its own sanction.
Whatever of guidance and inspiration man requires to meet the ex­
igencies of his life is to be sought from the resources within
experience and not from some supra— empirical source. The very
cornerstone of experimentalism is the faith that experience is

u
John L. Childs. Education and the Fuilosophy of Experimentalism.
New York: The Century Company, 1931* P*
^ Ibid., pp. 5-b

k

able to develop from within its own processes all necessary regu­
lative standards and ideals.
Review of Literatore.

The literature dealing with the relation­

ship of experimentalism to the teaching of public speaking in college
is limited in svite of the fact that Dewey's steps in thinking have
been widely publicised in the field in connection with the process in
group discussion.

The relation of this method to teaching procedures,

however, seems not to have gained extensive popularity among teachers
of college speech.

A review of the material pertinent to the relation

of experimental ism and the teaching of public speaking follows and in­
dicates that only a few have given it sufficient serious though to
study and publish with regard to it.

This limited supply of publica­

tions may well suggest that experimental ism will also appear in but a
minor way in the textbooks later to be examined.
O'Neill,^ in discussing the implications of the "Changing Curric­
ulum" for the teaching of speech, indicated his belief that this change
represented a swing toward the methods of the speech teacher already
long in practice.

This method is largely the method of student activity

in the classroom.

After stating the principle that education and life

oTight not to be divorced, and that mindB are not Ju3t storehouses of
information, he continues:
John Dewey's philosophy of education is based upon this concept.
The best education is made up of activity, experience, doing.

^Ibid., p. 9b.
7james M. O'Neill, "Speech in the Changing Curriculum."
Journal of Speech. XXII (193b), 183-186.

The Quarterly

5
Education is not a matter of the distribution of items of information
.... The best education consists of active participation in exper­
iences which develop human power and ability*
9
Baird^ observes that speech teachers have aligned themselves with
one or another point of view in educational philosophy ranging from
humanism, rationalism, aesthetic!sm, and scientific determinism, to
behaviorism and experimental!sm.

He emphasizes several controlling

principles which should guide the speech teacher in his classroom ac­
tivity.

The first of these is that "speech instruction should be based

upon individual needs and c a p a c i t i e s . H e points out the upper five
percent have been taught well but there is need to do equally well with
the others so that in education there will be "speech for all."

The

second is that "speech training should provide for social integration.
The assumption here is that every response has social implications."^
Dewey, he points out, was concerned with social reconstruction.

Baird

believes speech training is essential in effecting such reconstruction.
He also shows how speech teachers have parted company with Dewey in
that the colleges have emphasized the vocational aspect of speech
training beyond a point acceptable to Dewey.

The third principle, a

concept directly attributed to Dewey, merits stating in Baird's own
words:

8Ibld.. p. 184.
^A. Craig Baird, "The Educational Philosophy of the Teacher of Speech,”
The Quarterly Journal of Speech. XXIV (193&), 545-553»
10Ibld.. p. 547.
11 Ibid.., p. 548

b
•..speech education should he a 'reconstruction of experience*'
Again we revert to Dewey's thesis of the identity of school and
life, of learning and doing. Our goal, then, will he to substitute
activity for subjects, to make the classroom a miniature world, to
carry the pupils into the world, and so enable them to rebuild
their experience by reconstructing their ide< s 'in the light of
newly discovered relationships between the parts of 'their* ex­
perience.
That this principle is thoroughly experimental!stic will become clearer
in the subsequent chapters.
The fourth principle, he says, is that "experimentation and eval­
uation are its moving spirit,"^3 the moving spirit, that is, of a
philosophy of speech education.

He urges that some attention he given

to evaluating teaching results hy means of instruments already avail­
able or by others to he developed specifically for the purpose.
14
Freed
points out that "The Just end of all language education
is social efficiency.

Increased social efficiency can arise only from

increased understanding of the meanings of language symbols." 15
social purpose in speech training is emphasized here.

The

He observes

that the trends in education are toward a more functional type of ed­
ucation, toward a more socialized curriculum, and toward an increase in
oral work in t he upper elementary and secondary school grades.lb

He

concludes that "oral techniques are consistent with the present trends

l2Ihid., p. 551.
13Ibid., p. 552.
^Conrad W. Freed. The Role of Speech in the Educative Process. Un­
published Ih. D. thesis. University of Southern California, 246
numb, leaves.
15lbid., p. 215.
lbibid., p. 117.

7
in educational thought and p r a c t i c e , a n d that "in most, if not all,
educational teaching situations the most efficient procedures will be
18
those which make the fullest use of oral expression."
This thesis
shows that both biological and educational development and rhetoric
indicate that speech is life in action, speech education must be function­
al, and language grows with experiencing.
Kopp19
' concludes, "Philosophically we can say that speech is the
common denominator of all educational and social activity."

He be­

lieves with Quintilian that the emphasis in speech training should be
on developing the powers of the whole man rather than concentrating on
discrete aspects of development Individually.
Rodriguez

21

examines briefly various philosophies of education

ranging from rlato and Aristotle down to Dewey and Hutchins.

In setting

up the content for a course in the fundamentals of speech, however, the
principles of experimental!sm are not a significant influence in spite
of the fact that he seems to have caught the essence of the experimental­
ist point of view from Dewey's Democracy and Education.
A more extended treatment of the implication of experimentalism
for the teaching of speech is found in the blaster's thesis of Howard 17.

*7Ibid.. p. 239.
18Ibid.. p. 24?.
^Ceorge A. Eopp, "Basic Principles of Speech Education," Teachers
College Record. 4l (19W), 397-^4.
^Ibid., p. 39921

Alfonso Rodriguez. The Philosophy of a Fundamentals Course in Speech.
Unpublished M.A. thesis. Wayne University, 1940, 120 numb, leaves.

8
Wilson.

9p

The discussion is directed toward teaching speech generally

rather than specifically toward public speaking at the college level.
Its emphAsis throughout is upon the educational point of view.

Various

aspects of it are substantially treated, for example, the relation of
the school to life, the concept of ex* erimentali sia, the place of lan­
guage and its relation to the sharing of experience.

He concludes that

speech education should be based upon a recognition of the social na­
ture and function of speech, and its purpose should be to improve be­
havior from a speech standpoint.

Making over language habits from

those having to do with rather general notions to such as deal with
more precise notions presents difficulties, but these can be solved.
As Dewey recommends, enlarging the student's vocabulary, mainng its
terms more precise, and forming the habit of consecutive discourse
are helpful procedures.
px

An article by Fleischman ^ takes the view that speech is more than
a tool in coramini cat ing ideas.

It is, even more than that, a means of

adjusting to a social environment and of making fine adjustments in
human relationships.

From the standpoint of thinking, speech, is Na

mastery of a technique of oral conznunication by means of which he
/the student^ can reach an understanding through the efficacy of 1an­
on
guage of what goes on in the minds of other people."
Also it is

?^Howard Woodrow Wilson. Some Implications of Dewey* s Philo sopjjr for
the Teaching of Spyech. Unpublished IT.A. thesis. The University of
Illinois, 19^40, e>9 numb, leaves.
?3

Earl Emery Fleischman, "Speech and Progressive education," The Quar­
terly Journal of Speech. XXVII,(l?4l), 511-517.

?UIbid., p. 51?

9
the "business of speech to develop techniques for testing ideas and
dealing with them so that they may be practically useful to the lndi25
vidual,"
and to "provide the student with the means for effective
participation in all of the situations in his life"
icatlon and speech are Involved.

in wj.ich connrun-

He emiliasizes:

Knowledge is not enough. It is a question of cultivating basic
response tendencies— habits, tendencies, preferences. Progressive
speech education involves the development of taste, the appreciation
of value8, the acquiring of skills in dealing with people and the
various human relations situations confronting the individual,
techniques through which one tries to apply Intelligence to the
problem of living successfully with others. ’
These objectives can be accomplished, he says, by requiring self-examination on the student's part and creating a desire in him to control
himself.

With that problem clear to him, he is ready to progress to

learning to use Intelligently a mature self-control by acquiring the
techniques of adequate adjustment.
Writing primarily perhaps for the pre-college educational levels,
pfl

but including also the college speech program, Barnes”
toward an experimental view of speech education.

tends strongly

He stresses four

fundamental processes involved in speech education:

"(1) adjustment

to the speaking situation, (2) symbolic formulation and expression
(thought and language), (3) phonation, and (4) articulation."*^

^ Loc. cit.
?bIbld.. p. 51^.
^ Loc. cit.
^Karry G-. Barnes, "EAsic Concepts of Speech Education," The Speech
Teacher. I (1952), 14-lh.
^Ibid., p. 15.

10
Teaching methods, he says, should Include recognition of the fact that
the speaker develops as a whole in response to a total situation,
grosser skills develop first, habits once developed are difficult to
retrain, and insist into specific goals is essential to learning.

The

experimentalist point of view is expressed in the opening paragraph
which states, in part, "The modern educator conceives of a school that
adjusts its program to the needs and abilities of its students in terms
of the solution of problematic situations with which they are, or may
■*0
be, confronted.
He concludes by saying:
...the speech education program...begins with the individual—
his ne*>ds, abilities, and his immediate environment. Through
systematic and progressive instruction it acquaints him with
standards and gives him insight and knowledge as a basis for
developing natural, normal habits of speaking. Thereby it aids
him to develop a general facility in meeting speaking situations
and stimulates him to acquire as much skill as his talent will
permit in order that when speaking situations confront him in
the future he may meet them normally and well.^l
Method.

The procedure in this study has been to construct,

primarily from the writings of Dewey, a sequential pattern of ideas
which forms the framework of this philosophy.

Chapters 1*0 through

Five are devoted to an exposition of experimentalism.

Of these four,

the first explains the concept of experience and the pattern of inquiry
which rests upon it.

The second treats various aspects of experimen­

talist educational psychology, especially the method of learning, the
concepts of intelligence, and knowledge and certain other related

^ ° Ibld. . p. lh.

3 1 Ibid.,

p. IQ

11
topics which are reasonably well delineated and therefore discernible.
The third is devoted to the theory of language and certain implications
aiming toward their significance for the educative process.

The fourth

presents the major phases of Dewey's theory of value with an emphasis
on its relation to educational theory.

These four chapters are based

on a wide selection of Dewey's writings and on those of several of his
"disciples" whose point of view also leans patently toward a reconstruc­
tionist theory of education.

An attempt is made to relate these various

works to one anether so that the interpretation which follows In those
chapters, necessarily the writer's own, may not suffer excessively
from too narrow an overview of the subject as a whole.
Chapter Six presents some reasonably defensible derivations^ from
the subject matter of chapters two through five, for the teaching of
public speaking.

The organization follows the sequence of topics as

developed in the four preceding chapters so that a consistent pattern
of organization may be apparent.

The suggestions for teaching procedure

primarily, and incidentally several for course content, are based in
the main on Dewey's Democracy and Education as it reflects the education­
al point of view of this philosophy.
The analysis of selected textbooks in public speaking seeks to
determine to what extent the implications of experimentalism as a
philosophy of education have affected the points of view of the authors
of those texts, or, to determine to what extent these texts agree with
or differ from this point of view.

The method of determining this de­

gree of correspondence has been to carefully examine these texts in the
light of both the basic propositions of the philosophy itself and its
implications as described in chapter six.

First an attempt is made to

12
'base comment on overt statements of the various textbook authors and,
secondly, to draw Inferences as to their overfall point of view*

In

the latter case such points of view were judged to be the points of
view only if they seemed to be the dominant trend of the discussion
either of the subject matter, of the direct advice given to the student,
or of the exercises at the ends of chapters*
32

The six texts in question

were selected on the basis of returns

of a questionnaire mailed by the author in October 1950 to one hundred
forty-four colleges and universities in the United States.
the questionnaire is included in an Appendix.

A copy of

Each of the state

universities and one state teachers college in each of thirty-sixstates was included; the remainder included private colleges and uni­
versities representing all areas and nearly all states of the nation*
'Tinety-two replies, constituting a return of sixty-three percent, were
received and Indicated thirty-two different texts were being used in
college public speaking classes*

The list of these also is included in

an Appendix.
Prom the total list of texts, six were chosen because they are
being used in a larger number of schools and by a larger number of
students than are the others.

Each of these books is being used in

32a . Craig Baird and Franklin H. Knower. general Speech: An Intro­
duction* New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 19^9* Donald
C. Bryant and Karl B. Wallace. Fundamentals of Public Speaking. New
York: D. Appleton-Century Company, Inc. 19^7* Lionel Crocker.
Public Speaking for College Students. Second Edition. New York:
American Book Company, 1950* Alan H. Monroe. Principles and Types
of Speech. Third Edition. New York: Scott, Foresman and Company,
I9U9. Lew Sarett and William Trufant Foster. Basic Principles of
Speech. Revised. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 19W . Lester
Thonssen and Howard Gilkinson. Basic Training in Speech. Boston:
D. C. Heath and Company, 19^9* Brief Edition*

13
four or more schools, one of them In nineteen, and each is being used
annually by upwards of fifteen hundred students.

On the basis of the

number of students using them, two others should have been included but
are not because the results of this survey indicate they are being used
in but one school each, namely, the particular school with which the
author(s) are associated.

The Brief Edition of Thonssen and Grilkinson's

Basic Training in Speech is analyzed here because eighty percent of
those replying and using this text indicated they were using this edition.
Summary. The purpose of this study is to discover some implica­
tions of the educational philosophy of experimentallam for the teaching
of public speaking in college and, secondly, to discover the extent to
which those implications are manifest in representative textbooks now
in extensive use in college public speaking classes.

Public speaking,

as used here designates speaking by one person before an audience.
Experimental!sm refers to the educational philosophy specifically and
primarily expounded by John Dewey.

The method includes, first, an an­

alysis of this philosophy, secondly, a development of the implications
of it for teaching public speaking at the college level, and third, a
critical examination of selected texts in the field.

The texts were

selected on the basis of an almost two-thirds return of lh4 questionnaires
sent to all of the state universities, to thirty-six state teachers
colleges and a select group of private colleges and universities in the
United States.

The literature 1b not extensive and reveals a thorough

interest on the part of some and only an interest in portions of the
philosophy on the parts of other writers.

CHAPTER II
the fatter :: of inquiry

It is well recognized that the now famous "steps In a complete act
of thought" are at the heart of the experimental method.

What is per­

haps less well recognized is the matrix in which this pattern operates.
Thus, the present chapter will first describe that matrix in order to
clarify the assumptions upon which the procedure in inquiry rests.

The

second major division will then take up this pattern directly.
The Concept of Experience
The experimentalist refuses to go outside of nature to establish
a frame of reference for his point of view.

He begins and ends his

case within nature so that his explanations of phenomena and events
need no substantiation from a supernatural or 'mental' side.
While his point of view is thus circumscribed, it does not imply
that he considers nature wholly favorable to man.

In fact, he considers

nature as offering man extensive opposition.
The conditions and
it8 risks as truly as
ance apainst perils.
of the precarious and

processes of nature generate uncertainty and
nature affords security and means of insur­
Nature is characterized by a constant mixture
the stable.^

^•John Dewey. The Quest for Certainty.
Company, 1929. p. 243.

New

York:

Minton, Balch &

15
...wo live In the kind of world in which success is contingent.
From the standpoint of human interests our world is a mixture of re­
sources and obstacles; it must be accepted for what it is, an af­
fair of affairs. In this plural world existence is precarious, and
human welfare depends upon our ability to comprehend these diverse
affairs and to learn how to use them on behalf of human interests.^
As related to this contingent world, man is not considered separate
and apart from it.

"Since man's life is a development— an event— in

that natural world, his organic structures are, for the most part, con­
gruent with it."^

He is an object within that world as much as natural

objects are within and a part of it, but within it he is not inactive
or passive.

Because nature is precarious and unstable, "Man lives in
If
a world in which he has to act." "Man is seen as a living organism, and
the most characteristic thing about life is behavior, activity."-*
Dewey adds that man is "instinct with activities that carry him on.
The experimentalist thus regards activity as being 'natural' for man
during all his waking moments.

Further, this activity is not restricted

to overt, observable activity.

On this point Dewey says:

In truth man acts anyway, he can't help acting. In every fundamen­
tal sense it is false that a man requires a motive to make him do
something. To a healthy man inaction is the greatest of woes. Any
one who observes children knows that while periods of rest are

^John L. Childs. Education and the Fhilosophy of Experimental1sm. New
York: The Century Company* 1931. P» l6h*
^Ibid., p. 59.
^John L. Childs. Education and Morals. New York:
Crofts, 1950# P» 158.

A^pleton-Century-

5John L. Childs. Education and the Philosophy of Exper1mental1sm.
Op. cit.. p. 70.
kjohn Dewey. Human Nature and Conduct. New York:
Inc., 1930, p. 2S9.

The Modern Library,

16
natural, laziness is an acquired vice— *or virtue. While a man is
awake he will do something, if only to build castles in the air.'
Since this world of which man is a part is a process-world, both
man and nature are continuously changing, but with an essential differ­
ence.

Neither a stick nor a stone has any goals to attain, any life

to maintain, or any preference as to what happens to it.

Man, however,

seeks to maintain his life, and he has preferences as to what happens
to him.

As opposed to the stick or stone, "the organism," as an active

agent, "continues its life by maintaining a life-sustaining equilibrium
with these surrounding forces."

g

And since the maintenance of this

equilibrium is uncertain because of the processes of continuous change
both in himself and in the surroundings, mam must continuously act, not
blindly or from whim, so as to bring about those adjustments either in
himself or in the surroundings which will help sustain his equilibrium.
These surroundings with which man interacts are called "environment."
"The environment, in other words, is whatever conditions interact with
personal needs, desires, purposes, and capacities to create the experi­
ence which 18 h a d . T h e term environment is not limited to the physical
objects in the surroundings; it Includes whatever may be experienced
whether physical, social, or cultural.

This point Dewey makes explicit

when he says:

7Ibid., pp. 118-119.
g

John.L. Childs. Education and the Philosophy of Experimentalism.
Op. cit., p. 72-

^John Dewey. Experience and Education. New York:
Company, 1938, p» ^+2.

The Macmillan

17
...the existential conditions which form the physical environment
enter at every point into the constitution of socio-cultural
phenomena. No individual person and no group does anything except
in interaction with physical conditions. ®
The environment in which human beings live, act and inquire, is
not simply physical. It is cultural as well. Problems which in­
duce inquiry grow out of the relations of fellow beings to one
another, and the organs for dealing with these relations are not
only the eye and ear, but the meanings which have developed in the
course of living, together with the ways of forming and transmit­
ting culture with all its constituents of tools, arts, institutions,
traditions and customary beliefs.^1
The environment consists then not only of physical objects in nature
itself but also of the relationships of persons with one another and
of the meanings that enter into the life activities and adjustments of
the organism.

These things in the environment need not always be

immediately and physically present.

For instance, the physicist who

is working out a problem mathematically has as his immediate environ­
ment his pencil and paper and whatever else may be in his study, but
his activities in the study will vary with the conditions going on
somewhere outside his study.

The student of the history of the Civil

Tar has as his environment the events of the Civil War period and the
records and documents and histories through which he establishes his
relationship with that era.

"Just because life signifies not bare pas­

sive existence (supposing that there is sucn a tning), but a way of
acting, environment or medium signifies what enters into this activity
as a sustaining or frustrating condition.

lOjohn Dewey. Logic. The Theory of Inquiry.
and Company, 193^, pp. h9l-*+9?.

New York:

Henry Kolt

11Ibid.. p. 42.
1P
■•■ John Dewey. Democracy and .Education.
Company, 191b, p. 14.

New York:

The Macmillan

As an active agent within an environment. Interacting with those
elements in his surroundings having significance in his life-bus taiz>>
ing struggle, man finds the source of his experiences.

For the exper­

imentalist defines 'experience' as this "active process of interaction
between the human organism and its natural and social environment."^3
That this experience is an important concept for the experimentalist
is evident in this statement:

"...the entire ideational life of man

is considered by the experimentalist literally to derive its substance
from the 'doings and undergoings' of what is called 'primary experience.
In other words, experience is the starting point upon which the point
of view of experimentalism is based.

It is this which forms the matrix

out of which the pattern of inquiry grows, ana it is within this frame­
work of experience that man's life is described, wherein his activity
occurb .
These experiences the experimentalist takes for Just what they
are.

Dewey says:

"All materials of experience are equally real; that

is, all are existential; each has a right to be dealt with in terms
of its own special characteristics and its own p r o b l e m s . H e r e ,
then, are the source of man's problems of adaptation and adjustment,
each problem being a separate problem requiring its own treatment,
each being as real or existential as any other.
He /the experimentalist/ asserts unqualifiedly that experience is
all we can have or can ever hope to have. It is 'the ultimate

13John L. Childs. Education and the Philosophy of Experimentalism.
Op. clt., p. 8.
•*~^Loc. cit.
15john Dewey.

The Quest for Certainty. Op. Cit.. p. 21b.

19
universe of discourse.' In more homely language, 'it is anything
that anyone can talk about.' As such it has the first word and
the last word. Experience 'set* our problems,' and it 'tests our
solutions.' Hence if human experience cannot give us an account
of realities, then man has no possibility of gaining such an
account.
In addition to experiences being individual and particular, they
are further characterized by immediate enjoyment and suffering.

So far

as our undergoing an event is coneerned, "things are poignant, tragic,
beautiful, humorous, settled, disturbed, comfortable, annoying, barren,
harsh, consoling, splendid, fearful; are such immediately and in their
own right and behalf.
In addressing himself specifically to the relationship between
experience and education, Dewey specifies two criteria which an exper­
ience must satisfy if it is to be educative.

The first is that it must

have continuity and the second, that it must have a certain quality.
In its simplest form the principle of continuity means "that every ex­
perience both takes up something from those which have gone before and
modifies in some way the quality of those which come a f t e r . I f we
look at this concept in terms of adjustment, it means that the organism
constantly acts wnile seeking to maintain its equilibrium by satisfying
its recurring and differentiated needs, each experience shading off in­
to a succeeding o n e . j n terms of habit it msans that the experience

^■kjohn l . Childs. Education and the Philosophy of Experimental ism.
Op. Cit.. pp. 50-51*
^■7john Dewey. Experience and Nature. Chicago: The Open Court Pub­
lishing Oompany, 1925. P* 9t>.
18John Dewey. Experience and Education. Op. cit.. p. 27•
l^John Dewey.

Logic. Op. cit.. p. 27.

20
an organism has modifies the habits it brought to that experience so
that the habit it brings to the next experience is again a modified
one.^0

For the classroom it means that actirlty must build upon pre­

vious experiences whose residue serves as background information which
may be revised as new knowledge is attained*

And from the standpoint

of inquiry and knowing it means that an Investigator in any given field
will seek out the experiences of his fellow workers for "confirmation
21

and correction of his results."

Unless and until other workers af­

firm hie conclusions under reinstated conditions, his conclusions re­
tain the status of hypotheses*
The second criterion of experience, that of its quality, applies
in one of two ways.

In the first instance the quality may be such as

i8 involved in over-indulging a child.

Over-indulgence may result in

an attitude such that the child will seek those future experiences which
will satisfy the detire to do as he pleases at any given time.

"It

sets up an attitude which operates as an automatic demand that persons
pp
and objects cater to his desires and caprices in the future."
The
result is a low level of performance and a hindrance to further growth
^nd development.

On the other hand, Dewey Bays,

...if an experience arouses curio* ity, strengthens initiative, and
sets up desires and purposes that are sufficiently intense to
carry a person over dead places in the future, continuity works in
a different way. Every experience is a moving force. Its value can
be judged only on the ground of what it moves toward and into. ^

20John Dewey.

Experience and Education.

^John Dewey.
2?John Dewey.

Logic. Op. cit.. p. *+91.

^Loc. cit*

Op. cit.. pp. 2o-27*

Experience and Education. Op. eft., p. 31*

21
For classroom activity such experiences must he chosen as will lead to
growth toward independence and maturity.

Continuity is present in every

type of experience, but it Is the latter kind which develops the indi­
vidual so that he will become a strong, contributing member of the social
group.
Through experience in a social environment man develops.

Develop­

ment is a life-long process having as its objective "the successful
integration of environmental forces around the individual as center,
and one of its outcomes is the integration of the Individual organism
itself
The experimentalist believes that it is within this framework of
experience, such experiences, that is, which are 'moving forsss,' that
the pattern of inquiry operates.

If this integration of the environ­

ment is to occur, it will not happen accidentally or through whim or
caprice.
The Pattern of Inquiry
By inquiry Dewey means "the controlled or directed transformation
of an Indeterminate situation into one that is determinate in its con­
stituent distinctions and relations so as to_ convert the elements of
the original situation into a unified whole.
Certain traits of experimental inquiry become apparent from the
definition.

One is that this process of converting an indeterminate

^Joseph Justman. Theories of Secondary Education in the United States.
Teachers College Contributions to Education, No. Slh. New York:
Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia. University, 19*40,
p. 197^5john Dewey.

Logic.

Op. eft., pp. 10h-105.

22

situation into a determinate one involves overt doing.
must occur; an event takes place.

Some activity

Another is that this activity is not

a haphazard juggling of the elements in the original situation but that
it is "controlled or directed" by an idea of what is desired.

The

third trait is that out of this activity a new situation, different from
the old and different from the individual parts of it, is brought
about.

In terms of the continuity of experience already discussed,

this result of inquiry constitutes the end, temporally speaking, of
the present inquiry and the beginning or a part of the facts of the
case in a subsequent one.
The process of inquiry, then, "is as accessible to objective study
27
as are...other modes of behavior."
It is an event, an experience,
and as such it is open to inspection by any observer competent to know
what he is looking for.
Within this process of inquiry there are two distinguishable
phases:

In the first objects are treated as events, i.e., everything

about them is ignored except their occurring.

The qualities of objects

in this phase serve merely as signs which aid in Identifying the nature
of the event that is happening.

Here the observer is interested in see­

ing what is happening rather than in merely observing objects or in
making an appraisal of the event or any constituent factor comprising
the event.

In the second phase the aim of the inquirer is to discover

the relationships between events which are occurring.

^ ° J o h n Dewey.

John

Dewey.

The Quest For Ce r t a i n t y .
Logic.

O p . c i t .. p. 102.

He seeks to

O p . C i t .. pp. 8b-87»

23
understand what they have to do with one another in the given situation
and what they may mean in terms of a possible terminus of the event or
what they may suggest as a course of action in resolving the situaticn
A corollary of the principle of the oontinuity of experience is
the continuity of the process of inquiry.

Of it Dewey says:

The process of inquiry reflects and embodies the experiential
continuum which is established by both biological and cultural con­
ditions. Every special inquiry is...a process of progressive and
cumulative re-organization of antecedent conditions. There is no
such thing as an instantaneous inquiry; and there is, in conse­
quence, no such thing as a judgment (the conclusion of inquiry)
which i8 isolated from what goes on before and comes after.^
Later this point will be made more explicit; suffice it here to say
that the residue of previous Inquiries and experiences plays an im­
portant role in present inquiry, and the results of present inquiry
will be used, if they are warrantable, in subsequent inquiry.

Another

aspect of this same idea is that the outcomes of any particular in­
quiry, no matter how settled the issue may seem to be at the moment,
may be subject to further inquiry at any time in the future.

Know­

ledge, then, has a certain tentativeness about it so that any item
regarded as knowledge today may be challenged tomorrow and be re­
opened for further investigation.^®
A further characteristic of inquiry is that it is socially and
culturally determined.

Since man lives in association with other men,

and since he communicates with them by means of language, he lives in

2®>John Dewey.

The Quest for Certainty. Op. cit., p. 12o.

29john Dewey.

Logic. Op. cit.. p. 2d-b.

3°Ibid., p. 8f.

24

a social environment whose culture has been transmitted to him.

In

this environment the problems for inquiry arise.
...every Inquiry grows out of a background of culture and takes
effect in greater or less modification of the conditions out of
which it arises. Merely physical contacts with physical surround­
ings occur. But in every interaction that involves intelligent
direction, the physical environment is part of a more inclusive
social or cultural environment.31
The Indeterminate Situation.

In order to understand the present

topic it is necessary to clarify shat the experimentalist means by the
term "situation."

Since the environment as experienced is never an iso­

lated, single object or event, but always a part or phase of a given
environment in process, the term "situation” refers to this environing
process which is experienced.

An experienced object may stand out in

a given environment but if and when it does stand out, it does so
against a background of other objects or events making up that total
situation.

On the other hand, the particularity of one object as a

crucial one in a complex of objects may occur at some given point in
the process of inquiry or observation.
There is always a field in which observation of this or that obJect or event occurs. Observation of the latter is made for the
sake of finding out what that field is with reference to some
active adaptive response to be made in carrying forward a course
of behavior.3
An object or event may thus be discriminately viewed for the purpose
of clarifying a given situation, and "it is rightly (validly) perceived
if and when it acts as clew and guide in use-enjoyment."33

31Ibid., p. 20.
32Ibid., p. o7.
33ibid.. p. 68.

25
When then the experimentalist speaks of the indeterminate situa­
tion, he means that the situation is indeterminate, not the inquirer.
The latter is doubtful because the situation is doubtful.3^

This fact

signifies that the overt activity that must be performed must be per­
formed upon the situation rather than upon the inquirer, for with a
clarifying of the situation the confusion and uncertainty in the in­
quirer will also be alleviated.
The Indeterminate situation, then, is one that is questionable.
It is "uncertain, unsettled, disturbed."35

The meaning of the situa­

tion is unclear, confused, or ambiguous and so suggests questions to
the observer.

But these questions which the observer or inquirer asks

are not questions about the over-all situation.

Each such indetermin­

ate situation has its own distinctive doubtfulness which makes it the
exact situation it is and so evokes a particular inquiry rather than
just inquiry in general.

Were this not the case, the method of inquiry

would be immaterial- one method would be Just as effective as any other.
Or, if a situation lacks uniqueness as to its indeterminateness, then
panic and anarchy reign, and responses to it are wild and blind activi ty.
In what, then, does this indeterminateness consist?

Dewey provides

an explicit answer when he says:
Every such interaction is a temporal process, not a momentary
cross-sectional occurrence. The situation in which it occurs la
indeterminate, therefore, with respect to its issue. If we call

3^Ibid.. pp. 105-106.
35l o c . cit.

26
confused, when It is meant that its outcome cannot be antici­
pated. It is called obscure when its course of movement permits
of final consequences that cannot be dearly be made out. It is
called conflicting when it tends to evoke discordant responses.
Even were existential conditions unqualifiedly determinate in and
of themselves, they are indeterminate in significance: that is,
in what,they import and portend in their interaction with the or­
gan! sm.'
Specifically, the problem is to ascertain what kind of response
the organism shall make to the existential situation.

It is axiomatic

that different responses to such a problematic situation will produce
different results.

The fact that the appropriate response is in doubt

and that potential consequences are foreseen emphasizes the flexibility
of the situation and the need for maintaining an attitude of tentative­
ness about each such situation.

An immediate overt response to a prob­

lematic situation short-circuits the process of inquiry, does away with
the necessity and opportunity for it.

In dangerous situations which

must be handled immediately it is necessary to respond quickly, but 1 t
is common knowledge that in restrospect there frequently comes a re­
alization of how much better another response would have been.
In the world of practical activity man deals with particularized
problematic situations constantly.

To the extent that they are individ­

ual, and as such have never occurred exactly in the same way before,
there can be no certainty that responses to one situation will satisfy
another, even if almost identical; hence absolute certainty about a
course of action is not possible.^

This uncertainty man has in every­

day affairs also relates to the thought of an action he may be about to
take.

3^ibid.. pp. 10b-107.
^John Dewey.

The Quest for Certainty. Op. cit.. p. bf.

27

Objects that are experienced in the process of Interaction with
the environment hare a double status.

As Individual objects they are

experienced as complete In themselves and so may lead to either Joy or
suffering.

On the other hand, they are also part and parcel of a con­

tinuity of interaction in which they have the role of potential means
toward later experiences.

"Immediately and directly they are just what

they are; but as transitions to and possibilities of later experiences
they are uncertain. "3®

Herein lies the problem from this standpoint:

the role of the object in the continuity of interactions man has with
the environment, that is, its unique role in each individual situation,
must be determined and its meaning established.
Instituting a Problem. The first step, according to Dewey, is to
recognize a situation to be problematic. 39

The importance of this first

step cannot be over-emphasized, for
To mistake the problem involved is to cause subsequent inquiry to
be irrelevant or to go astray. Without a problem, there is blind
groping in the dark. The way in which the problem is conceived
decides what specific suggestions are entertained and which are
dismissed; what data are selected and which are rejected; it is
the criterion for relevancy and irrelevancy of hypotheses and con­
ceptual structures. On the other hand, to set up a problem that
does not grow out of an actual situation is to start on a course
of dead work, nonetheless dead because the work is 'busy work.
The fact that genuine problems are set by existing problematic situations
is also true of social problems, social as opposed to more technical

38Ibld.. p. 23b.
39john Dewey.

Logic. Op. cit.. p. 107*

40lold.. p. 108.

28
and scientific.
problems at all.

Problems arising from any other source are not ralid
It is pertinent to observe here that social conflict

and uncertainty and confusion exist prior to the establishment of prob­
lems for inquiry.

"The latter are intellectualisationa in Inquiry of

these 'practical' troubles and difficulties.
In inquiry it is important to ask how the particular aspects of the
problem situation can be determined.

"This question can be answered

only...by operations of observation, collection of data and of inference,
which are directed by ideas whose material is itself examined through
operations of ideational comparison and organization."

Fact-finding

is necessary to establish the precise nature of the problem and to pro­
vide the data necessary for testing the hypotheses entertained during
the earlier stages of the inquiry.
Now facts as facts have no significance in this connection.

But

facts as evidence of something else not existentially present have
tremendous significance.

In Inquiry it is necessary to observe these

facts because of their evidential value, that is, because of their func­
tion as signs "of the existence of something else, this something being
43
at the time Inferred rather than observed."
These observed facts have a dual role as bases for inferences.
Tr.ey may operate either as obstacles or as resources in instituting
specific operations which are intended to solve the problem.

41Ibid.. pp. 493-499.
^Ibld., p. lbl.
^Ibid., p. 5?.

If they

29

operate as obstacles, as hindrances so as to restrain the progress of
a given action toward Its objective, their influence must be diminished*
If they operate as resources, they must be released in an ordered se­
quence so that their full force may help the course of action on its
way

toward establishino’ the resolution of the diffioolty.
But how are the 'facts of the case' discovereoT

hji

It was stated

earlier that there are two phases of inquiry, the first involving obser­
vation of whatever objects or events are concerned, the second invol­
ving the establishment of the relationships between those objects or
events.

The first means that the objects comprising the objective sit­

uation are observed through the sanses and are called "sense data."

As

such, however, they supply merely the "material for inquiry: a problema­
tic material. "**5

sense data they are material for knowing, they are

not known, according to the experimentalist.

This process of observa­

tion may yield a massive varjety of facts which, until their relation­
ships have been determined, remain a mass of unassembled and unordered
facts.

To guide the search for facts it is helpful "when some possible

meaning is used as a guide in exploring facts, especially in instituting
a hunt for some fact that would conclusively point to one explanation
and exclude, all others."^4

Such a guided search aids in selecting from

the totality of facts those which are most likely to throw a more direct
light upon the nature of the trouble.

Through this process of observa­

tion the inquirer can establish, tentatively, what are the facts in a

44 Ibid..,

pp. 499-500.

^ J o h n Dewey.

The Quest for Certainty.

O p . cit.. p. 177*

4bJ o h n Dewey.

How We Think.

D. C. Heath and Company, 1933,

p. 42.

New York:

30

given situation, which are the more Important and which have the more
obstructive or deflective force.

The residue of 9uch observation can
47
then be formulated in "primitive existential propositions,"
that is,

elementary statements about the constituent parts of the situation.
The complexity of some situations makes handling them difficult.
Ffficiency and economy then demand that some simplification be effected.
Artlficlal simpllfication or abstraction is a necessary .ire-condi­
tion of securing ability to deal with affairs wr.ich are complex,
in which there are many more variables and where strict isolation
destroys the special characteristics of the subject-matter. ^
Now the experimentalist also uses data in a sense other than as a
technical term for observed facts, for sense data.

This other meaning

signifies that these noted facts in the sense of data, in their interrelation8v
...have a special function in control of the subject-matter of in­
quiry. It embodies a fixation of the problem in a way which indi­
cates a possible solution. It also helps to provide evidence whi<h
tests the solution that is nypothetically entertained. °
Facts become data when they are selected as a part of the special con­
figuration of objects and events which esiecially constitute the prob­
lematic situation.

Not all facts are data but all have that potenti­

ality.
At a point in the process of inquiry it may happen that certain
facts constituting the unsettled situation will evoke opposing waysof
responding to them, or the various facts may point in opposite direc­
tions.

The process of selecting the positive facts and eliminating the

U^John Dewey.

The Quest for Certainty. Op. cit.. p. 179*

UOJ
J o h n Dewey.

Logic.

4 9 I b i d . , p. 124.

O p . c i t .. p. 107.

31
negative ones, accomplished by means of comparison, may gain direction,
through resort to previous exjeriences which may suggest how the se­
lection may best be made.^®

Knowledge gained from solving previous end

similar problems may exercise a vital guidance over subsequent inquixy.
The evidential nature of available data is formulated in affirmative
and negative propositions which function as means of redefining and re­
evaluating the situation.

To clarify their function a rather complete

statement seems indispensable.
Affirmative propositions represent the agreement of different sub­
ject-nat ters in their evidential capacity; they agree in that they
support or are taken to support one another cumulatively in point­
ing the same direction, in spite of the fact that existentially
the subject-matters involved occur at different times and places.
Negative propositions, on the other hand, represent subject-:aatters to be eliminated because of their irrelevancy or indifference
to the evidential function of material in solution of a given prob­
lem. !J11irately, the fact that certain facts or ideas are ex­
cluded means that the original indeterminate situation can be trans­
formed or requalifled into a determinate one only through exist­
ential experimental operative elimination of some of its constit­
uents; affirmation of certain data or ideas means that they are
operatively selected to reinforce one another in institution of a
unified si taxation. '
This process of selection of facts in the case represents the second
phase in inquiry, the discovery of the meaning and relationships of the
data in a given situation.
A further aspect of this process of understanding and formulating
the relations between facts is that of ordering them on the basis of
some principle operative in the specific inquiry.

Dewey illustrates

t: is by alluding to a mechanic who, he says, understands the several
parts of a machine "when and only when he knows how the parts work to­
gether; it is the way in which they work together that provides the

5°Ibid., pp. 185-lSb.
51Ibid., p. 183-

32
principle of order upon and toy which they are related to one another*"^2
Thia order in an intelligently directed inquiry is that of means-toThe materials at hand are used in a carefully selected

consequences.^

and arranged sequence so that the special interactions may operate to
bring about an intended result.

The more specific the intended result

is* the more precisely those materials must toe selected and ordered if
that specific result and no other is to toe realized.

Of course* the

materials then serve the function of tools* and the more complex the sit­
uation the more care must toe exercised if the operation is to toe econom­
ically performed*
Determining the Solution. Once the data have been selected and
arranged in what appears to toe the most meaningful order* the next ques­
tion is how to determine which experimental operation is to toe performed*
The experimentalist toelleves that when the organism is dealing in­
telligently with the perceptual materials that he has established in
the earlier steps in inquiry there will arise notions as to what operation(%) will bring about a settled situation.

"liven data which locate

the nature of the problem* there is evoked a thought of an operation
which if put into execution may eventuate in a situation in which the
trouble or doubt which evoked inquiry will toe resolved."

5 I4.

These thoughts

of operations he calls suggestion. The point at which suggestions arise
seems to toe the point— if indeed it can toe located temporally— at which

5-Ibld.. p. 511.
55Ibid., p. 335.
5**John Dewey.

The Quest for Certainty. Op. cit., p. 123*

the process of inquiry passes from the manipulation of perceptual to
conceptual materials.

From this point on, then, the experimenter is

dealing not so much with the objects as objects as with the meanings and
relationships of those objects in a particular set of circumstances.
In explaining suggestion Dewey recurs to the theme of the inter-relatedness of everything, the concept that nothing exists in isolation.

55

In the process of the organism's Interaction with the environment it is
"that portion of his present experience which is like that of prior ex­
perience which will call up or surest some tLing or quality connected
with it which was present in the total previous experience; that thing
or quality in turn may suggest something connected with itself; it not
only may do so, but it will do so unless some new object of perception
starts smother train of suggestions g o i n g56
. T h e inquirer is thus
the recipient of suggestions Inasmuch as they are something that happen
to him, not something which he manufactures or conjures up; "...sug57
gestions Just spring up, flash upon us, occur to us."-"

They may come

slowly or with difficulty, a few at a time or almost in a flood.

Which

suggestions will occur is dependent upon the experiences of the person
and these experiences, of course, are determined by the cultural en­
vironment in which the person lives.

And which suggestions will occur

is secondly dependent upon "the person's own preferences, desires, in58
terests, or even his immediate state of passion."

55john Dewey.

How We Think.

5°John Dewey,

How We Think. Op. cit.. p. hi.

^John

Logic.

Dewey.

Op. cit.. p. 4-1.

O p . eft.,

p.

110.

3^

Usually suggestions, when they first occur, are vague unless the
subject matter at hand. Is highly familiar.

Ifhen, however, the sugges­

tion "is examined with reference to its functional fitness; its capac­
ity as a means of resolving the given s i t u a t i o n . i t becomes an idea.
The sug :estion attains the status of an idea when it is put to use in
the business of transforming the problematic situation into a resolved
one.

Thus, it follows that all ideas originate in suggestion but not

every suggestion becomes an idea.

Ideas have genuineness only when

they are used as tools in the problemsolving process.

Ideas are ideas

by virtue of their operational character in leading to appropriate in­
ferences and judgment in settling an undecided issue.
Because suggestions and ideas deal with something not actually pre­
sent, they must be embodied in symbols.

In fact, this is so necessary

that Dewey states, "Without some kind of symbol no idea...,"

because

na meaning that is completely disembodied can not be entertained or
used."

Ideas are meanings, and since meanings are in themselves not

tangible things, they must be attached to something physical, and what
we now regard as the conventional carrier of meanings is language, lan­
guage as representing something not immediately present, language as a
symbol.

Ideas may, then, be characterized as linguistic formulations

of proposed solutions.

They are a vehicle for manipulating the concept­

ual materials growing out of the process of establishing the facts of
the case.

-^John Dewey.
b0Loc. cit.

Logic.

O p . cit.. p. 110.

35

In logical fact, perceptual and conceptual materials are instituted
in functional correlAtivity with each other, in such a manner that
the former locates and describes the problem while the latter represents a possible method of solution. Both are determinations in and
by inquiry of the original problematic situation whose pervasive
ouality controls their institution and their contents. ...As dis­
tinctions they represent logical divisions of labor.°l
In terms of the process of moving from the problem toward a solution
ideas have a dual function:
come and

as

they are an anticipation of a possible out­

such describe an eventual state of affairs; they prescribe

an operation or act which is to be performed.

Apparently this duality

of function has not been too clear, for Dewey has found it necessary to
reply to a critical conment in this waya
An anticipation of the eventual issue is an idea; such anticipewtion of a possible outcome defines being an idea; and...such antici­
pations are necessary factors in effecting the existential trans­
formation which it is the business of inquiry to accomplish....
But it is equally a part of my theory that the idea, or anticipation
of possible outcome, must, in order to satisfy the requirements of
controlled inquiry, be such as to indicate an operation to be eiistentlally performed, or is a means (called procedural) of effect*
ing the existential transformation without which & problematic
situation cannot be resolved. ...the validity of the idea, as an
anticipation of the eventual resolved existential situation, is
tested by the contribution which performance of the operation prescribed_by it makes to the institution of the final determinate
phase.

IdeAs, in Dewey's writings, seem to be tantamount to hypotheses.
Perhaps the distinction is one of degree rather than one of kind; per­
haps he would consider an hypothesis a more "definite supposition"0-^
than an idea although in the sentence in which this phrase occurs the

^ Ibid.. pT 111.
k^.Tohn Dewey. "Inquiry and Indeterminnteness of Situations."
Journal of Philosophy. 39 (May 21, 19^2), p. 293*
k^ J o h n Dewey.

H o w We T h i n k .

O p . c i t . . p. 110.

The

36
term "idea" is omitted in that he says "...the suggestion becomes a
definite supposition, or, stated more technically, a hypothesis."

In

another instance he speaks of hypotheses in the way he describes ideas:
"The process of innuiry aa_ inquiry consists...of treating the general
propositions that are formulations of ways of action as hypotheses-— a
mode of treatment that is equivalent to treating the formulated modes
of action as possible, instead of required or necessary."^5

When it

is necessary, then, to refer to hypotheses, we shall treat them as
identical with ideas, bearing in mind that they may have a higher de­
gree of specificity.
In order to select and appraise both the factual and the conceptual
material in a given lnaulry, it is necessary to have an idea of an end
to be attained.

Without such an end-in-view, the inquirer lacics a guide

in his observations and any one fact might be as acceptable as any
other.

kK

In this sense an hypothesis or an end-in-vi ew becomes a means

of control of the whole procedure in inquiry.

It gives direction both

in discovering the facts in a case and in formulating and selecting
the ideas about possible modes of response.

An important consideration

is that such hypotheses be held tentatively because within the course
of working out the solution to the problem sufficient changes may oc­
cur so as to eliminate one or more procedures and because continued
investigation may show an original hypothesis to be erroneous.

oULoc. cit.
°^John Dewey.

Logic. Op. cit.. p. ?oo.

otoIbid., p. 497.

37
Discourse In Inquiry,

Were one to accept and immediately act upon

an idea as it occurs, inquiry would "by that very fact he brought to an
end.

Should the conclusion happen to he valid, it would he accidental

in the sense of having little if any realized ground to substantiate
it.

To avoid this haphasard and irresponsible reaction to an idea, an

examination of the meanings as meanings is necessary.

Developing the

meanings and establishing relationships between them through a symbolic
process the experimentalist calls reasoning,

t>7

Thl8 examination consists in noting what the meaning in question
implies in relation to other meanings in the system of which it
is a member, the formulated relation constituting a proposition.
If such and such a relation of meanings is accepted, then we are
committed to such and such other relations of meanings because of
their membership in the same system. Through a series of inter­
mediate meanings, a meaning is finally reached which is more closely
relevant to the problem in hand than the originally suggested idea.
It indicates,operations which can be performed to test its appli­
cability. ...
Another name frequently employed to designate this same process is
"deliberation."

Others are:

"argument, or ratiocination:

Discourse. ■69

Just how extensive this reasoning stage will be in a given case
is dependent upon the facility with which the inquirer habitually
handles ideas, the extent of his knowledge about previous and similar
situations, which is again dependent upon the kind of culture in which
he is operating and upon the available means of communieating Know­
le d g e . ^

The person who customarily delays action until he CAn look

a7Ibid.. p. 111.
°*Loc. cit.
°9 Ibld., p. ?lh.
7®John Dewey.

How We Think.

O p . cit.. pp. 111-112.

3B
at an idea from all angles both tm.9 to its factual background and as to
its implications in practice w i l l

make a more thoroughgoing analysis

than will one who is more i m p e t u o u s and unaccustomed to this procedure.
On the other hand, he who has life-tie background in the given subjectmatter will see fewer of these iru.plications in that he has fewer sources
of suggestion in his experience a n d will thersflsre tend to cut short the
reasoning stage and proceed to a c t
previous knowledge as a means of

more quickly; he is unable to use

suggesting other ideas or of elabor­

ating ideas as they are suggested-

A new object, let us smy, from an­

other culture will call up a v a r i e t y of ideas, including possibly valid
ones, but in the absence of g u i d a n c e from previous experience many of
these ideas are likely to be w i l d
to give them merit.

guesses and lack sufficient ground

And if few ox* primitive cormunication facilities

are available, either sources of

^Knowledge are cut off or the language

itself is unable to convey adequck-fee and precise meanings for lack of
sufficient vocabulary.

Sometimes this reasoning s t a g e may be long and Intricate.

Never­

theless, it is necessary, more necessary for the careful investigator
and in situations whose outcome i. s expected to be of great moment, be­
cause its object is "to obtain tlxat meaning or conceptual structure
which is best adapted to instigafe® and direct just those operationeof
observation that will secure as fekieir consequence just those existen­
tial facts that are needed to s o l v e tne problem in hand."^
Lest it be suspected that delibe r a t i o n is a simple, elementary
process, it is enough to observe liere that many possibilities of action

?ljohn Dewey.

Logic. Op. cit.. p . 133»

39
present themselves In extended discourse.

Of this matter Dewey com­

ments in various ways:
Whenever there is genuine deliberation, there are alternatives
at almost every step of the way. There is something to be said or
tentatively affirmed at each step on both sides of the questions
that come up.
Sach state of facts presented in a proposition suggests its own
alternative course of action, and if there is genuine inquiry the
suggestion has to be formulated.72
As soon as a meaning is treated as a meaning, it becomes a
member of a system of meanings. ... This development constitutes
reasoning or rational discourse— where discourse is a matter of
sequential Implications rather than comraunication of something
already possessed.

The statements that embody these meanings are of two kinos, both
called propositions:

those which deal with the factual materials and

those which deal with the alternative courses of action.
mer we have dealt earlier in this chapter.

With the for­

Here it is necessary to

dwell on those which deal witn conceptual matters.
These propositions or statements predicate the possible solutions
to the problem in hand and at the same time prescribe the operations
wnich are to be performed in resolving the difficulty.

74

Thvoriginate

in the situation under scrutiny as there is reference to the eventual
issue from that situation.

Hence, in and of themselves they are not

"self-determined, self-sufficient, or valid. ...their validity depends
upon their consequences which ensue from acting upon them--as far as
these consequences ensue from the operations the propositions dictate

<T*rbid~.. p. Ib3.
73i b l d .. p. 301.

7^Ibid.. p. 288.

40
and are not accidental accretions."^

Their function is instrumental

and intermediate, for it is through their implementation and use as
means that the inquirer is ahle to work forward to a solution.
The form of these propositions is that of an if-then relationship.
If a certain course of action is adopted, then certain results can be
anticipated.

In other words, the experiment enters in at this point.

A proposition is held tentatively as a premise of a conclusion, that

if a selected set of data are placed in a certain pattern of interac­
tion, it is expected that a given result will ensue,

"...experiments

that institute the required set of related traits are dependent upon
hypotheses formulated in if-then propositions."'°
The organisation of facts and propositions is fluid and is deter­
mined by the interactions they have with one another.

When there is ex­

tensive inquiry into a given problematic situation, there are numerous
intervening interactions, a serial process Dewey describes aptly:
Some observed facts point to an idea that stands for a possible
solution. This idea evokes more observations. Some of the newly
observed facts link up with those previously observed and are such
as to rule out other observed things with respect to their eviden­
tial function. The new order of facts suggests a modified idea
(or hypothesis) which occasions new observations whose result
again determines a new order of facts, and so on until the exist­
ing order is both unified and complete. In the course of this
serial process, the ideas that represent possible solutions are
tested or ’proved.*77
It is possible through this process to adopt finally a proposition that
is far different from the one originally thought to be adequate.

^ Ibid., p. lb**.
7bI M d . , p. 1*53.
77Ibld.. pp. 113-llb-.

These

41
propositions are arranged in terms of their intermediate function in
the sequential manipulation of the environment, material or ideational.
Experiment in Inquiry. Once the propositions have been formulated
and there is a well-established hypothesis about what special arrange­
ments and conditions are necessary to bring the inquiry to fruition,
the next phase of inquiry is testing by overt action of that hypothesis
in order to verify it.

This is the directly experimental phase of

inquiry*
In the preceding pages the term "operation" has frequently been
used as a designation for manipulation of factual material and of the
ideational content of propositions.

Dewey clarifies the word "operation"

when he elaborates in the Logic;
Operations...fall into two general types. There are operations
that are performed upon and with existential material— as in ex^>
perlmental observation. There are operations performed with and
upon symbols. But even in the latter case, •operation' is to be
taken in as literal a sense as possible. There are operations
like hunting for a lost coin or measuring land, and there are
operations like drawing up a balance-sheet. The former is per­
formed upon existential conditions; the latter upon symbols. But
the symbols in the latter case stand for possible final existen­
tial conditions while the conclusion, when it is stated in
symbols, is a pre-condition of further operations that deal with
existences. Moreover, the operations involved in making a bal­
ance-sheet for a bank or any other business involve physical ac­
tivities. The so-called 'ipentaV element in operations of both
these kinds has to be defined in terms of existential conditions
and consequences, not vice-versa.7&
In the ideational phase the operations are of the symbolic type, i.e.,
whatever manipulations are performed are done in a symbolic manner.
Yet Dewey would also call this acting even though it would seem to be
done without acting.

7 8 I b i d . . p.

15.

By means of symbols, whether gestures, words or more elaborate
constructions, we act without acting* That is, we perform experi­
ments by means of symbols which have restilts which are themselves
........ not therefore commit us to actual
" '" *
To stop the process of* inquiry short of overt experimentation is
to manipulate the symbols only and to leave the actual existential
conditions as they were.

Failure to modify the existential conditions

of a problematic situation results in a problematic situation still.
Hence experiment is necessary to complete the process as well as to
test the validity of the hypotheses that were entertained.
may be described in this way:

Experiment

"... conditions are deliberately arranged

in accord with the requirements of an idea or hypothesis to see whether
the results theoretically indicated by the idea actually occur."
Its object is 11the construetion. by regular steps taken on the basis
of a plan thought out in advance, of a typical, crucial case, a case
formed with express reference to throwing light on the difficulty in
question." 81
If the hypothesis is justified in terms of the results of the ex­
periment, i.e., if there is agreement between the anticipated and actual
ized results, there being no reason to suppose that the same results
could not be attained in another way, the residue is strong enough to
be called a conclusion.
for a failure may yet

If the results do not agree, all is not lost,
be very instructive in that the very process

which resulted in failure may suggest other ways of responding to the

7 9 Ibid..

p. 15>1.

^John Dewey.
31Ibid. ,

How TTe Think.

pp. 175-17b.

Op. clt.. p. 114

43

same situation*

It may help further to define the existing problem,

open up new problems, or suggest ways of modifying the hypothesis so
that a different result can occur.
The Consequences of Inquiry» The objective of inquiry, already
frequently mentioned, is "institution of a unified resolved situa­
tion. "^3

To the extent that this result is achieved it may be said that

the end-in-view as well as the terminating end have been accomplished*
The problem has been solved and so far as the organism in interaction
with that problematic environment is concerned, its equilibrium has
been restored.

Because the inquirer may have uppermost in his mind tbs

verification of his hypothesis, he may regard it as the most important
result.

But in the process of establishing a unified situation new

objects with new features are brought to light, and "As far as the ob­
jective course of knowledge is concerned, this result is the important
one; in comparison with it the verification of a hypothesis is secondary
84
and incidental."
While earlier the term “conclusion" was used to designate the re­
sults of successful inquiry, in his Logic Dewey says he prefers another
term, viz., "warranted assertibility."^

Ke prefers the latter because

of certain ambiguities connected with the terms "belief" and “knowledge."
In terms of the continuity of inquiry, specifically that aspect of

ftZlbld.. p. llUf~.
®3john Dewey. Logic. Op. clt., p. 39^»
^.Tohn Dewey. The Quest for Certainty. Op. cit., p. 190.
®5john Dewey. Logic. Op. cit.. p. 7»
^^Loc. cit.

44

continuity which permits the re-testing of the results of previous ex­
periments, those results have an aspect of tentativeness but are, until
such retesting, "warrantably assertible.”

In Dewey's words:

"Then knowledge is taken as a general abstract term related to in­
quiry in the abstract, it means 'warranted assertibility.' The use
of a term that designates a potentiality rather than an actuality
involves recognition that all special conclusions of special in­
quiries are parts of an enterprise that is continually renewed,
or is a going concern. '
Again in the light of the principle of continuity of inquiry, the
aa
results of a series of related inquiries are cumulative.
Taken to­
gether, the results of such a series taken as knowledge constitute the
sum total of what is presently known about that particular subject.
In terms of their degree of availability these results become resources
for further inquiry as they are known to other inquirers.

These results

then have a double status in that they per se are objectively real and
are matters of knowledge and in that they may become instrumental as
facts in a later inquiry and as such are a source of suggestions to
that inquiry.

Beyond having value as the residue of a given problem

they have worth only in so far as use is made of them in further in­
quiry. 89
Summary.

In its relation to the pattern of lile-activity the gen­

eral features of the pattern of inquiry may be summarized with these
statements:

*7Ibid... P- 9.
88Ibid.. p. 470
89j ohn Dewey.

The Quest for Certainty. Op. cit.. p. 150.

45

Environmental conditions and energies are inherent in inquiry
as a special mode of organic behavior.
The structure and course of life-behavior have a definite pat­
tern, spatial and temporal. (From the problematic to the resolved )
There is no inquiry that does not involve the making of some
change in environing conditions.
The pattern is serial or sequential.
The serially connected processes and operations by means of
which a consunmatory close is brought into being are, by descrip­
tion, intermediate and instrumental.
The basic importance of this serial relation in logic is rooted
in the conditions of life itself. Modification of both organic and
environmental energies is involved in life-activity. This organic
fact foreshadows learning and discovery, with the consequent out­
growth of new needs and new problematic situations. Inquiry, in
settling the disturbed relation of organism-environment.. .does not
merely remove doubt by recurrence to a prior adaptive integration.
It institutes new environing conditions that occasion new problems.
TThat the organism learns during this process produces new powers
that make new demands upon the environment. In short, as special
problems are resolved, new ones tend to emerge.^

9®John Dewey.

Logic. O p . cit.. p. 33 passim.

CHAPTER III

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY IN EXPERIMENTAL ISM
The preceding chapter outlined the pattern or method of inquiry
as

the basis in the system of the philosophy of experimentalists.

The

present chapter will present the derivations from that pattern as they
apply to the process of education.

The first part will indicate the

relationship between life, conceived as growth, and education.

The

second will describe the experimentalist conception of the method of
learning and its resultant knowledge.

It will also include other as­

pects of educational psychology based on rather explicit statements of
Dewey and several of his interpreters.

Finally, the relationship of

this point of view to that of other psychological theories will be
indicated.
Life and Education.

As already pointed out, man is an active being

in continuous interaction with his environment.

This interaction is con­

sidered a two-way process in that both the human organism and the envi­
ronment have an effect upon one another.

The human being, not being

inanimate and unconcerned about its future, turns its energy in such a
way as to help preserve its own future existence.

Hence, life is de­

fined as "a self-renewing process through action upon the environment."^
It is a continuous process of adaptation and self-renewal.

^■John Dewey. Democracy and Education,
Company, l^lb, p. 2.

hew York:

As long as

The Macmillan

^7
the organism is expending its energy and is getting a return in terms
of self-preservation from t'nat expenditure, it is growing.

More broadly,

then, this growth is seen as an individual-social process by which soci­
ety transmits the benefit of its accumulated experience to the neophyte
and by which the individual organism re-adapts its adjustments to the
demands of the situation.

Growth "is a process that is accomplished

through a continuous 'reconstruction of experience' that begets new
meanings and yields further power control over subsequent experience."

2

But man is not and cannot be an isolationist in this life-process.
"Man...is a social a n i m a l . A s a social being he lives and experiences
and interacts not only with the physical environment but also with the
social arrangements peculiar to his locale.

Life in the broader sense

must include the "customs, institutions, beliefs, victories and defeats,
recreations and occupation"** of his social group, for it is also within
this framework that his experiences will occur.

Furthermore, the terra

"experience" is also used in this broader sense.

In adapting to this

environment and in adapting the environment to maintaining its lifeprocess the infant will of necessity be initiated into the "interests,
purposes, information, skill, and practices of the mature members:

other-

wise the group will cease its characteristic life."-'

^John L. Childs. Education and the Philosophy of Experimentalism. New
York: The Century Company, 1931* P» 97 •
^John Dewey. Logic. The Theory of Inquiry. New York:
Company, 1938, p*
**John D^wey.
5Ibid.. p. 3 .

Democracy and Education. Op., cit., p. ?.

Henry Holt and

U&
This process of initiating the young into the ways of the mature is
called 'education*.

"Education, in its broadest sense, is the means of

this social continuity of life."^
spans the gap."^
mature adult.

"Education, and education alone,

It is the process by which the infant develops into a

In other words, the experimentalist makes a virtual iden­

tification between life, growth, and education.

Dewey summarizes it

this ways
...life is development, and that developing, growing, is life. Trans­
lated into its educational equivalents, this means (i) that the edu­
cational process has no end beyond itself; it is its own end; and
that (li) the educational process is one of continual reorganizing,
reconstructing, transforming.8
Education, in the experimentalist view, does not stop at a certain age
or with the completion of a certain number of grades in a formal school.
Since life means growth, a living creature lives as truly and
positively at one stage as at another, with the same intrinsic full­
ness and the same absolute claims. Hence education means the enter­
prise of supplying the conditions which insure growth, or adequacy
of life, irrespective of age.”
The above statements and their implications might suggest that the
experimentalist values activity for its own sake or that any activity
is educative in and of itself, an accusation not unknown.

This point

of view is not correct, as Dewey hastens to point out:
Life is not to be identified with every superficial act and interest.
Even though it is not always easy to tell whether what appears to be
mere surface fooling is a sign of some nascent as yet untrained
power, we must remember that manifestations are not to be accepted

5Toc. cit.

7l o c . cit.
^ Ibiri., p. 59*
^ Ibid.. p. 61*

ks
as ends In themselves. They are signs of possible growth. They
are to be turned into means of development, of carrying power for­
ward, not indulged or cultivated for their own sake.... What im­
pulses are moving toward, not what they have been, is the import­
ant thing for parent and teacher.10
The crucial point is in the last sentence.

"What impulses are moving

toward” is important in determining whether or not an activity will re­
sult in growth.

And what they will move toward is dependent upon the

deliberate intervention of Intelligent rather than passive interaction.
Man is distinguished from lower animals in that he is able to use tools,
ideational symbols as signs of objects, and to communicate and share
his experiences with his fellows.
Through these various means man's Interaction with his environment
comeB to possess distinctive intellectual quality. When is be­
havior IntellectualT The simple answer of the experimentalist is,
when 'it knows what it is about'— when it knows what can be expected
of things and what can be done with them.... the organism acts in
the present to start influences moving which will bring about an
eventual state of affairs ibore in harmony with its vital interests;
when it is more than mere mechanical reaction to immediate stim­
ulus; in short, when present behavior is guided by anticipation of
consequences, it is intelligent behavior.11
Growth is a product of intelligent activity.

It "depends upon the

presence of difficulty to be overcome by the exercise of intelligence." 12
The relationship of this statement to the pattern of inquiry described
in the preceding chapter is clear:

growth is dependent upon the use of

intelligent method in solving the problems man experiences; this intel­
ligent method is the method of scientific inquiry.

Its use enables a

10Loc. cit.
Hjohn L. Childs. Education and the Philosophy of Experimentalism.
cit.. pp. 7^-751P

John Dewey. Experience and Education. New York.:
Company, 1938, p. ^2.

The Macmillan

Op.

50

better Adjustment to the environment in terms of accomplishing the pur­
poses man has and the goals he seeks in the life-process as opposed to
passive acceptance of natural events.
For activity to be educative and lead to growth two conditions
must be met.

One is that the problem to be solved must come from the

experience presently being undergone, and hence also within the capacity
of the student; the other is that it arouses aun active search on the
part of the student for facts, information, and ideas with which to
solve the problem.^

Here again the experimentalist emphasizes the

continuity of experiences in which the past operates as a guide in
handling the present with a view toward future consequences*
In this way the purpose of the school in promoting educational
growth is evident, namely, "to insure the continuance of education by
organizing the powers that insure growth.

The Inclination to learn

from life itself and to make the conditions of life such that all will
learn in the process of living is the finest product of schooling."
Put in another way, education is continuous with life.

1^

Its activities

should come from present living, regardless of the age of the person,
and it should enable the student to live more effectively today as op­
posed to the view that education should prwpare the student for future
living.

Furthermore, this concern is not only with the immediate pre­

sent, but the experimentalist has also a long-range goal in mind,
namely, "so to control the educative process that this tendency to

I ^ I b i d . . p. 97-

14

J o h n Dewey.

Democracy and E d u c a t i o n .

O p . c i t ., p.

oO.

51

learn from experience is progressively d e v e l o p e d . H e seeks to es­
tablish the habit of learning to learn from experience as it occurs.
If that is established as an enduring tendency, the student will be
able throughout life to solve his problems by the same method and so
continue learning as he encounters each new experience.
The specific Justification for a school "is to provide a selected
environment and schedule of activities for the nurture of the young in
those appreciations, outlooks, and behaviors considered most important
Xh
and essential to the life of the group."
It is a special agency to
initiate the immature into the ways of his social group in a planned
and efficient manner.

Experiences in the school must be selected from

the wealth of experience available in everyday living to prevent the
student's being overwhelmed by the great mass and turmoil of existence.
There he may be helped to work his way through these experiences so
that he learns to understand them, appreciate their meaning and use
that meaning in his present and future living.
:ow what is the essential condition under which this appropriate
growth may take place?

Dewey says it is imnaturity.^

Almost apolo­

getically he expands on this statement because to him it means some­
thing different from what may be termed absence of maturity.

To him

it means not only capacity or potentiality in the sense in which a

^■5John l . Childs. Education and the Philosophy of Experimental ism.
Op. cit., p. l^b.
lbJohn L. Childs. Education and Morals♦ hew York:
Crofts, 1950, p. 4.
^•7John Dewey.

Appleton-Century-

Democracy and Education. OP. cit.. p. 49.

5?

glass Jar has a specified capacity, but also a power, an ability in
the sense of an ability to develop and to grow*

Thus growth is not

something which an instructor in school does to the student*

Rather,

because the student is am active being, it is something which he must
do for himself.

It is this power to grow which he exercisesfor

him­

self in the process of experiencing andliving*
Dewey continues to look at immaturity in a positive way when he
describes the two traits of immaturity:

dependence and plasticity.*’®

By dependence he means, not that the organism is hopelessly dependent
and so incapable of development, but that the human organism has an
exceptional capacity for social intercourse upon which he depends for
development*

It is true that the infant is, at the outset, wholly in­

capable of getting satisfaction for his physical needs by himself, but
he is compensated by being able to prevail upon adults upon shorn he is
dependent to help him satisfy his wants.

It is this ability or power

to enlist the aid of others which, in Dewey's view, constitutes dependence as a positive trait of his immaturity.

Plasticity, the other trait,

is not the plasticity of wax which yields to external pressure and mold­
ing but rather,
...the ability to learn from experience; the power to retain from
one experience something which is of avail in coping with the dif­
ficulties of a later situation. This means power to modify actions
on the basis of the results of prior experience, the power to de­
velop dispositions.*^
The human infant is capable of many "instinctive tentative reactions"
but he has to learn to use them effectively.

I^IbldTi pp. 50-51*
1^ I b i d . , p.

53.

In learning to use them

53
he needs to vary factors within them, combine them in various ways as
circumstnnce8 demand, and through thiB process accomplish hiB objective,
^hile he is doing this combining and varying, he is learning methods
which, in addition to serving his purpose in the immediate situation,
will serve him in later, similar situations.

A series of successes

will tend to bring about the habit of learning.

Through the process he

learns to learn, and in time he will become less dependent upon others
for his immediate physical needs.
The Method of Learning.

The method of learning follows, according

to the experimentaLll st, the procedure outlined in the foregoing chapter
on the pattern of inquiry.

Since learning is resultant from the activ­

ity of primary purposeful doing, it is derived from that doing.

Doing

is fundamental while learning is a function of that doing.
The first stage in the process of learning is to experience some—
thing.

For a child this first contact will be unstructured; at first

he will not be able to do more than to get acquainted with the objects
involved.

This "must inevitably be of the trial and error sort.11^

No matter what the age of the student, his first experience with an
unfamiliar environment will necessarily be limited to exploring, tryPlaying*

As he fumbles in his own way with the objects, he will

note what happens to them and to him during and after the interaction
and so begin to construct some pattern of organization or find some
meaning in his relationship with them.

This kind of dealing with a

subject is the first step, and it is necessary if education is to be

2 ° I b l d . . p.

181

54
more than a rote memorization of new words.

Problems from dally living

outside of the classroom have real Interest for students and cause real
reflection to take place.
also occurs.

And if reflection takes place, then learning

Dewey explains it when he says that these problems "give

the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of
such a nature as to demand thinking, or the intentional noting of con—
op
nectlons; learning naturally results."
Here it is clearly implied that the experience must have certain
characteristics.

If the experience is to have value for the learning

process, it must consist of a problem that is real and it must be a
real problem to the student.

Otherwise it is artificially set and fails

to arouse the student's interest.

It has no intimate connection with

the affairs of his life and so fails to engage him except in so far as
he may by compulsion apply himself to it in order to 'get a grade' by sa­
tisfying the reouirements placed upon him.

On the other hand, the

problem must be such as is comneneurate with his background of exper­
iences.

Otherwise it may be too easy to merit his consideration or it

may be too difficult and by its very difficulty discourage him.

Dewey

explains;
...to think effectively one must have had, or now have, experiences
which will furnish him resources for coping with the difficulty at
hand. A difficulty is an indispensable stimulus to thinking, but
not all difficulties call out thinking. Sometimes they overwhelm
and submerge and discourage. The perplexing situation must be suf­
ficiently like situations which have already been dealt with so
that pupils will have some sort of control of the means of handlixg
it. A large part of the art of instruction lies in making the dif­
ficulty of new problems large enough to challenge thought, and small
enough so that, in addition to the confusion naturally attending

^Loc. cit

55
the novel elements, there shall he luminous familiar spots from
which helpful suggestions may spring.
The second phase in learning, again following the pattern of in­
quiry, is the collection of data which will define the nature of the
difficulty and serve as a source of suggestion of solutions.

While in

the previous chapter observation, broadly interpreted, was suggested
as the means of discovering the facts of the case, Dewey says that is
relatively immaterial how this information is gathered.

"Memory, obser­

vation, reading, communication, are all avenues for supplying data."^
It is important to remember in this connection that this stage in think­
ing is not performed merely for the purpose of gathering information,
because the purpose is not merely to collect it but also to use it in
working toward a resolution of the difficulty.

Dewey calls these

stored facts merely information, not knowledge— Hstatic, cold-storage
ideal of knowledge" and "miscellaneous Junk." 24 He says it hampers
rather than promotes thinking, because the students "have no practice
in selecting what is appropriate, and no criterion to go by; everything is on the same dead static level." 2*5
The crucial stage in the learning process is the one in which the
learner draws inferences from the observed facts, in which ideas arise.
These leapB into the -unknown as warranted by the discerned facts are
creative and inventive.

??Ibid., p. 184.
?^Ibid., p. 185.
?4Ibid_., p. ISb.
^Loc. cit.

What is original about them is not that the

56
facts ar« discovered or that they Are used but rather the new combina­
tions of them, their relationships, and establishment of meaning among
and between them.

When a child finds out that he can pile blocks one

upon another and make a high tower, he has made an important discovery
and has established for himself a new relationship between the blocks
even though everyone else around him knows all about it.
is

a

This discovery

real addition to his experience in that his experience is enriched

by a new quality.2*3
Dewey adds on this point that mere communication of an idea does
not constitute an idea for the one who receives the communication.
him it is merely information.

To

"Only by wrestling with the conditions

of the problem at first hand, seeking and finding his way out, does he
27
think.H
This qualification of thinking does not mean that the teacher
is merely to make the assignment by providing the conditions which may
stimulate thinking and then retire from active participation with the
student in the experience.

Indeed, he does provide the conditions and

after that becomes an active sharer and participant in the conjoint
experience with the student.

They learn and work together.

The empha­

sis here on the fact that the student must "think his own way out" of
the problem, must manipulate the facts himself, must be active in order
to learn, is the reason activity by the studant receives so much con­
sideration in non—traditional schools.
Now ideas as ideas are guides to action in anticipation of some
foreseen consequence.

gbLoc. cit.
g7Ibid.. p. 188.

As such, they are intermediary rather than final.

57
What remains of the over-all process of learning is to test these ideas
in action.

"...thoughts Just as thoughts are incomplete.

are tentative; they are suggestions, indications.

At best they

...Till they are ap­

plied in these situations they lack full point and reality.

Only appli­

cation tests them, and only testing confers full meaning and a sense of
their reality."^

In this same context Dewey admits that real value

may come from exercises of the sort usually listed as problems illus­
trating the application of a problem.

On the other hand, he also has­

tens to point out that so long as these exercises are such as permit
the student to look upon them as mere school exercises they retain a
certain school-ish artificiality about them.

They are valuable, in the

student's mind, for recitations, term papers, and examinations have but
little value in the affairs of daily living.

The alternative to this

artificiality is, he continues:
'There schools are equipped with laboratories, shops, and gardens,
where dramatizations, plays, and games are freely used, opportuni­
ties exist for reproducing situations of life, and for acquiring
and applying information and ideas in the carrying forward of pro­
gressive experiences. Ideas are not segregated, they do not form
an isolated island. They animate and enrich the ordinary course
of life. Information is vitalized ^ its function; by the place
it occupies in direction of action.
Looking at this idea in another way suggests thr-.t the testing of
ideas in action is the best method of providing cross-connections with
materials otherwise familiar to the student, either from studying in
other areas or from their actual experience in the world of affairs.
This is the best method of handling an assignment and the only feasible
application and interpretation of the principle of the continuity of
experi ence.

^ibid.., p. 139V
29ibid.. p. 190.

58
Tiais idea in action produces consequences which will in turn be­
come means in their meaningful relationship in another context.

These

consequences the student has learned in the course of the inquiry he
has conducted, that is, in the process of learning, and to the extent
that he uses them in subsequent inquiry and further learning they serve
as his resource material in those future experiences*
Knowledge.

This residue accruing upon the completion of the pro­

cess of inquiry, or of learning, is knowledge.

"Anything that may be

called knowledge, or a known object, marks a question answered, a dif­
ficulty disposed of, a confusion cleared up, an inconsistency reduced
to coherence, a perplexity mastered."^30 Knowledge grows out of or ac­
crues from an intelligent operation of the steps in the learning or
inquiry process.

The distinctive feature of the tneory is that it 1b

a "knowledge mode of experience, defined in terms of the outcome of
competent inquiry, as that which accomplishes these functions."^

It

is mediated through the method of inquiry, not immediate.
Thi3 view denies that Knowledge can be attained in a spectator
fashion, by mere looking at something.

Sense impressions do not con­

stitute knowledge; neither is the 'mind' a wax tablet upon which im­
pressions are registered.

Such a view is far too simple to do justice

to the facts.

^John Dewey. The Quest for Certainty. New York:
Company, 1929. PP* 228-229.

Minton, Balch and

3^-John Dewey. "Experience, Knowledge and Value: A Rejoinder," in the
Philosophy of John Dewey. Ed. Paul A. Schilp*. New York: Tudor
Publishing Company, 1951. P* 563*

59
If the living, experiencing being is an intimate participant in the
activities of the world to which it belongs, then knowledge is a
mode of participation, valuable in the degree to which it is effec­
tive. It cannot be the idle view of an unconcerned spectator* ^
Furtheraore, what is known is not something given a priori which must be
absorbed somehow by the organism.

It is eventual, that is, something

yet to come about as the outcome of experimental operations intelli­
gently directed*^
Sense qualities themselves are not cognitive.
ing takes care of the matter.

"Direct experienc­

What science /scientific inquiry/” Is con­

cerned with is the happening of these experienced t h i n g s . T h e y merely
exist, and inquiry accepts them as given in experience.

The object of

knowledge is not to discover them in existence but to discover their
meaning and relationships.

"Sense qualities...are something to_ be known,

they are challenges to knowing, setting problems for investigation.

Our

scientific knowledge is something about them, resolving the problems
they propose.
On the other hand, knowledge is about specific relationships.
There is no general knowledge.

"Experimental knowledge is a mode of do­

ing, and like all doing takes place at a time, in a place, and under
specifiable conditions in connection with a definite problem.

This

characteristic of knowledge suggests that knowledge is not all of one
piece.

Each investigation is individual, and since operations never

exactly repeat one another, the accruing knowledge must also be
ohn Dewey.
33john Dewey.

Democracy and Education. Op. cit.. p. 39•
The Queb t for Certainty.

^ Ibid.. p. 104.

55lbid.. pp. 122-123.
3bIbid., p. 102.

Op. cit.. p. 171*

bO

individual to the particular inquiry out of which it originated.

How­

ever, since operations may be classified into several types, these
types serve to identify certain classes of knowledge.

Dewey explains

them by saying:
...no problem can be solved without a determination of the data
which define and locate it and which furnish clews or evidence. In
so far, when we secure dependable sense-data, we know truly. Again,
the systematic progress of inquiry in dealing with physical prob­
lems requires that we determine those metric properties by means
of which correlations of changes are instituted so as to make pre­
dictions possible. These form the objects of physical science, aid
if our operations are truly adequate they are truly known. We
develop operations, through symbols, which connect possible opera­
tions with one another; their outcomes give the formal objects of
mathematics and logic. As consequences of suitable operations
these too are truly known. Finally, when these operations, or
some combination of them, are used to solve the problems which
arise in connection with the things of ordinary perceived and en­
joyed objects, the latter, as far as they are consequences of these
operations, are themselves truly known. We know whenever we do
know; that is, whenever our inquiry leads to conclusions which
settle the problem out of which it grew. TuIb truism is the end
of the whole matter— upon the condition that we frame our theory
of knowledge in accord with the pattern set by experimental
methods.37
Now knowing as a mode of doing, as an overt act, is capable of be­
ing observed.

It is as much an act as is any other process.

There is

a set of conditions in terms of which the problem is stated; there is
a particular operation or series of operations, both pliysical and sym­
bolic.

It takes place at a time and at a place under certain conditions.

These can be reported so that anyone can reinstitute the conditions and
relations and the overt acts if he cares to verify the results.
38
imental knowing is public and open for inspection by anyone.

Exper-

As an overt act experimental knowing has three temporal phases
through which it passes.

^7Ibid.. pp. 197-193.
3gIbld., p. 2S9-

"There is the initial phase of a non-cognitive

61
situation out of which knowing develops; there is the terminal stage of
the attained knowledge; and there is the intermediate phase in which
subject-matter is what it is as conditioned by inquiry...
The validity of knowledge as the outcome of inauiry is not final
or irrevocable.

Absolute certainty is impossible.

Its truth, or as

the experimentalist prefers to call it, its validity is contingent
upon the results of future inquiries.

Thus, the most he will claim is

"...as near the truth as inquiry has as yet come, a matter determined
not by a guess at some future belief but by the care and pains with
which inquiry has been conducted up to the present time.1'

Doing

"provides insurance but no assurance. Doing is always subject to peril,
hi
to the danger of frustration."
Because the term 'knowledge' carries
with it the notion of certainty, the experimentalist is careful about
using the word.

He prefers "warranted assertibility" in the sense that

whatever statements can be made as the result of inquiry can be made
only in so far as the conditions in the process warrant their assertion.
This term then permits consideration of the continuity of inquiry and
hp
it designates a potentiality rather than a finality. c The experimen­
talist need not, therefore, fall into the opposite extreme of complete
skepticism.

Just as he knows specific tilings following inquiry, so

also is his skepticism specific.
hr
cular beliefs and th##ries." J

"It relates to the validity of parti-

39john Dewey. "Experience, Knowledge and Value: A Rejoinder," in The
Philosophy of Jofrn Dewey. Ed. Paul A. Schilpp. 0£. cit.. p. 5ob.
^John Dewey.

The Quest for Certainty. Op. cit.. p. 33*

41Ibid., p. 573.
H^John Dewey.

Logic. Op. cit., p. 9.

4Vohn L. Childs.

Education and the Philosophy of Experimental!sm.

62
But why have tentative knowledge?

Of course, the answer is in part

that certain knowledge is impossible of attainment.

But in terms of

the continuity of experience, a fundamental concept in experimentalism,
"The eventual purpose in knowledge i3 observation of a new phenomenon,
ki|
an object actually experienced by way of perception."
From this
standpoint knowledge is a means of control of future experiences, and
its function is not a settled and final thing but instead it is a
medium toward more adequate control of subsequent experiences.

"When

one change is given, auad we know with measured accuracy its connection
with another change, we have the potential means of producing or avert­
ing that other event."**5

As a means or resource for suggestions in

future inquiry it is not knowledge in its instrumental function any
longer.

The term 'informntion1 i9 then given to it.

Thus the method

of learning produces knowledge which, when subsequently used in further
inquiry, is resource material again and may help in the learning of
other knowledge.

"'Knowledge', in the sense of information, means the

working capital, the indispensable resources, of further inquiry; of
finding out, or learning, more
Impul8e and Habit.

While

things.
the processof learning resulting in

knowledge as described above outlines the major steps of the method of
learning, there are certain other factors which enter in and play an
important role in the total procedure.

Since a particular order of

presenting these has not been worked out in Dewey's writings so a9 to

44Jonn Dewey.

The Quest for Certainty.

Op. cit.. p. 207.

•45rbid., p. ioi.
^k-John Dewey.

Democracy and Education.

Op. cit.. pp. 18Srl8o.

63
constitute a clear system, the pages following from this point may seem
more serial than related.

However, the writer hopes that the order

will be such as to enable the reader to see the relationships as he pro­
ceeds.

Since, chronologically, in a given inquiry, impulses precede the

action of habits, it may seem clearer to begin with the time seauence
in arriving at an understanding of the relationship between the two in
interaction.
Within the framework of interaction Dewey distinguishes impulse
ns the "original, unlearned activity."^

How impulses seem to be the

immediate responses to stimuli in the environment.

They are the inclin-

at ion to act upon whatever presents itself to the organism.

They are

embryonic in that they are starting points which impel to action with­
out delay or reflection, embryonic in that they initiate action which,
if arrested by reflection and a delay of response, will eventuate in
an intellectualized response to that situation.

The dictionary defini­

tion seems to express it well: "a sudden determination to act, without
reflection or determination." 48 An impulse, therefore, is random, un—
orgr.r.i crd, and without direction.

"In the case of the young it is

patent that impulses are highly flexible starting points for activities
4q
which are diversified according to the ways in which they are used."
If this initial response is checked and guided appropriately, the im­
pulse to act may be directed into whatever channels are desired.
aspect, then, of impulses is their plasticity.

What it will become

47.7ohn Dewey. Human Mature and Conduct. New York:
Liabrary, Ir.c#, lc'50, PP. 9^-93»
^ The Winston Dictionary.
*^John Eewey.

The Modern

College Edition.

Human Nature and Conduct.

One

Op. cit.. p. 95*

o4

"depends upon how the impulse of fear /na an example/ is interwoven
with other impulses.

This depends in turn upon the outlets and inhibi—

SO
tions supplied by the social environment.H^
Habits, on the other hand, are secondary and acquired, not native
and original as are impulses.
tivities.1*-^

Habits are "outgrowths of unlearned ac­

A series of related acts tends to establish a predisposi­

tion to respond in a patterned fashion.

Dewey says further:

...we need a word to express that kind of human activity which is
influenced by prior activity and in that sense acquired; which con­
tains within itself a certain ordering or systematization of minor
elements of action; which is projective, dynamic in quality, ready
for overt manifestation; and which is operative in some subdued
subordinate form even when not obviously dominating a c t i v i t y . 52
In this connection he objects to using the word 'attitude' or 'disposi­
tion' on the ground that disposition is too restrictive in that it re­
fers to a predisposition to act overtly in a specific fashion and that
an attitude is a part of a disposition which has the feature of auto­
matism connected with it.

A habit is more broad in its inclusiveness

than either of the two preceding terns."'

In fact, he excludes the

element of repetition from habit as an essential feature even though
he grants that tendency toward repetition may be one element in some
habits.

Of its essence he says:

The essence of habit is an acquired predisposition to ways or inodes
of response, not to particular acts except as, under special con­
ditions, they exprase a way of behaving. Habit means special sen­
sitiveness to certain classes of stimuli, standing predilections
and aversions, rather than bare recurrence of specific acts.50L q c . cit.
51Ibid.. p. 89.
52Ibid.. pp. 40-41.
^^Loc. cit.
51*lbid., p. 42.

In terms of the plasticity and growth of the young, Dewey says
there is the capacity to acquire habits.^-*

From the standpoint of growth

the first important feature of habits is that they are "a form of exec­
utive skill, of efficiency in doing.

A habit means an ability to use

natural conditions as means to ends."^*3 The skill of the artisan en­
ables him to use in an economical and efficient way the patterns already
established in order to control certain features in his environment.
A habit from this standpoint is motor efficiency in dealing with famil­
iar matters.

As more and more habits are acquired, this expansion ef­

fects in an active way a greater control of the means for achieving
purposed ends.

Through habit the organism tends to respond in a rela­

tively passive way, i.e., without expenditure of much physical or mental
effort.

Thus two asrects of habits as efficiency become apparent.

The

first is that when the organism meets a new situation there is likely to
be much floundering, excessive action, and lack of direction.

As it

gradually becomes used to the situation, it will select from the mass
of stimuli certain items on account of their special pertinence and
omit others from consideration either because of their lack of relevance
or because adjustments have been made to them.

The second aspect is

that a more or less permanent background of adjustment in a given situ­
ation furnishes the background around or upon which future specific
adjustments are made.

The organism seeks not to change the entire en­

vironment but only those features which stand in the way of its attaining

Dewey.

D e m o c r a c y a n d Sducati o n .

O p . c i t .,

p. 5^*

a specific objective.

And. thus the background of habit needs to adapt

to only those specific features immediately involved in the present
difficult situation*
The second important feature of habit is its intellectual and
emotional disposition as a preference for certain ways of responding,
in particular, for those ways wnich are involved in its exercise.

A

habit "actively seeks for occasions to pass into full operation.
It is an active preference.

On the intellectual side it means:

There there is a habit, there is acquaintance with the materials
and equipment to which action is applied. There is a definite way
of understanding the situation in which the habit operates. Modes
of thought, of observation and reflection, enter as forms of skill
and of desire into the habits that make a man an engineer, an ar­
chitect, a physician, or a m e r c h a n t .
There are also undesirable habits, namely, those which become
routine in ways of acting, which have rigidity, which dominate the or­
ganism and prevent adaptation or reflection.

This kind of habit is a

plague upon the individual; it ruins plasticity and prevents growth;
it makes an automatic machine-like individual and prevents development.
This kind of skill educators ought not to endeavor to develop.

The

fact is that practice and repetition of an habituated skill should keep
the skill flexible and adjustable.

If intelligence subvenes in the

practice of a skill, the skill will grow, not only more efficient, but
also more varied and flexible as the practice continues.

For reflection

will enable the organism to see the inefficient aspects of the skill
and to find ways of readjustment so as to increase its efficiency.

5 7 I b i d . . p.
5 g Loc.

cit.

57

"Eabits reduce themselves to routine ways of acting, or degenerate into
ways of action to which we are enslaved Just in the degree to which in­
telligence is disconnected from them.”59
It might seem from the foregoing statement that habits are capable
of knowing in and of themselves.

Such is not the case in Dewey's view.

Habits, he says, are too fixed, too organized, too insistent upon action
to stop and reflect or to leave room for imagination.

"Habit incorpor­

ates, enacts or overrides objects, but it doesn't know them."^
On the other hand, "we may, indeed, be said to know how by means
of our habits."k*

Dewey says we do many things in ordinary living with­

out thinking of doing then, e.g., walking, eating, dressing.

Here he

makes a distinction, however, between knowledge of how to do something
and knowledge of and about something, knowledge into which imagination
and reflection enter.

If knowledge of how is termed knowledge, then the

other kinds of knowing are unaccounted for in his system.

Consequently,

he seems willing to apply the term knowledge to 'knowing how' only as
a matter of courtesy.

Thus he reserves the term knowledge primarily

for results and outcomes of inquiry.
Intelligence.

Intelligence, as referred to in the previous pages,

is integrally connected with the pattern of inquiry elaborated in the
previous chapter.

Dewey explains:

59john Dewey,

Democracy and Education. Op. cit.. p. 5®-

^John Dewey.

Human Nature and Conduct. Op. cit., p. 177«

68
...when the sentient organism, having experienced natural values,
good and had, begins to select, to prefer, and to make battle for
its preference; and in order that it may make the most gallant
fight possible picks out and gathers together in perception and
thought what is favorable to its aims and what hostile, then and
there Nature has at last achieved significant regard for good.
And this is the same thing as the birth of intelligence. For the
holding of an end in view and the selecting and organizing out of
the natural flux, on the basis of this end, conditions that are
means, i_8 intelligence....
It is indeed true that problems are solved only where they arise—
namely, in action, in the adjustments of behavior. But, for good
or for evil, they can be solved there only with method; an£ ulti­
mately method is Intelligence, and intelligence is method.°3
...intelligence means operations actually performed in the modi­
fication of conditions, including all the guidance that is given
by means of ideas, both directly and symbolic.
The statement may sound strange. But it is only a way of say­
ing that the value of any cognitive conclusion depends upon the
method by which it is reached, so that the perfecting of method*
the perfecting of intelligence, is the thing of supreme vaiue.
Intelligence, then, is not some innate capacity given at birth.

It is

rather the method by which the organism adapts itself to the environ­
ment and by which it adapts the environment to itself.

One can speak

of an intelligent being then only in so far as that being is capable of
a satisfactory method of adaptation.

To say that he has intelligence

would in this frame of reference mean that he has an intelligent method
of solving his problems.

Effective intelligence, then, is "insight into

the behavior of persons and things, and actual ability to guide present
activities in the light of foreseen consequences."

It is the method

Dewey. The Influence of Darwin o n Philosophy. New York: Henry
Holt and Company, 1910, pp^ U3-H4 quoted from John L. Childs. Educa­
tion and the Philosophy of Experimentali sm. Op. dit.. pp. oO-ol•

t,3.Tohn

b^John Dewey.

The foiest for Certainty. Op. cit., p. 200.

^5John L. Childs. Education and the Philosophy of Experimentalism.
Op. cit.. p. 13S.

69

of reflective thinking, the pattern required to resolve a problematic
situation into a resolved one.
The experimentalist further regards nature as intelligent to the
extent that man, as pert of and continuous with nature, exercises intel­
ligent behavior in his interaction with the environment.

Nature, con­

sidered in its entirety, is the scene of many interactions which produce
effects wholly unguided unless man uses intelligence in instituting some
change in the process of interaction to produce a foreseen consequence,
a consequence being distinguishable from an effect in that the former
has the added cuality of direction.

TThen an interaction has the added

cunlity of deliberate direction of change, it is intelligent interaction.
This interpretation of intelligence does away with the necessity
for conceiving mind and body as two separate entities.

Intelligence is

a pert or a quality of action, of method of handling interacting parts
of an environment.

Thinking and doing are likewise but two aspects of

one and the same thing.
adjustment.

Both are important aspects of the process of

'hie is as important in intelligent living as the other;

neither is subordinate to the other.
Intelligence as intelligent behavior serves an instrumental function
in effecting better adjustment to life and its problems.

It is function­

ing effectively when it redirects the process of interaction from a hap­
hazard course to a consequence which will be more fruitful in terms of
the purposes the intelligent organism seeks.

A further aspect is that

intelligence is experimental in the sense that it cannot be certain of
success.

As method it is tentative; it must be verified by the actual

6 ° J o h n Dewey.

The Q u e s t for C e r t a i n t y .

C p . c i t .. pp.

214-215.

70
test made by instituting the conditions prescribed by the idea of the
desired consequences.

In that it is tentative it permits of modifica­

tion of method so that more satisfactory results can be attained.0^
row then do impulse, habit, and intelligence operate together in
tne experiencing process?
environment.

Life is a process of interaction with the

The organism seeks to maintain a satisfactory equilibrium

in this process.

Actually there is almost constant interference with

it at some point or other.

When this disturbance becomes sufficiently

confused and obscure, the organism is upset so that it loses its sense
of balance in that an outcome is unclear or uncertain.

Normally, how­

ever, the disturbances seldom reach such a pitch and most activities
proceed on a relatively normal course.
When, however, an unexpected or unknown factor enters into the se­
quential pattern of an habitual hctivity, the new factor stimulates an
impulse which in turn releases another and different activity so as to
upset the original activity and bring about some redistribution of its
elements.

Here is a point of conflict and uncertainty— two courses seem

open and only one can be followed.

Dewey explains how this problem is

resolved:
Now at these moments of a shifting in activity conscious feeling and
thought arise and are accentuated. The disturbed adjustment of or­
ganism and environment is reflected in a temporary strife which con­
cludes in a coming to terms at the old habit and the new impulse.0®
Habit has been operating easily and efficiently; it meets a blockage of

67Joseph Ju -tman. Theories of Secondary £ducat ion in the United States.
Teachers College Contributions to Education, No. SlU. New York:
Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 19^0.
pp. 113-116.
° ® J o h n Dewey.

Human Nature and

Con d u c t .

O p . c i t ., p. 179*

71
some sort, and yet it seeks to maintain its own course.
arouses a counter—movement promoted by an impulse.

The blockage

Thought intervenes

to resolve the difficulty by the deliberative method of determining how
satisfaction can best be had.

Impulses, then, "are the pivots upon which

the re-organization of activities turn, they are agencies of deviation,
for giving new directions to old habits and changing their quality."^9
Impulses give new direction to an on-going activity and by so doing turn
our attention to a new aspect of the situation.

They initiate the new

activity toward a new effect.
Dewey describes this relationship very aptly when he says:
Impulse defines the peering, the search, the inquiry. It is, in
logical language, the movement into the unknown, not into the im­
mense inane of the unknown at large, but into that special unknown
which when it is hit upon restores an ordered, unified action. Dur­
ing this search, old habit supplies content, filling, definite,
recognizable, subject-matter. It begins as vague presentiment of
what we are going towards. As organized habits are definitely de—
ployed and focused, the confused situation takes on form, it is
'cleared up'— — the essential function of intelligence. Processes
become objects. Without habit there is only irritation and confused
hesitation. With habit alone there is a machine—like repetition,
a duplicating recurrence of old acts. With conflict of habits and
release of impulse there is conscious search. '
It seams Dewey regards impulse, habit, and intelligence as instrumental
counterparts of several of the steps in the method of inquiry.

Impulse

performs the function of observation and establishing the facts of the
case; habits, as established ways of looking at things, of performing,
and making combinations of elements in the environment and as resource
material from previously solved problems, supply content and background;

69 i b i d .. p.

93.

7 ° I b i d . , p.

130.

72

while intelligence corresponds more nearly to the discourse stage, th/X
is, the entire process of selection of the facts of the case, of sugges­
tion, idea, hypothesis, and experiment in the pattern of inquiry.
Thinking.

Reference has been made to 'tninking' in the handling

of material in the process of solving a problem.

Dewey's definition

of thinking clearly indicates the relationship with the pattemof inquiry,
and, of course, the specific kind of thinking he is concerned with is
reflective thinking.

Thinking, he says, is wthat operation in which

present facts suggest other facts (or truth) in such a way as to Induce
belief in what is suggested on the ground of real relation in the things
themselves.
quiry.

Thinking is a method of handling the materials in in­

But it is 'handling' with a certain qualification, namely,

determining from what is present something which is not present but
which is reliably signified by what is present.

"Reflection is not

identical with the mere fact that one thing indicates, means, another
tning.

It oommences when we begin to inquire into the reliability, the

worth, of any particular indication...."

72

There must be reasonable

ground for the belief that one thing signifies something else.

A

cloud, for example, may by its snape suggest some animal, but it doe3
not mean an animal for there is no connection between the two beyond
the accidental shape of the cloud.

A cloud, however, may signify rain

because of the inherent bond between the two.

"It is an objective con­

nection, the link in actual things, that makes one thing the ground,

^1,Tohn Dewey.
p. 12.
7 ? Ibid.., p.

11.

How We Think.

Mew York:

D. G. Heat;: and Company, 1933.

73
warrant, evidence, for believing in something else."73

Because of this

connection of thinking with rational discourse in the pattern of in­
quiry, Dewey uses the two terms, thinking and reflection, synonomously.
Ae thinking relates to education, Dewey says:
The sole direct path to enduring improvement in the methods of in­
structing and learning consists in centering upon the conditions
which exact, promote, and test thinking. Thinking is^ the method
of intelligent learning, of learning that employs and rewards mind.
We speak, legitimately enough, about the method of thinking, but
the important thing to bear in mind about method is that thinking
is method, the met'nod of Intelligent experience in the course which
it takes.
Thus, thinking is method and intelligence is method, that is, we think
and are intelligent to the extent that we employ the method of refleotion.
Now it may be noted here that "Natural impulses and desires constitute in any case the starting point." 75

But these impulses and de­

sires were arrested and inhibited wnen impulse initiated the search
for data and reflection instituted a reorganization of that data into
meaningful relationships in terms of desired outcomes.

Left uninhib­

ited and unordered by an intelligent method they would only accidentally
accomplish the desired end, if indeed any end had already been fore­
seen.

Thinking in this way postpones action and permits the combination

of forces through observation and memory into rather specific plans of
action.

73lbid., p. 1?.
7^.Tohn Dewey.

Democracy and Education. Op. cit., pp. 179-130.

7 5 j o h n Dewey.

Experience and Education.

O p . c i t .. p.

7^*

A
Habits, as was pointed out earlier, conflict with impulse and are
also Inhibited by thinking,

When the testing phase of thought has been

completed, habits are also transformed in the process.

Dewey explains

their function and character when he says:
Developmental behavior shows...that in the higher organisms ex­
citations are so diffusely linked with reactions that the sequel is
affected by the state of the organism in relation to environment.
In habit and learning the linkage is tightened up not by sheer repe­
tition but by the institution of effective Integrated interaction
of organic-environing energies— the consumraatory close of activities
of exploration and search. In organisms of the higher order, the
special and more definite pattern of recurrent behavior thus formed
does not become completely rigid. It enters as a factorial agency,
along with other patterns, in a total adaptive response, and hence
retains a certain amount of flexible capacity to undergo further
modifications as the organism meets new environing conditions.7o
Alms.

The preceding discussion of intelligent acting and of think­

ing implies clearly that it is identical with having an aim or a pur­
pose.

The distinction is between 'result' and 'aim*.

The former rep­

resents an activity without an objective, e.g., a leaf blown by the
wind moves in position but to no purpose.

One place for it to rest is

as good as another.

Aims, contrariwise, must possess the trait of "in­

trinsic continuity,

that is, they must order activity into a sequen­

tial pattern so as to lead to an objective.

And this order must be

such, in terms of the process of thinking, that it will lead to a fore­
seen result.

The corollary of this trait is that an aim will give

direction to the activity based upon careful observation of the condi­
tions involved in the activity, the ordering of the elements in the sit­
uation so as to make selection of the means toward that end possible.

76john Dewey.

Logic.

O p . cit.. p. 32*

7 7 John Dewey.

Democracy and Education.

O p . c l t .. p. 118.

75
The fact that an aim la essential to the process of thinking, and
therefore also of learning, suggests the futility of the notion of
"activity for activity's sake."
meet certain criteria:

Good aims, as Dewey calls them, otust

(1) they must arise from existing conditions,

from what is already going on; (2) since the process of observation
may uncover new materials essential to resolving the problem in hand,
aims must be flexible so as to enable adaptation to the new facts; (3)
they must represent a freeing

of activities in that they permit what­

ever activities are necessary

to continuing the activity successfully.^^

Forming an aim ia comparable to getting an idea.
condition prevails.

An unsatisfactory

There is a wish that it were different.

Imagina­

tion presents a scene which embodies those features which would be sat­
isfactory.

This scene is a fancy, and it becomes an aim "when it is

worked out in terms of concrete conditions available for its realization,
70

that is in terras of 'means'."'^
Hind.

It is apparent that acting with an aim is identical with

acting intelligently.

And acting intelligently means having a mind,

...for mind is precisely intentional purposeful activity coiw
trolled by perception of facts and their relationships to one an­
other. To have a mind to do a thing is to foresee a future possi­
bility; it, is to have a plaja for its accomplishment; it is to note
the means which make the plan capable of execution and the obstruc­
tions in the way,— or, if it is really a mind to do the thing and
not a vague aspiration— it is to have a plan which takes account
of resources and difficulties. Mind is capacity to refer present
conditions to future results, and future consequences to present
conditions.*^

78lbid.. pp. 121-124.
79John Dewey.

Human Nature and Conduct. Op. cit.. p. 23d.

^John Dewey.

Democracy and Education. Op. cit., p. 120.

76
Acting with an aim, intelligently, and having a mind to do something
means acting with a meaning, doing something and seeing the meaning of
things

in terms of that intent.

Hence,

mind is not an entity, a part

of the

body, which is to be filled with

information; it is actingwith

a purpose, acting intelligently*
The conception of mind as a purely isolated possession of theself
is at the very antipodes of truth. The self achieves mind in the
degree in which knowledge of things is Incarnate in the life about
him; the self is not a separate mind building up knowledge anew on
its own account.61
Mind arises in the process of experiencing.
given at birth, as are arms and legs.

It is not something

Precisely what this mind will be­

come is dependent upon the conditions out of which it arises.

Likewise,

how one acts and thinks is contingent upon the environment in which that
thinking or acting originates.

It is not something, therefore, with pre­

determined limits and restrictions.

Childs explains;

...mind itself is something built in the very process of experienc­
ing. Since experience is in and of the world of men and things,
our minds are also continuous with these objective materials. Had
our environments been different, our experiences would have been
different. Ead our experiences been different, our minds would
also have been different. In short, to live differently is to
think differently.®^
Consciousness.

In this process of intelligent method Dewey ob­

serves that the organism is 'conscious* of what it is about.

At the

point of conflict between the course habit seeks to take and that course
which impulse is impelling the organism to take, the organism becomes
conscious of the difficulties it is facing.

"Now at these moments of a

81Ibld.. p. 3^*
®2John L. Childs. Education and the Philosophy of Experimental ism.
Op. cit., p. 9•

77

shifting in activity conscious feeling and thought arise and are accengx
tuated."
The organism does not act in a mechanical stimulus-response
fashion, hut it takes stock deliberately of what it must do to regain
equilibrium in the difficult situation at hand.

Again this trait is

associated with the activity of problem-solving.

Dewey elaborates:

To be conscious is to be aware of what we are about; conscious
signifies the deliberate, observant, planning traits of activity.
Consciousness is nothing which we have which gazes idly on the
scene around one or which has impressions made upon it by physi­
cal things; it is a name for the purposeful quality of an activity,
for the fact that it is directed by an aim. Put the other way
about, to have an aim is to act with meaning, not like an auto­
matic machine; it is to mean to do something and to perceive the
meaning of things in the light of that Intent.8*+
Capacity and Individual Differences.

In accordance with the in­

terpretation of intelligence, thinking, and mind as already described,
the experimentalists seem unwilling to engage seriously in the natureversus—nurture controversy.

Since their point of view is naturalistic,

they accord considerable significance to the influence of cultural
conditions upon the infant.
endowment to that infant.

This is not to say that they deny native
Since education is growth and development,

Dewey, asserting that there must be something from which growth may
germinate, continues, "There must be a native stock, or capital, of
resources; we cannot force the power to think upon any creature that
does not first think spontaneously, 'naturally1, as we say.
child has specific powers...."

"The

Tnus, he assumes that each infant is

born with his given capacity for intelligent behavior.
&3«John Dewey.
^John Dewey.

Human Nature and Conduct. Op. ci t.. p. 179»
Democracy and Education. Op. cit.. p. 1?1.

^John Dewey.

How We Tnink.Op. cit., p. 35*

^ k j o h n Dewey.

Democracy and

Education. O p . cit. .

p. 59*

78
On the other hand, a. major emphasis eeeas to he given to the sus­
taining nurture provided by the specific environment in which the organ­
ism develops*
important.

The opportunity for growth of that innate capacity is also

In fact, while recognizing that each individual has his own

native capacity, which is not exactly duplicable by any other individual,
Childs expresses the idea that
...such organic uniqueness as is given at birth by no means predeter­
mines the sort of mature individual the child is to become* Innum­
erable different adult selves are all genuine possibilities in the
normal native equipment of any child* Which of these potential
selves is actually to be realized depends upon the specific educative
experiences to which the organic capacities are subjected*8?
•

Nurture, however, has the dominant hand in determining the extent of
growth*

In interpreting their point of view Justman states that the

influence of the environment is of major importance when he says:
Every human being inherently possesses the capacity to 'know*
to 'understand' experience and the capacity, therefore, for intel­
ligent behavior* That is what makes him, rather than any other
kind of being, a human being.
Individuals differ among themselves
in the extent to which they can direct and control their experience,
but all possess an initial capacity. The extent to which they
ultimately obtain this power is not determined by heredity, but is
a functioning of the experiencing process— of the experiences they
have, of the manner in which they deal with these experiences, of
the meanings that they obtain, and of the manner in which they use
these meanings subsequently*^
Childs elaborates on this same point by saying:
The individual acquires most of his meanings through communication
with the members of his cultural group, and through participation
in their established activities.
If such activities are rich in the
number and variety of meanings they incorporate, the individual with
an average capacity to learn will in time probably achieve a valu­
able equipment of meanings by sharing in the activities of his group*

g7j0hn L. Childs. Education and the Philosophy of Experimentaliam.
O p . cit.. p. 137*
Joseph Justman* Theories of Secondary Education in the United States.
Op. cit.. p. 193*

79

On the other hand, if the activities of one’s group adford oeager
•weighted stimuli’, the individual nurtured on these meager stimuli
will achieve a meager mind no matter how excellent his native endow­
ments may be.^9
This point of view denies the inheritance oi fixed and immutable qual­
ities of .mind and capacity.
not immutable

"The inherited nature of a creature is

it is whatever it becomes through the process of living

and learning."

They do not go so far as to say, however, that no

limits are set by nature.

Childs states on this points

The no re knowledge that we accumulate about roman beings and the
processes by which they develop, the more we are confident that the
patterns of human nature are neither uniquely given at birth nor do
they automatically develop by a process of the unfading of a pre­
formed self. Inherited factors set broad limits for the growth of
the individual human being, but evidence from a variety of sources—
biological, psychological, and anthropologicai--indicates that a
wide range of possibilities lies within these native determinants*.
The experimentalists, therefore, have little concern witr intelli­
gence testing in order to measure individual diiferer.ces.

In fact,

Dewey says,
How one person's abilities compare in quantity with those of another
is none of the teacher's business. It is irrelevant to his work.
’’That is reouired is that every individual shall have opportunities
to employ his own powers in activities that have meaning.^
Allport, in discussing Dewey’s individual psychology comments signifi­
cantly :
Here we must comment on Dewey's lack of interest in capacity
psychology. Intelligence testing concerns him not at all. Anyone
is capable of thinking and so improving his adaptations and mastery
within his environroent. A pupil labelled as hopeless, he points

-3John L. Or.ilds. Education and the Philosophy of rxper im-^ntalism.
Op. cit.. p. 133.
90John L. Childs.

..ducation and ■roral s♦ Op. cit., p. 00.

Q1Ibid.. p. 0.
“^ J o h n

Pew**y.

P e r m c r a c y and H d u c a t i o n .

O p . c i t ., p.

20^.

80
out, may react in a quick and lively fashion when the thing in hand
seems to him worth while. He has likewise written, 'Barring physical defect or disease, slowness and dullness in all directions are
comparatively rare.' ''How ^Fe Think. ^r;) There is no hoiaogeneous
faculty of thought nor any uniform power of intelligence that would,
oecause of differential possession, make education for some pupils
unneccessary and for others worthless. In short, individual dif­
ferences in capacity are of far less consequence than is the fact
that everyone can be taught to think more effectively then he does.^
Interest.

Dewey, characteristically, ties ur his view on interest

with on-going activities.

He distinguishes the attitude of a spectator

from that of the person who 'has an interest' in an activity.

The for­

mer has no preferences as to t.-e outcome of the activity wr.ile the
latter "is bound up with what is going on; its outcome mages a differ­
ence to him."^

Practically, the attitude of the latter person is that

of a participant with these two characteristics:

"...there is solici­

tude, anxiety concerning future consequences, and a tendency to act to
as
assure better, and avert worse, consequences."
An interested person
is one who is concerned about what an activity nay do to him and he is
eager to act in such a way as to secure a desired outcome.

Interest

and aim are connected in the continuity of the same activity, but each
from a different point of view.
Such words as aim, intent, end, emphasize the results which are
wanted and striven for; they ta^e for granted the personal atti­
tude of solicitude and attentive eagerness. Such words as interest,

^^5ordon T. Allport. *Tewey's Individual ana Social rsychology," in The
Philosophy of John Dewey. 2d. laul A. Schilpp. 0^. cit.. fn., p. 277*
’rote: The quotation from Dewey's How '"e Think is in the 1^10 edition.
In the 193^ revision it reals, "Barring physical defect or impaired
health, slowness ana dullness in all directions are comparatively
rare." I.
°4

John Dewey.

°^Loc. cit.

_

Democracy and injca11on. Cp♦ cit.. p. lho.

81
affection, concern, motivation, emphasize the bearing of what is
's fortunes, and his active desire to
secure a possible result
Interest involves an interaction of a person with an active environment
with whose outcome he is vitally concerned.
Literally the word 'interest' means something which 'lies between',
a connecting link between two things remote from each other.

Education­

ally speaking, this distance may be a temporal distance, specifically
the distance in growth between the initial stages and the final stages
of consummation.

Again Dewey's succinct statement presents the matter

clearly:
In learning, the present powers of the pupil are the initial stage;
the aim of the teacher represents the remote limit. Between the
two lie means--that is middle conditions:— acts to be performed;
difficulties to be overcome; appliances to be used. Only through
them, in the literal time sense, will the initial activities reach
a satisfactory consummation.97
The problem of interest in the classroom, according to this view,
is for the teacher to discover such objects and methods of doing things
which have some relation to the present powers and attitudes of the stu­
dent.

^Then material has to be made interesting, either the connection

of the material with present activities is lacking or it lies concealed
from the student.

The simple expedient is to lead the student to recog­

nize this connection between this material and his activities.

On the

other hand, "to make it interesting by extraneous and artificial induce­
ments deserves all the bad names which hav-3 been applied to the doctrine

82
qg

of inter-st in education.w~

The remedy lies not in activity alone but

in activity which meets certain qualifications.
Tiscovery of typical modes of activity, whether play or useful oc­
cupations, in which individuals are concerned, in whose outcome
they recognize they have something at stake, and which cannot be
carried through without reflection and use of jud^nent to select
materials of observation and recollection, is the remedy.
Discipline. Activities take time, effort, and concentration.

He

who persists in an activity by seeing it through all of its stages from
realization of difficulty to resolution is said to have 'will'.

This

persistence includes the meeting of obstacles, the framing of ideas and
ends in as clear a fashion as possible, and sufficient patience to wait
for the action to be consummated as a test of the idea.

A person who

can thus persist in a course of action in spite of obstacles, who can
deliberately continue in an activity, is said to be disciplined.

Dis­

cipline is thus viewed as a positive power instead of the usual concep­
tion of physical punishment adninistered by the teacher whose orders
have been defied.
A person who is trained to consider his actions, to undertake
them deliberately, is in so far forth disciplined. Add to this
ability a power to endure in an intelligently chosen course in face
of distraction, confusion, and difficulty, and you have the essence
of discipline. Discipline means power at command; mastery of the
resources available for carrying through the action undertaken. To
m o w what one is to do and to move to do it promptly and by use of
the requisite means is to be disciplined, whether we are thinking
of an army or a mind. Discipline is positive.

QgIblc.. p. 150.
QQ
'VI£id-, p. 15b.
100Ibid.. p. 151.

83

The relationship between internet and discipline is thus not to be
sought far afield.

The processes of deliberation and concentration will

be perfunctory and superficial without interest in the outcome.

Stu­

dents shy away from thinking about something which has no perceptible
connection with their living.
end do not touch them.

Such materials have no relation to them

They may act to satisfy superimposed require­

ments but with only a minimum of effort and with even that minimum begrudg­
ingly given.

Furthermore, persistence at the task, discipline, in other

words, also suffers along with the quality of response.

The student

without an interest in an assignment will probably take the first oppor­
tunity to find an excuse for not doing that assigmaent and instead en­
gage in an extraneous 'uischievous' activity.

Dewey concludes his ob­

servations upon this phase of the question by saying:

’’Interest measures

— or rather is— the depth of the grip which the for-seen end has u|«n
one in moving one to act for its real izati on.
Motivation.

The experimentalist point ofview on motivation

squarely upon the assumption that man is an active being,
not help acting.

rests

that he can­

As a consequence he needs no motive for acting.

"It

is absurd to ask what induces a man to activity generally speaking.

He

is an active being and that is all there is to be said on thAt score.
He therefore rejects the view that such drives, as they ere now coranonly
called, as anger, hunger, sex are motives although he grants that hunger

1^1
x Ibid., p. 15?.
^■^John Dewey,

Human Nature and Jon due t.

Op. ci t». p. 119.

is an "unqualifled natural impulse"10-^ to a starving man.

The reason

for rejecting them is that anger, for example, varies for the same in­
dividual from situation to situation and upon the condition of the
organism at the time, this condition never being twice alike.

Besides,

to speak of them in this way is an over-simplification of the facts
in the case, since such classification involves transforming "social
ini+
results into psychic causes."
However, the ouestion of motive is important when a teacher, for
example, serks to have a student act in a specific way, to have him di­
rect his activity in a specific direction.

In this sense, then, a

motive is "that element in the total complex of a man's activity which,
if it can be sufficiently stimulated, will result in an act having
specified

c o n s e q u e n c e s .

When a parent praises or censures a child

for a particular manner of eating, the praise or censure constitutes
that element which will tend to reinforce that kind of action pattern.
"A motive does not exist prior to an act and produce it.

It is an act

plus a Judgment upon some element of it, the Judgment being made in the
light of the consequences of the act."^b

When this pattern of acting

is thus evaluated by the actor, he recalls the response of others to
it.

This "inchoate activity taken in this forward-looking reference

to results, especially results of approbation and condemnation, consti­
tutes a motive."^

rO j ib i d .. pp. 152-15^.

^ ^ Loc. ci t.
IQ5lbid.. p. l?0.
^^Loc. cit.

85
This description indicates that a “motive...is simply an impulse
viewed as a constituent in habit, a factor in disposition."108

Its re­

sults, tempered by previously established and applicable habits, are a
plan of action which, when put into operation, produce knowledge which
retroacts ujon the old habit so as to modify it.

For this reason, and

because there are as many motives as there are impulses, it is not sat­
isfactory to lump motives into a few small classifications, the experi­
mentalists believe.
Dewey's view is clearly a move far afield from the usual concept
of motives in that it does away with the mechanistic classlficatory ap­
proach and so seems, according to Allport, "built not upon solid rock
but upon shifting sand."109

Allport admits, however, that, while it

may lack the Incisiveness of other psychologists, "he may yet perceive
more clearly than they the infinite variety of ways in which man can
accomplish his primary task of adapting and growing within the surround­
ing world."*"*0

He continues to criticize the theory, though, on the

ground that it se^ms to undermine the stability of personality.

He

says in the same context that Dewey seems not to have given ample con­
sideration to the durableness of either interests or habits.

This com­

ment again points out that Dewey never wholly worked out his psycholog­
ical concepts into any sort of systematic picture.
unclear for that reason.

Many points remain

All one knows is what he said; beyond that

108Ibid.. p. 12?.
10C)Gordon 7T. Allport, "Dewey's Individual and Social Psychology." in
The Philosophy of John Dewey. Ed. Paul A. Schilpp. Op. clt., p. 275*
I 1 0 I b i d . . p.

27 b

86

only inference, based upon a complete understanding of the philosophical
point of view in so far as it is systematic, is possible.
P.etention and Forgetting.

Dewey frequently refers to memory as a

kind of backlog of resource material for suggestions.

He seems oncon-

cerned about it beyond that; he seems to take it lor granted.
With regard to forgetting, he makes this comment:

"When knowledge

is cut off from use in giving meaning to what is blind and baffling, it
drops cut of consciousness entirely or else becomes an object of aesthe­
tic c o n t e m p l a t i o n . T h i s point of view is reminiscent of Thorndike's
11?
Law of Disuse.
Transfer of Training.

Dewey rejects the notion of transfer as pro­

pounded in faculty psychology when he says, "...the more specialized the
reaction, the less is the skill acquired in practicing and perfecting
it transferable to other modes of b e h a v i o r . B y the same token he
also rejects the theory of the transfer of common elements within the
HU
old and new situations.
He does not deny, however, the possibility of the applicability
of broad adaptations from one situation to another.

Even this can

occur only because of widely extensive exj eriences.

He coaoents:

3ut the wider the context— that is to say, the more varied the
stimuli and responses coordinated— the more the ability acquired

Hljo hn Dewey.

De~ocracy and Zducation. Op.cit.. p. 397*

H^Zrnest p# Kilgard. Theories of Learning. Hew York:
Oentury-Orofts. Inc.,
p.
^ 3 John Dewey.

Demo era cy and E-iucation.

^^Zrnest P.. Hilgard.

Appleton-

?p. cl t., p. 75 •

Tbeories of Learning.

Op. cit.. p. 71*

91
is available for the effective performance of other acts; not,
strictly speaking, because there is any ’transfer*, but because
the wide range of factors employed in the specific act is equiva­
lent to a broad range of activity, to a flexible, instead of to a
narrow and rigid, coordination.
One may be an authority in a particular field and yet of more than
usually poor judgment in matters not closely allied, unless the
training in the special field has been of a kind to ramify into
the subject matter of the other fields.11*5
The Feint of VIew.

On the basis of what has been said thus far it

may appear that the psychology of Dewey, so far as it deals with Impulse
at least, is a thoroughgoing beliaviori sm.

Dewey admits that fundamen­

tally within his view of the experiential continuum, wherein one act
may follow another in somewhat serial fashion, wherein observed materials
arouse suggestions, wherein a difficulty arouses an impulse wnich may
run counter to established habit, "the psychological theory involved is
a form of Behaviori sm.

Yet he does not accept a mechanical behavior­

ism in toto; in fact, he has a different interpretation of it altogether.
He explains that a response is an answer to a stimulus, the latter
not merely exciting an activity, but also directing it to an object.
There is an interaction between the stimulating object and the perceiv­
ing and responding organism such that mutual adaptation takes place.
The organ of perception will perceive in its distinctive way under such
appropriate conditions as enable it to perceive.

Hence, *the stimulus

is but a condition of the fulfillment of the proper function of the

115,Tohn Dewey.

Democracy and Education.

Op. cit.. p.

IlbIbid.. p. 77*
1X7John Dewey. "Dxperience, Knowledge and Value: A Rejoinder," in
The Philosophy of John Dewey. 2d. Paul A. Schilpp. Oja. cit.. p.555.

88

organ, not an outside interruption." 118

Thus, it merely helps the per­

ceiving organ do what it is in the process of doing or tending to do

.

anyway

The response, however, is not merely a blind response, mechanical,
and

irresponsible, but rather a response in terms of the meaning of the

stimulus.

He objects to the highly meclianical type of S-R theory on

this very point when he says:
...a person learns by merely having the qualities of things impreseed upon his mind through the gateway of the senses. Having
received a store of sensory impressions, association or some power
of mental synthesis is supposed to combine them into ideas into
things with a meaning. ...But as matter of fact, it is the char­
acteristic use to which the thing is put, because of its specific
qualities, which supplies the meaning with which it is identified.
A simple response to a stimulus is purely physical, not intelligent.
The difference between an adjustment to a physical stimulus and a
mental act is that the latter involves response to a thing in its
meaning; the former does not. ... when things have a meaning for us,
we mean (intend, propose) what we do:
they do not, we act
blindly, unconsciously, unintelligently.
Bode explains this reciprocal adaptation of stimulus to response
when he says, "Our pedestrian does not first see the objects and then
respond to them..., but he se-s them in terms of the responses that
he makes to them." 1PI

This is also another way of saying that the re­

sponse is determined, not blindly, but by the meaning the stimulus is
deemed to have.

It is thus a relative affair of an element within a

total situational field.

J-I^John Dewey.

Democracy and Sducation. Op. ci t.. p. P9»

•^9john Dewey.

Democracy and Education. Op. cit.. pp.

^^ Loc. cit.
1?1Boyd Henry Bode.
1940, p. PI9-

How Te Learn. Boston: D. C. Heath and Gompany,

89

Dewey also observes that when habits become too automatic they re­
sult in automatic action and that when this process has gone to the ex­
treme, it is called absent-mindedness.

"Stimulus and response are

mechanically linked together in an uxlbroken chain.

Each successive

act facilely evoked by its predecessor pushes us automatically into the
next act of a predetermined series." 122
ism.

Habits then control the organ­

He voices his objection more specifically when he comments:
In the first place, behavior is not viewed as something taking
place in the nervous system or under the skin of an organism but
always, directly or indirectly, in obvious overtness or at a dis­
tance through a number of intervening linKs, an interaction with
environingconditions.
In the second place, other human being3
who are also acculturated are involved in the interaction, in­
cluding even persons at a great distance in space and time, be­
cause of what they have done in making the direct environment what
it is.123

The first of these two points, that action is really interaction, em­
phasizes the totality and wholeness of interaction, ratner than repre­
senting a dualism of environment and organism.

The organism-as—a-whole

responds to the situation-as-a-whole rather than that an element re—
sr^nds to an element.

The naturalistic view that a man is part and par­

cel of nature, that he is continuous with nature, precludes this kind
of separation.
of one piece.

The second

emphasizes the fact that experience is all

One problem solved produces knowledge which will be use­

ful in another problem at a future date.

The sum total of previous

experiences is available now as resource material in the solution of
present problems.

^•22j0j^n pewey.

Responses of previous individuals to the environment

Human Nature and Conduct« Op. cit., p. 173*

123j0hn Dewey. "Experience, Knowledge and Value: A Rejoinder," in The
Philosophy of John Dewey. Ed. Haul A. Schilpp. Qjil* £iX* * P* 55t>»

90

and their modifications of it are also involved in what serves as a
stimulus in present conditions*
These two objections imply the orderliness and serial nature of
human activity as it moves from difficulty toward resolution.

To deter­

mine what activity shAll be instituted it is necessary to arrange the
facts of the case in such a manner that the desired result will be ac­
complished.

This process requires reflection, thinlping, not merely an

undelayed response to a stimulus.

The typical stimulus-response mechan­

ism is an over-simplification of what intelligent activity, according to
the experimentalist, reouires.

On the other hand, another element is

implied by this same serial and orderly nature of human activity.
is that thinking has a very definite place in the process.
in:- this order is established.

This

Through thini&-

The organism is conscious of its own

activity and thus Mit is able to take more things into account, to dis­
play greater flexibility in its activity, to define more adequately the
enis for which it is striving, and to utilize and create better means
124
for the realization of those ends."
For Dewey, behavior is purpo­
sive, not merely a temporal pattern of stimulus—response sequences.
A further point by the same author i9 that reflection begins with a
problematic situation and moves toward a resolution.

He explains*

Reflection starts with a difficulty— with a block in activity. It
arises from a situation that is experienced as a problem. In other
words, it is not the presence of an adequate stimulus, but the ab­
sence of stimulus adequate to produce an overt response that ini­
tiates reflection.125

l ?4John L. CriIds.
Z d u c a t i on and
O p . c i t ., pp. ?11-21?.
^ 5

l o c

. cit.

the Philosophy of E x p e r i m enta l i s m .

91

Now thinking; is the active search for stimulus adequate And appropriate

in its meaning so that the action can go forward toward a purposed goal.
'Meaning' is, in fact, so important to the experimentalist point of view
that the terms 'means' and 'consequences,1 referring to intelligent and
purposeful activity, are suggested as better terms than are 'stimulus*
and 'response'.

X2o

On this point Dewey's psychology differs from be­

haviorism, for the latter tries to explain activity without considering
the reason for the activity.

If Guthrie's continuous conditioning

may be taken as representative of the earlier theories of behaviorism,
then a comment of Hilgard effectively points up this difference:
Concepts like "insight" are handled in a derisive manner, although
it is recognized that learning with foresight of its consequences
may occur. The tendency is to talk down such learning, however,
just as Thorndike does, ana to emphasize the stupid, mechanical,
and repetitious nature of most human as well as animal learning.
Such learning with intention and foresi^it as does occur is ex­
plained on the basis of conditioned anticipatory or readiness re­
actions, based upon past experience and hence not contradicting
association principles.
'
The stimulus-response type of psychology, thep, is considered in­
adequate for the experimentalist point of view in that it is an over­
simplification of what happens in intelligent behavior, in that it is
too mechanical a conception of behavior, and in that it omits conscious­
ness of behavior, conscious purpose in behavior, and reflection from
intelligent activity, even though certain aspects, for example, the
existence of a stimulus-response type of relationship, impulsive be­
havior, are admitted and frequently used in discussing various phases
of human activity.

R. "ilgard.
127 Ibid.. p. 71*

Theories of Learning.

Op. cit. , p. ?3»

In some respects the psychology of experimentalIsm favors the
point of view of the field theories in psychology.

Both accept, at

least the latter do not deny, consciousness as opposed to the largely
mechanical impressions of connections in behaviorism.

In the field

theories this aspect is called lnsi^it and seems to correspond fairly
well with what Dewey calls rational discourse in the problem solving
pattern.

Both emphasize that the learning situation is one which involves a problem to be solved. 129^ Dewey says that the conclusion of an
experience will create something new which will serve as a stimulus to

reshape that experience into a somewhat different meaning.

This is

strangely similar to the "trace" theory of new learning in Gestalt
psychology.

The main features of this trace theory are:

1. Some processes are directly dependent upon sti.iruli. When
such stimuli are presented a second time, the processes differ from
those present the first time because the stimuli have been reacted
to before. ...
2. Processes may undergo transformations within a single sus­
tained presentation. ...
3. Some processes are transformed by their consequences. ...
Once success is achieved the process leading to success is trans­
formed. It has a new meaning, a new role in the goal-directed
activity.
Both agre° that trial—and—error fumbling with a confused situation may
precede the point at which insight takes place and becomes effective in
wonting out the solution to a p r o b l e m . B o t h agree that transfer—
the field theorists prefer to call it •transposition'--happens to the

1?8Ibld.. pp. 190-1931?9 lbid.. p. 1^3.

93

extent that meaning or relationships are common to each situation.
Both insist that effective thinking or Intelligence occurs to the ex­
tent that there is understanding as opposed to blind application of
formulae or immediate response to impulses.^-^
The diificulty in classifying experimental!sm psychologically is
that Dewey never explicitly formulated his ideas in any systematic
fashion. l
Hilgard speaks of experimentalism as a subdivision of
functionalism and says of it, "Functionalism is empiricist rather than
systematic."

txr

Later he says, "The disadvantage of an extreme empiri­

cism and relativism lies in its lack of articulating principles to cut
across empirical laws."*^

it

eclectic without special preference

for any one position and without feeling obligated to defend its choice
from any source.
Summary.

Interaction with environment constitutes life and results

in growth if the activity involved grows directly out of ongoing affairs
and requires an active search for means by which dii:iculties can be over­
come.

The child is a social being and interacts also with the society

of which he is a part.

Through interaction with both his human and

physical environment he is inducted into society or is educated.
growth is equivalent to education.

13«?Ibld.a p. iqu.

Hence,

A school is designed to initiate the

See also p. 205*

I^3lbid.. p. 195.
17l+John Dewey. "Sxperience, Knowledge, and Value: A Rejoinder." In The
Fh i1osophy of John Dewey. 2d. Paul A. Schilpp. 0p» cit., p. 551.
1
^^Loc.

p ^ Hilgard.
cit.

Theor1es of Learning. Op.cit., p. 17^.

94

immature into adults ways in a planned and efficient manner.

Learning

occurs through the process of solving problems growing out of interact­
ing with an environment.

As a method it follows the pattern of inquiry

from instituting and defining a problem to testing and revising an hypo­
thesis if the outcome of experiment warrants reconstruction.
i s o problem solved or the result of inquiry.

Knowledge

A person is intelligent

in the degree he has a facility in resolving diificulties.

He thinks

as he handles materials in Inquiry, and he develops mind as he becomes
able to seo the reciprocal relation between present conditions and future
consequences.

Intellectual ability and process are intimately connected

with the method of inquiry so that the customary dichotomy between body
and mind or intelligence is unnecessary.

Individual differences are

important but more significant for the teacher is the fact that every­
one can be taught to think better than he does think.

Students will be

interested in school activity if they apprehend the connection between
such activity and matters important to them.

Discipline, instead of

being rigid order and quietude so commonly required in the classroom,
is the powor to see innuiry through to completion.

Motive, too, con­

cerns inquiry; a motive is an act plus a jungment of the consequences
of that act.

Forgetting occurs through disuse of knowledge.

Transfer

is possible in that broad adaptations can be mode as a result of wide
experience*

CHAPTER IV
DEWEY •S THEORY OP LANGUAGE
Chapter Two explained some of the basic assumptions upon which ths
pnilosoi »y ol experimentalism is constructed and then described the es­
sential framework upon which the inferences and implications depend__
the pattern of inquiry.

Chapter Three explained what knowledge is and

how it may be attained within, through and as a result of the pattern of
inouiry.

The present chapter will reiterate some of those pertinent as­

sumptions so as to establish a basis upon which to explain the origin of
language as Dewey conceives of it and then pursue some of the implica­
tions involved so far as they apply to use in general and to education
with certain additional particularity.
Background Assumptions.

It will be recalled that Dewey considers

man as part and parcel of nature, that he is in and of nature, that he
is continuous with it, and that his life consists largely of the process
of interacting with it.

Man interacts with his environment for the pur­

pose of adapting to it and of adapting it to himself and to his purposes
so that the ends he conceives as being desirable may better be accomplish­
ed through this reciprocal interaction.

He is an active being and as

such is constantly striving to secure his life against the uncertainties
of nature which in itself constitutes an on-going jrocess of change
from its present state to something dilferent.

It is not certain what

the outcome of the process of change will be, but man is the beneiiciary
of its results whether favorable or unfavorable.

He must interact with

96

it, and to the degree that he Interacts intelligently with it, i.e.,
after examining the component elements in a situation and framing ideas
as to what outcome he would prefer to see eventuate and so instituting
the necessary changes and modifications so as the more probably to
bring about those desired changes, to that degree he is able to exercise
snme control over nature and adapt on-going change to his need3. Within
this pattern of change, experience and interaction, language has a dis­
tinct place and performs various signiiicant functions.
For Dewey, however, the tenn 'language' is more inclusive than
merely words, either oral or written.

Ke explains that "...language in­

cludes more than oral and written speech.

Postures, pictures, monuments,

visual images, finger movements— anything deliberately and artificially
employed as a sign is, logically, l a n g u a g e . O n another occasion he
amplifies this idea and says, "...lanf;uage is taken in its widest sense,
a sense wider than oral and written speech.

It includes the latter.

But it includes also not only gestures but rites, ceremonies, monuments,
p
and the products of industrial and fine arts."
In this broader sense,
then, language may b^ almost anything which has a representative funotion as a sign of something else.

He does make a distinction between

natural and artificial signs and classifies 'verbal' language as arti­
ficial.

This distinction will be elaborated upon below.

Language

Its Origin and Status. Man, active and interacting, ut­

ters groans and other sounds and he gestures and points.

1John Dewey. How We Think. Boston:
pp. 230-231.

From these

D. C. Heath and Company, 1d22,

?John Dewey. Logic. The Theory of Inquiry. hew York:
Company, 193&» P*

Henry Holt and

97
coarse 'beginnings language developed.

"Language, signs and significance,

come into existence not by intent and mind but by over—flow, by-products,
in gestures and sound.

The story of language is the story of the use

made of these occurrences; a use that is eventual, as well as eventful."-^
There is nothing ideal or extra-worldly about the origin of language in
this view; language grew out of man's necessary experiencing and inter­
acting.

When these groans were perceived as distinct and indicative of

specific phases of behavior, language was there.

"These vocalizations

are perceived and sorted out so that certain parts of the organic over­
flow of activity represent certain aspects of adjustive behavior."^
He explains the unintentional aspect of the origin of language in
another instance by saying;
Men did not intend language; they did not have social objects con­
sciously in view when they began to talk, nor did they have granna—
tical and phonetic principles before them by which to regulate thftir
efforts at cormnunication. These things came after the fact and be­
cause of it. Language grew out of unintelligent babblings, instinct­
ive motions called gestures, and the pressure of circumstance.?
Yet mere sounds and mere gestures in themselves do not constitute
language.

If they did, the lower anii.ials through their cries and shrieks

might better be able to communicate with one another than man.

These

signs, whether visual or auditory, became language "...only when used
within a context of mutual assistance and direction.

The latter are

alone of importance in considering the transformation of organic gestures
^John Dewey. Experience and Nature. Chicago; Open Court Publishing
Company, 1925, P*
^Alfred S. Clayton. "Dewey's Theory of Language with Some Implications
for Educational Theory." In Essays for John Dewey's Ninetieth Birthday.
Ed. Kenneth D. Benne and
0. Stanley. Urbana, Illinois: Bureau of
Research and Service, College of Education, University of Illinois, 1R50,
p. h?.
5Joh n Dewey.
H u m a n N a t u r e ana
pany, 1°?2, p. 79*

Conduct.

New York;

H e n r y Holt a n d

Com­

98

and cries into names, thing9 with significance, or the origin of lan­
guage. "6

Dewey explains further that this signalling, as he calls it,

has significance for the observer as when an infant cries as an over­
flow; this cry has no intent beyond itself but is interpreted by a de­
voted mother as having a meaning.

The infant has no purpose in terms

of securing something and itB crying, if it did not serve as a stimulus
to an observer, would not constitute language as Dewey conceives of it.
It is a condition that has to be fulfilled but it is not a sufficient
condition.
This sufficient condition is that nutual comuunication is estab­
lished between the actor and the observer.

The actor, that is, the

person who utters a sound or makes a gesture, does it intentionally
and with a purpose and the observer of that sound or gesture responds
in terms of the actor's point of view.

If the observer responds as

the actor indicates, there is understanding, there is sharing of the
same idea, there is communication.
guage is being used.

Gnly then can it be said that la>»

Dewey explains:

Such is the essence an.: <report of communi cation, signs and meaning.
Something is literally made common in at least two different cen­
tres of behavior. To understand is to anticipate together, it is
to make a cross-reference which, when acted upon, brings about a
partaking in a common, inclusive, undertaking.7
A sharing of the meaning of such signs by both actor and observer is es­
sential for signs to be language.

This meaning attached to a sign dis­

tinguishes human from animal behavior.
ing to the behavior in question.

kjohn Dewey.

"But the behavior of which it is a

Sxperience and Nature.

7 Ibid.. p. 178.

Meaning is thus something belong­

Op. cit., p. 17b,

99

duality is a distinctive behavior; cooperative, in that response to an­
other’s act involves contemporaneous response to a thing as entering
into the other's behavior, And this upon both sides."8

It is apparent

that language is "...a strictly biological mode of behavior, emerging
in natural continuity from earlier organic activities, while, on the
other hand, it compels one individual to take the standpoint of other
individuals and to see and innuire from a standpoint that is not strict­
ly personal but is common to them as participants or 'parties' in a con­
joint undertaking."9
'.That language or set of symbols or signs a particular individual
uses is dependent upon the cultural conditions in which he is reared.
An infant will learn the signs and symbols of those about him if he is
to enter into any real communication with them.

To build up an indi­

vidual system of symbols, as small children sometimes do, is too im­
practical for purposes of communication; it is much more convenient to
adopt the symbols in common use by those with whom a person comes into
contact.

The meaning of symbols must be established between those en­

gaging in comrirunication.
standing.

Without common meanings there is misunder­

Dewey explains this feature in relation to differing cultures

in saying:
...the meaning is established by agreements of different persons
in existential activities having reference to existential conse­
quences. The particular existential sound or mark that stands for
dog or justice in different cultures is arbitrary or conventional
in the sense that although it has causes there are no reasons for
it. But in so far as it is a medium of communication, its meaning

g I b i d . . p.

179 »

9 j o h n Dew e y .

L o g i c . , O p . c i t . , p.

^-b.

100

is common, because it is constituted by existential conditions.
If a word varies in meaning in intercommunication between different
cultural groups, then to that degree communication is blocked and
miaunderstanding results. Indeed, there ceases to be communication
until variations of understanding can be translated, throu^i the
meaning of words, into a meaning that is the same to both parties.
:any cultures have their own language, a language often peculiar only
to their own particular culture.

And so language "...is itself a cul­

tural institution, and, from one point of view, is but one among many
such institutions."^
Language then has a physical existence of its own.
sounds, marks, a statue, or a machine.

It consists of

"For symbols and language are

objective event? in human experience." 1? However, when any symbol is
used as a symbol, it is n^t its physical existence that bears the significatory power but rather the fact that it operates in coronunication
as representative of something else or as a meaning*
The particular physical existence which has meaning is, in the case
of speech, a conventional matter. But the convention or con: ton con­
sent which sets it apart as a means of recording and cona uni eating
meaning is that of agreement in action; of shared modes of respon­
sive behavior and participation in their consequences.
Lest there be confusion about language, i:. particular as it relates
to verbal language, Dewey di st ingui shes between 'sign1 ana 'symbol*.
'Sign' refers to natural events or objects a? signs, as smoke is a sign
of fire or a cloud may be a sign that it will rain.

'Symbol' he reserves

for designating artificial signs such as woras, numbers, oral sounds.

I0Ibid.. p. 47.
11Ibin., ]. 4R.
12Ibid.. p. P54.
^ Ibid.. p. 46.

101

This distinction does not imply that either Is subordinate to the othei;
for as signs both function as indications of something else.
ITatural signs have their limitations in terms of efficient living
and thinking.

They tend to distract attention from the thing designated

to themselves and may lead to mi sunderstanding.

They occur only when

tiiey occur and at other times man would be without the meanings they
signify; he has to wait for nature to present them.

Finally, since

they were not originally intended to be signs, many are large and un­
wieldy so as to make any kind of manipulation difficult.

Artificial

signs, symbols, have several advantages in their favor.

Since their

value as physical objects is slight, attention may well be focused up­
on their value as signs of something else.

Their presence is possible

at any time since their production is under man's control.

Man cannot

easily make a cloud, but he can ma2<e the sound or write the word as he
pleases.
ient.

Finally, artificial signs are small, easily handled, conven­

Compared with a gesture, phonation is a very small matter and

reouires a minimum of effort.

For purposes of dealing in ideation,

then, natural signs are far too inconvenient and cumbersome and symbols
more desirable. IS’
;iow the efficient use of language necessitates that the same word
should have relatively the same meaning to all people.

Granted that

there is much misunderstanding between people, yet there is much stabil­
ity of meaning, a necessity for effective communication.
of fact.

^ I b i d . . p.

51.

J o h n Dewey.

H o w We T h i n k .

0 p » cit_. , pp*

2 3 1 — 233*

As a matter

102

...the social necessity of meanings that are the same for two per­
sons in spite of differences in their experiences and their condi­
tions of life is one of the chief forces in standardizing meanings.
...Each of our entire list of common nouns always refers to the
same objects, in spite of differences of place, time, and other
conditions of experience.^
Dewey does not deny, of course, that it is possible to shift the mean­
ing of a symbol in the course of a discussion.

The obvious remedy i3

to take stock of the new meaning and be sure that all parties to the
common discussion are aware of the new or revised meaning currently in
use.

It is not possible to have a strictly correlative relationship

between a word and that which it represents.

Dewey specifically em­

phasizes this precaution about language in saying that "...there is not
possible any such thing as a direct one-to-one correspondence of names
with existential objects; that words mean what they mean in connection
with conjoint activities that effect a common, or mutually participated
in, consequence."^
On the other hand, words as individual words in isolation are not
a part of a language.

"Any word or phrase has the meaning which it has
IS

only as a member of a constellation of related meanings."

Words axe

part of an extensive system of symbols and can function in a represent­
ative capacity only in conjunction with other members of that system.
They are part of a cohesive system made possible by the activities of
a group, by the customs, institutions, and interests of a group.

Dewey

calls such a system common sense as distinguished from science.

In the

lfaIbid., p. 151.
^ J o h n Dewey.
18Ibid., p. 49.

Logic.

Op. cit.. p. 53»

latter, language must be examined and tested for its express relation
to other members of the system.

Scientific language is intellectual,

precise, and its "meanings are related to one another in inference and
discourse" and "the symbols are such as to indicate the relation." 19
In the former, meanings are not so precise; they contain much that is
irrelevmt, and many meanings may be inconsistent with one another.
Meanings may vary from the various contexts within which they are used,
i.e., they mean one thing with relation to conversation on business,
something else in a religious situation, and still something else in
an educational setting.

Scientific language is thus more exact and per­

mits of fewer mi sunderstandings than does the language of common sense.
The Functions of Language.
concern with meanings.
repository of meanings.

It was implied above that words have

One function of language then is that it is a
In this connection Dev.ey says that a word acts

as a fence, a label, and a vehicle.

As a fence it "puts limits around

the meaning, draws it out from the void, makes it stand out as an entity
on its own account."

20

It thus circumscribes an area of meaning and

restricts its use to that area.

As a label it fixes the meaning to

itself so that henceforth it represents that meaning and may be repro­
duced without the presence of thr>t for which it stands.

It is admitted

that sometimes these meanings may change, but there seems to be suffic­
ient stability to words as labels to enable communication by their use
to continue with reasonable facility.

1 - I b i d . , p.

As a vehicle language permits

51 -

ohn Dev.ey.

H o w *ye Think.

Op.

c i t . , p.

233»

lOh

the transfer of a meaning from an old context to a new one*
To be able to use the past to judge and infer the new and unknown
implies that, although the past thing has gone, its meaning abides
in such a way as to be applicable in determining the character of
the new. Speech forms are our great carriers, the easy—running
vehicles by which meanings are transported from experiences that
no longer concern us to those that are as yet dark and dubious. ^
Language and Mind*

The last statement above has a significant

bearing on the emergence of mind.

Since Dewey defines mind as "pre­

cisely intentional purposeful activity controlled by perception of
22
facts and their relationships to one another,"
mind has to do with
manipulation of objects according to their meaning in a situation.
Transfer of meaning through language and its reapplication in another
context of meaning "is the key to all jud^nent and inference."

23

Mean­

ings are selected and applied; ideas arise and are pursued in dramatic
rehearsal of the foreseen consequences; tninking takes place*

"Through

speech a person dramatically Identifies himself with potential acts and
deeds; he plays many roles, not in successive stages of life but in a
contemporaneously enacted drama.

Thus mind emerges."

The relation­

ship of language to thinking, to intelligence, to mind is thus clearly
indicated.

As the stock of meanings increases and becomes available

for future use mind grows; action in future becomes more intelligent,
thinking becomes more adequate, and the pattern of inquiry more

?1Ibid., pp. 234-2^5.

??.Tohn Dewey. Democracy and Education.
pany, 121o, p. 120.

New York:

Tne Macmillan Com­

Op. cit.. p. 234.

^ J o h n Dewey.

How We Think.

* ^ J o h n Dewey.

Experience and N ature.

O p . c i t .. p.

170.

105

complicated in the fact that more data Is available for establishing
the facts of the case and that more ideas

arise relative to possible

solutions tothe difficulty.
Even more, symbolization effects a change in both the knower and
in his relationship with what is known.
The brute events and happenings of organic interaction are converted
through the addition of meanings into objects of knowledge. A
change occurs in the relationships between organism and events which
remakes the basic nature of their interaction. Knowing makes a
real difference not only inside the knower but also in the exist­
ential field of energy which defines the thing known. Hew potenti­
alities are unleashed. Mind, the functioning of the organism by
means of symbols, creates a new order of energies which was not
there before. It is a creative intelligence which emerges within
the totally natural order and in so doing changes that order into
something that was not there before.^5
In this same connection Dewey says, "Where communication exists, things
in acquiring meaning, thereby acquire representatives, surrogates, signs
and implicates, which are infinitely more amenable to management, more
permanent and more accommodating, than events in their first estate.
Thus experience is transformed into new meanings and relationships so
that a new and different conception of them comes into being in the
knowing subject.

With it comes a new and more adequate appreciation of

them such that their import in the affairs of living and inquiry becomes
more apparent.

Implied in the above paragraphs is the idea that language makes
reasoning possible.

It enables inference and conceptualization.

DewBy

explains*
When events have communicable meaning, they have marks, nota­
tions, and are capable of con-notation and de-notation. They are

?^Alfred S. Clayton.
^kjohn Dewey.

"Dewey's Theory of Language."

0j£. bit.*, p.L&-43.

Experience and Nature. Op. cit_., p. Ib7»

10b

more than mere occurrences; they have implications. Hence infer­
ence and reasoning are possible; these operations are reading the
message of things, which things utter because they are involved
in hasten associations. 7
Fiatt emphasizes this point in stating, "Granting that reasoning oper­
ates with ideas or concepts, it does so only by the manipulation of
symbols arranged as terms, propositions, and the like.
thought without language behavior.”^

There is no

Symbols make groupings of ideas

possible so that even these groupings can be related to one another*
Words are parts of sentences.

To cite Dewey on this point again:

Propositions, sentences bear the same relation to judgments that
distinct words, built up mainly by analyzing propositions in their
various types, bear to meanings or conceptions; and just as words
imply a sentence, so a sentence Implies a larger whole of consecu­
tive discourse into which it fits. ••• The chief intellectual
classifications that constitute the working capital of thought
have been bul 11 up for us b£ our mother tongue. ^
Language— Instrumental and Sonsummatory.

Dewey states further

thf*t language is both instrumental as well as consuromatory.
instrumental in that it is

It is

means of concerted action for an end....""^

Again he says, "Communication is an exchange watch procures something
wanted; it involves a claim, appeal, order, direction or request, which
realizes want at less cost than personal labor exacts, since it pro­
cures the cooperative assistance of others.

It is in this sense

the medium through and by which a course of action is instigated, di­
rected, and controlled.

It is con sumiaatory in that it may be enjoyed

g7lbid.. p. 17h.
Donald A. Piatt. "Dewey’s Logical Theory." In the Philosophy of John
Dewey. 2d. Paul A. Schilpp. Hew York: Tudor Publishing Company, 1951.
p. 12?.
^9john Dewey. How We Think. Op. cit., p. 235»
3 0 j o h n Dewey.
5 1 I b i d .. p.

E x p e r i e n c e and Na t u r e .

183.

0p»

c i t . , p.

lSh.

107

for its own sake.

"The dance is accompanied by song and becomes the

drama; scenes of danger and victory are most fully savored when they
are told.

Greeting becomes a ceremonial with its prescribed rites.

Literary forms and figures of speech are discovered and treasured for
their own beauty.

Even scientific discourse may have its own fascina—

ti on despite the fact that abstract thinking is generally regarded as
difficult.

"In view of the importance of such activities and its ob­

jects, it is a priceless gain when it becomes an intrinsic delight.
Few would philosophize if philosophic discourse did not have its own
inhering fascination."33
Language is also the repository for the experiences of the race.
Considered in its widest sense, language
is the mediiun in which culture exists and through which it is trans­
mitted. Phenomena that are not recorded cannot even be discussed.
Language is the record that perpetuates occurrences and renders
them amenable to public consideration. On the other hand, ideas
or meanings that exist only in symbols that are not coraiounicable
are fantastic beyond imagination. ... Neither inquiry nor the most
formal set of symbols can escape from the cultural matrix in which
they live, move and have their being.3
Since it is the repository of the experiences of history, it is
the chief means of transmitting the culture to later generations.

On

the one hand, "By it we are led to share vicariously in past human ex­
perience, thus widening and enriching the experience of the present."35
Vere it not for this fact, each person would have to experience every-

5gIbid.. pp. l?3-l^i+»
33pbid_., p. ?03.
3^John Dewey.

Logic. Op. cit., p. 20.

35John Dewey.

Democracy and Education.

0£. cit., p. 45.

108

thin^ for himself directly; there could be no accumulation of experi­
ence; man would be in the position of an animal.

It is thus a time-

hinder, tying the present with the past so that previous experience is
available to provide information and background for judging proposals
about future action.

The other facet is that it is a medium of trans­

mission of previous experience.

It is the vehicle which is most eco­

nomical for transmitting information spatially or temporally.

It is

no wonder, then, that Dewey says of it, "Of all affairs, communication
is the most wonderful."
3are in Using Language. Yet the use of language is also fraught
with certain dangers and limitations.

Dewey observes that linguistic

symbols can function in their representative capacity only for such a
person as has had the kind of experience to which these meanings are
relevant.

Unless these experiences have first been undergone, the

meanings will to that extent be shallow end lead to only a superficial
appreciation.
a meaning.

Familiarity with a thine; is essential to understanding

Learning mere words means that

there

isno significantun­

derstanding; "...ability to repeat catch-phrases, cant terms, familiar
propositions, gives the conceit of learning and coats the mind with a
varnish waterproof to new i d e a s . A second dilticulty is that while
new id^-as may be derived from reading the writings of others or irom
listening to their speeches, there is a limit to this process.

If such

ideas are accepted without the intervention of physical things to which
they relate and without pursuing the process of inquiry, mental laziness

^^\John D e w e y .

Fxperience and N a t u r e .

-^7john D e w e y .

H o w We T h i n k .

O p « c l t ., p.

O p . c i t ., p. 237»

lbo.

109
results.

This procedure does not further inquiry; it arrests it.

the ideas of other persons are substitutes for one* s own ideas.

Then
Dewey

adds:
The use of linguistic studies and methods to halt the human mind on
the level of the attainments of the pastt to prevent new inquiry and
discovery, to put the authority of tradition in place of the author­
ity of natural facts and laws, to reduce the individual to a para­
site living on the secondhand experience of others— these things
have been the source of the reformers' protest against the preemin­
ence assigned to language in schools*3®
A. third difficulty occurs when symbols are manipulated without awareness

of stoat it is they signify.

Then they are mere pawns with no attention

paid to their worth as bearers of meaning.

The assumption accompanying

such manipulation seems to be that, by this handling of the words, that
which is designated by them is also changed.

The result is that symbols

are changed and rearranged but there is no accompanying change in the
things designated by them.

"...words that originally stood for ideas

come, with repeated use, to be mere counters; they become physical things
to be manipulated according to certain rules or reacted to by certain
operations without consciousness of their meaning.
Educ-tion and Language.

XQ

Dewey explains thr.t language has a two-

tola relationship to the work of the school:

on the one hand it is the

medium by which all studies are conducted, including the social rela­
tionships within the school, and on the other it is a subject of study
in and of itself.

In the former sense it has several purposes, namely:

The primary motive for language is to influence (through the expres­
sion of desire, emotion, and thought) the activity of others; its

^Loc. cit

110

secondary use is to enter into more intimate sociable relations with
them; its employment as a conscious vehicle of thought and knowledge
is a tertiary, and relatively late, formation.1^
The problem of the school 1b to transform language into an intellectual
tool so that students can use it with facility and ease.

Again Dewey

emphasizes thi3 point in this way, "That problem is. to_ direct pupils'
oral and written speech, used primarily for practical and social ends.
so that gradually it shall become a conscious tool of conveying know—
ledge and assisting thought.
He further points out that it is a relatively easy matter to encour­
age a free and spontaneous flow of words, even to establish accepted
modes of expression in certain areas of endeavor.

This may in some

cases be desirable but it is not the important aspect of language usage.
What is important is that the student's habits of language usage are s o
reconstructed and developed that the language is used to express more
exactly the ideas he has, to be more precise in his meanings so as to
be the more able to receive communication with more specific understand­
ing as well as to communicate more precisely the meaning? he himself
has.
He says three things are essential if this objective is to be ac­
complished.^2

The first of these three is to enlarge the vocabulary.

Since this enlarging occurs as a result of wide experience either di­
rectly or indirectly, through actual contact with persons and things,
or through determining the meanings of words from the context in vdiich

*+°Ibid.. p. 239^ Loc. cit.
42Ibid.. pp. 240-24b.

Ill

they are used, it follows that this area of contact must he broadened,
here acquaintance is not enough, for it results in shat is usually called
a passive vocabulary, an acquaintance without a real appreciation for
the significance of the word, a reading vocabulary but not an active
one capable of being used either in writing or speaking.

Such an ac­

quaintance indicates that the word has not become a part of that person
and that its meaning is still somewhat unclear.

Carelessness and sloven­

ly habits may account for a small stocx of words; addiction to the use
of substitute words or slang likewise suggests an inert mind or an en­
vironment not conducive to enlarging the bounds of a vocabulary.

3ut

mere fluency and glibness are also undesirable, for they may indicate
a certain familiarity with a limited subject area but do not necessarily
assure a real appreciation even of those areas nor do they indicate
familiarity with anything beyond the small sphere.

Even volubility

about the subject matter of one's work in the classroom may suggest
that such freedom of expression has its limits within a small area.
The second step necessary to make language an intellectual tool is
to make the meanings of words more precise.

V.'ords are at first usually

vague and general in their meaning because underlying them is but a
superficial acquaintance with whatever they represent.

These meanings

become differentiated and more exact as experience widens so that trees
are distinguished as shade trees, fruit trees, as maple, elm, and oak.
Growth toward specificity occurs in two directions, one toward more
concrete designations of individualized traits, the other toward ab­
stract words designating exact relationships.
for adequacy and fullness.

Both strands roust develop

In either case it is not to be assumed tnat

familiarity with a more specific word is the same as having a lull

112
sense of the idea of that word.

If that exact idea is grasped, the

learning of the word for it, that word which names that shade of mean­
ing and none other, will help to fix the clarity of the idea.
The third step in improving language facility is to form habits of
consecutive discourse.
dividual words.

It is not enough to select and differentiate in­

For effective communication it is necessary to fashion

the words into phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, and even larger
units.

VTith this facility persons may perform the task of inquiry and

reasoning by manipulation of symbols.

Only with this facility can per­

sons carry through long and intricate problems involving serious reflec­
tive thinking.

Unfortunately, teachers frequently operate a classroom

so as to prevent the development of this facility.

If the teacher does

all of the talking in class and the student may be permitted merely to
supply a few short answers to questions, the student has no opportunity
to practice whatever language skills he already has.

Frequently, too,

lessons are so short as to involve only a few details, to show no rela­
tions, to seem to have no direction or objective; they neither call for
nor enable any procedure comparable to reasoning to take place.

Finally

Dewey mentions the habit of some teachers to concentrate upon correcting
errors to the extinction of continuous discourse not only because of the
interruptions but also because the attacks upon every error direct the
student’s attention away from the discourse itself to its mechanics;
the student becomes self-conscious about them instead ol devoting his
energies to the discourse which served as the starting point of the dis­
cussion.

When this happens, interest in the topic under discussion

wanes, and discouragement is almost certain to ensue.

H3
Dewey denies that learning and using language for acquiring and con­
veying meanings is in conflict with the principle that meanings are
gained by using things in action.

Words are first learned by virtue of

their being used in a joint action by, let us say, a parent and child,
-ecause the sound was employed in connection with doing a thing, the
child and the parent have the same idea, they share the same meaning for
the word.

In rending, the reader shares imaginatively the meaning the

author had at the time of writing.

Admittedly, this process is not as

clear or as easy as a direct participation with someone else in the
sharing of the manipulation of an object.

Dewey comments on the dif­

ficulty involved:
Then words do not enter as factors into a shared situation, either
overtly or imaginatively, they operate as pure physical stimuli,
not as having a meaning or intellectual value. They set activity
running in a groove, but there is no accompanying conscious pur­
pose or meaning. Thus, for example, the ^lus sign may be a stintulus to perform the act of writing one number under another and
adding the numbers, but the person performing the act will oper­
ate much as an automaton would unless he realizes the meaning of
whet he does. 3
He does grant that "Informational statements about things can be ac­
quired in relative isolation by anyone who previously has had enough
intercourse with others to have learned the language."

The immediately

succeeding sentence, however, emphasizes activity again.

"But reali­

zation of the meaning of the linguistic signs is quite another matter.

Ijc:

That involves a context of work and play in association with others."^
He explains that "hlaygrounds, shops, workrooms, laboratories not only

H\ Tohn Dewey.

Democracy and Education.

44Ibid.. p. hlo.
^Loc.

cit.

Op. cit.. p. 19.

11^
direct the natural active tendencies of youth, hut they involve inter­
course, communication, cooperation,— all extending the perception of

hb

connection*"

Thus, even though some language may be learned in rela­

tive isolation from connection with matters in hand, the appreciation
of meanings can be attained only through active dealing with those affa ir 3•
As a matter of fact, Dewey identifies communication with education*
In the context of social life as it relates to education, he makes this
unequivocal statement, "Not only is social life identical with conmunication, but all communication (and hence all genuine social life) is
educative.

To be a recipient of a communication is to have an enlarged

14,7

and changed experience." '

He explains that in order to communicate a

fact to someone it i 3 necessary to get outside of that fact, look at
it as he would probably see it, look at it in terms of his probable
experience with it or something similar, and then formulate it in such
a way that he with his background of experience will be able to under­
stand it.

To do this it is essential to assimilate somewhat of the

Tther person's experience into one's own; otherwise one cannot under­
stand how the other person will view it.

This process is educative in

itself, for the very process will result in changing one's own attitude
toward the idea as he is trying to see it through the eyes of another
person.

In this way then communication itself is educative.

A further implication of this theory of language is that there is
no worthy distinction between learning through doing or learning through
verbal symbols, or put in another way, between cultural and practical

115
subjects.

Clayton summarizes this view in the following comments:

Professor Dewey's thought does not call for opposition between
learning by doing and learning through the use of word symbols.
It is highly critical of educational theories which emphasize the
intellectual and the cultural at the expense of the practical and
vocational and which therefore tend to separate the activities of
gaining a livelihood from the more refined activities appropriate
to a more privileged class.
In fact, if actual first-hand acquaintance is prior to adequate reali­
zation of meanings, it is necessary to begin with materials at hand
before turning attention to printed material which states a background
for tbs present.

Hence, the immediate materials relevant to the prob­

lem at hand are of first importance and form the background for what­
ever reading needs to be done.

Without this prior experience there is

no meaning to which read material can be related, understood and appre­
ciated.
Summary.

These are the chief considerations having to do with

Dewey’s conception of the origin, nature, and educational implication
of language.

His high regard for language and for its importance in

the civilized world compels him to eulogize it at various places and
in various ways, not the least of which is the following:

"As to be a

tool, or to be used as means for consequences, is to have and to endow
with meaning, language, being the tool of tools, is the cherishing
mother of all significance."^

^ A l f r e d S. Clayton.
^ J o h n Dewey.

"Dewey's Theory of Language."

Experience and ITature.

Op., cit., p. U4.

0 p » cit., p. 18b.

CHAPTER V
VALUE Ii: EXPERIMENTAL ISM
Chapter Two described experience as being fundamental to the pro­
cess of inquiry and then explained the process of inquiry itself.

The

point was made that man, being continuous with and a part of nature,
need not go outside of experience to explain his place and function
within life-processes.

Chapter Three set forth, again based upon the

process of experiencing and of inquiry, the way knowledge is attained,
whnt its limitations are, and how it is to be treated.
The present Chapter aims to present first, the basic concepts of
the experimentalist with regard to value, or what man may regard as
desirable in the process of life-experiencing.

The second portion will

describe how these values may be arrived at and what qualities and
limitations attach to then once they are determined.

And finally these

principles will be applied, from the experimentalist point of view, to
education.
The Concept of Value.
sophical discussion.

The terra 'value' has two meanings in philo­

One is concerned with prizing something which has

a value of some sort but which does not include reference to other ob­
jects of either a like or unlike nature.

The other refers to aspects

of appraisal, that is, making a choice as to which of two or more objects
is the more significant for present purposes, establishing a relationship
between the objects pertinent to the attaining of an objective.

The

former has a personal—emotional and the latter an intellectual connotation*

H7
rewey says, "...to value means to weigh, appraise, estimate; to evalu­
ate— a distinctly intellectual o p e r a t i o n . H e thus makes a distinction
between the verbs 'value* and *evaluate.*

He explains his point of view

most aptly when he states:
...when attention is confined to the usage of the verb *to value’,
we find that common speech exhibits a double usage. For a glance
at the dictionary will show that in ordinary speech the words
•valuing* and 'valuation' are verbally employed to designate both
prlzing. in the sense of holding precious, dear (and various other
nearly equivalent activities, like honoring, regarding highly), and
appralsing in the sense of putting a value upon, assigning value
to. This is an activity of rating, an act that involves comparison,
as is explicit, for example, in appraisals in money terms of goods
and services. ... For in prizing, emphasis falls upon something
having definite personal reference, which, like all activities of
distinctively personal reference, has an aspectual quality called
emotional. Valuation as appraisal, however, is primarily concerned
with a relational property of objects so that an intellectual as­
pect is uppermost of the same general sort that is found in 'esti­
mate' as distinguished from the personal-emotional word 'esteem.'^
Dewey distinguishes intrinsic from instrumental values.

If some­

thing has intrinsic value, it is not subject to comparison with some­
thing else of value; it has its own value, or it may be said that it is
invaluable, "and if a thing is invaluable, it is neither more nor less
so than any other invaluable."^

On the other hand, when a choice is

necessary in the course of activity, there comes about an "...order of
ireference, a greater and less, better and worse.

Things judged or

passed upon have to be estimated in relation to some tnird thing, some

Ijohn Dewey. Logic. The Theory of Inquiry.
Company, 1938# P* 17?*
2John Dewey. "Theory of Valuation."
Unified Science. Vol. II, No. 4.
Chicago Press, 1°3°, P«

^John Dewey.

:iew York:

In International Fncyclopedia of
Chicago: The University of

D emocracy and Fducation. New York:

pany, lQlb, p. ?79«

Henry Holt and

The liacmillan ooivi—

further end.

With respect to that, they are means, or instrumental

1|
values."

In the subsequent discussion it will become apparent that

Dewey is chiefly concerned with instrumental values.

He recognizes in­

trinsic values, but since they have no end beyond themselves, it seems
sufficient to recognize them for what they are; further discussion is
not especially called for.
The appraising of instrumental values happens in the process of
man'8 interacting with an environment.

If he is active— and according

to the experimentalist view iuan is active— then, following the method
of incuiry, he regards the present state of affairs as being unsatisfac­
tory and seeks to re-arrange affairs so as to be more satisfying.
this point 'liking* and 'disliking' enter in.

At

There is dislike of the

present state of things in that they are not compatible with ends-inview.

Vhen then there is activity directed in j-ursuit of a more satis­

factory state of affairs, 'desire' enters into 'valuing'.

Dewey comments

"Because valuations in the sense of prizing and caring for occur only
when it is necessary to bring something into existence which is lacking,
or to conserve in existence something wr.ich is menaced by outside con­
ditions, valuation involves desiring."5

Thus desiring iB more than mere

wishing, i.e., wishing designating tdiat is usually called 'wishful think­
ing'.

Desires, then, if they are of significance in action, are not com­

plete in and of themselves but are such only when they are functioning
in the context out of which they arise.

There is the further distinction

UIbid., p. 280.
^John Dewey. "Theory of Valuation."
In International Encyclopedia of
Unified Science. Op. cit.. p. 15*

119
that desires as conceived by the experimentalist are more than mere en­
joying, because 'enjoying* in an inactive sense refers to receiving
gratification from something already existent and in an active sense
refers to perpetuating "the existence of conditions from which gratifi­
cation is received.
Desires in so far as they relate to existential contexts in which
a lack of some sort is seen to be evident have these characteristics,
according to Dewey:
(i) The content and object of desires are seen to depend upon the

particular context in which they arise, a matter that in turn de­
pends upon the antecedent state of both personal activity and of
surrounding conditions. ... (li) Effort, instead of being something
that comes after desire, is seen to be of the very essence of the
tension involved in desire. For the letter, instead of being
merely personal, is an active relation of the organism to the en­
vironment..., a factor that makes the difference between genuine
desire and mere wish and fantasy.^
Because situations in which desires operate are open to observation and
appraisal in terms of the consequences of an act, "the adequacy of a
g

given desire can be stated in propositions."
It is aj-parent th.°t values, in this view, are not values unless
they result from intelligent action, action involving recognition of
the consequences of that act.

"...to call an object a value is to as-

q

sert that it satisfies or fulfills certain c o n d i t i o n s . T o know whether
or not an action fulfills those conditions involves knowledge of inter­
action.

Dewey again explains:

k lbid.. p. 14.
7Ibid., p. lb.
8Ibid., p. 17 *
9 j o h n Dewey.
Coraj^ny,

The p u e s t f o r
1 9 2 9 , p.

260 .

Certainty.

N e w York:

I.Iinton, B a l c h a n d

120
If we know the conditions under which the act of liking, of desire
and enjoyment, takes place, we are in a position to know what are
the consequences of that act. The difference between the desired
and the desirable, admired and admirable, becomes effective at just
this point. Consider the difference between the propositions "That
this has been eaten,' and the judgment 'That thing is edible.' The
former statement involves no knowledge of any relation beyond that
stated; while we are able to judge of the edibility of anything only
when we have a knowledge of its interactions with other things suf­
ficient to enable us to foresee its probable effects when it is
taken into the organism and produces effects there.
From the foregoing the definition of the 'good' readily follows.
"an lives in an environment in which he has both to adapt himself to his
environment and the environment to himself.

The outcome of his action

is not always secure nor is it necessarily the ultimate of what he seeks.
Thus, "The potential better will...be regarded as the good— and the only
good— of any situation, a statement as applicable to scientific inquiry
as to any moral matter."^

From the standpoint of the pattern of in­

quiry described in the chapters above the following definition seems
more clear:

"Good consists in the meaning that is experienced to belong

to an activity when conflict and entanglement of various incompatible
impulses and habits terminate in a unified orderly release in action."

12

rThis conception marks a clear departure from other philosophies which
assume an a priori good to which man must seek to conform, a good conceived as pre-established and given.. Rather good, as experimentally
conceived, is something to be brought about by interaction with an

^ Ibid. , p. 2bO.
^ John Dewey. "Txjerience, Knowledge and Value: A Rejoinder," in The
Fl.ilosophy of John Dewey. Sd. haul A. Schi1pp. New York: Tudor
lublishing Company, 1951, p. 589.
1 2 J o h n Dewey.
pany, 192?,

K .man N a t u r e a n d
p. 210.

Conduct.

N e w York:

H e n r y Hol t a n d Com­

121
environment, yet not something absolutely good for now and all subseouent times, but good as the preferred outcome of present activity and
inquiry.

And since the outcome of present inquiry is subject to revis­

ion in later inquiry, the good may also be revised at a later time.

It

is thus specific to the present inquiry, and while it may have general
application in future inquiry and action it is not to be completely de­
pended on just because it has been the good of a particular inquiry.
Childs explains the specificity and plurality of good when he says:
Undoubtedly one of the chief reasons for its /experimentalismT"
opposition to all attempts to set up some such final hierarchy of
values is rooted in its respect for the individual and the unique­
ness of his experiences and perspectives. This profound respect
for human individuality prompts experimentalism to resist the idea
that there is some universal pattern of goodness which can be dis­
covered and made into a final authoritative standard. Life is a
dynamic affair.
Individuals change, and the conditions in which
their lives are set also change. Hence goods are many and various.
How much any particular good is to be valued is conditioned by the
circumstances. It is relative to the actual needs and the possi­
bilities of those concerned. If a general principle be demanded,
the experimentalist says that is good which pronotes the growth and
happiness of individuals and does not interfere with the happiness
and growth of other individuals. But here, again, the principle doeB
not fix the end. Such a principle is a 'tool of insight.'
It
joints to the fundamental importance of the continuous task of find­
ing out in each situation that which is good and that which is bad.
It has value only to the degree that it males us more sensitive to
the actual factors that limit and thwart growth as well as to those
which lead to expansion and more effective control.^
Through the process of experiencing and of arriving at judgmental
values taste is built for a standard of excellence.
taste is at once the result an.
ing.

"Expertness of

the reward of constant exercise of think­

Taste, if we use the word in iti be.t sense, is the outcome of

experience brought cumulatively to bear on the intelligent appreciation

1 V o h n L. Childs. Education and the Fn ilo sopay of £xp erimental i sm.
New ^ork:
The Century Company, 1931* P» 227 •

122
of the real worth of likings and enjoyment s.1,1^
ing tastes is continuous and cumulative.

This process of build­

Through expressed tastes it

is possible to Judge a person's previous experience, hie likes and dis­
likes, for it is through them that he reveals himself most effectually.
For this reason they are so important.

"The formation of a cultivated

end effectively operative good judgment or taste with respect to what
is esthetically admirable, intellectually acceptable and morally ap—
provable is the supreme task set to human beings by the incidents of
experience."1^
It is from observing behavior "that the existence and description
of valuations have to be determined."1^

What a person will do in a

given set of circumstances reveals what that person's values are with
relation to the elements in that situation.

The discovery of compara­

tive strength of a person’s values may require continuous observation
over an extended period of time and over a variety of actions and choices
among actions before a particular aspect of his value system will be­
come clear.

Likewise, it not only reveals positive preferences but the

negative ones as well.

From such observation it becomes possible to

make statements or propositions about values.
'Tow when a proposition of appraisal is made, it sets forth the
conditions to be adhered to in future action in that regard.

It thus

establishes « norm which will serve to guide future action and to

1^John Dewey.

The Quest for Certainty.

0p» cit., p. 252.

^ Loc. cit.
l6John Dewey.
"Theory of Valuation." In International Encyclopedia
of Unified Science. Op. cit., p. 15*

123
assess the significance of such action.

Such "Appraisals of courses

of action as better and worse, more and less serviceable, are as exper­
imentally justified as are nonvaluative propositions aoout impersonal
subject matter."^

Yet they are also different from scientific general­

izations in that they are "rules for the use, in and by human activity,
of scientific generalizations as means for accomplishing certain de­
sired and intended ends."^®

Dewey points to the significance of these

facts when he says:
Examinations of these appraisals discloses that they have to do with
things as they sustain to each other the relation of means to ends
or consequences. Wherever there is an appraisal involving a rule as
to better or as to needed action, there is an end to be reached:
the appraisal is a valuation of things with respect to their service­
ability or needfulness.19
He explains, on the basis of examples he has already cited in this context, that real estate has a value set on it for the purposes of taxa­
tion, a medicine is valued in relation to its effectiveness in restoring
health.

The value placed upon an item depends upon its potential ef­

ficacy in producing a particular result.

How when a result has been ac­

complished, there is comparison of the actual result with the intended
result so that a judgment as to the appropriateness of the means can be
made.

Conduct is on the basis of such analysis determined to be appro-

; riate or inappropriate, wise or unwise.

Dewey summarizes this discus­

sion of the ends-means relationship in three propositions:

17Ibid., p. 22.
l^Ibid.. p. 23 .
^Loc.

cit.

121*
...(1) There are propositions which are not merely about valuations
that have actually occurred...but which describe and define certain
things as good, fit, or proper in a definite existential relation:
these propositions, moreover, are generalizations, since they form
rules for the proper use of materials. ^2} The existential rela­
tion in question is that of means-ends or means-consequences. (3)
These prepositions in their generalized form may rest upon scienti­
fically warranted empirical propositions and are themselves capable
of being tested by observation of results actually attained as com­
pared with those intended.2®
The significance of the above discussion lies in the means— end re­
lationship.

One might suspect that the end to be attained is the mea­

sure of the value of a thing.

Actually, Dewey says, "In empirical fact,

the measure of the value a person attaches to a given end is not what
he says about its preciousness but the care he devotes to obtaining
and using the means without which it cannot be attained." 21

Thus he

denies the notion that ends are ends in and of themselves from which
follows the idea that such ends are so important as to Justify any means.
Dewey's position also denies the separation of means from consequences
as to value.
he says:

Such a sharp separation he calls fanaticism, about which

"Any view which in the name of inherent difference in 'type'

between final and instrumental values sets up values per se, no matter
what consequences or 'ends' they are 'instrumental' to, tends in prac—
tical logic to promote f a n a t i c i s mPP
. " S u c h a separation of ends from
means does violence to the principles of interaction and the continuity
of experience.

So significant is this point that he says rather fore*,

fully:

20Ibid., p. 24.
21Ibid.. p. 27 ?2John Dewey.
"The Field of 'Value'". In Value A Cooperative Inquiry.
;;ew York: Columbia University Press, 19^9. P» 71*

125
If the lesson were learned that the object of scientific knowledge
is in any case an ascertained correlation of changes, it would be
seen, beyond the possibility of denial, that anything taken as end
is in its own content or constituents a correlation of the energies,
personal and extra-personal, which operate as means. An end as an
actual consequence, as an existing outcome, is like any other occur­
rence which is scientifically analyzed, nothing but the interaction
of the conditions which bring it to pass.^3
Method and Value.

In the preceding discussion it is apparent that

the means— consequence relationship has an important role in the experi­
mentalist theory of value.

Value thus lies in human experience, in the

process of interaction with the environment, in the area of human activ­
ity.

Dewey explicitly emphasizes this point when he says:

"...the

field in which value—facts belong is behavioral. so that the facts must
be treated in and by methods appropriate to behavioral subject matter." ?U
On another occasion he points out that "...all planned human conduct,

personal and collective, seems to be influenced, if not controlled, by

25

estimates of value or worth of ends to be attained."

That this con­

duct includes more than mere response to a fancy and that its essence
lies within the pattern of inouiry is apparent from the following des­
cription he gives of conduct:

"All conscious human life is concerned

with ends, and with selecting, arranging, and employing the means,

'33.John Dewey.
"Theory of Valuation." In International Encyclopedia of
Unified Science. Vo. II, ’To. 4. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Fress, 1939, P. 2d.
?i+John Dev.-ey. "The Field of 'Value'". In Value: A Cooperative Inquiry.
Ed. Uny Lepley, Uew Uorx:
Columbia University Press, 19^+9. P* o1**
ohn Dewey.
"Theory of Valuation."
In International Encyclopedia
of Unified Science. Op. cit., p. 2.

126

intellectual, emotional, and practical, involved in these ends."

pf.

Thus

values are significantly related to the method of intelligence in which
the progression is from an unsettled to a resolved situation through a
series of raeans-ends relationships.

Value enters in at the ^oint where

a choice of courses of notion must be made in terms of the end-in-view.
Deliberation, or inquiry, begins with an unclear situation and pro­
ceeds through observation of the facts of a case to a dramatic rehearsal
of the possible courses of action.

Impulses and habits are held in

check by deliberation so that in imagination each possibility can be
traced through to its own conclusion.

Finally, a choice is made as to

what to do, but it occurs, in genuine deliberation, only when "...the
various factors in action fit harmoniously together, when imagination
finds no annoying hindrance, when th°i> is a picture of open seas, filled
27

sails and favoring winds...." '
Choice is in this context "...the emergence of a unified preference
out of competing preferences."

2S

Deliberation thus leads to a choice of

some kind from among the possibilities in the circumst.-inces.

Not every

action, Lov.ever, results from genuine deliberation and to the extent
that such thoroughgoing deliberation has not preceded choice the result­
ing mode of action is unintelligent even though perhaps satisfying.
Choices, while common to ell individuals, become "...true choices under
the direction of insight."^

And insight occurs only when there is

^°John Dewey, and James H. Tufts.
Company, lHOg, p. 20*5•
^?John Dewey.

Hthics.

Human Nature and Conduct.

New York:

Henry Holt and

O p . cit., p. 192.

?8Ibid.. p. 193.
29 j o h n Dewey.

The g u e s t

for

Certainty.

O p . c i t . . p.?50.

127

understanding of the relations one to another of those objects pertin­
ent to an interaction.

Knowledge becomes of greater significance when

it is realized that choosing wisely or unwisely does make a difference.
Kn ow le dg e thus considered is an instrumentality enabling more adequate
choices to be made in the furtherance of 1 ife—processes and of growth.
Bewey explains:

do not for a moment suppose that the experience of the past, pen.
sonal and social, are of no importance. For without them we should
not be able to frame any ideas whatever of the conditions udder
which objects are enjoyed nor any estimate of the consequences of
esteeming and liking them. But past experiences are significant in
giving us intellectual instrumentalities of Judging Just these
points. They are tools, not finalities. Reflection upon what we
have liked and have enjoyed is a necessity. But it tells us noth­
ing about the value of these things until enjoyments are themselves
reflectively controlled, or, until, as they are not recalled, we
form the best judgment possible about what led us to like this sort
of tiling and what has issued from the fact that we like it.30
I

Choices are influenced by attitudes of admiration, enjoyment, es­
teem.

If deliberation is cut short and attitudes are allowed to guide

the action, conduct has no intelligent direction.

It is necessary,

therefore, to investigate the connection of things and so to estimate
their probable consequences.

Inquiry is inevitable.

Fast experience

in similar situations may be used as a guide when such connections as
have previously been established are formulated as principles or rule9.
But there are likely to b^ a variety of principles and rules with
greater or lesser differences into which or under which a present situ­
ation may more or less accurately fit.

Since all experiences are indi­

vidual and differ from one another, exact duplication will never occur.

7° Ibid.. p. 272

128
But the question of the applicabili ty of the rules and principles
at hand (however tested they have been) to the special situation in
question always enters in. Choice has to be made among them.
Con­
sequently, in order to obtain a grounded final judgment there also
has to be evaluation or appraisal of principles.3^
But choice must also operate so as to select from among desires
that one most compatible with the person* s objectives.

Childs observes

that desires do not occur singly in life and that in this multiplicity
of desires some are inconsistent with one another in an individual sit­
uation, others seem more potent; and then he points out that
The aim of intelligent inquiry is to help one find in the light of
all his desires or preferences that which he really wants, including the question of the type of person he desires to become and the
kind of society he wants to live in.
If one is to do this effect­
ively, it is important that he should have knowledge of the conse— ,
quences of the activities into which his desires would lead him....
Choice is a function of judgment and of intelligence.

A decision

is grounded only as there is an intelligent selection and arrangement
of those conditions which will iroduce an end-in-view.

Inquiry is in­

telligent to the degree in which it establishes the coniiections between
events so that some things are seen in their capacity of signifying
other things.

"... if we can judge events as indications of other

events, we can prepare in all cases lor the coming of what is antici­
pated."^

In another instance Dewey says:

"...the operations that

institute a 'this' as subject are always selective-restrictive of some­
thing from out of a larger field.

'.hat is selected and what is rejected

flows from an estimate of their probably evidential significance."^

31john Dewey.

Logic.. O p . cit.. p. 173«

32John L. Childs.
Education and the Fhilosophy ojf hxj erimental i sci.
Op . cit., p. 158.
33C’ohn Dewey.

The Cuest for Certainty.

3 ^ J o h n Dev-ey.

Logic.

O p . c i t .. p. 1?7»

O p « cit., p. 213*

129
The relationship of jud&nent to value is more precisely stated in these
words of Dewey:
..•all judgments of practice are evaluations, being occupied with
judging what to do on the basis of estimated consequences of cozw
ditions which, since they are existential, are going to operate in
any case. The more it is emphasized that direct enjoyment, liking,
admiration, etc., are themselves emotional-motor in nature, the
clearer it is that they are modes of action (interaction). Kence
a decision whether to engage or indulge in them in a given situa­
tion is a judgjaent of practice--of what should be done. 35
Judgments are not single in the process of inquiry.

"Judgment as

final settlement is dependent upon a series of partial settlements."36
This series of intervening judgments are propositions about the several
aspects or events involved in carrying inquiry toward a resolution of
the inquiry.

Now "The judgments by which propositions are determined

is recognized and marked off linguistically by such words as estimates.
appraisals. evaluation. "37

it is evident that appraisal or valuing is

involved in the entire process of inquiry.

It is an appraisal of the

means in that they are not only an evidential sign of other things but
also of their effectiveness in producing foreseen and desired consequences.
Fence, the definition of judgments about values clarifies and sums up
this relationship of values to judgment and to conduct:
.. .Judgments about values are Judgments about the conditions and the
result s of experienced objects: judgments about that which should reguln te the formation of our desires, affections and enjoyment s.
Appraising and valuing is thus intimately part and parcel of the
process of intelligent inquiry.

Valuing occurs throughout the process

55lbid.. p. 17^.
3hlbid. . p. 122.
37L o c . cit.

38.Tohn Dewey.

The Quest for Certainty.

0^. cit., p. 2o5.

130
and it? results are stated in the form of propositions about the worth
of objects a 8 means toward accomplishing an end-in-view.

It is also

through inquiry that values are discovered, a process that is o^en to
inspection by the public and verifiable by other investigators.
In order to make such intelligent choices it is necessary that
be free to make them.
of external restraint.

Freedom in this sense is more than mere absence
"Genuine freedom,

in short, is intellectual; it

rests in the trained power of thought, in ability to 'turn things over,'
to look at matters deliberately,

to judge whether the amount and kind of

evidence requisite for decision is at hand, and if not, to tell where
and how to seek such evidence."-9

Childs similarly explains:

"Cur acts

are free, not simply because they are not under constraint from others
but because they are becoming intelligent.
they grow in their grasp of meanings.

ho

tnink.11

They become intelligent as

Yfe become free as we learn to

It may well be thAt lack of restraint from the outside i^

one condition of being free; but the other side of the matter is that
unless one can handle the materials involved,

see them as evidences of

oth°r t:.in-:s and foresee consequences of possible actions, one is hemmed
in by this very lack and necessarily takes action motivated by impulse
or habit without exercising any choice or, if he can manipulate relation—
ships in an emoryonic way, his choice of action will probably be ill-ad­
vised and in large part unsatisfactory.

Thus the more intelligently he

can think find foresee, the more free he is.

John pewey.
p. 90.

How -.Ve Think.

Boston:

C. C. Heath and Company, 1933,

onn L. Childs.
Education and "orals.
Crofts, Inc., 1930, p. 151»

Hew York:

Appleton--Jentury-

131
Man begins with a certain natural freedom In that nature, as dis­
tinct from man, does not wage a total war against man*

Some aspects

of nature help him In his life processes, but many aspects of this help­
fulness are of an accidental nature and are therefore not completely
dependable.

hi

in Intelligent handling of nature and the environment

must step In to adapt nature to man's purposes.
to a greater freedom.
control the future.

In this way

attains

Dewey explains, "We do not use the present to
We use the foresight of the future to refine and

expand present activity.
In this use of desire, deliberation and choice,
H2
freedom is actualized."
Value In Education.

Education has been defined above as growth,

I.e., growth toward as full a measure of self-realization as the limi­
tations of heredity and environment permit.
developing and with life.

It has been identified with

Development is not Just development toward

anything or Just something but toward the maximum that the individual
can become in terms of his potentialities.

This point of view means,

then, "(1) that the educational process has no end beyond itself; it is
Its own end; and that (ii) the educational process is one of continual
reorganizing, reconstructing, transforming." J
has no alms unless it be more education.

Education, in other words,

"Only persons, parents, and

teachers, etc., have aims, not an abstract idea like education."

4ljohn Dewey.

Human Nature and Conduct.

Op» cit., pp. 30*>”307•

42Ibid., p. 313.
4^John Dewey.

Democracy and Education.

^ I b i d . , p. 125-

0p» cit., p. 59*

44

132
Since there are many different parents and

teachers, those purposes

will vary infinitely with parents, teachers, and the person who is in
the process of becoming educated.

Hence, it is impossible to state aims

which are binding for everyone at all times.

At best such statements

can be no more than suggestions for the educator in directing the choices
of experiences which he will utilize in teaching his pupil.

His aim will

then be to select from among the resources at his disposal and "...to
utilize these various conditions; to make his activities and their ener­
gies work together, instead of against one another,"4^ so that growth
and development can take place efficiently, so that the individual
undergoing the education will proceed from a less to a more complete
phase in his development.
The significance and quality of this development is also affected
by the degree of interest the individual has in its component experi­
ences.

If he is interested, he has a feeling of personal attachment

and concern with the outcome of an activity in so far as it will affect
his future.

The presence of such an interest indicates that the con­

nection between objects and events and aims is recognized; lack of interest signifies that such a connection remains unrecognized.
an interest is tantamount to recognizing a value.

4-b Having

Dewey explains, "...

there is no difference between speaking of art as an interest or concern
and referring to it as a value." '

^ Loc. cit.
46Ibid. , pp. ll+bff.
4^ Ibid.. p. 271*

The point has been made that learning occurs through the process
of experiencing, not of mere response to external stimuli, but of pur­
poseful, intelligent interaction with elements in an environment.

This

ounlification emphasizes the need of appreciation of an experience, a
recognition and a realization of its relation and importance.

Dewey

explains that much of the learning in school happens through vicarious
experience, the medium being language.

He points out that such exper­

iences are indirect and suffer from the lack of real appreciation by
reason of this indirectness, from the danger of misrepresentation or
misinterpretation through linguistic symbols, and from the danger that
language as the medium will become an end in itself and so result in
mere bookishness.

Should these possibilities become actualized, the

real appreciation of an experience will fail.

The real value is missed

and the significance has failed 'to sink in1.

The educational impor­

tance of this condition he elaborates clearly:
Before teaching can safely enter upon conveying facts and ideas
through the media of signs, schooling must provide genuine situa­
tions in which personal participation brings home the import of
the material and the problems which it conveys. From the stand­
point of the pupil, the resulting experiences are wortn while on
their own account; from the standpoint of the teacher, they are
also neans of supplying subject matter required for understanding
instruction involving signs, and of evoking attitudes of opep-mind—
edLness and concern as to the material symbolically conveyed.
The import of this appreciation for classroom practices is that
the appreciation can be secured most efficiently through play and ac­
tivity involving typical situations.

Laboratory work provides such

opi ortunities for a real appreciation of the meaning of what is going
on.

It distinguishes first-hand experience and a genuine feeling for

given circumstances from a superficial acquaintance.

This appreciation

is more important than getting a command of information and technique
nt first.

Dewey says:

"letting comnand of technique and of methods of

reaching and testing generalizations is at first secondary to getting
appreciation."

50

And the more immature and inexperienced the learner

is with the subject matter involved, the more important is this first
hand experience.
This same distinction between superficial and meaningful apprecia­
tion applies also to the standards of value which an individual builds
up in the course of his experiencing and living.

These standards operate

as rules or principles in evaluating the worth of new experiences as
these concrete situations present themselves.

These "...working as dis­

tinct from professed standards depend upon what an individual has hinwself specifically appreciated to be deeply significant in concrete situ­
ations."^

Working principles of value, in other words, cannot be

taught by a mere telling of them to an individual, but concrete situa­
tions must be experienced if they are to become absorbingly meaningful
to him.

Developing tastes and appreciations of value is accomplished

through active experiencing, not through indoctrination and telling;
the latter is lively to produce superficiality and adopted stanoards
but not real, felt, and personally important ones.

Mechanical habits

can perhaps be established, but they will remain a "...purely mechanical

135
thing unless habits are also tastes— habitual modes of preference and
esteem, an effective sense of excellence"^
The play of imagination is an essential condition in developing
real appreciation in activity, for "The imagination is the medium of
appreciation in every field."

53

Through imagination the individual ie

able to project an idea into relationship in concrete situations, fol­
low it through to its conclusions, and evaluate the outcome in terms of
its desirability or undesirability.
just a mechanical process.

Without imagination an activity ia

Dewey particularly observes that, in the

laboratory, for example;
'ere it not for the accompanying play of imagination, there would
be no road from a direct activit. to representative knowledge; for
it is by imagination that symbols are translated over into a direct
meaning and integrated with a narrower activity so as to expand
and enrich it.
Earlier in this chapter the distinction between intrinsic and in­
strumental values was stated.

It remains to indicate the implications

of this separation for education.

On the basis of intrinsic value, no

choice is necessary since the value is considered apart from aqyrela—
tionships, and therefore no hierarchy of values is possible.

"In the

abstract or at large, apart from the needs of a particular situation
in which choice has to be made, there is no such thing as degrees or
order of v a l u e . T h e

52Ibid.. p. 27 b.
^ Loc. cit.
^4 Ibid., p. 277-273.
55ibid.. p. 280.

import of this fact for education is that it

136
disallows a ranking of school subjects according to a measure of their
value*

Dewey explains:

In so far as any study has a unique or irreplaceable function in
experience, in so far as it marks a characteristic enricnment of
life, its worth is intrinsic or incomparable.
Since education is
not a means to a living, but is identical with the operation of
living a life which is fruitful and inherently significant, the
only ultimate value which can be set up is just the process of
living itself.5°
Furthermore, since anything may conceivably make a contribution to
life, and since that contribution may have meaning in a variety of ways,
it is impossible to ascribe particular kinds of values to any individual
study.

On this point Dewey says:

Science for example may have any kind of value, depending upon the
situation into which it may enter as means. ...All we can be sure
of educationally is that science should be tau ht so as to be an
end in itself in the lives of students— something worthwhile on ac­
count of its own unique intrinsic contribution to the experience
of life.57
He argues that
...as long as any topic makes an immediate appeal, it is not neces­
sary to ask what it is good for. This is a question that can be
asked only about instrumental values. Some goods are not good for
anything: they are just goods. Any other notion leads to an ab­
surdity. 5®
He says further it is impossible for either the pupil or teacher to tell
what purpose some bit of learning rnay some day serve in the student's life.
So long as the student responds, it is worth while.
2n the other hand, when a subject is taught for its instrumental
value, as let us say, persuasion for a prospective salesman, then it
may be necessary to point out the particular connection of the subject

5 ^ I b i d .. ~ .
5 7 I b i d ..

231

p. 282

5^Ibid., p. 283

137
matter in hand to the total selling performance.

This connection is

not to he labored unless the connection is not clear to the student.
Dewey summarizes his view on the matter of intrinsic and instrumental
value in teaching when he says:
In general what is desirable is that a topic he presented in such
p. way that it either have an immediate value, and require no justi­
fication, or else he perceived to he a means of achieving something
of intrinsic value. An instrumental value then has the intrinsic
value of being a means to an end.59
He recognizes, however, that there is some point in listing as aims
or values some of the "various valuable phases of life,"*5® for they pro­
vide breadth of outlook and a greater measure of flexibility.

Actually

such lists or statements are but "generalizations, more or less adequate,
of concrete goods."°^

As generalizations in the abstract they are not

values or standards cf valuation, because such standards of valuation
ore found "in the specific reali zations which form tastes and habits of
i'o

preference."0

With regard to this question of establ ishing aims or

values a final statement seems constructive and important to the point
cf view.

In it Dewey offers a positive suggestion as to how far one

can go, and what ii...itati^r. .-.rust be imposed in framing a set of educa­
tional values:
'7e may say that the kind of experience to which the work of the
schools should contribute is ore marked by executive competency
in the management of resources anc obstacles encountered (effici­
ency); by sociability, or interest in the direct companionship of
others; by aesthetic taste or capacity to appreciate artistic

"-Ibid.. p. 2Sh.
°QIbia♦. p. 23R.
°^Loc. cit.
°^Loc. cit.

138
excellence in at least some of its classic forms; by trained intel­
lectual method, or interest in some mode of scientific achievement;
and by sensitiveness to the rights and claims of others— conscieiw
tiou8nes8. And while these considerations are not standards of
value, they are useful criteria for survey, criticism, and better
organization of existing methods and subject matter of instruction.^
Summary.

The present chapter has sought to explain the more basic

aspect? of the experimentalist point of view with regard to value theory.
It was emphasized that instrumental values are determined through the
process of inquiry and thst choice of value is intimately associated
with method, desire, and intelligence.
the educational process in general.

Some applications were made to

The succeeding chapter will pro­

ceed from this point to an elaboration of the implication of the experi­
mentalist point of view thus far developed to the teaching of public
speaking at the college level.

-Ibid.. pp.

CKAPTZR VI
so::z

i f f l i c a t i o t 's

or EXrERiyziJTALisM

FOR ""ZACHIF r FVrLIC SKD-KirF IF COLLZuZ
»n the four preceding chapters the essential concepts of Dewey's
philosophy chiefly, and of the experimentalists in general, have been
elaborated.

The basis of this philosophy, as explained in Chapter Two,

lie6 in the concept of experience out of which grows the method of in­
telligence, that is, the pattern of inquiry.

Chapter Three states the

implications of this pattern and process for the psychology of leariving anc

for

some related aspects of the educational process.

The

next chapter sums up Dewey's view on the origin, nature and functions
of language in inquiry and in learning.

The fifth chapter, dealing

with value theory, expresses the experimentalist view that value is de­
rived through the same pattern by w.J.ch jcnowledge is attained.
The present cnapter sets forth some of the implications of these
i^'eas as tr.ey relate specifically to the teaching, of public speaking.
It i3 not necessarily implied in the ensuing discussion that all of
such possible implications are indicated or th* t the procedure followed
here represents the only possible mode of attache.

Y.hat is presented,

however, is believed to be a defensible in i-rir-t?>.t ion of this philo­
sophy as applied to the public speaking classroom.
The major divisions in tnis discussion will be the titles of Chap­
ters Two through Five, namely, the rfittern o.. Inquiry, _ciucat ional jrsy—
ci.ology, Theory of LamTuage, and Theory of Value.

_nder eacn ol these.

1U0

of course, will be appropriate sub-headings though perhapB not ir. every
instance in as many discrete units as in the previous discussion.

In

so far as it is feasible, overlapping with material coming before or
after n particular point will ba avoided.

However, in a few cases it

has seemed more convenient to group several related headings in order
to avoid splitting ideas into minutiae when actual separation would
prevent meaningful discussion of a point.
"Furthermore, excessive dichotomizing seems to destroy the coherence
of the discussion and necessitates that the reader do much of the assimilrting for himself.

Therefore, some ideas will be discussed at one

point only even though their consideration also may be appropriate in
another context.
Since the chief concern is with the teaching of public speaking,
the following discussion will deal in the main with methods of teaching.
While it is true there are numerous applications of the theory of exper­
imental! sm which may be well suited as subject matter for such a course,
the intent is not to emphasize it as a major part of this endeavor.

For

exagle, the pattern of inquiry will be treated mainly as the method of
learning rather than as a separate area of the subject matter content
of a course in public speaking.
The Pattern of Inquiry
The Concept of Experience.

The student who comes into a college

class in public speaking already has a large accumulation of experiences
with public speaking in his background.

Through them he has established

habits, attitudes, and variegated preierences.

His speech naoits and

patterns are well formulated, and his habits ol tninking and valuing

ihi

are probably fairly well established whether or not he recognizes them
as such.

Consequently, much of the plasticity of childhood has given

way to some set of standards or other*

He has acting and reacting pat—

terns.which are typical for him, and he responds largely in accord with
those habit patterns.

He has a certain stability of being, responding,

and thinking which distinguishes him from every other member of the
group.
Yet he remains in his formative years so that changes in his adap­
tations to the environment still are possible.

Daily he is experienc­

ing many varied kinds of communication situations, whether or not they
are of a 'public' nature in the sense in which the word is used in the
usual connection with 'public speaking'.

He receives communication

fr om the radio, the press, instructors, textbooks, classmates, and
friends.

Conversely, he engages frequently in classroom recitations,

conversations with friends, writes term papers and examinations, and
may appear as a speaker at student meetings or even at meetings of
civic clubs.

In his world as he experiences it there are manifold op­

portunities for hi:n to communicate and to receive co:5.;*unication,
Conseouently, it may be said that he is an active being partici­
pating in the affairs about him, adjusting to the environment as well
es adopting the environment to suit his own purposes and objectives.
His existence corresponds to Dewey's conception of the process of inter­
action in and with his environment.

Each situation requires specific

adaptation because each is different from every other.

A constant ap­

plication of the method of solving problems is necessary for successful
replication of his goal.

In spite of the variance of situations, one

142
from another,

sufficient

stability from one to the other exists to en­

able h i m to u s e the accrual f rom one experience in working out the best
solution in a n o t h e r situation.
partial

successes,

H is failings,

fumblings,

successes a nd

his accumulations from observation and direct study

have resulted in a considerable accretion of experience with regard to
the p rocesses an d technioues of communication.

Yet the newness of each

situation as it arises creates a new p r o b le m which his prior experience
may not enable h i m to solve satisfactorily or as rapidly as he needs
to r espond.

To solve these new problems he may seek help through a n

o r g a n i z e d course such as Public Speaking,
The fact

that h e enrolls in such a course does not mean he is

t h oroughly aware of what his problems are.

He may feel merely there

are some unsati sfa ct ory aspects in his communication patterns.
not h a v e made sufficient analysis of them.

Decause he lacks information

S8 to h o w to a nalyze his :robleins or a sincere appreciation of
ture of his difficulty.
able

However,

He may

the na­

one may assume that he has consider­

e.xperience in communicating with others and has at least an initial

u n d e r s t a n d i n g and a n indicate appreciation of the problems involved in
hi s speaking with others.

Therefore, it may be assumed the enrollee ina Public Speaking course
has some Appreciation of his ^robleus from his daily intercourse with
others who constitute his environment, and he comes to the class with
the hope of finding assistance in overcoming these difficulties, of get­
ting

some

opportunity to practice in the presence of the group, and of

netting constructive co-nnents which will help his growth as an effec­
tive speaker.

He hopes to enlarge his speaking experiences and to im­

prove his skill in getting ideas understood and accepted by others.

143
In terms of such a student's expectations, h o w can the instructor,
op erating up o n the principles of experimentalism, a n d specifically in
this context of the nature of an educative experience,

provide such ex­

periences as will aid the student in gro win g to a more adequate reali­
zation of h i s potential?
In order that the student and instructor m ay mutually understand
the problems the student believes he has,

the student might well try

to explain b ef or e the class what he feels are his problems.

In this

way h e will ha v e to analyze his own activities a nd as he speaks the
instructor will be able to f or m some jud^jnent as to his assets and
liabilities.

This impression,

of course,

will be a ha s t y one but it

will help to identify the problems and enable the two of them to dis­
cuss

them more understandably.

This speech naturally receives no

grade evaluation since it is not designed for that purpose;

its purpose

is to try to establish the problem and to form a starting point for i n ­
telligent development.

At the same time,

lem-sol vi ng and so is necessary to define,
but also

it is the first step in prob­
not only the starting point,

the difficulty a nd perraps h o w it originated.

F r o m this beginning the student may derive a clearer notion of the
several problems connected with his own speaking activities.
of the individual

"The need

...is the starting point of the educative process."^

On the basis of these needs the activities o f the class may be built.
The tasks deriving from present needs must be sufficiently diffi­
cult to require reflective thinking but not so complicated as to result
in discouragement.

Once the student's problem has been tentatively

1 Joseph Just roan.
Theories of Secondary Education in the United States.
U e w York;
B ure au of Eublications, Teachers College, Columbia Uni­
versity, 1 9 ^ . P» 3^9*

identified, h e m a y "be referred to related source material,
which chapter in the text.

In this way he can continue on his own in­

itiative to clarify his problem,
necessary,

no m a t t e r in

r estructure his comprehension of it if

and p r o ce ed to d i s c o v e r what steps can "be taken to res olv e

the difficulty.

Such a n a p p r o a c h to his problems does not permit

the

in st ructor to l ist en to the student read a sentence or two f ro m a given
list a n d so diagnose the problems and prescribe repetitive exercises as
r

cure.

This latte r process does not engender a recognition, m uc h less

an u n d e r s t a n d i n g and a p p r e c i a t i o n of the difficulty on the student's
part.

7Teither does such a n a p p r o a c h permit the instructor to a s s i g n a

round of speeches for a certa in number of class meeting s for the purpose
of,

let u s say, d e v e l o p i n g p l a t f o r m movement.

leaves the

This kind of assignment

student without a p r o b l e m of moment to hiaself;

if h e does

the as si gnm ent he does it to satisfy the instructor but not necessarily
to dwri ve any personal gain or development from it.

Indeed,

the student

sees no reason to di scover a n y r e la tio ns hip between that exercise a n d
a n y t h i n g else he may be doing.

The ass ignment becomes a perfunctory

t a s k a n d he lcs°s interest in the class as a result.
can set h i s own problems or at least

But if the student

see the relation of what he does

in class to his personal need3 in affairs that are of concern to hi ;,
he will profit f r o m the experience a n d reconstruct his ways of doing
a n d th inking in ac c o r d a n c e w i t h the results of the activities he engages
in in class.

In t.ois w ay continuity of experience is really established,

whereas the mer e f o l lo win g of some rules in carrying out a task, a task
imposed u p o n him fro m without,
el i m i n a t i n g the background,
the study of

undercuts the concept of continuity by

thot is,

the resource material,

h y p o t h e s e s for action.

the identiiication of the problem,
a n d the f ormulation of ideas into

i**5
The d i f f i c u l t i e s Dewey d e s c r i b e s are also avoided:
Individuals act c a p r i c i o u s l y wh enever they act under external dic­
tation, or f r o m b e i n g told, without h a v i n g a purpose of their own
or p e r c e i v i n g the b e a r i n g of the deed u p o n other acts.
One may
l e a r n by doing s ome t h i n g wh ic h he does not understand....
But we
lear n o n l y b e c au se a f t e r the act is perf orm ed we note results w h i c h
we h a d not no t e d before.
But m u c h w o r k in school consists in set­
ting u p rules by which pupils are to act of such a sort that even
a f t e r pu pils hav e acted, they are not led to se« the connection
b e t w e e n the result— say the a n s w e r — a n d the m e t h o d pursued.^
The i nst ructor does not give the student a n exercise just to kee p
h i m bus y or just to p r o vi de the oc casions f or experiencing.

The wo r k

of the student must be b a s e d on his p roblems and present understandings
so as to lead t owa rd discovery of expanded meanings a n d relationships.
If h i s p r o b l e m is cle are r articulation,

r outine exercises are not enough.

H e m ust u n d e r s t a n d p r e cis el y why hi s present manner of a r t i c u l a t i n g is
unsatisf act or y,

discover how it should sound,

then find the appropriate

m e t h o d of a c q u i r i n g a mo r e s at isfactory articulation,

and check o n his

p r o d u c t i o n of letters to see h o w well he does them now.

Dewey explains

these c o n d i tio ns of a n educative experience:
It is a m i s t a k e to suppose that the principle of the lead ing on
of exp er ien ce to something different is ade qu ate ly satisfied s i m ­
p l y b y g i v i n g pupils some n e w experiences an;/ more than it is by
seeing to it that they have g reater skill and ease in dealing
w i t h things w i t h whi ch they are alr ea dy familiar.
It is also es­
sential that the n ew objects and events be related intellectually
to those of earlier experiences, a n d this mo an s that there be
some a d v a n c e mad e i s conscious ar ti cu l a t i o n of facts an d ideas.
Itthus bec ome s the office of the educator to select those things
w i t h i n the range of exi sting experience that have the promise and
pote nt i a l i t y of p r e s en ti ng new pr oblems which by stimulating new
wa y s of o b s e r va tio n and judgment will expand the area of further
experience.
He must constantly regard what is already won not as
a f i x e d p o s s e s s i o n but as an a gency and instrumentality for open—
i n g n ew fields w h i c h m a k e new demands u p o n existing powers of

^John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
Company, 1916, p. 91.

New York:

Trie Macmillan

14b

observation and of intelligent use of memory.
growth must be his constant watchword.3
The Pr ob l e m - S o l v i n g S e q u e n c e .

The patte rn of reflective thinking

is id e n t i c a l with the m e t h o d of intelligence,
the m e t h o d of learning,

and the residue,

oil the st eps in the process,
t e l l i g e n t l y handled.

Connectedness in

Dewey said.

It is also

proceeding from carrying through

is what is learned from an experience in­

The outcomes of inquiry are tentative and subject

to f u r t h e r inquiry if deemed necessary and to revision as soon as dif­
ferent

r e s u l t s have become w arrantably assertible.

T h i s p a t t ern has a dual application in the teaching of public speak­
ing,

i n d e e d in every subject of study.

which the

instructor m a y lead his

ter of tiie course.

It is that

series of steps through

student in the study of the subject m a t ­

A3 such it implies first that topics be studied as

p r o b l e m a r e a s rather than as chapters in a text and th:> t these problems
be f r a m e d in such a way as will relate them to student needs and felt
diff ic ult ies .

As such it will not be taught directly,

but the questions

tne i n s t r u c t o r uses to guide the thinking of the student will follow in
the s e q u e n c e of

tils pattern.

the stude nt m a y

well use in preparing his own speeches

li v e r b e f o r e the class.
problem,

it

is the pattern
wnich he will de­

He will use it in formulating a nd defining the

in discovering what

.material a n d

In the second place,

the essential

data are,

in arranging that

deriving fro m it suggestions as to what point of view he

shall a d o p t and

advocate in regard to it.

d e t e r m i n i n g how

he may oest present his ideas to the audience,

in a n a l y z i n g problems he will nave

He will use

it further in
that is,

to cope with in presenting it and

147
d e ter min in g w h i c h m e t h o d s h e can best use to secure underst and in g or
acceptance.

F or this jur pos e it may be more expedient to a tta ck the

teaching t as k d i r e c t l y af t e r the class has h ad some experience with thB
process.
Tne first

step in the pattern of inquiry deals with the indeter­

mi nate situation.

H e r e it must be remembered that problems arise from

the process of i n t e r a c t i o n of the individual with his environment,
physical a nd human.
attitudes,

both

Org a n i z e d society establishes certain knowledges,

and sk ills w h i c h it expects the imu.mture members to acquire

or develop.

The s t u d e n t is a social being who interacts with his fellow

hu:nan beings in c o n j u n c t i o n with whom he attempts to realize his o b j e c ­
tives.

F ailure to a t t a i n these purposes in his interactive relation­

ships gives rise to a f e e lin g of inadequacies or needs,
are d e t e r m i n e d by
already indicated,

but these needs

the expectations of his societal environment.
the

As

student may not be certain of the exact nature

of his dif fi cul ty w i t h e r because he does not have the background of in­
f ormation or skill

to identify it or because he does not -understand pre­

cisely what s o c i e t y demands of him.

For the same reasons he may feel

certain of the n a t u r e of his problem but be erroneous in his judgment.
The i n s t r u c t o r ' s role in this society-individual relationship is
that of a m e d i a r y in narr owi ng the gap,
tween the

in so for as is jos sible,

be­

student's actual deficiencies a nd society's expectations.

Because h e knows w ha t

these expectations are and because he understands

what principles a n d m e t h o d s to employ to help the student grow to a
mo r e ade qu a t e f u n c t i o n i n g in his interactions,

the instructor's obliga­

tion iB to h e l p the student identify and resolve his inadequacies.

148
his o b j ect iv e is to help the student become a full-fledged,
end ac ce p t e d m e m b e r of his society*

k

In terms of the p a t te rn of inquiry,
tor must

responsible,

then,

the

student and instruc­

cooperat ive ly determine what are the student's deficiencies.

It may not be amiss to caution here that these diffi cu lti es are not al­
ways those the instructor,
students have or that

before lie ever meets

they are alwa ys what

the class, believes the

the students say they are.

To accept

either of these po ssi bi lit ies without

investigation is likely

to result

in frequent error an d to shortcircuit inquiry.

The type of

pro jec t d es cr ibe d a bov e fol low ed b y detailed discussion bet wee n the two
of

them helps to delimit the p r o b l e m area they might m utually agree to

w o r k on together.
The

student will u s e this step in the pattern not only in get ti ng

at the subject m a t t e r of the course,
p r e p a r a t i o n of practice
au di enc e analysis,

speeches,

solving a problem or two,

to

in the selection of topics,

nnd in determining which m e t h o d of organiza­

which argu men ts to maximize,

p r e s e n t a t i o n of his ideas.

a t t e n t i o n to

e.g.,

in connection with the

p r e p a rat io n of persuasive speeches in which he needs

to u p h o l d n point of view,
tion to use,

but also

and which to minimize

in the

Af ter lie has gone through the process of
it m a y be n ecessary for the instructor to call

the metho d of reaching a d ec ision and thereby seek directly

clarify the method.

In this way the learning of the process derives

fr o m actual probl ems the student has vitally experienced in the wo r k he

^A n extended treatment of objective may be found in Cnapter 7, "Educa­
tional Objectives:
Individual or Social," in 3. Othaniel Smith,
Wi l l i o m 0. Stanley, and J. H a rl an Shores.
Eundaaentals of Curriculum
D e v e l o p m e n t . v onke rs- on—Hudson, Dew York:
’forld B o o k Company, 1950,

pp.

1 5 o -173»

i*+9

has thus far done.
m a t t e r of

The process itself becomes a part of the subject

the course.

Instituting a problem,

the second phase in inquiry,

is the elabor­

ation of the indeterminate situation so as to gain a thorough under­
standing of all aspects of the problem and the establishment of some
orderly arrangement of the related data.
teaching goes,

So far as the instructor's

the course content should be framed around a series of

major questions constituting the major areas of the course.
ouestions
speech?
used?

such as these would serve:

For example,

’.That constitutes clear,

articulate

V."hat methods of organization are possible and when m a y each be
'ffhnt kinds and how much pla tform movement are appropriate?

may one control

stage fright?

F r o m ti.ese questions the student proceeds

to determine what are the particular aspects of the problem.
done by observation of classmates and of others,
as it relates to the problem,

the exact nature of the problem,

This is

by reading of the text

by reading other sources,

based upon such reading and observation.

one anoth-r,

H ow

and by inference

This search nelps to identify

to relate the facts so discovered to

to eliminate the extraneous and to correlate and order the

important ones so as to define the problem in accurate detail.
In the same way the student can identify,

describe, a nd more accur­

ately u nde rstand his own problems which he brings to the class.
is lack of vocabulary,

If it

he uses the methods mentioned above to delineate

the problem,

perhaps does some definite individual

vestigations

designed to determine the limitations of his vocabulary.

” e uses the
livery.

experiments and irw

same procedure in preparing his speeches for classroom de­

He select? a topic of concern to him; he investigates the

150

nece?6ary information 30 that h e can clearly formulate the problem; he
tries to determine what will be his purpose in a g i v e n speech.
the facts constituting the problem into a coherent,

He orders

significant sequence

so that u p o n completing this phase of his i nve st iga ti on he will have
precisely c larified for h imself the nature of the dif ficulty he faces.
VThile the student is establishing the exact n a t u r e of the problem,
certain notions will
that aspect of

suggest themselves as to how h e m a y handle this or

the speech-making situation.

is distinguishable as a distinct

De t e r m i n i n g the solution

step in the process,

but it is essen­

tial to recog ni ze that the dividing line is not absolute.
the extent the student is inclined to take the first
occurs,

and therefore to shortcircuit

erating unintelligently.
intelligently,
additional

However,

to

suggestion which

the process of inquiry, he is op­

To make certain that the student is a c ti ng

it is necessary that the instructor occasionally raise

questions as to why a par ticular idea was

selected in prefer-

ence to some other one.
In this third phase the instructor will help the
and evaluate the various
p r ec ed ing step.

suggestions a r i s in g out of

The instructor no doubt will

student to see

the material

in the

see more of them than will

the student, and by skillful q uestioning he may try to get the student
to s ee them himself.

If the instructor suggests t hem hims elf — a n d he

m a y in connection with more difficult materials— he runs the risk of
pr e s e n t i n g alternatives whi h

the student will not app reciate to the full

extent and therefore will reject wit h little attempt at understanding
or evaluating them.

nevertheless,

they may well be off ere d directly

with the ho p e they will come to fruition at a later time.

Pro m the host

of alternatives tivt thus present themselves the student is urged to make

151
his o wn choice as to which c o urs e o f a c t i o n will best provide the re­
sults,

the end-in-view he seeks to a t t a i n .

It may be he will n e e d ex­

ercises for improving certain a r t i c u l a t o r y difficulties;

together

instructor and student decide w h i c h is m o r e likely to produce the desired
end of a clear a r t ic ula tio n of t h e p a r t i c u l a r sound in question.
together they m ay determine w h i c h
attention,

Or,

i n t r o d u c t o r y device will g a i n the

e stablish a de sir ed m o o d ,

a n d yet gracefully introduce the

topic of a speech in a s p ec ifi ed s p e a k i n g situation.
The process of de termining the
with the following one,
pare

namely,

solution is closely interrelated

r a t i o n a l discourse.

Mea nings a re conw

, the less effective e l i m i n a t e d and the ones more liKely to be

successful

followed

through to t h e i r

cess eventuates a hypot hes is w n i c h
Fro m the instructor's g i n t
stand,

for example,

children,

conclusion.

is

to be carried out in action.

of v i e w h e

which a t t e n t i o n

w hic h with an a u d i e n c e o f

o r g ani za tio n to use in e xpl aining

seeks to have the student under­

devices to use with a group of
mi ddl e- age d adults,

how

with explaining the floor pla n of a

Fro m this entire pro­

w h i c h p l a n of

something operates as contrasted

p rop ose d office building,

which mo­

tive appea ls to use in p e r s u a d i n g a n audience of ladies to participate
in m o d e r n i z i n g a hospital as c o m p a r e d
a group of business m en to a d v e r t i s e
sufficient merely to have the s t u d e n t
better use,

to those effective in pe rsuading
in a local newspaper.

It is

not

determine which ones he might

but also he must u n d e r s t a n d why he would use than.

The student him sel f will
his own speeches.

e n g a g e i n r tional discourse

in building

Ke will nee d to a d o p t a pian o •. organization in

terms of the material a n d his p u r p o s e

in giving the speech,

to adopt

a plan of a t t a c k in terms of the d o m i n a n t values of a particular

152
audience,

to decide which is the best solution h e will

seek to advocate,

and whi ch devices a n d m a n n e r of p r e s e n t a t i o n h e will use.
also

He will need

to recognize thnt the plans he ad opts an d the decisions h e makes

of necessity must be tentative and
the time he deliv-rs

the speech,

therefore subject to change until

because there is the constant possi­

bility of discov eri ng new and additional
he will also

information until that time,

recognise even then when he is compelled to act u p o n his

best h y p o s t h e s i s he m ay still be in error but that he has done the very
best possible.
Onc e the best p ossible hy pot hes is lias be e n formulated,
test must

come in actual practise or experiment.

the final

Verbal experiment is

p r e l i m i n a r y a nd results in discarding those ideas less likely to bring
about

the desired consequences.

to action,

The final hypothesis must be put ii>-

a c t i o n that is u s u al ly beyond recall

The instructor will

even if it should fail.

endeavor to insure that the student will act only

u p o n this best suggestion or hypothesis.

O n occasion, however,

it may

be p erm is sib le to act on a suggestion less well thought out for the
pur po se of a negative illustration;
namely,

something still ioay be learned,

the less satisfactory way of doing a specific act.

Actual

pr ac t i c e in m a k i n g a n d pres en tin g speeches is necessary to try out
ideas the student has formulated about a topic and about a m ethod of
procedure.

This point further militates against a

of each student g i vin g a specified number of

course requirement

speeches,

this number

be i n g so large as to necessitate a close schedule with every student
apt earing on a pre—iestnblished, detailed
h y p o t h e s i s to try or not,
a problem.

schedule wheti.er he has an

indeed wnether or not he even has recognized

153

Furthermore,

ex per i m e n t i n g n ec essitates

sufficient freedom to per­

mit the student to try out h i s ideas so long as they are well conceived
even t h o u g h to the in s t r u c t o r they m a y seem slightly out of the ordin­
ary.

It means the schedule will not "be so closely and rigidly mad e as

to eliminate a n y t h i n g hut a standard p a t t e r n of,
m i nute

speech.

let us say, a five-

Some topics may take more time to develop in order to

try a p a r t ic ul ar idea.

Inflexibility does not permit new ideas to de­

velop;

rigidity is o p p o sed to pla sticity and antithetical to develop­

ment.

Besides,

it means the student must

try his own ideas in the

crucible of exp erience instead of those the instructor sets u p or as­
signs.

The instructor can not provide a list of topics fro m whi ch the

student must

choose subjects for h is speeches;

list w o u l d be acceptable,
suggestions,
it will

but

as suggestions such a

the student must u n d er sta nd they are mere

and h e need not choose one f r o m the list unless he thinks

serve his purposes.

Ex pe rim e n t a t i o n also nece ssi ta tes a change in the kind a nd mode
of assignment.
be
But

It is p ro bab ly customary to assig n textual material to

'le a r n e d ' , as p r i n ci ple s to ap *l y in the next round of speeches.
since learning occurs t h r oug h a c t i v i t y a n d the m et hod of learning

cu lm inates in a n experiment and its evaluation,
a p r o b l e m to be solved,

the assignment must be

an hy po the sis tried, a n d the outcome appraised.

This process the student must undergo himself.

Fre-digested material,

p r e - a r r a n g e d subject matt er in outline 1 on.i prest-nted to the student
saves instructor time and effort but does not necessarily bring about
the desired learning,

a c cor di ng to this theory.

desired lea rn ing if the student un derstands
it to his acti vi tie s in a practical wey,

It may result in the

the subject-matter,

relates

and then turns bac k the conclusions

154
of his reflections so as to modif y and reconstruct his understanding
and insight.

If, however,

this material is given to h i m to 'learn' by

m e m o r i z i n g without seeing a n y relationship to his living,
given principles of public
in his own speaking,
what was intended.
structor,

or if he is

speaking to wh ic h he must strive to conform

it does not follow that he will necessarily learn
H e m a y learn how to conform and so please the in­

but pleasing the instructor is not his learning objective.

He m ay also learn some undesirable habits and skills quite u n i n t e n t i o n ­
ally.
The final

step is the consideration of the outcomes of inquiry to

determine to what extent actual outcomes agree with anticipated results.
The instructor will
success and,

expect the student to apprai se the extent of his

conversely,

also of his failure.

essentially the judge of that effectiveness,
in m a kin g the appraisal,
action to a speech.

Since the audience is
they will necessarily help

at least in terms of their own subjective re­

Likewise the instructor will need to offer construc­

tive comment as he sees the performance.

Without this mutual appraisal

there will be little learning or there will be misconceptions and mis­
givings in the student's mind and
for him.

He will be worse

the result will remain indetenuinate

rather than better for the experience in

he is likely to fixate old habits,

that

not reconstruct them.

To do this effective evaluating of a speech requires more than a
mere minute or two of class time.

Ample time— and that in some instances

m a y mean as much as fifteen minutes or more— must be allowed for such
discussion.

Again a rir,id ti.ae schedule in order to get as many speak­

er? as possible on the platform each d- y is ruled out.
does not meet the criteria of an educational experience,
ui t y and a necessary application of intelligence.

Such a program
namely, contin­

155
The evaluative

comment,

too, must be focused on the extent to

which the purpose w a s a c c o m p l i s h e d .
wh i c h were being t r i e d

It must deal with the hypotheses

i n that particular speech.

Criticism must deal

with the subject m a t t e r a n d the method of the speech instead of with the
perso na lit y of the s p e a k e r or wit h his personal effectiveness.

liow if

o speaker is eff ect iv e,

it means he is using the devices and methods of

speech-making well;

if h e

and

is us ing them well, he will be effective.

L u rin g such a n e v a l u a t i o n of a speech inevitably other matters will ei>>
ter into the d i s c u s s i o n b e c aus e the audience will react not to one as­
pect of the speec h b u t

to

speech, a n d audience.

All

• n a situation.
ficult

Th ese

elements of the situation are fused into the

r e l a t i o n s h i p s are subtle, and sometimes it is dif­

to d i s t i ng uis h

variety of different

the entire situation of speaker, occasion,

c l e a r l y between them.

a s p e c t s of tnis whole situation will enter into any

ev al uation of the s p e e c h performance.
on a specific aspect,

but

come u p for dis cu s s i o n .
ferably by the s p e a k e r

in and wi t h this one phase others will also

himself, he will crystallize ais thinking on the
extent learning will occur.

i n s t r u c t o r in this problem-solving process is that

of a guide and a f e l l o w
dent,

The emphasis no doubt will center

If all of the comment then is sum.-tarized, pre­

m a i n points and to t h a t
The role of the

It is inevitable that a

for ne w s i t u a t i o n s

discussant.
will present

He will learn along with the stu­
tnemselves which he will have to

a p praise al ong with t h e

class.

He cannot be a dictator or a constant

le ct ure r a n d so d e t r a c t

f r o m the student's time and opportunity for ac­

tive participation.
Time likewise w i l l
ber of speeches by e a c h

b e consumed in extensive discussion so the num­
student during the course will be relatively

156

small u n l e s s the size of the class is h e l d down.
ber of speeches will

result

in

Even so, a small num­

a greater accrual of benefit if the en­

tire p r o ce ss of i n q ui ry is dil ige nt ly c arried out a n d the student really
u n d e r sta nd s those e x p e r i enc es w h i c h time per mit s him to
will result

have.

These

in a real m o d i f i c a t i o n of his habits of thinking and doing

whereas a me r e telli ng h i m the principles of speaking a n d demanding his
a p p l y i n g them in a context which he n e i t h e r understands nor cares about
results in n o t h i n g b e tte r than superficiality,

a c t i n g from caprice, or

a satisfying of the instructor.
The p r o b l e m s - t y p e of class p rocedure involves m u c h m ore free dis­
cussion on the part of the student
the latte r the

than does the lecture system.

In

student is pr es u m e d merely to absorb the materials the

instructor presents; h e abso rbs it pr obably by rote m e m o r y through fre­
quent rep eti ti on a n d rehearsal.

In the former he makes the information

his own.

H e has

to a s s u m e for himself the burden of analyzing the

material,

e s t a b l i s h i n g some sort of order,

and trying the hypothesis

w ith t h e pro b l e m s — type of classroom procedure.
F o l l o w i n g the p a t t er n of inquiry is also
cussion,

the m ethod of group dis­

for it is the same patte rn wh i c h current

fro m Dewey a n d now adv ocate.^

texts have taken

The student who learns this pattern ato

learns a m e t h o d for his personal and social problems,

for the method

is identical.

H e learns fur the r how to get al on g with his fellow class­

mates and wi t h

the instructor,

for he works with then in a class oper­

a t e d a c c o r d i n g to this plan.

5 c f . Henry L. E w b a n k a nd J. Jeffery Auer.
H a n d b o ok for Discuesion Lead­
er s.
N e w York;
H a r p e r & Brothers, 19^+7* P* °7 • James H. *;cBurney
and K e n n e t h Cr. Hance.
Discu ssion in Human A f f a i r s . N e w York:
Har­
per and Brothers, 1^50, PP* 10—11.
Russell H. >*agner a n d Carroll S.
Arnold.
H a n d b o o k of G-roup D i s c u s s i o n . Boston:
Houghton Mifflin
Company, l'^O, p. 57*

157

The by-pr od uct s of such a m e t h o d of teaching are of major signifi­
cance:

the student has m a n y nore experiences and m a n y different kinds

so that,

if he is at all observant of the reactions he makes a n d of

those his fellows make,

w h e t he r or not these extra— course m at e r i a l s are

of direct concern or not, he cannot avoid a ddi ng variety and depth to
his lea rning experiences*

In the lecture-d omi na ted class the student

has little if an yt h i n g to say, has rare opport uni ty
the in str uct or or his fellow students,

to w o r k with either

has no problems to solve beyond

trying to remember the content of the text a n d of the lectures.

Dewey

emphasizes this point clearly a n d fo rce fu lly in stating:
Ferhaps the greatest of all pedagogical fallacies is the notion
that a p e rs on learns only the pa rti cu lar thing that h e is study­
ing at the time.
Collateral learning in the way of f o r mat ion of
e n du r i n g attitudes, of likes and dislikes, may be a nd often is
muc h m o r e important than the spelling lesson or lesson in geog­
raphy or h i s t or y that is learned.
For these attitudes are f u n ­
da me ntally what count in the future.
Che most important attitude
that can be f or me d is that of desire to go on learning..
Ex p e r i e n c e with this p attern will provide clearer un de r s t a n d i n g
of the i rocess of per sua sio n a n d of its place in tiie steps in tninking.
Exposition m a y progress through all o:

the steps in the pattern of in­

quiry whereas pe rsuasion begins w ith the hy po the sis

stage,

traces enough

of the ma terial b a c k gr oun d to call atte nti on to the j-roblem, a n d then
seeks

through a variety of ways to secure acceptance of the hypothesis

and sometimes to m o v e the audien ce to overt action.

In persuasion the

spade wo r k of investigation is done by the speaker.

He arranges the

material a nd explains the essence of it as the result of his private
investigation,

and then proceeds to the propos iti on whi ch he may or m a y

not bolster wit h several logical

John Dewey.

reasons which a ccrued f r o m his own

Experience and Education.

Op. cit., p. 49•

158
discourse.

A f t e r that he seeks to m a x i m i z e the personal a d v a nt age s the

audi en ce m a y secure f rom a d o p t i n g his proposal in or der to get them.to
act.

P e r s u a s i o n as it is u s u a l l y p rac ti sed thus shortcircuits the pat­

tern of inquiry a n d expects a n aud ie nce to act in a rather unintelli­
gent fashion,
Exposition,
versial,

that is,

larg el y on faith in the integrity of the speaker.

o n the other hand,

parti cu lar ly of a topic wh ic h is contro­

is m ore conducive to intelligent behavior in that it seeks

u n d e r s t a n d i n g rather than a ct ion and thus needs,
thorough understanding,

to

include an adequate consideration of each of

the steps in the p a t t e r n of inouiry.
inquiry;

in ord er to secure

p e r s ua sio n presents

E x p o sit io n includes the steps of

the results of inquiry in suurnary f a s h i o n

w ithout lea din g the audience through the entire process.
In so far as a n a udi e n c e is intelligent,

the experimentalist would

seem to say that in its effect exposition is also h i gh ly persuasive be­
cause it leads

to a n u n d e r s t a n d i n g o.f what is desirable,

of the a l t e r n a t i v e s to action,
to be taken.

an appreciation

and an intelligent choice of the action

A n aud ience which tak»s action o m y

after intelligent and

informed c o n s ide rat io n of all possibilities will aot mor e effectively,
in a m or e concerted manner,

with a clearer perception of its goals and

with more e n t h usi as m because they have been able to identify themselves
with

that action.

Educational Ps ychology

Grojrth.
tion.

Growth is conceived of as identical with life a n d educa­

As eouivalents of education,

grow th and life have the same defin­

ition as education wnich Dewey says is "that reconstruction or reorgan­
ization of experience which adds to th^ m e a n i n g of experience,

and

159
which increases abi lit y to direct the course of subsequent experience.
Experience is the basis of the educational process,
tion of experience is education's purpose.

and the modifica­

Within this framework must

lie the objectives of a course in p ublic speaking*
renerally these objectives mus t be framed in terras of the student
and what concerns him w hen he enrolls in the course.

The instructor

may establish goals that to h i m seem pertinent but he perhaps does not
or may not be permitted

to take into account

individual

differences.

Such goals may be beyond the reach of the majority of the class or miss
the problems that are of concern to the class members.

The corollary

of this statement is that these ob jectives should be framed with the
cooperation of the student,
to accomplish in the course.

in terms of what he feels he needs and seeks
To ge the r the student and instructor need

to come to a :nutual understanding, of what

the former will do to effect

a more adequate adjustment to his environment.

furthermore,

of the course mist be framed in terms of experiences,
ology of subject matter.

The experiences,

not

the work

in the termin­

intelligently handled,

cate tne student-vith relation to an ar e a of subject content.
ject content does not educate tne student.

edu­

The sub­

These objectives must be

construct-d in terms of an intelli.'flnt Kind of experience rather than
in terras of rote memorizing*

The experiences should be such as are

li-tely to increase the tendency to learn from experience rather than
emphasize the development of the
objectives must be such as will

'faculty'

of memory.

Einally,

challenge even the better student

some ways but not so difficult as to defeat and frustrate nim.

7John Dew<=>y.

these

Dernocracy and Education.

0p . ci t., pp. oh— 9 0 *

If

in

160

these experiences are to serve the purpose of education and growth,

they

must lead the student "beyond his present status; otherwise it results
in a stunting of growth,

not in growth*

Three requisites for growth are important.
student m ain t a i n an open mind which,

The first is that the

Dewey says, means,

"accessibility

of mind to any and every situation that will throw light upon the sit­
uation thot needs to be cleared up, and that will help determine the
g
consenuences of a c t i n g this way or that."
3-rowth means the expansion
of mental horizons.
raise questions,

The

instructor needs to delay hasty decisions,

to

to off er suggestions lest the student rush to action

upon a poorly conce ive d hypothesis.
bilities is essential

7,'illingness to consider all possi­

to intellectual growth.

that the particular's which

Tne second requisite is

strike the senses in any situation be clearly

discerned a n d inter— related.
"•Vithout the pa rticulars as they are discriminated by the active re­
sponses of sense organs, there is not material for knowing and no
intellectual growth.
Without placing these particulars in the con­
text of the meanings wrought out in the larger experience of the
pas t— without the use of reason or thought— particulars are mere
excitations or irritations.^
"’he situation must be seen by the student both as to its elements and
as to the in te r-relation of those elements as meanings.
requisite is that the student must

And the other

see the relation between the materials

with which he is concerned and the method involved in using them.
h e rely to recognize the elements in the situation without understanding
what he can do with them leaves him,

if not helpless,

then at best in a

161
blind a n d f u m b l i n g stage a n d l i k e l y to institute erroneous or irrelevant
combinations.
ment.

M e t h o d w i t h o u t material is equally disastrous for develop­

The task of the

instructor is not

and bus y - w o r k exercises
fect the desired

to resort to artificial

to correct the student,

integration.

devices

for these will not ef­

Devey explains:

h e n there is no intimate organic connection between the methods
and m a t eri als of k n o w l e d g e a n d moral growth, p a r ti cu lar lessons a nd
modes of d isc ipline have to b e resorted to:
knowledge is not inte­
g r a t e d into the usu al springs of acti on and the outl oo k on l i f e . . . . ^
"hile the reference in this st' tement is p ar ticularly to moral knowledge,
it is equally true of knowledge generally.

Learning.

In the experimentalist view learning is a process of re­

construction instead of un-re addition.
to the environment,

a n d through intelligent

roundings it 1 earns.
learns.

The org anism as a whole responds
inter act ion with its sur­

It follows that the org an ism becomes wi:s t it

And the m e t hod of learn ing is the m e tho d of intelligence,

fol­

lowing the steps in the pattern of inquiry.
]ert' in chnr- ct -ri sti cs of this way' of learning,
ere

important

in their

iir.plicnti ns for e d u c a t i o n . ^

is that the experimental m e t h o d attaches far more

Dewey points out,
Tne first of these

signific;uice to the

importance of ideas in lea rning titan do other methods.

Ideas guide ex—

_ eriment in its chara ct eri sti c direction and they are therefore of
greater importance in this method.

They arr tentative and as such must

oe tested and revised in accordance with the outcomes of experiment.
Tbi s tents.tiveness is a distinct

1 0 I b i d . . p.

departure from the first truths or

upo.

^.Tohn Dewey.

Sxperience and hduc.-- tion.

Op. ci t. , pp. 100—110.

d

162
prin ciples so o f t e n expounded, in the classroom,
'learned*

expounded and to be

b y the student without u nde r s t a n d i n g their origin or clearly

seeing their a p p l i c a t i o n a n d significance*
Secondly,

the valid it y of hypotheses is tested by the consequences

they p r o du ce in action*
the results of

Consequences must be carefully observed and

such o bse rv a t i o n serve to modify the ideas from which

the c ons eouences followed*
vation,

This operation requires intelligent obser­

r e f le cti on and evaluation.

this process le arning occurs.

Y/hen intelligence operates

through

Tnis m e t h o d of learning requires a more

pe rvasive o pe r a t i o n of intelligence than does mere m e m or iz ing of given
rules and a p p l y i n g them as one sees fit*
A third characteristic of tnis raetiiod of learning is it requires
k e e p i n g in m in d

the relevant and re lat ed facts,

tiie con seq u e n c e s of taeir operation*
tne o p e r a t i o n of intelligent
course of experience.
series of names,

antes,

of the background,

and

Such Keeping-in-qiind requires

reflection as it is developing during the

It is far more
ana places.

than a mere acc um u l a t i o n of a
It is this plus an u n d e rs tan di ng

the interpretation,

re lation of s uch names,

the activities,

dates,

and consequences of the inter­

and places.

To do this requires m u c h

mo r e r efl ective thinking than does a system of taking notes on a lec­
ture a nd re pro du cin g them on a n examination paper.
Learning,
repetition,
an t ^ .

a cc o r d i n g to this point of view,

a f ixing of auto mat ic resjonses,

" :e lf-arn as we grow in the ffeel*

and

vr-ried conditions witn which we have to do."

1 ? Tohn L. Childs.
Educe tion and !'oral s .
Crofts, Inc., lh'qO, p* t>5*

is far more than mere

or a storing of isolated
in the m a s t e r y of tne
The a cq ui sit ion of this

Tew York:

Appleton-Century-

163
'feel'

a nd mastery is more than mechanical,

it requires reflpctive

thinking and a thorough appreciation of the elements in the situation
in hand.
The significance for teaching public speaking is multiple.
orization of the principles of speaking from the text so as to
them is whol ly inadeouate.

Mem­
’know'

It does not insure an understanding of them

either as to their background,

interrelations,

or their application.

It depreciates the role of ideas in the experimentalist sense,
asks for no evaluation or comprehension of their relationships,
therefore it is unintelligent.

Secondly,

for it
and

the application of principles

which are h a n d e d to the student by-passes the major part of the pattern
of inquiry.

If there is a problem,

it is ready-made by the instructor.

There is no investigation of the facts of the situation out of which
the principles arose;
by the instructor.
ideas;

even the ordering of the data is prefabricated

It calls for no sugg-stions;

it eventuates in no

the principles substitute as ideas and the student is expected

to conform to them;

once he applies them,

the evaluation of the result

is in terms of the extent to which the student used or applied them in
i:is performance and no nuestions are considered concerning the validity
of the principles.

And in all probability no cross-connections between

the principles are established.
the position of,

Such a procedure places the student in

let us say, an adding machine.

He has a high grade

value if his performance conforms to the 'correct'
structor and a low value if it does not.

standard of the in­

He gets a good grade if he

produces the 'right' answer on an examination, and he is 'cut of order'
when he does not;

then he needs rejairs or remedial work.

Ibk

Furthermore,

when the text is considered authoritative and the

facts an d p r i n c i p l e s are immutable, when it is the final authority,

there

is no o p p o r t u n i t y f o r the reconstruction of the s t u d e n t ’s experience ex­
cept to a g r e a t e r degree of conformity with such established principles.
R e co n s t r u c t i o n of experience in the experimentalist sense signifies an
intelligent

c o n s i d e r a t i o n of a problem, a selection of a possibility of

improvement,

a final evaluation of the outcome of the selected possi­

bility in action,

by turning this result back u p o n the hypothesis

to modif y it if necessary.
gent.

so as

Anything less is to that extent unintelli­

In the f o u r t h place, a n instructor-conceived assignment wh i c h

asks the

student

to do ?> particular kind of speech emphasizing certain

specific t echniques,
the learner,

gesture for instance,

to experiment.

to do, no p r o b l e m

He has no choices to make,

no investigating

indeed to concern him except to fulfill what to hi m

is an a r b i t r a r y assignment.
student;

leaves no ro o m for the student,

it is a distasteful

Such an assignment becomes a burden to the
task to hi.., and tne sooner he can finish

wit h it the bet ter .
Finally,

a n ext-rnally imposed assignment which does not place up>-

on the student

the obligation of reflective thinking cannot, ac cording

the e xp e r i m e n t a l i s t view,
to orders r e c e i v e d does
to conform,

but

of the course;

eventuate in knowledge.

indeed present a problem,

the lesson learned has nothin,

Striving to conform
namely,

that of how

to do with the material

that is a lesson in itself; and since it is probably all

tiie student will

concern himself with while he i s doing the assignment,

that is what he will learn.
The e x p e r i m ent al ist pat.ern of learning, however,
dilferent,

and

is altogether

it might look something like the following description.

165
It is r e c o g n i z e d ,
a particular
the

of course,

thing,

that there is a variety of ways of doing

but perhapB typically the following example includes

essential features of the procedure.
Let

the

e x a m p l e be that of the speech to inform and the time dur­

ing the c o u r s e

be about the third week.

on the p l a t f o r m one or more times,
to relate a

s i m p l e experience,

and the s t u d e n t

All of the students have been

perhaps to introduce themselves or

at least enough so both the instructor

together have been able to reach some common ground

the d i f f i c u l t i e s the student has as a platform speaker.
one r at her c o m m o n problem is that of
of ma terial

listened

it has been difficult to follow

Here then
it is tha t o f

o u t l i n i n g material in a clear,

volved.

and closely allied to
sequential fashion.

Since

s p e e c h e s deal with such m aterials as are more readily amen­
and since all students have some experience in lis­

tening to ex pla n a t i o n s ,

which m a k e s

It has

the ideas.

is the problem of organization

able to o r d e r i n g ,

to others,

into a pattern.

o ut by both the. instructor and class members as they have

that

expository

Suppose that

organization of material, even

t h a t will by its very nature fall

been p o i n t e d

on

there
the

reading directions,

and in giving directions

is a background of experience upon which to build
students more thoroughly aware of the difficulties in­

It is a problem that has grown out of their own experience.

Consequently,

the expository speech as a unit

experiment

suitable for a learning situation.

is

Before the
solving t h e i r

for study,practice and

students read the text for suggestions as to ways of

difficulties,

dividual p r o b l e m s

they need definitely to clarify their in­

either through class discussion or in conference

with the i n s t r u c t o r .

Perhaps a manuscript of a speech will

serve well

lob
for comparison with a model
dix of the text.

speech such as might be found in a n ap p e n ­

In this way, a n d po ssibly other ways,

the students

begin to see their own problems clearly enough to identify the factors
thr

t cause difficulty.

This analysis helps them to constitute their

problems in such a way that

they themselves will have a full realiza­

tion of the precise nature of their difficulties.
how they are ready for suggestions fro m outside sources as to the
possible ways out of their trouble. The public

speaking text is usually

a convenient r eference

and composition; these

as are

texts in rhetoric

may be supplemented by l ecture— demo nst ra tio n by the instructor,
class discussion,

by

by an alysis of models and samples either by individual

class mem be rs or by groups wor.cing together.

This first-hand familiar­

ity with the details brings about a heightened a pp reciation of the
problem,

but it also

introduces ideas which, constitute possible solu­

tions and from which suggestions may flow directly.
di sco urs e follows further in comparing various ideas as to the
best ways the

students can solve their own inadeouacies.

m a y be retained to serve

specific purposes,

Some ideas

otners for additional rea­

sons while still other

ideas raay be eliminated altogether.

weig h i n g and f o l l o w i n g

through of ideas results the selection of the

one p l a n most

from this

likely to a c c o m pl ish the resolution of the diificulty.

This plan constitutes the hypothesis d escribed in Chapter Two above.
.uring the discourse stage,

as indeed at every stage,

tor is an a ct ive participant in the discussion.

the instruc­

As a co-learner with

the students he p rob ab ly will discover ideas he has not evaluated in
a similar context.
ever,

More important from the students*

standpoint,

is the instructor* s function with relation to the students*

how­

167

le ar nin g process.

In this rel at ionship his function is to gui de the

di sc ussion a l o n g its course so it will he fruitful for the students.
He may a s k questions a n d offer suggestions about un ex plored possibili­
ties, about hasty a s su mpt ion s the students might make,
al

infor ma tio n as needed,

in an intelligent manner.
clear-cut answers
that

provide addition­

an d generally a ss ure the inouiry is conducted
His province is not

to give the students

to their problems but rather to w o r k with tnem so

they rnay find a satisfactory answer which they may frame in a clear-

cut manner.

The b urden of tr.e inquiry and,

is on the students.

therefore,

of the learning

The instructor is tneir resourceful assistant,

not

their dictator.
"With a for mu lat ed hypotnesis the students are ready to try out
ideas to determine whether or to what
with the p rojected one.

extent the actual outcome compares

Or they may prepare ancv deliver several speeches

pr ov ide d they revise the succeeding ones in terms of what they have
learned in doing the earlier ones.
ing directions

to some

one who

a i.iap, the ne^t time without.

They may want to try a plan of giv­

is lost;

once they may want to do it with

They may want, to try explaining the func­

tion of a small utensil or h o w to arrange furniture in a living room.
The y m a y want

to give the same speech twice,

college students,

once for a group of business men,

which ad aptations of the mat-*rial,

language,

for clear u n d e rst an din g by each group.
class, of course,

once for an audience of
in order to discover

and manner are necessary

In this latter situation the

will assume the role of the groaj. of Dusiness men.

A shift in emphasis

from c o m ion classroom ] roceoures is apparent

in the above j-aragrapii, a shift away Iroia the giving o*
the i nst ructor requires so many speeches from everyone

s^e-eones because
to pass the course.

log
The latter

system has been d e p l o r e d above and needs no further develop­

ment here.

The experimental meth od

emphasizing the purpose of giving

speeches in class makes the student want to give speeches for purposes
he h i m s e l f has

formulated,

for the verification of outcomes he wants

to make secure for himself.
stake other than a grade.

He does it because h e has
In fact,

a grade is a n artificial

and detracts a tte nti on from the m a i n objective.
has his own ends and interests at

stake,

to work; he cannot be kept f r o m it.

something at
stimulation

As long as the stuaent

there is no need to urge him

It is his engaging interest and

m otivates h i m to a h i g h - g r a d e and persistent effort#
fnce the experiment
term' ni g to what

has b e e n tried there remains the task of de-

extent actual

results coincide with anticipated out­

comes and of usin.-- thr t k n o w l e d g e in modifying future behavior.

These

outcomes constitute knowle dge, knowledge,

speci­

to be sure,

valid o m y

fically for that one situ at ion but possibly applicable in other similar
circumstances.

To determine the correspondence b e t w een anticipated and

actual outcomes the students ne^d
observations,

to consider their own reactions and

those of tneir classmates and that ol

t/.e instructor.

These they need to compare in or der to draw some mind of conclusion
which

they can then correlate wit h what they had h o p e d would result.

The extent of dilTerence b e t w e e n results determines the extent of change
and ada p t a t i o n they will ne e d to make in their next similar speech.
'.hen results are so used,

lea r n i n g has tauten place because they have

bee n operating intelligently#
Imolied above is tne fact
a.c
of

'unit.

that

There was no stuuy oi

the speech to inform was considered

organization

separate ironi any o uher

the aspects of sue.a a speecn fcven tuough the major

emphasis was on

the problem of o r g a n i z a t i o n .
gation,

not p r i m a r i l y a s

the whole unit.

All aspects were involved in the investi­

d i s c r e t e but rather as component elements of

To c o n s i d e r

them as discrete elements leaves them dis­

crete and without m e a n i n g ;

to consider their cross-connections with other

aspects a n d elements m e a n s

to

see their significance within the sphere

of their opera tio n a n d e ffectiveness.
sary and always poss ibl e:

Dewey believes this is most neces­

" Ev ery recitation in every subject gives an

opportunity for establi s h i n g cross-connections between the subject mat­
ter of the l esson a n d the w i d e r and more direct experiences of everyday
life."^

Dewey b e l i e v e s

t e a c h i n g which does establish such connections

is the best Kind of teachi ng ,

for he asserts,

"The best type of teaching

bears in mind the d e s i r a b i l i t y of affecting this interconnection.

It

puts the student in the h a b i t u a l attitude of finding points of contact
and mutual bearings."
The knowledge g a i n e d

is of various sorts.

First of all,

the Knowledge of the d at a w h i c h define the problem;

there is

this the students

gained f r o m careful a n a l y s i s an d observation of activities they had en­
gaged in,

comparison of

speeches,

and discussion.

Secondly,

ling the materials in the p r o b l e m they have learned,
perhaps,

the o p e r a tio nal

They have learned
materials;

by hand­

as a by-product

t e c h n i q u e s of handling and relating information.

the c o n s e q u e n c e s of the operations performed upon the

they h a v e d i s c o v e r e d h o w to modify the ideas they evolved

fr o m a nalyzing the m a t e r i a l s

involved.

And finally,

they know what the

result^ of a set of o p e r a t i o n s are in certain circumstances.

^•3John Dewey.

Democracy and Zducat ion.

Op. c,it«, P* 191 •

They come

170
r»way f r o m ex pe ri e n c i n g this unit of study with a genuine appreciation
of what an expository

speech is, h o w it may he organized,

what

techniques

they can u se a n d how,

and somewhat of the nature of the results they can

expect.
B a c k g r o u n d materials,
lished rhetorical analyses,
lum.
have

such as textbooks,

sample speeches,

also have a place in an experience curricu­

T h e y are resource material,
solved similar problems.

storehouses of ideas as to h ow others

But they are not storehouses of perman­

ent truths to which all future generations must

subscribe.

ple suggested above the students read background sources,
to them,

but to discover additional

as to h o w they might proceed.

In the exam­
not to conform

ideas wh ich might offer suggestions

Tnese ideas were not considered binding

but instead topics to be re-tested in tne present
ever m o d if ica ti on

and pub ­

the scene of the moment

situation with what­

seemed to demand.

U s e d in

this way textoooks contribute to an intelligent exercise of the student's
abilities and powers; used as fixities to which to conform they stifle
Imagination,

restrict freedom,

and curb intelligent

inquiry.

A significant difference from the lecture system also lies in the
way m aterial

is u l t i ma tel y organ iz ed by the experimental method.

the former the instructor orders

In

tne material of his lecture according

to his adult and expert standards; about this procedure Dewey comments,
"...the educator cannot start with Knowledge already organized and pro—
IK

ceed to ladle it out in doses."
above,

begins with

the student's experiences and proceeds from a small

nucleus to add material,

1^.Tohn Dewey.

The experimental procedure described

first

to tne problem and

Experience and Education.

then to the possible

Op. ci_t_. , p. 102.

171

solution, until the student effects an orderly arrangement of the sub­
ject matter largely for himself.

This method corresponds to Dewey ' 3

conception as he describes it:
It is a cardinal precept of the newer school of education that
the beginning of instruction shall be made with the experience
learners already have; that this experience and the capacities that
have been developed during its course provide the starting point
for all further learning.1®
•Tust prior to this context he says that finding and selecting the mater­
ial for learning is a first step in the educative process and "The next
step is the progressive development of what is already experienced into
a fuller and richer and also more organized form, a form that gradually
approximates that in which subject-matter is presented to the slcilled,
rapture p e r s o n . " ^

Impul3e and Habi t.

Impulses are spontaneous responses to stimuli

while habits are the settled ways of responding in established patterns.
Dewey expressed tneir relationship by saying,

"Thought is born as the

twin of impulse in every moment of impeded habit."

18

Taken together,

they provide the opportunity for the instructor to create situations
woicri will occasion thought.
The public speaking instructor will find his students with well
established habits of speaking and of thinking.
will provide the stimuli for responses.

Activity in the class

The instructor's standards

will require performances of articulation,

clarity of explanation and

l o Ibld.. p. 88.

i7lbid.. p. 87.
lg.Tohn Dewey.
i-any,

iq?2,

Human Nature and Conduct.
p.

171.

hew Yorx;

Henry Holt and Cora-

172

of thinking,

p r ec ise nes s of vocabulary,

adequate fluency,

freedon from

distracting; pl at for m mannerisms above the habitual performances of the
student.
way.

Ti.e student prepares a speech and delivers it in his usual

Class and instructor comment will select

sue a aspects of his per­

formance as were u n s a t i sf ac tor y and so arrest the smooth flow of express­
ing his established habits.
retrenchment

through thought,

Habit thus impeded will find occasion for
for through consciously meeting an obstacle

in the way of free expression of habit a p r o b l e m situation arises.
pro bl em is the be gi n n i n g of the learning process.
student can be helped

Hrom tlxat point the

to improve his speaking habits.

This prob le m im_

i els to inquiry and this activity

so impelled tne instructor needs

guide

In this sense,

into a better performance.

is n e e d e d
If,

to arouse

thought,

Tills

hewey avers,

to

"Impulse

incite reflection and enliven b e l ief ."^9

for example, a student lacks the continuous eye-contact with

his audie nce while he is on tee platf orm and thereby distracts them
without iOiowin; it, he is pro bably following his ordinary pattern of
spe-'king;
pattern,

or if he has

so little platform exi^erience as

to have no

tnen his l ac k of contact may well be an impulsive reaction to

seeing all eyes of the class focussed u ^on him.

In tne former case he

re c o gn ize d no prob le m and it will need to be pointed out to aim by
both the class and the instructor that it is an undesirable element
w h i c n he might well

improve.

Upon his realization of that fact— and that

realization may be difficult for him to come to— h is first impulse may
be to want

to escape or to respond in some other unintelligent way.

l i c the occa- ion for suggesting

iqlbid.. pp. 170-171.

how he might study the problem

173
in order to f i n d out w h a t h e can do to improve his performance.
has to recognize his problem;

He

when he does, he will probably a 3k with-

out any p r o d d i n g b y the instructor what he can do about it.

Thus a

real l ear ni ng situ at ion is born.
In the l att er case h i s lack of eye contact is a n expression of
the first
ation.

re action that o ccurred to h i m un der the pressure of the situ­

His p l a t f o r m exp eri en ce constituted a p r o b le m for him; he had

no reedy m et hod for solving it fr^m previous experience,
first

and so the

impulsive r esponse h e could make to this unsatisfactory

is gazing out of the window,

at the floor,

or over the heads of the stu­

dents sitting in the b a c k r o w of seats in the room.
of h i s response is not c alled to his attention,
sponse was
a habit.

situation

If this weakness

he may believe the re­

satisfactory a n d repeat it anoth-r time a nd thereby esteblish
But

if the class objects to it, a nd ne /enow s no way of react­

ing in a m o r e satisfactory manner, he has a p r o b l e m which provides

the

oc casion for a real l e a r n i n g situation.
The student's r e s pon se s need guidance— that he will act is a for e­
gone conclusion—

so h i s

performance will be more acceptable.

study the p r o ble m by o b s e r v i n g other speakers in the class,
his

instructors,

He can
watching

and discover ing what are his own reactions to their

good a nd less satis fa cto ry performances.

It may even be necessary for

someone to show nim p re c i s e l y what he does on the platform,
come to a more tho ro ugh realisation of his own j.roblem.

3) he will

dare is neces­

sary to prevent h im f r o m bei ng too superficial in hio analysis ol

the

pro bl em and from r ega rd ing the first 3u gestion thot comes to h i m as
the sum total of th"t j.roblem.

The some is true 01

that occurs as the remedy for it.

the lirst suggestion

In either event impulse will work

174
to shortcircuit the process of intelligent inquiry, a nd to the extent
that it does,

le arning will not accrue.

Impulsively taKing the first

s u r e s t ion as the a n s w e r to a problem is a crucial error.
of this

Dewey says

stage:

A genuine purpose always starts with a n imjulse.
Obstruction
of the immediate execution of an impulse converts it into a desire,
nev ert he les s neither impulse nor desire is itself a purpose.
A
purpose is an end-in-view.
That is, it involves foresight of the
conseouenees which will result from a c t ing u p o n impulse.^®
An unfavor ab le comment about a speaker* s p e rfo rma nc e is the oc­
casion for an impulsive response.

"The teacher's business

that the occasion is taken advantage of."

21

is to see

He needs to und ers ta nd

that the student will make some kind of response a n d to recognise the
o p portunity to help the student respond in a m or e intelligent manner.
He needs to und er sta nd h o w he can help h i m establish and implement the
method of

inquiry when such occasions arise.

Intelligence.

T h i n k i n g , and H i n d .

identical w i t h the pr-ttern of
is employed

inquiry.

The m e t h o d of intelligence is
To the extent that this pattern

in the solving of problems a pe rson is said to be intelli-

r
-.ent and to have mind.

Intelligent

thinking a r ise s when impulse and

h a bit are impeded a n d new ways of r e s e n d i n g b eco me necessary.
The significance of this phase of the e xperimentalist view lies
in the reouirement of reflection as a necessary aspect of the learning
experience.

Earlier it was observed

thrt for a n experience to be edu­

cative it must possess continuity and necessitate

^ J o h n Dewey.
?1Ibid.. p. 34.

Txperience and Educati on.

intelligent thinking.

O p . cit.. p. 73.

175
Hout in e assignments either to 'learn'

a gi v e n quantity of factual mater­

ial or to do a specified nu mber of speeches during a term do not meet
these quali fic at ion s in that there is no demand for the student to in­
stitute relation of the material with any other nor any necessity to
consider prepa ri ng and pr~senting a speech as h a v i n g to do with

thinking.

U n d e r the h e a d i n g of Lea r n i n g abov e the pattern of reflective
t h inking and of learn ing wa3 presented.

It was po in ted out a speech

was an o cc asion to experiment w it h a n idea or hypothesis
h a d d eveloped in studying a body of material
u n c l ea r situation.

the student

in oraer to clarify an

Yfhen this procedure is employed in tne classroom,

thinking must occur or there is neither an hy po thesis nor a n experiment
but mere capricious a c t i o n which is u nintelligent in so far as it is
merely capricious.
The principle of continuity requires the student do something,
“xample,

for

present a speech to the class, and the experience a n d its res­

idue do something to the student.

That is, h e must analyze his exper­

ience for its successful and less successful aspects and so modify his
future action in accordance witi: tuose results.
intelligence.

It is tautological

Tais is the m ethod of

to add that when this is done think,

in.; has taken place or that mi n d is an element in the total
A p urpose has been framed and

situation.

tiie results are a nal yz ed to determine

whether or not that purpose has been accomplished.
On

the one hand,

this principle implies th; t to begin with ready-

made subject m a tte r orga ni zed ac c o r d i n g to ma ture standards is a serious
mistake.

The earlier stages in tne method of tniiucing have already been

done and the student is not expected

to do tnose steps at all.

presumed w i l l in g and able to somehow absorb it without thougnt,

He is
without

176
understanding, ana almost certainly without appreciation.

He has no

problem and h e n c e no need, no sense of an unsatisfactory set of circum­
stances.

It follows that he need frame no ends or purposes in accord­

ance with which he adapts future action; he needs make no comparison
of anticipated and actual results of action— if indeed any action is
called for in a ny event.

To as sign a chapter in the text,

on ways of get ti ng and holding attention,

let us say,

as so much subject content

to be learned is to avoid placing any burden of th.ink.ing on the studait
at all.

The result is described a d e q u a t e l y

in these words of Dewey;

And skill obtained apart from thinking is not connected with any
sense of the purposes for which it is to be used.
It consequently
leaves a man at the mercy of his routine habits and of the author­
itative control of others, who Know what they are about and who
ore not especially scrupulous as to their means of achievement.
And information severed from thoughtful action is dead, a mindcrushing load.
Since it simulates knowledge and thereby develops
the poison of conceit, it is a most powerful obstacle to further
growth in the .-race of intelligence.22
The student may be able to reproduce the information of a chapter but
it will effect little change in nis behavior in future action.

He is

cluttered with a mass of information waich serves no purpose.
On the other hand,
each student

merely to expect a long series of speeches from

in the class is tantamount to an almost equally long series

of routine performances.

The student's purposes in the course and in

giving speeches should be to develop his abilities as far as possible
within the time and opportunities available in the class.

If he merely

gives speeches in order to fulfill the required number of performances,
h i s prob lem is not to develop as a speaker— though that may incidentally
occur as a by-product

?2J o h n

Dewey.

but rather to fulfill the requirements of the

Democracy and Dement i o n .

O p . c i t ., p.

179*

177
course.

Ke h as no i d e a 3 to try out, no audience to be concerned with;

he merely has to appear so m a n y times in order to get a passing grade.
His acti on is likely to become more and iaore automatic,
sirable or undesirable,
speaker will

his habits,

de­

more ingrained; growing to be an effective

be his least concern.

Dewey comments on routine,

thought­

less action:
Routine action, a c t io n which is aut unatic, may increase skill to
do a particular thing.
In so far, it might be said to have a n
educative effect.
But it does not lead to new perceptions of
bearings end connections; it limits rather than widens the mean—
ing-horizon.
A nd since the environment changes a n d our way of
a c t i n g hos to be modified in order successfully to keep a balers
ced connection with things, an isolated u n i f o r m way of acting
becomes disastrous at some
itical moment.
The vaunted 'skill*
turns out gross ineptitude.
The critical moment leaves h i m possibly with a wealth of information
w h i c h he has gleaned from a text but which he cannot ap]ly in a situ­
atio n w h i c h is serious.

Habits

seek to retain their dominant status,

and when they are inadeouate or inappropriate, he is at

the mercy of

impulse and impulse seeks expression without caring how intelligent
the expression is.
j-iving speeches merely to fulfill

course reouirenients arbitrarily

set u p by the instructor identifies the end with the >rocess.

Repeti­

tion of the process becomes the goal and purpose rather than giving a
speech wit h a purpose the student himself has developed.

Thereby the

emphasis is shifted from trying out ideas to trying to get through
without an y troubles,

such as lapses of memory.

The evaluation is

likely to stress only the elements oi getting through the speech as
smoothly as possible,

? 3lbid.,

p. Ql.

with appropriate mechanics such as stage bearing

178
and gestures wh i c h the student knows the ins tructor approves.
supplant the learning a n d thinking the student n e e d s
to have an intelligent learning experience.

to do in order

l/hen the

placed on externals and on conforming to rules,

These

emphasis is

it is reminiscent of

the elocutionary methods of a n earlier day in s p e e c h training when em­
phasis was clearly on mechanics of posture and g e s t u r e ,

inflection,

and m o d ula ti on instead of on content or e x p re ss ion appropris te to the
sense being uttered and its effect on the audience.
R e flective thinking also demands that the stu den t
his speeches intelligently.

It expects the student

to

really prepare
study the sub­

ject matter of the speech so as to have a thorough g r a s p of the mater­
ial,

to have selected well the ideas he expects to present,

formulate these ideas into a pattern comprehensible
It expects further that he will give careful
presentation,

to the selection of material

subject and gain the attention of the audience,
illustrations,

to the phrasing,

to the audience.

thought to

that will

and to

tne manner of

introduce the

to sele cti on of his

rote, vocal variety,

a n d all of the

other asp ects of n well-Tjrepared and well— del ivere d sp eech.

It denies

a place to mere glibness and volubility both of w h i c h m a y merely be
habit on the rampage.

llibness and volubility may a l s o occur when a

person is deeply j-rejudiced or has well established attitudes;
he may expound at length, without revealing any real
base.

If the instructor wants

action,

casional
platform.

thi n k i n g at their

to guard against h i s kind of routine

he must distinguish between real

pression.

on these

-reparation and mere free ex­

Impromptu speeches may have tr.eir pla ce for purposes of oc­
drill,

or for iroviding occasion for ’g e t t i n g

However,

the feel' of the

if the task i s to speak i m p r o m p t u f o r a ^iven number

of mi nut es irrespective of the significance of what is being said, it
falls w ith in the category of either f ul filling an assignment or capri­
cious action,

Aims.

and the a c t i o n involved is unint.elligent.

Since aims arise in the irocess of thinking,

it is appar­

ent that both the student a nd instructor establish aims in the course
in public

speaking.

Estab li shi ng aims is not

the same as saying that

as long as they are established all is well and good.
is not ap propriate that the a i m

oe

during

all

it

to get through the material of the

course a nd to conform to the course outline.
since activity is desirable,

hegntively,

heitner is it appropriate,

students should be a ctive in some way

the term.

Dewey states that educational aims must,
u pon "the

first of all,

be based

intrinsic activities and needs...of the given individual to

be educated."

ph

The

instructor should indeed have aims,

.-oust be formulated in terms of the

but these aims

student's level of attainment and

experience, his further ne°ds or inefficiencies as determined by
society's demands,
number of speeches.

instead of in terms of subject matter or a certain
Aims,

f ur thermo re, "mu.3t be capable of translation

into a method of cooperating with the activities of tnose und ergoing
instruction."

This qualification militates against fixed aims which

prevent m odi fication a,s demanded by the status of the students.

It

militates likewise against aims fixed by course supervisors or other
personnel above them or by syllabi or outlines prepared for teachers.

F o r such pre scribed aims al low the instructor no freedom to adapt

to

the needs of the class or to use h i s own ingenuity .and resourcefulness
in effecting situations which } roduce learning.

Furtnermore,

the stu­

dent is the recipient of aims est.nbli shed remotely from his needs and
interests so as to confuse h im between aims that are natural to nis
stage of develo pm ent a na those to which he is expected to submit.
A third q u a l if ica tio n of aims is they should be general,
general
ities."

in the

that is,

sense "of a broad survey of the field of present activ-

Action,

it is true,

is specific at a given time ana place

and with reference to a particular activity,

but it also has ramifica­

tions a nd connections with related activities,

A broad a i m permits a

wi de r view of the field a nd stimulates a broader outlo ok over the field
of means a n d consequences.
f i cit y of action,

J-enerality ox a i m aoes not preclude speci­

for w he n acti on is to take place it is specific, and

there are u s u a l l y a variety of ways of doing from wiiich a choice must
be made.
The public speaking instructor,
u.ings to do,

as every instructor,

"has certain

certain resources with which to do, ana certain obstacles

with wi.ich to contend."

27

1

.(ithiu tni s iranieworrc he establishes hi*

aims wh i c h in this context mean "acceptance of responsibility for the
observations,
a function."

28

anticipations,
As general

and arrangements required in carrying on

statements,

aims may take this form:

student should develop a pl atf orm manner free from distracting

The

131
mannerisms; he should present his m a t e r i a l
follow; he should develop,

individual,

within the time limits

while g e n e r a l ,

wide range of activity,

to be instituted and carried

textual materials are the resources,
conceptions,

a manner an audience pan

in so far as p o s s i b l e

of the course, a pleasant voice.
purposes permit a

in

these statements of

adapted
out-

and

the

to

These

tne needs ox' the
activities and the

established habits, mis­

uncontrolled impulses, a n d i n d i v i d u a l

incapacities are the

obstacles with which he needs to contend.
The student ;xust also have aims in p a r t i c i p a t i n g in the activities
of the course.

Such aims as "credit,"

"r "uncling out my schedule," and

"I thought this would be good for me," a r e
showing little recognized need

u n w o r t h y reasons or excuses

on the s t u d e n t ' s part and ruucn less in­

terest in what is

going on. He has not tiiongi.t about what he is doing.

v is aim should be

to develop, as

area of platform speaking,
ficulties.

far as p o s s i b l e ,

especially tr.o 3 e

He should have suae notion p.3

r.istalents in the

a s p e c t s which present dif­

to

what t:.o?e ail ficuities

are on the basis of his past experiences.
hurthermore, he should formulate lor

himself

a speech so he Knows precisely why he is g i v i n g
to learn from the experience.

This poin t

that fulfilling an instructor's o bje cti ve
is netrimental

to tne real purpose of

it and what he expects

refers

sion of overt action as experiment to t e s t

a purpose in giving

to an earlier discus­

h^rpothesis.
of

being

It was asserted

so many speeches per term
in

the class,

namely,

that

of developing his efficiency as a sp-aker.

Indeed,

the student in the

classroom must

develop

it with a purpose

select his own speech t o p i c ,

in mind so far as it may be an influence 011

t h e audience, and at the

sane time he mu t also have tne aim of l e a r n i i g

something about speaking

132
fro m the experience.

'Without both of the3e aims, his performances will

waste his own time as well as that of the instructor and the class.

Capacity and Individual Di ffe r e n c e s .
recognizes each person as individual,
ience from every other individual,
ference of individual capocity.

Because the experimentalist

distinct in background and exper­

he hastens to a f f i r m the fact of dif­

Each student has some native capacity

but what that student will become depends to a large extent u pon the
kinds of experiences which he has had and will have.
ho student
telligent.

The

in a public speaking class is thoroughly stupid or uni n­
student may indeed appear to be unintelligent, but this

ap pe arance is due more to the fact that present activities do not touch
his areas of interest in such a
nate incapacity.

way as to concern h i m than it is to in­

The p roblem for the instructor is to find some activ­

ity which is w it hin the student's realm of interest and concern a nd in
which he has h a d some previous experience.

This calls for greater ef­

fort from the instructor to discover these interest areas,
that is, than the usual lecture provides,

greater,

greater than following

a

syllabus ready-made for nil, greater than routinely executing a pre­
scribed

series of speeches common to tne entire class.

Individual differences do not necessarily me a n each
have his own p r o g ram of study,

student will

so to speak, within the same class.

Jus tm an explains that some commonality may well exist:
In general, the curricxilum offerings on any level of learning
are to be common experiences.
\Tnnt each student brings to a situa­
tion is, of course, a n individual thing, and what he takes from it,
ir. terms of attitudes, understandings, techniques, patterns of con­
duct, is also specific to himself.
The school curriculum does not
need to be specialized in order to provide for individual differ­
ences.
Facing a common situation, learners react to the situation
in their own ways, and at the same time profit from the experience
or working together.
Of course, some differentiation is desirable.

183
Whil e the core of the curriculum is to consist of common situations
■which each learner faces in his own way, additional learning exper­
iences are to be provided to m eet special needs and interests.^9
The fact each student as a n individual

is d ifferent f ro m every

other m em ber of the class signifies the instructor will need to deter­
mine,

as nearly as he can, what each student's a s s e t s a n d liabilities

are at

the be g i n n i n g of the course.

n ing of the course,

A speech pe r f o r m a n c e at tne begin­

without being graded,

fo llo we d b y a personal confer­

ence w i t h the student should h elp the instructor

and the student to e».

tablish some measu re of agreement on the letter's needs and problems.
After that

the emphasis each student places even on doing the cormaon

acti vi tie s of the entire clas9 may be directed toward his special needs.
He may adopt as his aims also the aims of the group b u t his majo r a i m
may be to solve his individual d i f f i c u l t i e s .

This

can happ en only wh e n

the course objectives are flexible enou^i to permit individual activ ity
and

to al l o w changes to occur af te r the term has begun.

It can h a pp en

only w h e n the instructor is wil lin g to make al low an ces for differentia­
tion bet we- n the capable and less capable students.

For instance, all

class m embers may be expected to have a m i n i m u m n umber of platforia ex­
periences and

the more capable may be ^ e m i t t e d to do more ana longer

speeches.
Since the individual

student is trying to eliminate his personal

and private deficiencies as a sjjeaker, and since this kind of develop­
ment is growth,
account.

evaluation of the

G-rowth, however,

smooth and free gestures,

student must take this progress into

is more than mere platform skills,

such as

not:ceable state of ease, or eye contact with

29,Toseph Justman.
Theories of Secondary Education in the I ni ted S tat es .
Op. c i t ., p. ^79.

1&*
the audience.

It includes such additional matters as skill in ha ndl ing

speaking devices,

ability to analyze and adapt to diiferent audiences,

knowledge of the procedures

in gathering and organizing information into

ac ce ptable rhetorical patterns,

attitude toward the speaking situation

and to the audience, and an att itude of tentativeness about informntion
about

the speech topic and of reasonableness toward listeners.

Taking

account of such items is far different from asses sin g merely the quan­
tity of subject matter the student has a bs orb ed from the text.

A more

acc ept ab le question is to a sk whether or not the student has made as
muc h progress as might be reasonably be exp>ected of h i m considering hi s
starting point ana the time and opportunity for growth provided by the
course.

^valuation concerns itself more with the question of what the

student has become as a result of his experiences in the classroom than
with how much

information he has stored away.

Significant di-ficulties stand in the way of such an evaluation.
The pi a t f o r m perfor man ce is a complex of a large variety of factors so
that it is difficult,
basis,

if not almost impossible except on an arbitrary

to determine what relative weights

ments in the speaking situation.

to assign to the sundry ele­

R ea lly satisfactory meas uri ng devices

are not a vailable for assessing the many factors in respect to which
growth is possible.
siriall so that the normal

Classes

in public

speaking are held relatively

curve of distribution is not applicable.

That “valuation of the many factors of growth is a major obligation
upon the educator att empting to teach by the experimentalist m e t h o d is
apparent from the explanation of t- is philosoi-hic point of view.
is not apparent

V/hat

in experiment?: 1 i st writings is h ow a grade is to be

established in a cource.

Tne aosence ol direct

suggestions lor solving

155
this p r o bl em of the teacher does not, however, militate against e x a m ­
inations.

The kind of examination the experimentalist would accept is

one which seeks to determine the extent of growth in ability to handle
ma te r i a l s pertinent to the course,

not to determine h o w man y factual

items were memorized as 90 much memory wor k by the student.

I n te r e s t .

A student will be interested in the activities of a

class if he can see the relationship between those activities and his
present concern,

that is,

if the outcome of the activities makes a dif­

ference to him.

The other interest factor necessary in those activi­

ties is that they "cannot b^ carried through without reflection a n d use
of Judgment to select materials of obs erv at ion and r ec ol l e c t i o n . ...
Significance li°s in these principles for the ftiblic speaking in­
structor in that he will need to select or permit the students to w o r k
with h i m in selecting those class activities which will
to them.

Perhaps a preconceived sequence will b e

disturbed,

the demonstra tio n speech preceding the persuasive one,
conside ra tio n is to enable the

be of concern
for example,

but the important

student to establish the connection be­

tween on-going activities with nis aaily affairs.

hrcm whatever begin­

ni n g is made new problems will arise and so begins a spiralling process
which will

cover the essential materials of the course.

lies in the fact

the students will want

to cover tne materials because

they see its importance to tneir existence.
its own m o m e n t u m and motivation.
because they want

^ J o h n Dewey.

Tiiey will

Tneir activity will have
study,

observe and reflect,

to do those tnings lor themselves.

Democracy and nducation.

ihie advantage

rhe instructor

Op♦ ci t . , p. l^o.

186
will not n e cd to go in search of artificial
tivities,
This

devices,

illustrations, ac­

a n d anecdo te s to keep the class interested.
procedure implies,

of course,

the instructor is both free and

willing to let the students do a large share of the planning of the
course.

It is quite un lik ely h e will be able to predict accurately the

interests and concerns of the class before lie me-ts them.

Such a class

procedure reduces the domination of the instructor a nd enhances the op­
portu ni tie s a nd responsibilities of the individual
select their own topics for speeches, determine
they will want
try,

to practice,

students.

T h e y will

the kinds of speeches

originate the nypotheees they will want

and read tne text as they need it to solve their problems.

is not to say the instructor is relegated to the background,
be a mere visitor to the d e s s ;

to

This

that he will

indeed not, his role continues to be

thnt of the more mature adult who becau.'-e of his greater accumulation of
experience with current
guidance,

social demands is available for suggestions and

for kelp in -evaluation of experience, a n d for learning with

the students and

Piscipline.

sharing their experiences with them.

Discipline,

a c co rdi ng to the experimentalist,

is the

power to see a p r o bl em through to its resolution rather than keeping a
classr oo m quiet and orderly in a physical

sense.

As long as students are

w o r k i n g toward ac com pl ish ing their objectives in the class,

that is, as

lon g as their objectives are directing their activities and h o l d i n g them
to their task,

discipline may be said to exist in that classroom.

The r e l a t i o n of this principle to the principles of interest are
evident.

Discipline is not something taught directly as an item ol

suoject matter.

It accrues as the students wor-c out problems with

187
whose solutions they are concerned.

The instructor needs to h e l p the

students decide what they wish to investigate and which experiments they
wi s h to do.

If they are interested in gesturing,

they will investigate

and try out and practise g esturing in their speaking until

they find

the answers they need, and they will remain with the task until they
hav e completed it.

If they are vitally interacted in the effective use

of visual aids, more precise articulation,
until

they will

study a n a work

satisfactory answers and t-chnioues are clear to them.

Conversely,

as soon as the instructor gives them assignments which a re of no per­
ceivable concern to taera,

interest wanes and problems of attention,

derliness,

and fruitful occupation develop.

artificial

devices,

classroom situation,

or­

Dven the introduction of

such as courtroom cross-examination adapted to the
v.ill deflect from the

the technique itself and result

subject ma tter at h an d to

in by-passing the ideational content

and concentrating on the game for its own sake.

Discipline is best se­

cured by material that is of concern to toe student an d by developing
the habit of investigating a problem and

seeing it through to its reso­

lution.
Dreuuently the instructor will need to suggest an appropriate ser­
ies of questions for the student's reading.

These,

constitute practical problems for the student,

phrased so as to

will guide nis rending

and thinking so that it will be more purposeful and capable of relation
to

the student's ongoing living.

Suggestions of practical applications

or study of present extra-class application of the ideas will help to
clarify the significance of certain topics
illustrations,

end dialectnl differences.

such as language, gestures,

188
Motivation.

The t as k of motivating,

ist point of view,

a c c or din g to the experimental­

is not to stir the student to a c t i o n h e —will act any­

w a y — but r ath er to stimulate h i m to act in certain specific ways.
is c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of man,

but if left un guided it will receive its power

e i the r f r o m b l i n d impulse or from established habit.
source of a truly educative experience,
co n t i n u i t y a n d

A ct io n

lieither is the

for each lacks the qualities of

intelligence.

The p u b l i c spe a k i n g instructor's task is to guide the student so
that he will h av e an educative experience in g iving speeches.
give speeches in respo ns e to a command,
will m e r e l y
him.

but

s e e k to satisfy the r eou irements

He will

through such speeches he
the instructor places upon

T h e student needs to p repare the kind of speecn wh i c h requires

re f lec ti ve t hin k i n g bo t h a s to subject m a tt er a n d as to speech technioues

so that the resu lts can be as se s s e d and r e fl ec ted

ideas being tested.

The

student

oack ucon the

doing the latter kind of speaking, finds

h i s m o t i v a t i o n in the sat isfaction of increasing; his range of experience,
in g a i n i n g extended
commenced

b,

insight into

the speech—m a k i n g process,

the in st ructor and his fellows,

/ill be a p p l i c a b l e in a n o t h e r situation,

in

in be ing

ai ning knowledge which

a nd in r estoring an irresolute

situation into a resolved one.
Comments f ol l o w i n g the delivery ox a speech ought

to m e n t i o n the

goo d points of a. speech as well as those which did not mea sur e up to
expectations.

The

schedule of speeches ought not to be sc close as to

prevent a d e q u a t e dis cus si on of the extent of
in te rms of the

success and lack of success

stu'ent's purpose in giving it.

l o r such "inchoate ac­

tivity take n in this f o r w a r d — looking reference to results,

especially

189
oi' a p p r o ba tio n and condemnation,

constitutes a m o t i v e . " ^ 1

The desire

to brin^- about ant ic ipa te d results,

to verify an hypothesis,

mine the relative merit of an idea,

to vindicate one's own thinking;,

is vigorous a n d persisting motivation.

Heedless to say,

to deter­

instructor-

dete rm ine d assig nm ent s do not a ff ord this personal type of motivation
for the individual

student,

for the student does not .-aiow— nor care

either— what the a nt ici pat ed results should be nor what hypothesis is
at stake,

nor does he seek to vindicate his own thinking for in such

an assignment he h as not done any reflecting.
such a n assignment

is the desire to make a sufficiently good showing

to a v o i d severe censure and perhaps ridicule,
is sought here.

The only mo t i v a t i o n in

but that is scarcely what

It is instead bypassing what may be worth while in the

experience and only superficially and externally fulfilling imposed re­
quirements;

it does not constitute

P.etention and F o r g e t t i n g .
somewhat obscure,
ever,

desirable motivation.

Since Dewey's concept of retention is

clear implications are difficult

to describe.

How­

it would seem that what is experienced in one speaking situation

one who t is learned from it by a frank appraisal ox' the results will be
reme mb ere d when another a nd similar speaking occasion arises.

It does

not signify that such resulting knowledge needs be written and preser­
ved for future reference.

The fact that it is experienced is enough

to mak e it available as resource material as occasion demands.
other hand,

On the

should the student h ove no occasion to give another speech

for a considerable time afterward,

it is lixely that

would not be clearly evident ana available to liiru.
tend toward forgetting.

7>l.Tohn Dewey.

Hence,

this Knowledge
L a c k oi use would

it seems necessary that the stucent be

Human Hature .and Conduct.

^p. cit. , p. 1?1.

190
given the opportunity to appear on the p la tform frequently lest what he
learned in one speech situation he forgotten before he has an op portun­
ity to use it again.

Obviously,

memo riz ing a body of facts,

sense of cra mming or filling pigeon-holes,
Overt,

or at least vicarious,

in the

is out of tne question.

experience with an idea or a datum is

more important.
In order to provide frenuent op -ortunit.v for the student to appear
os a speaker,

class size must be

another possibility

is that

the

small or the speecnes must be snort,
same speech* may be reworded for pur­

poses of exp erimenting with some other idea;
least

this procedure will at

save the time of discussing the subject of th<r speech again a nd

so a l l o w more

time for appraisal of the method and technique.

Still

another way to overcome tnis difiiculty is to have only parts of the
class do certain kinds of speeches,
tions on h ow to

for example a speech

do somethin. , while those who dia not give this Kina of

speech can give one explaining some mind of spatial
course,

giving direc­

relationsnip.

Of

this latter procedure does not provide all with the same kind

of experience,

if that

is desirable,

and it is to that extent a com­

promise ne ce ssitated by time limits.

Tra ns fer of T r a i n i n g .

The experimentalist accepts the notion of

the transfer of training in so far as there are general
between two situations.

In the speech making process a variety oi

aspects are common to nearly all speakin j occasions,
ulation,

pleasant voice quality,

understandable organization.
another.

style.

e.g.,

such

clear artic­

appropriate ge tures and stage bearing,

Taese are staples irom one situation to

This is not equally true, however,

as cnoice of vocabulary,

similarities

rhetorical devices,

oi

such phases oi

illustrations,

speaking

and linguistic

191
Once

the

student

has

learned how

ing a topic,

gathering material

ical o u t l i n e

or wr i t i n g

general

procedure and

raving learned ho w

phone

remain

materials

find

and
to

to

that

it a p p l i c a b l e

t ha t

same

aids,

fairl7

stable

from

a

d^als

only;

topic

The Joint
it

with

of

View.

neither

ucative

experience.
part

skills,

connections

between

the

Stimulus— response

preparing and

careful

elements

handling

delivering a

selection

of m a t e r i a l

tailed

pl a n n i n g of

t he k i n d s

..’iotion

in

ience a n a l y s i s

by

the

iiave a m e t n o d f o r
and

public

are

a3

to

to t h a t

tney

relate

even

to

are

This

corresponds
established

of a really

implies
into

and

variables

so

insight

un­

i n the p r o c e s s

of

specific
will

that

over-simplified

in

wuich

the

the v a r i o u s

Influencing an audience
tn e

on

ed­

c o n f r o n t i n g him.

mechanical

the m a n y

Tnis

closely

f or a s

necessary

insight

situation

too

of a p p e a l s

speech

of as m e r e l y

already

oualifications

needs

so

stimuli

in .notion o f

the

in

oe c o n c e i v e d

educative.

terms

s uc h

Particular

peculiar

only

skills

address micro­

situation.

intelligence

of

situations.

speech.

direction.
student

to

a

response

student
of

- un de rs ta nd t h e

techniques

i n to

select­

framing a rhetor­

future

spea^cing,

the

reactions are

intelligent

th*3, d e s i r e d

the

to

from

heading.

setting

experience

is n e c e s s a r y a n d

speech

will

will

again

then not

satisfying

the

he

course,

Simple

t he

derstanding

of

is

Reflection and

to m a k e

enable an

of

be used

operation.

procedure

to

situation

Teaching public

reaction or

habits,

student's

they may

certain

impulsive

speaking

speech,

he

in m a n y

other

though under another

stimulus— response

to a n

Similarly,

visual

one

from,

to a n a l y z e a n a u d i e n c e

specific

a

a n d o r g a n i z i n g i t,

using

for a

prepare

it i n m a n u s c r i p t

analyzing other audiences.
as gesturing,

to

reouires

a u d ience and de­

set a n a u d i e n c e

demands

that he u n d e r s t a n d s

a

the

careiul

in

aud­

m e a n i n g oi

all

192
the e l e m e n t s
ship

to

in

the

situation and

one another.

with providing

just

The
a

appropriate

response.

the

to

student

the p r o c e s s

goals.

The

purposes
ating a

educational

w h i c h he
class

other

and

to

of

and

this

educative

habits

He must,

t he

l o n g as

adapt

to

new and different

example,

tion
ual

that
The

public
such
the

all

is

elements

fact

that

situation for

process

elements

has

of a n

of h a b i t

i d ea .
enough

Oper­

disregards
can be

the

realized

habits

enable

as any
fixed

also have

the

ought

eye

contact

with

that h e

well

inflexibility,

student

so

as

establish

effects

Yet
to

To

The

speaking

has

separated

student
to m a k e

their
to
clear

the audi en c e,

can devote his atten-

situation,

yet

certain aspects

convenience of discussing
elements

01 ^>eech-raaK:ing is a

its

purposes,

instructor.

reactions

intelligence,

total

and h i e

speech— making,

does

injustice

pl^ce and needs

to

unitary process

overlap a n d m e s h w i t h o ne a n o t h e r at v a r i o u s
arate

student

not

so h a b i t ­

disappeared.

foregoing discussion

s p l i t t i n g o f f of m i n u t e

socially acceptable

intelligence.

uneouivocal

in the

stimulate

sti:nuli.

situations.

ani

the

then guide h i m

instructor1s purposes

involves

plasticity has

speaking

total

t he

largely a matter

to o t h ^ r

tne

they r e m a i n f l exible

gestures,

the

satisfied

be a l e a d e r ,

toward

involves

be

relation­

of p r o d u c i n g

to h i m a n d

stiraulus-response

significance

ro

contrary,

concern

their

cannot

t he h o p e

inquiry

circumvents

place

for

of

the a p p r o p r i a t e

things

depreciates

the

in

of

in conjunction with h i s

presumes

experience,

doing

articulation,

on

enterprise

point

therefore,

stimuli

intelligent

by mechanistal

jroviding

Allied

of

formulates

student'8 purposes
by m e r e l y

series

of

significance

instructor,

discover problems

through

the

joints.

consideration.

of

the

them.

Actually,

the facts,
in wnich

Each of
Dewey

total

for

steps

the

sep­

recognizes

193
maintenance

of a

strict

telligent

inquiry

nize

this

fact.

done

temx->oral

sequence

is

scarcely

feasible

This

is n o t

to

say

in a n y h a p h a z a r d m a n n e r

or

that

and

that

connections

ial

relation

to a n

intended audience,

skipping back and

forth

from

gently
do

the

th i s

student

is a b l e

skipping and

the

of the

student

process

speech-making

The more

student

step

terms

the

cedure.
with

the

in

to

to go a b o u t

yet m a i n t a i n his

the

bearing

to

recog­
c a n be

accidental

analyzes his

pro­

mater­

overlapping and

occur;

t as k ,

in in­

thinking

is a n

the m o r e

step will

needs

of

sees as h e

steps

the m or e

the m o r e h e

in r e g a r d

to

intelli­

is a b l e

to

the o v e r a l l

pi c t u r e .

Theory

The

The
his

definition

craw

of

inferences

makes
his

D e f inition of L a n g u a g e .

while he

gestures,

language

about

is b e f o r e
grooming,

t op i c ,

illustrations,

all

these

of

come aware
careful

are

of

and

to

fact

to

some m a n n e r i s m he

and

appreciation he

and hears
tor

to

Drought

others

guide
to

the

light.

t he m .

of

will

give

in

comment

public
spoken

so

that

speech,

such a

way as

to w h a t

get from

to

he has

in

comment

class;

handling

that

The

direct

of

th e

of

the

subject,

student

must

the a t t e n t i o n

to s a y a b o u t
free play.

be

the podium,

the p l a t f o r m h e w i l l

about

it ioay

such a way

from every move he

organization

is o n

in

for an audience may

diction,

a message.

when he

include

of a p p r o a c h i n g

inadvertently give

the

words,

composure,

of

speaker must

subject

His manner

carrying

subject,
may

than

state of

speak in

the

The

speaker and his

figures

capable

this

to a c t

the a u d i e n c e

t he

more

of L a n g u a g e

the

it

of

i n s t e a d of

speeches he

point

be

This awareness

necessary for

his

be­

will

the
be

gives
instruc­

clearly

Language-—

Its O r i g i n a n d

symbols

originates

speaker

to m a k e

sure

he uses

that

intends

all

of

he

their

ing of

is n ot

with

even
the

iation

of

first

it

more

than

two

four

students.

ferent

to a

word.

p a r t;
In
a

that

St.

'trolley'

'machine'.
his

language

people

for

the

remind

language

a

ev°rv

'car'

but

to b e

speakers.

an

or

lor

occasional

is a

'emr'
aware

01

to

street

of

the

raising

triat w o u l d

to

the

meanings

instructor's
others.

sometimes

differences

dif­

condi­

also

geographic areas,
so a s

to

called
is a
adapt

The instructor can easily
about

n e e d not

detract

w e l l — selected,

it m a y

things

contribute

questions

c o u r r o , tnis

no
twenty-

that

different

car,

in other

of

is c u l t u r a l l y

suffice on

able

var­

s o m e w ay .

different

attach

i? addressing.

skillfully

speech,

will

are usually

t h e aiidience h e

by v a r i o u s

speakers,

in

an automobile,

intended

tue

a word

class

by

class

interpret

of

point

in a

emphasize

locales

a wide

there are usually

responses

that

demonstrated

In t h e w r i t e r ' s

to

them

th e m e a n ­

is a s k e d to

' do g ' ,

serves

illustrations

this

that

mean

needs

class

evident.

symbols

this a s s u m p ­

is e a s i l y

th e w o r d

them a word will

instance,

That

If a

the

the l a n g u a g e

experiment

in d i f f e r e n t

the

to

discover

it.

things

nouns.

would make

simple

speaker
to

to

the

everyone understands

immediately become

will

show
is

maximize

mentin?:'' u p o n

concrete

they

nearly

everyone

'’nd
A

common

'This l i t t l e

few

impression from

specific

iaentical

the m e m b e r s
Louis,

as

will

to

incumbent upon

themselves have understood

three

is,
A

assume

or

way

is

Students have used

to

individuals

tioned,

to g e t .

it

the

is n o t u n c o m m o n

assumed

Another

gets

frequently

response

responses

experience

them

S i n c e m u t u a l understanding; of

experience,

when dealing with

such words

report

not be

they

true

common

the a u d i e n c e

lives and

a word as

tion

in a

Status.

from

be

t he m e a n i n g s
done

the m a i n

illustration

is

in

com—

t a s k of

i n order.

195
The

constant

speaker and
for

is

example,

of ac t io n.
concert.

he

was

too,

will

The

leave a n d

cause

He

emphasized,

possibility of misinterpretation
for

usually

will

want

necessity

for

all
of

carrying out

do

the

audience
choice

disastrous

something

of m e a n i n g

is

of

based upon misunderstanding

leads

leads

or u n c o n e c i o u s l y by a

of

to d o

the

cause

to

of
for

the

same

course

thing

cannot

to h a v e

be

in

over­

the a u d i e n c e

believing,

speaker.

hov.ever,

In exposition,

clarity of understanding.

to m i s u n d e r s t a n d i n g ;

confusion;

speaker

speaker,

specific

language

to h i s

every

persuasive

different wnile

important

words

The

to h i s a u d i e n c e a

of hi s

careful

to h i m .

recommendations

Different understanding

sciously

concern

recommend

it w o u l d be

each member

precision

some

confronts

action

confusion caused

discredits

his

con­

veracity and

in—

tegri t y .
Dewey
cannot

be

words,

for

conveyed

tial

in a

wise

whole

scopic

observes

that

of

stntnent

style

such as

words

from which

for

fords

clarity

Besides,
thought,
break
one
him.

is

that

For

w ay by

not

single

c on . j u n c t i r n s a n d
indicate
The

speaker

not

words

will

enough

heanings

remote

from other

prepositions are

even

relationships

connectives have

is u s u a l l y

language.

do w e l l
been

to

essen­

when an

to a v o i d

a

other­
tele­

eliminated.

To u t t e r

convey meaning

satisfac­

the

other parts

of

expression and

for g r e a t e r

certainty of understanding.

it

is

is,

ideas and
to

such

comprising

of

to

is m a d e .

.iust a n o u n a n d a v e r b
torily.

in i s o l a t i o n a r e

in a n y a d e q u a t e

connectives
context

words

the

ir: w h a t

combine

confuse
example,

speaker's

t he

in oral

is

called

in u t t e r a n c e hall

oi

one

speaker

or

at l e a s t

were

are

to u t t e r w o r d s

reading

listener

if a

task

speech

necessary

in terms of

'oral

with

phrases'.

iiali

oi

to p l a c e a n u n a u e

to p h r a s e

both

the first

To

the n ext
burden upon

s e n t e n c e of

the

136
Gettysburg Address

in this

fathers

forth upon

//

in

for
to

liberty

the

Four

this

group

of

to m a k e

score an d

continent
separated

once.

utter

and dedicated

listener

eay,

upon

at

// b r o u g h t

This

words

way:

Fourscore and

this

//,

sense

out

of

//

phrasing

in t h e i r a p p r o p r i a t e

own

fall

s a ke .

within

guage

are

speaker,
primary
to

this

however,
concern

to

course,

and

he

needs

tain r measure
of

is

At

things as

to u s e

of

the

possible

is n o t

Usage

only as

on

t a s k to be

b e a u t y of

outset

is not

was

elegance

but

tends

dene however

There
that

common

for

oratory

oratory;

usually

to

to be

are

his

induce

sharing

clarity,

formalism

so

can at­
long as

in t .is f u n c t i o n

tn e m e a n i n g o f

experiences.

of

syntactic

Il" h e

commended

dangers

in r e f e r ­

Y.hile,

instead on

mundane.

objective.

first

enjoyed

elegance of lan­

esthetic.

nis

of

is

diction and acceptable

is

can grasp

a nd he must

sometimes

nirectly,

to m a t t e r s

elegance

each

to a g r o u p o f p e o p l e o r

he

observed

a result

ideas

language,

Instrumental♦
it

and

s e e k to p r a c t i c e

on

forth

The beginning public

conduct

opposed

Emphasis

f r o m the

their

were he

to b e u n d e r s t o o d .

language

expression and

convey

appropriate

the emphasis

expression

L anguage
too.

thinking or

coherence.

distracts

to

the a u d i e n c e

if h e w i s h e s

these arts.

ordinarily

to b e a b l e

practical

and

beauty

is

tneir

constructions,
unity

does n ot

in

brought

s p e a k e r 1s ob li ga t i o n ,

of

impossible

in l i b e r t y . . . / / ,

declamation,

for beauty

importance

fathers

On occasion

literature,

category

of major

influence

ences

Poetry,

th e

// o u r

groupings

L a n g u a g e Usa*:e— C o r s u r x a t o r y .
its

o t h e r hand,

On

our

conceived

it.

idea which

is t n e

nation

a new

virtually

conceived

expresses an

seven years ago

it w o u l d b e

seven years ago

words

latter

// c o n t i n e n t

e t c .,

a new nation,

//

The

language

instructor-—and

197
for that natter, the public speaker outside of a classroom as well— ad­
dresses his audience on a topic through the medium of language*

What

the audience receives from such communication is not an idea, but a n ­
other fact*

Dewey comments:

.••no thought, no idea, can possibly be conveyed as an idea from
one person to another. When it is told, it is, to the one to whom
it is told, another given fact, not an idea* The communication may
stimulate the other person to realize the question for himself and
to think out a like idea, or it may smother his intellectual inters
est and suppress his dawning effort at thought. 3kit shat he direct­
ly gets cannot be an idea* Only by wrestling with the conditions
of the problem at first hand, seeking and finding his own way out,
does he think* 32
There is not possible a eomplete sharing of an experience merely through
the medium of language*

The significance for the classroom teacher is,

according to Dewey:
When the parent or teacher has provided the conditions shlch stimu­
late thinking and has taken a sympathetic attitude toward the ac­
tivities of the learner by entering into a common or conjoint ex­
perience, all has been done which a second party can do to instigate
learning. The rest lies with the one directly concerned. If he
cannot devise his own solution.•• and find his own way out he will
not learn, not even if he can recite some correct answer with one
hundred per cent accuracy*33
Unfortunately, the lecture system usually stops with telling the
idea on the assumption that the student then has the idea, understands
It, and knows precisely when and how to use it*

While this view does

not condemn the lecture system outright, it does say it is not enoughWhat is necessary is that the student have opportunity to work out ideas
with the aid of such information; in this activity the instructor's role
is not that of a casual observer, it is not quiescence, but Wparticlpation, sharing, in an activity.

3^John Dewey.
33l o c . cit.

In such shared activity, the teacher is

Democracy and Education.

Op. clt., p. 188 •

19$
a learner, and the learner le without knowing it, a teacher..."^

Thus

is denied the readily-made assumption that delivery of a lecture equals
learning on the student's part*

From the standpoint of language, shar­

ing of activity is essential to sharing ideas*

The public speaking

student will have ample opportunity to share in such activity since the
course is largely an activity course.

Even so, Dewey's warning words

may he worthy of notice.
Knowledge which is mainly second-hand, other men's knowledge, tends
to become merely verbal* ... But in the degree in which what is com­
municated cannot be organised into the existing experience of the
learner, it becomes mere words: that is, pure sense-stismli, lack,
lng in meaning. 35
Neither is the information the student gleans from his reading of
texts, resource materials, and sample speeches to be identified with
ideas or knowledge unless he has opportunity to use it in solving his
own speaking problems*
terial as well.

Dewey's caution cited above applies to this m a ­

Even remembering and reproducing it on an examination

is no assurance that the student has made it his own*

He may have it

in h i 8 fund of Information but without a real appreciation of it; he
may

have mechanically stored it away to satisfy course requirements

without understanding the connection it has with ongoing affairs.

He

has a superficial acquaintance with it but no knowledge of it in the
sense in which the experimentalist speaks of knowledge.
Since understanding language is dependent upon comaon experiences,
the speaker must study his audience carefully to determine in so far as
possible what their experiences have been so that he may choose language

c_. clt*
35Ibid., p. 221*

199
which is moat likely to he meaningful to thorn.

Otherwise he is apt to

address them In what amounts to a foreign tongue.

For this reason

audience analysis Is an important step in speech preparation.

He will

need to know how they lire, what and how they think, what they do and
what their concerns are, shat their beliefs and values are; in fact, he
must consider all aspects of the audience as it may relate to his speech.
This analysis in Itself will be a most Illuminating, educative experience.
Values and Public Speaking
Appreciation.

Classroom teaching is accomplished largely through

the medium of language and is to that extent an indirect experience for
the pupil.

Furthermore, the use of language itself is likely to intro­

duce some error into the concepts the student takes away from the class­
room, the extent of error Increasing as the extent of the student* s fam­
iliarity with the topic being discussed decreases.

This results in

gross misconceptions on the student's part or in the mechanical study
of the language Involved as a formality in order to pass the course.
In either event the presumed purpose of the course is by-passed.
Now language may be studied for its own sake; it may be appreciated
in a practical or an esthetic way as a thing of beauty of itself, or
even as an historical subject, for it has its own physical development.
To some extent the oral reader, and for that matter also, though to a
lesser degree, the public speaker seeks to appreciate language for
Itself.

To those who have developed such standards of taste and ele­

gance this kind of appreciation has considerable value.
However, the public speaking classroom situation is not primarily
concerned with this phase of appreciation but rather with the subject

200
matter of the course.

The Instructor must insure that those In his

class feet a real appreciation of public speaking and of the many con­
cepts connected with a systematic study of it.

The students must ex­

perience these concepts so that 1they come home' to them, so that they
effect a 'genuine appreciation' and are 'really taken in', says

Dewey.

3^

This genuine appreciation derives only from lire experiences, ex­
periences which are dlreot and first-hand.

Dewey explainst

Before teaching can safely enter upon oonveying facts and ideas
through the media of signs, schooling must provide genuine situa­
tions in which personal participation brings home the import of the
material and the problems which it conveys, from the standpoint
of the pupil, the resulting experiences are worthwhile on their
own account; from the standpoint of the teacher, they acre also
means of supplying subject matter required for understanding in­
struction involving signs, and of evoking attitudes of openmindedness and concern as to the material symbolically conveyed.37
This condition for thorough appreciation is easily supplied in the
public speaking class in that short speeches of introduction or of nar­
ration cam be suggested at the very outset.

Several times on the plat­

form is usually enough to effect sufficient familiarity with elemental
principles for class discussion and amalysls of each student's inadequ­
acies.

And since the public speaking class is conceded to be a labor­

atory course, this same procedure cam be used throughout the term so
that speeches already given provide the backlog of experience for each
new topic as it is introduced.

After the student has platform experi­

ence he can begin the study of textbook materials and improvement of
his techniques.

Through these initial speeches he can, with the help

of his instructor, begin to analyse his own problems in speaking and

36Ibld. . p. 272
37i b i d . , p. 273

200.
then the search for ways to reconstruct Inefficient habits into more
effective ones.

So important is this procedure that Dewey explicitly

states, "(Jetting command of technique and of methods of reaching and
testing generalisations is at first secondary to getting appreciation."
Through a series of such experiences, each of which is evaluated
and examined, the student will develop standards of appreciation and
excellence on his own account.

Such a procedure will avoid the diffi­

culty of classroom materials becoming and remaining on a purely symbolic
level and having only a second-hand kind of appreciation.

Meaning of a

personal and significant kind attaches to such experiences, meaning which
will retroact and thereby reconstruct old habits and concepts.
With such standards of real appreciation the student can then lis­
ten to a speech by a classmate and make a reasonable Judgment of its
effectiveness.

The student is the consumer of the speeches given in a

class and as a consumer he is in a position to make critical comment on
a performance,

With the help of his imagination and an accumulation of

experiences he can suggest other ideas as improvements upon the perform,
ances he hears.

Thereby he will deepen his sense of realization of the

many aspects of speech-making both for himself and
he is evaluating.

for him whose speech

It may not be too much to suggest that the students

mi^it well grade one smother's performances toward the end ot the course.
The obligation of grading fairly and appropriately, so far as this is
possible on a largely subjective basis, places an added responsibility
of careful observation, suoalysls, and discriminating Judgment upon the

38Ibid.. p. 274

20?
student so as to heighten his appreciation of the speech from the lis­
tener point of view*
Considered from another angle, this real appreciation expresses
the difference between a professed standard of evaluation such as might
be derived from the text and from the instructor, and a working standard
as derived from the text, the instructor, and from a wealth of first­
hand experience.

In the latter case the student has made the materials

of the course his own so that he understands their relationships and ap­
plications; they are a part of his ways of operating and thinking; they
have made a difference to him and in him; they have realigned his habits
and so help to guide his impulses; they are at his constant disposal.
In the former case he may be capable of reproducing them on an examlna—
tion paper; he may sometimes be able to apply them in ready-made situa­
tions such as classroom assignments; he may be able to talk of them
with seeming Intelligence, but away from the classroom he sees no prac­
tical application of them for they are not a real part of him; they have
been 'learned' in some mechanical fashion, but they make no difference
in any ready and significant way.
This doctrine of appreciation denies the validity of such procedures
as assigning a chapter in a text, learning the principles, and then a p ­
plying them in a platform speaking situation.

For example, it would be

superficial at best to explain to a class various kinds of gestures and
then assign a speech for the next class period in which the particular
task would be to use each of these gestures at least once.

Or, for that

matter, supplying a set of rules which are to be used in the next
speaking assignment cannot guarantee any real sense of appreciation far
the rules regardless of their general applicability.

203
Intrinsic Value.

Since the experimentalist denies the possibility

of establishing a hierarchy of values among subjects of study, it fol­
lows that public speaking may be a subject of study on its own account,
worthy and capable of being experienced and appreciated for Itself.
This statement assumes that the experiences the student has during the
course fulfill the criteria of continuity and the application of intel­
ligence to solving it8 problems*

Dewey, as cited above, stresses the

Importance of providing "genuine situations in which personal partici­
pation brings home the import of the material and the problems which
it conveys.

From the standpoint of the pupil, the resulting experiences

are worthwhile on their own account..

‘XQ

. .

In another instance he says,

"It is as true of arithmetic as it is of poetry that in some place and
at some time it ought to be a good to be appreciated on its own account
llQ

— Just as an enjoyable experience, in short.
Dewey furthermore says, "...as long as any topic makes an imraediate appeal, it is not necessary to ask what it is good for."

hl

It is

impossible to say for what specific purposes the student will later use
each of the principles or skills Included in a course in public speafe*
lng.

This impossibility need not dismay anyone, for "The proof of a

good is found in the fact that the pupil responds; his response is use.
His response to the material shows that the subject functions in his
life ."**2

If the Instructor can secure a lively and sincere response

39lbld.. p. 273.
**°Ibid., p. 261.
4 1 Ibid.,

p. 2 8 3 *

4 2 Ibld..

pp. 2 6 3 -2 6 **.

20U
from the student, then he need not he concerned that the work of the
course Is without value to the student.
Instrumental Value.

A course in public speaking may have value

for its own sake, hut it may have also instrumental values though they
may he difficult in any given instance to specify*

If

the student

sees no such values, It is fruitless to suppose that he will realize
them hy merely telling him what they are.

Dewey explains, "The way to

enable a student to apprehend the instrumental value of arithmetic for
example is not lecture him upon the benefit it will he to him in some
remote and uncertain future, hut to let him discover that success in
something he is interested in doing depends u>on ability to use numbers."
The public speaking instructor can well take a hint from this statement
to the effect that no amount of textbook assignments or lecturing will
enable the student to see such values; he will have to experience situ­
ations in which an ability to speak in public is of significance to suc­
cess in accomplishing desired ends*
The instructor will need to guide the student into such situations
where public speaking ability is a factor.
any campus organ!sationsT
clubT

Does the student belong to

Would he like to become president of one such

Would he like to be able to debate public issues on the platformT

Would he desire to be a civic leader in his home community?

These and

similar questions are applicable to the situation he is presently in
aa a student on a college campus.

Besides, many of the principles of

platform speaking are equally pertinent to conversation with fellow
students, to class discussion, to student government activities, and to

43rbid., p. 281.

205
the programs of living units and oampus clubs.

Helping the student

consciously to see the connection between the principles of effective
speaking and accomplishing desired objectives in his realm of activi­
ties enables him to see the Instrumental value of public speaking ex­
periences.

A word of caution is particularly apropos at this point,

namely, establishing such connections should be done as unobtrusively
as possible even thou£i done consciously.

Dewey comments pointedly:

In general what is desirable is that a topic be presented
a way that it either have an immediate value, and require
fication, or else be perceived to be a means of achieving
thing of intrinsic value. An instrumental value then has
trinsic value of being a means to an e n d . ^

in such
no Justi­
some­
the iin­

TTlth the establishment of such connections the student will be cap­
able of perceiving the good in situations which he experiences, for he
will see "the meaning that is experienced to belong to stn activity when
conflict and entanglement of various incompatible impulses and habits
terminate in a unified orderly release in

action.

Upon the comple­

tion of inquiry during which aims were carefully framed he will recog­
nize the potentially better way of doing things to accomplish sux objec­
tive.

He will recognize that, with so many variables involved in the

public speaking situation, hard and fast rules are impossible and even
the principles put to use will need to vary with the situations confront­
ing him.

He will select principles in terms of their potential effects

in a specific situation at a specific time and place.

This point mili­

tates against the propounding of incontrovertible rules and principles
applicable to any and all situations.

Selection of ways and means of

^ Ibld.. p. 284.
^5john Dewey.

Human Nature and Conduct.

Op. clt.. P4 210.

206
accomplishing objectives implies the exercise of intelligent choice and
judgment of the alternatives available.

Should the speaker seek to

persuade an audience of fellov students to contribute to the Campus
Chest, he will need to select those arguments which will fit into the
existing climate of opinion prevalent in that audience.

The results of

his efforts constitute the good in that case and the devices, arguments,
and techniques he employs are the instrumental means in the process*
The relation of selecting the good as described above indicates
how olosely the process of speech construction is related to the method
of intelligence.

During the process of intelligent inquiry suggestions

of choices based on the facts in the given case and directed by the end—
in-view arise*

The larger this realm of Intelligent experiences in

public speaking becomes, the greater and more extensive does the stu­
dent's freedom become.

This freedom cuts two ways:

In the first place,

the student's commeuid of technique and skills in public speaking in­
creases; his supply of resources expands to permit greater choice of
means in accomplishing objectives, and as the range of possibilities
increases his freedom of choice likewise expands proportionately.

On

the other hand, since his speaking will deal with pertinent and timely
questions of a social, personal, economic, or political nature, and
since he must investigate these topics before he can speak intelligently
about them, he will concomitantly increase his comoand over these fields
of subject matter and become aware of the various choices open to him
also in these areas.
portionately.

As these choices expand, his freedom expands pro­

And in so far as his communication with an audience is

effective, secures real understanding and conviction, and leads to wiser
choices on the part of the audiences he addresses, the freedom of the

207

audience la likewise enlarged.

Thus an effective course In public speaks

lng makes Its long-range contribution to the welfare and progress of
democracy and to the cause of freedom.
As already indicated, the various problems of Inquiry involved in
preparing a speech require an analysis of relationships between the var­
ious factors involved:
liefs

the audience, their background, interests, be­

and aspirations, possibilities of treatment, and the techniques

of communication.

To understand these factors in their interaction is

to comprehend manifold relationships.

For that reason public speaking

ha 8 unlimited cultural value, for, as Dewey says, "...any subject is
cultural in the degree in which it is apprehended in its widest possible
range of meaning.
On the other hand, a subject is humane when it is "imbued with an
hj
intelligent sense of human interests."
Public speaking viewed in
this light has extensive humane value because it deals with conmunica­
tion between human beings, its effectiveness depends in large part upon
an intelligent selection of topic, an intelligent treatment of that
topic in terms of a particular audience, their probable reactions to
selected stimuli, the speaker's choice of point of view to be advocated,
material to be used as support for generalizations, ways of treating and
organizing such materials, and ujon an active concern for promoting the
welfare of the listeners in particular and of man in general.

"Any

study so pursued that it increases concern for the values of life, any

^ J o h n Dewey.
^ L o c . cit.

Democracy and Education.

Op. clt., p. 33b»

study producing greater sensitiveness to social well-being and greater

47

ability to promote that well-being is humane study.” '
Summary.

The implications of experimental ism for the teaching of

public speaking Includes student participation and. activity In all phases
of the course from planning activities to their evaluation, intelligent
insight into the relationships between elements comprising a problema­
tic situation, and testing hypotheses about speaking by overt experiment.
Implied is a shift away from instructor-domlnatlon of class activity to
cooperative study in which the Instructor guides the student* s growth
toward the accepted ways of adult society.
cede development of techniques.

Real appreciation must pre­

Language, symbolic of mutual experiences

and instrumental to achieving ends-in-view, ssist be used so as to convey
meanings to an audience accurately.

Public speaking is primarily a tool

for accomplishing practical objectives, such as understanding, convic­
tion, action, or inspiration.

caipna

vii

15 H A L T S IS or SEL3CTZD TZXTBOOKS
Chapters Two through Fire bare presented In condensed fora the as­
sent ini principles of the philosophy of experimental Isa as it is found
primarily in the writings of John Dewey.

Chapter Six explains the im­

plications of this philosophy specifically for teaching college courses
in public speededng.
The present Chapter is an attempt to assay the extent to which the
principles of experimental!sm are used in repre senta tire text hooks cur­
rently in wide use in college pibllc spearing classes.

Again the sequ­

ence of ideas in treating each of the six books is that of the four
chapters dealing with the successire aspects of the philosophy itself.
Vhlle the aajor esq-ha sis has been placed on experimental ism as it af­
fects teaching methods and procedures, minor attention has also been
given to it as subject natter where applicable.

The implications of

experimentalisa as explained in Chapter Six have been the criteria
against which these six books are evaluated*
The purpose here is to discover whether and to what extent the
principles of experimental isa are influencing the authors of college
textbooks in public speaking and probably, th erf ore, also the teaching
methods of those instructors who use these booxs in the classroom.
has not

It

been considered the purpose of this study to indicate what is

the point of view of those authors who do not follow the experimentalist
approach.

Here the ooncern is with the question:

To what extent has

210
the philosophy of experimental lam influenced the educational points of
▼iew of the authors of the public speaking texts here under scrutiny?
Fundamentals of Public Speaking
By
Donald C. Bryant and Karl R. Wallace*
In this text, designed for a beginning class in public speaking at
the college level, the authors make no claims of originating new mater­
ials in this subject.

In the Preface they say:

In adding another volume to the shelf of textbooks in public
speaking we cannot appear as innovators in the theory or principles
of public address. Our indebtedness to the teachings and writings
of our predecessors and our contemporaries will be obvious. 2
At the same time they have not Intended to produce another "treatise on
rhetoric."^

The authors attempt to re-orient the principles of well-

known rhetoricians to present-day living*

In their own words, "It is

those ancient principles of Aristotle, amplified by such later textbook
writers and teachers as Cicero, Quintilian, Thomas Wilson, George Camp­
bell , and Bishop Whately, and adapted to the needs and fashions of a
modern day, which we shall try to set forth in this book."

U

In other

words, they put the time-worn concepts of rhetoric in modern dress* As
they say, "The principles of public speaking which must be adapted to
life and work and society today must be explained in terms sf today.
Those are the terms in which you will study them in this book."

1 Donald C. Bryant and Karl R. Wallace. Fundamentals of. Public Speaking.
New York: D. Apple ton-Century Company, Inc., 19^7•
2

Ibid., p.v.

5l o c . cit*
^Ibid., p. 5
5 Ibid., p. 6

They do, however, aim to present these principles in a somewhat
different and new arrangement for the benefit of the student.

Their

statement reads, "Ve believe, however, that in the arrangement of the
customary materials, in the exposition and illustration of many of the
principles, and in the mode of approach to the student, we have managed
to improve somewhat over previous practice."^

Thus, they have arranged

the materials in the chronological order in which they believe the stu­
dent can begin speaking with some helpful principles in his initial
speeches and amplify them as the course proceeds.
topics are treated more than once

For that reason

in some cases, e.g., outlining.

aim to present the principles as the

They

student needs them.

The topic of organisation is

of such importance, in

the opinionof

the authors, that they have given

it especially extended

treatment. They

say, "In spite of their high— school and first-year college courses in
composition, students do not commonly retain the sense of or respect
for total pattern which we think essential to enli^itened speechunking."^
In treating persuasion too they follow the chronological steps.
But more than that, "...the chronology !• divided so as to permit the
study of each major step and to apply the principles of each step to
practice speeches before going on to the next step and its application
In t u m .

Z

Their pedagogical point of view is sunned up reasonably well in
the following statements:

212
Our pedagogical purpose, finally, has led us to write primarily
for the student, especially for the student who is taking his first
college course in public speaking* We have attempted, wherever pos­
sible, to supply him with how-to-do-it directions. Indeed, perhaps
the dominant tone of the book is preceptive. Nevertheless, we have
gone beyond the handbook or manual, for we have not stopped with
directions only. We have steadily endeavored to bring the student
to some understanding of the principles which inform his practice.
Even the novice, especially in college, should understand as well
as do.9
Finally, they have placed public speaking "squarely upon a psycho­
logical basis , " 1 0 which is basically a stlmulus-response psychology.
The point of view then is that the principles

of public speaking,

dressed for the modern student, are to be learned and applied in the
order of psychological need.
The concept of experience has little significance for the subject
matter or the methodology of this text.

Inferentlally, one sees that

each speech is an individual experience and that no two experiences, such
as making a speech, are the same.xx

In connection with the discussion

of stage fright it is also pointed out that situations vary from one to
another.

12

Ixperlence is mentioned as a means

of learning from time

to time, but its import is minimal.
The pattern of inquiry fares little better.

'Analysis' and 'syn­

thesis' are recommended as the methods of preparing and outlining mater­
ials for a speech, but it will be difficult for the novice public speak­
ing student to discover the relationship of this process to the experi­
mental pattern.x3

A veiled allusion to it is also expressed under the

heading of persuasion in discussing the method of arriving at decisions*

9lb id . . pp. v i - v i i .
IOL q c . clt.

lxIbld.. p. 12.
lgIbld.. p. 6 7 .
a*, in. r>. Pl^ff.

"Hen believe that effective control of our environment comes, not through
blind trial-ond-error, but through rational methods of securing know-

ih
ledge and of using it to solve problems."

Thinking rationally seems

to mean thinking logically upon the basis of evidence and inference.
In the chapter on Analyzing the Problem "Dewey’s Steps in Analysis" are
specifically recommended as one of two methods of discovering the mater­
ial constituting a problem.

The other method is called "The Traditional

Scheme of Analysis" and is considered similar to the steps outlined as
Dewey's.

These steps are to determine shat evils exist, their causes,

what program will abolish the evils, whether it is the best solution,
whether it would produce evils as bad as the one to be remedied— stock
questions to the debater.^

Both schemes are recommended as ways of

securing and preparing materials for a speech and are a method of learn­
ing.

In spite of this discussion, a recognition of this relationship to

learning is not indicated.
Learning^ as the authors say and as has been cited, is to occur
through application of precept.

The concluding paragraph in the text

re-emphasises this point of view, for it reads in part, "Speeches are
fruitful of Judicious study as evidence of the practice of good speakers
from the past, but for most effective development of the student speaker's
own ability to moot a problem in public speaking, the intelligent ap­
plication of preoept and principle sure of prime importance.

They

seem confident enough also to say, "One who has learned well the principle

1 ^ Ibld..

v . 375.

1 ^ Ibld..

pp. koh-koj.

l^lbid.. pp. 5^7-568•

214
of public speaking and has mastered the practice of them, will be able
to use them for speeches on a great many subjects."1^

In other words,

the authors give the directions, the student follows; the student who
'knows' the directions can talk on many subjects.
The experimentalist would say, however, that this is an authorita­
tive method of teaching since it does not allow freedom to the individ­
ual student; he would say further that it does not follow that knowing
the 'rules' enables the student to select and apply rules intelligently;
he also would contend that principles thus known probably are no real
part of the student who, therefore, can have no real appreciation of
them.

He would maintain too that this method sets tasks which are fre­

quently of no concern to the student but which he may do to fulfill in
a perfunctory and artificial way the obligations assigned him from the
outside.

The experimentalist would contend that the principles extolled

in the text and to be applied are not knowledge at all, merely informa­
tion which may hamper rather than insure growth; he would say that being
ordered to apply predetermined principles to instructor-set problems is
not an intelligent procedure.
The position of these authors, however, appears somewhat ameliorated
by including in it an additional technique, namely, "critical, guided

18

practice yields greater, quicker, and more permanent improvement."

Taken by Itself this statement sounds experimental enough, but it still
omits several necessary factors.

It still does not make the learning

situation one involving the student's problem, for the criticism

17lbld.. p. 11
l®Ibid., p. x.

215
and guidance suggested in this context concern a judgment by the in­
structor as to the efficiency with which the student applied a ready­
made principle.

Criticism here concerns conformity to principle, not

to the process of solving a problem Intelligently.

It''informs his

practice* after the practice is over rather than before when he could
benefit most from being so informed.

The function of 'informing1 is

misplaced in the sequence of the process.
Furthermore, the student is advised, in connection with the dis­
cussion of delivery, "You can learn only through doing, by handling
yourself mentally and bodily as the situation d e m a n d s . S i m i l a r l y ,
he is told that "by gaining experience in the speaking situation, we
become accustomed to it.
platform

a s

That is, we learn to think-and-talk on the

the occasion and circumstances demand."

20

The context of

the entire chapter on delivery seems to climax in the discussion of
habit-formation for which they advise first that the student know what
his goal is, that he proceed purposefully, and secondly that he "praotice; practice; practice."^

So important is practice that the authors

are willing to accept practice as the only rule in speechmaking.

The

experimentalist unfortunately would say of this too that intelligent
practice is Impossible when it is practicing something that is not the
student's own idea— idea in the experimentalist sense— but something
that he is ordered to make his own; such a procedure carries with it
lack of appreciation, much perfunctoriness and automatism, but not
intelligence.

fy^Ibid.. p. x.
^Qlbid., p. 56.
21Ibid.. p. 53»

216
The foregoing paragraphs suggest that the authors subscribe to the
idea of learning by experience, as indeed they overtly and succinctly
say.

22
"You can learn through experience, an unsurpassed teacher.N
But

the next sentence deprives this one of much of its significance, for it
reads; "you can learn, too, throu^i study."23

The importance seems un­

doubtedly to be attached to learning "through study".

But even were

that not true, nearning through experience1 as here used is not consist­
ent with the experimentalist view even though the words are the same.
Experience in the authors' view is practice in applying tailored prin­
ciples to platform situations and critically determining the degree or
excellence of conformity.

It seems completely separate from study.

The experimentalist, however, regards the entire pattern of inquiry,
including study of resource material, an experience in which criticism
serves to determine the extent of congruence between anticipated and
actual results of action directed by ideas the student himself has
thoroughly understood prior to the action.
Allied to the method of learning is the concept of knowledge.

Ac­

cording to the authors of this text it seems knowledge equals what the

24

experimentalist terms 'information'•

Knowledge and experience are

not the same; apparently experience does not produce knowledge althou^i,
as is indicated above, it is possible to learn througi experience.
own language may help to clarify this difference:

2 2 Ibid.,
2 ^Loc.

p. 6 l.

clt.

24Ibid., p. 375.

Their

All except the dullest of us gain some knowledge and some exper­
ience from the mere process of living, and the more we are subjected
to education, the greater our knowledge and experience become. Much
of what we acquire is common to others like us, but each of us has
some store, however meager, of knowledge and experience more or
less peculiar to himself. 5
Seemingly, experience merely gives experience while study gives know­
ledge, that is, shat the experimentalist designates by the term "information."
How does the student remember material?

The authors say that "The

stronger, deeper, and more vivid the idea, the easier it is remembered.
How is he to do thlsT

He is advised to read several good sources, skim

many others, know the meaning of all words in those sources, outline the
structure of the articles read, the aim of all of which is "to drive
27

ideas into yourself until they become yours." '

A gentler statement of

this idea earlier in the text suggests that the intensity of the under­
standing of the meanings and relationships of subject matter helps mem-

Of?

ory.~

Dewey, it will be recalled, mentions only frequent use as am

aid to memory, that is, over and above having had an Intelligent exper­
ience with the material in the first place.

He would probably say of

the authors' view that their 'experience' interprets the principle which
without experience is Just words.
Habit, they say, is "learned behavior that meets the needs of a sit­
uation; an instinct," as opposed to habit, "is unlearned behavior in

25lbid., p. 13*
?6Ibid., p. 323.

215
response to a situation.

The experimentalist would say that

needs many habits since situations are never twice alike, as also the
authors admit.

He would also say that instinct, as used above, is

equivalent to shat he ealls ’•impulse."

In the present authors* view

*instinctive* action is unpredictable and uncertain and probably ineffi­
cient; the answer lies in making the adaptation to the stimulus habitual.
This he can do only "through doing,"3® that is, through practice.

The

relationship between habit and Instinct (impulse) is thus to avoid the
instinctive reaction, to determine what one is after and then to prac­
tice that so as to make it habitual.

This procedure fits in well with

a preceptive method of learning; it does not correspond to the experi­
mentalist

view according to which the conflict between habitual and

impulsive response necessitates the intervention of intelligence in or­
der to determine which is the appropriate response.
Thinking seems to mean logical reasoning.

Under the heading of

Managing Ideas in the First Speeches,^ a deductive type outline is
given after which follows a description of how minds work.

They sayt

In building and outlining this speech you would probably not
think of the parts in the order in which they appear in the outline.
Our minds don*t work that way. We tend to think first of a specific
Instance, of an incident, of certain facts, and then to move on to
what those facts mean--that is, to the general statement. These ex­
amples and general statements tend to make us think of or look for
other examples, facts, and general statements until we have a large
assortment which we distinguish and group and arrange according to
the pattern and methods here under discussion. Probably you would
make many_iries and revisions before you arrived at the outline
above.•.•

29L o c . clt.

3°ibid., p. 56.
3*ibid.. Ch. 2, pp. 27-44.
32 ibid. , p. 4l.

219
The experimental pattern of Inquiry seems not to hare a part in thinking
Mind fits also into this pattern thus far delineated.

The authors

speak of mind as an entity, a container, when they say, "The stimuli
that prompt your mind during utterance are not on a page; they are in
your minds, and you need to gain facility in controlling them."^3

Again

"Tour own mind and your own experience are your first good sources of
*rl|

subjects...."-^
other.

Mind and experience seem totally unrelated to one an­

Dewey, it will be recalled, describes mind by stating, "Mind as

a concrete thing is precisely the poser to understand things in terms of
the use made of them. ..."35
Intelligence seems to mean native capacity only.

Ferhaps the

clearest statement in regard to it is not especially felicitous fer
quoting here but it reads, "Siren a reasonable portion of brains, how,36
ever, almost anyone can learn to be an acceptable public s p e a k e r . F r o m
learning, they seem to say, accrue ,knowledge', experience, but not in­
telligence.
For the student to develop habits effectively he must have motiva^
tion.

A synonym the authors use is "desire".

In their words, "The

results of experimental studies on learning agree that the desire to do
a thing helps in the doing.

To one who expects to acquire a good deliv­

ery this leads to a great axiom:

the desire to speak to this audience.

33ibid.. p. 75*

3**lbld.. p. 125.
35John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
pany, 191b, p. 39*

New York:

The Macmillan Com­

3^Donald C. Bryant and Karl R. Wallace, Fundamentals of. Public Speaking.
Op. clt.. p. 9»

220
on

subject is a powerful stimulus to facility, fluency, and variety

of u t t e r a n c e * B u t whence this desire is to come Is a problem left
entirely to the student to solve*
Education, while explicitly undefined, is inferentlally a 'learning*
of the principles developed in and handed down from the past, and skill
developed through extended practice*

The instructor's role, at least

in connection with 'teaching' delivery, is that of a "Friendly guide and
sympathetic critic."

38

That is a description of his role which fits

well with the experimentalist point of view except that for the latter
it means that the instructor guides the student through the method of
learning whereas in this text it means that he directs the student
through the process of applying principles in practice and then criti­
cizing the degree of conformity of practice with established principles.
The authors, in speaking of language, refer exclusively to words;
they also recognize, however, that the visual cues an audience receives
from the speaker also bear meaning.39

Communication via words is depend­

ent upon common meanings which both parties to the communicative situa­
tion attach to the same words.

Meanings have become attached to indi­

vidual words through long usage in association with the same referent*
Tor that reason, "by means of a language symbol that has a common association for both you and me, the communication of ideas is accomplished.
This view, so far as it becomes clear, is not remote from that of the
experimentalist*

37lbld..

pJ

54.

38Ibid., p. 56.
39lbld.. Ch. 3, pp. U5- 59.

40

I b i d .. p.

18.

liQ

221
In learning new words the student is advised to look up definitions.
Beyond that he is given six different ways of defining a wordi

synonym,

classification, etymology, negation, illustration, and context.

Clarity

of meanings of words is one way of securing olarity of a speech

of

supporting the content of that speech.
this

Imphasis is not excessive on

of speaking, however, in this text.
Of the worth of public speaking the authors say, "It is ineffective
lii

and useless so far as it seems to be engaged in for itself.”

That is,

it has no intrinsic value if that is taken in the sense of exhibitionism.

It does have a value, intrinsically, in that the student will

Up

"learn not only to speak but to speak about something.”

And in that

it will lead to more education it still has another value, which re­
minds one of the experimentalist view of education as growth whose end
is more growth.

This is expressed in their words, "You will learn how

to discover and use the resources which you already have; and you will
learn to Increase those resources and keep on increasing them."^
Primarily, however, public speaking has more practical aims.

The

definition indicates what they are when it says, "It. /public speaking/
is merely one kind of conpT»,n1 cation— systematic, practical discourse,
that

through speech sounds or gesture, to add to the information

hh

of Others or to influence their attitudes and their action."

These

values, usually stated in terms of the purposes of speaking, are to Inform,

**llbld.. p. 11.
^IMd.,

p. 13•

**3l o c . clt.

^Ibid., pp. lMwl5.

222
entertain, influence conduct, influence attitudes or beliefs, and to
move to direct action.**5

Public speaking is in this relationship a

means toward the attainment of other ends.

Such ends, in this text,

are attributed to oral reading about which the authors say, "...those
persons who expect in later life to read in public, especially those
preparing for political and administrative positions, for the law, for
the ministry, and for teaching, should take intensive instruction in
r e a d i n g . A n d since it is aimed at Influencing conduct, the authors
say, "Public speaking is a tool or an Instrument in this process, not
a performance or an exhibition. " 4 7
On the surface, these authors seem in accord with the experiment­
alist position on value.

Their views of knowledge as so many precepts

learned and applied and of learning as memorizing suggest that they
have little concern with shat the experiences undergone during a course
in public speaking do to the student beyond making him appear capable
on the platform.

Their text does not concern itself with* what the stu­

dent becomes as a person, with his attitudes toward speech topics,
toward the audience, or with how intelligently he is able to select
the means for accomplishing his speaking ends.

They seem not to want

to evaluate in any inclusive way shat happens to the student as a re­
sult of undergoing these speaking experiences; they seem merely to want
to make of him a technician externally skillful in handling the tools

^ Ibld.. pp. 114-115.
4 6 Ibld..

pp. 308-309.

4 7 Ibid.,

p. 1 9 .

223
though without an intelligent understanding of the reasons for select­
ing the tools which he uses*
This text by Bryant and Wallace, then, does not represent the ex­
perimentalist point of view to any significant extent.
experience plays an exceedingly minor role, and

The concept of

where the word is used

in connection with learning its function is not the same as in the pat­
tern of experimental inquiry*

According to this text, learning does

not occur through the Intelligent use of the pattern of inquiry even
though this pattern is recommended as a method for preparing speeches;
neither the internal organization of chapters nor the exercises for the
student bear any consistent relation to the pattern.

This incongruity

between learning speech materials via the problem-solving method, learn­
ing by precept, and "learning by experience" is apparent throughout the
text.

Language, receiving minimal treatment by the authors, is close

to the concept of language held by Dewey although the precise extent of
that correspondence is impossible to ascertain.

Their concept of values

of public speaking bears only a superficial similarity to the experi­
mentalist view.

It is a text in ehich the ancient rhetorical point of

view dominates the concept of learning and education*
Public Speaking for College Students
Second Edition
by
Lionel Crocker

ug

The twenty-five chapters in this text are divided into four sec­
tions, each dealing with one of the four major aspects of the total

^Lionel Crocker. Public Speaking for College Students.
tion. New York: American Book Company, 1950*

Second Edi­

22*
speaking situation:

the speaker, speech, audience, and occasion.

In

addition, two appendixes contain selections for interpretation and
els of speech composition, and introductory materials preceding the
first chapter include an outline of the Principles of Speech Composi­
tion, Principles of Delivery, and Criteria for Judging a Speech.
The educational point of view of this text is probably best ex­
pressed in the Foreword to the Second Edition where the following para­
graph appears*
We build on the past. Students familiar with classical rhetoric
— and their number is increasing— will recognize ay borrowings from
Aristotle, Quintilian, and Cicero. And I have felt free to take
whatever suited my purpose from more recent writers. Other workers
in the field have been generous in permitting such borrowings.
Teachers of public speaking may enjoy pointing out to their students
portions of the book that owe their origin to some rhetorician of
the past, for in this way the student will gain a sense of the
sweep of this noble discipline, which is as old as any in his cur­
riculum.^
The student can then expect a large measure of classical rhetoric in
modern ensemble plus a sizeable quantity of related information.

The

Inference that the student is to learn the tried principles of public
speaking representing the best thought of the centuries and then to de­
velop h i 8 own skill through acceptance and practice of them in the class­
room is not impertinent.
Experience figures frequently in the pages of this text although
it is not as important a concept to the author as it is to Dewey.

A

Clarifying of experience enables a more satisfactory adjustment to the
environment, the author says. His advice to the student is:
In classes in public speaking the student is urged to talk about
those problems common to his colleagues. In speaking about them.

49Ibld.. pp. vii-viii.

22*
the student tends to find a solution to his own difficulties. He
may talk on fraternity rushing. As he prepares to talk about this
or that solution, a phase of the problsm that he has never consid­
ered may dawn on him. In this way he proceeds to an adjustment to
his environment.50
He emphasizes adjustment to the environment in another context when he
advises the student to Instruct the audience he addresses— for as a
public speaker he is also a teacher— and to "Throw some light on man's
struggle to adapt himself to his environment."^

Whether or not it is

possible, in the opinion of the author, to adapt the environment to
man's individual needs is not clear from the text*

And only incident-*

ally, while advising the student how to be interesting, does he state
that "Life is uncertain."52

Experience does not have a major role in

the development of this text*
It follows, therefore, that the pattern of inquiry as understood
by the experimentalist should have an equally minor role.
references to it indicate that this is true.
ries a slight allusion to it.

The citation above car­

In discussing the interests of an audi­

ence these statements are made, "What concerns an audienceT
and their solutions.

A few brief

Problems

A public speaker who cannot discern what problems

are disturbing an audience will lack an a u d i e n c e . T h i s again seems
to imply adaptation to the environment by the speaker.

The problem-

solution sequence is again suggested as a technique for analyzing some
subjects, but it is only one method out of a list of ten such schemes

5°Ibld.. p. 1 7 .
^1 Ibld.. p. 7 h.
52 Ibid., p. 2 2 1 *
53ibid., p. 2 1 4.

23$
and It is not elaborated.^

Soon thereafter a skeleton outline Is given

as a pattern for a problem-solution speech.^

The most extensive dis­

cussion of this pattern occurs, almost in disguise, in one of the two
paragraphs on the value of group discussion in which he says, in explst­
ation of an illustration, "The chairman sought to direct the discussion
along three lines:

(l) What are some of the needs of our college at

this particular tlmeT
to meet these needs?
been made?"^^

(2) What qualities should the new president have
(3 ) Vhat suggestions as to names have already

Clearly the pattern of inquiry has a small role in this

text*
Learning, according to this text, occurs through a variety of meth­
ods.

In the first Chapter the student is told, "College is the place

where we learn from the experience of others."

57

The context indicates

the meaning to be that the student is to 'learn1 the rhetorical princi­
ples of the past and to put them into practice in the classroom to de­
velop his skill.

The influence and role of the past is stated to be,

"Tet from generation to generation certain useful facts about delivery
have been recorded and can be passed on. "5®

On the other hand, in con­

nection with bodily activity learning is also said to be possible and
best achieved in another way, namely, "Delivery is best learned not from

a book but by imitation and under the guidance of a skillful teacher.

^ Ibid.. p. 277.
55rbid., p. 286.
56 Ibld.. p. * 1 1 .
^>7Ibid.. p. 8 .
5s Ibid., p. 515^Loc. cit.

■59

227
Emphasis is on 'learning' the principles of good speaking as formulated
in the past and conforming to them by practice and imitation in order
to attain to some measure of the ideal.
The manner of presenting these principles lends support to this
interpretation of Crocker's learning theory.

Perhaps the greatest con­

centration of commands to the student in any one single place is in the
following paragraph:
Stand tall. Hold up your head. Throw your shoulders back. Let the
hands rest at the sides. Pon't rock on the sides of your Bhoes;
don't teeter on heel and toe. Don't wrap one leg around the pedes­
tal upon which the desk rests. Don't play with the desk,
dust it off. Look at the audience. Donrt look at the floor.
The exercises at the ends of chapters further exemplify this theory
of learning.

One of the more lengthy but typical illustrations is:

Give a speech of seven
to the construction of
gested in the chapter.
mark in red pencil the
to the principles laid

minutes in which you pay particular attention
the introduction. Do the four things sug­
On the paper you hand in to the instructor,
places where you have attempted to conform
down.

Perhaps more frequently the assignment is phrased like the following
one:

"Give a speech on faculty-student relationship in which the end

to convince dominates."^

At the end of each of twenty-three of the

twenty-five chapters in this text one particular assignment appears;
the phrasing may vary slightly from chapter to chapter and the topics
listed are different but it is otherwise standard:

"Make a short speech

on one of the following s u b j e c t s . N o other directions as to purpose
or problem are included.

feOlbld.. p. 6)7bllbid., p. 269.
^ Ibld.. p. 168.

*>3l o c . clt.

226
However, the author also believes that one learns fron experience
although the process is not at all clear since it is not explained.
One such statement will perhaps suffice to illustrate:

"We have learned

through long experience to control the muscles of the face so that our
emotions are not visible to a curious world*
learn to control the voice...."

6h

Through experience we

Apparently the "guidance of a skill­

ful teacher," referred to above, is necessary for competent criticism
and for motivation.
For the most part, then, learning is Impressing upon oneself tested
principles and conforming to them as nearly as possible or conforming
to noble examples which embody actively those principles.

This method

of learning is far removed from the method of learning envisioned by
the experimentalists.
The concept of intelligence too fails to correspond with the ex­
perimentalist 's understanding of it.

The author writes, "We shall speak

of intelligence in a rather broad sense as including common sense, tact,
good taste, wide interests, and self-criticism."*^

The immediately suc­

ceeding discussion indicates that it is an inherited entity or ability
and manifests itself in a variety of ways.

The author further states:

Anyone who presumes to stand before his fellow men and direct their
thinking should be well endowed mentally. Intelligence shows in
how accurately and how quickly one can Judge a situation. The pub­
lic speaker will show his intelligence in the way he chooses his
subjects for presentation, in the way he can diagnose needs in com­
munities and proceed to meet those needs. A doctor may memorise
his mediaal books; but if he does not have the intelligence to Apply
what he knows to individual cases, he does not develop a practice.*3®

fe^Ibid., p. 39.
°5lbid., p. 35.
6bIbid., pp. 35-36

229
The last sentence indicates that intelligence is ability to apply prin_
clples and in so far conforms to the concept of learning described
above*

The phase of diagnosing and meeting consnunity needs mould seem

to meet the experimentalist's viewpoint in that the latter describes
intelligence as method*

One suspects, however, that were the author

to grant that intelligence manifests Itself in the ability to solve
problems, he would recognize it as only one relatively insignificant
way in which it is manifested; the major concept certainly is not, as
the experimentalist would say, that intelligence is method*
If Intelligence is given by inheritance, then one may suspect that
mind will also be considered a "something" and that it will be spoken
of as an entity or a locale.

The author conforms to this inference when

he says, "It will help the speaker to keep fear out of his mind..
This text contains this statement, "Not the least of the advantages of
this way of organizing a speech is that of sinking the text into the
minds of the audience."

eg

In the absence of further specific state~

ments as to what the author believes mind to be, statements as Just
cited do warrant the inference that mind is a physical something which
learning fills with information*

The experimentalist, on the other

hand, views it as acting with a purpose, acting intelligently*
Similarly, memory is spoken of as a reservoir which is to be filled*
Note this statement:
In order to think, we must have materials with which to think;
the reservoir of these materials has been called the memory* Memory

67lbld.. p. 33*
kgIbid.. p. 283.

•30
deals with the past; it Is a 'reinstatement of an old experience or
a present consciousness of an old experience, with Jcnowledge that
it is old,' as Professor W . B . Pillshury has s a i d . ® 9
From the standpoint of memory, the author further states that "A suc­
cessful speech will, then, employ references to experiences that were
accompanied hy a strong mood, experiences that were originally striking,
experiences that keep recurring to consciousness, experiences that occur
daily, and experiences that are recent."7®

Bren though Dewey is not ex­

plicit in defining memory, he does say that things are forgotten largely
hy disuse, or are remembered if they recur frequently in practical situ­
ations.
Habit receives virtually no attention in this text.

The author

does state that "As a speaker gains experience it is to be hoped that
his concern with the machinery of communication will grow less and
less . " 7 *1
Likewise knowledge is, in the author's view, an already established
body of material.

He says, under the sub-heading of Knowledge in the

first chapter, "Most teachers of public speaking want to teach you the
principles of public speaking that have been discovered through the years
72
and to supervise your practise of the art."'

Knowledge is pre-digested

material which is to be learned and to be conformed to in practice.

The

experimentalist labels such material 'information', all too likely to

69 lb id . # p. 109. Note; There is no id e n tific a tio n o f the source of the
quotation from Professor PillsbuTy.
7° I b id ., p. 118.
71 I b id ., p. 22.

72Ibld.. pp. 7-8*

c lu tte r rather than serve purposes, and he reserves the term 'knowledge1
to d esign ate the outcome o f experiment.

However, the author does say

th at "there a re no cut—and—dried ru les fo r the p ra ctice o f public speal^
i n g ," ^ and he does aver th at "The speaker must have in s ig h t ,"7^ that
i s , in th is co n tex t, apparently In sigh t in to the m aterials o f a speech,
not the techniques o f speaking.
Crocker d efin es language in a way s u f f ic ie n t ly broad to approximate
Dewey's d e f in it io n .

Crocker says, "Language may be defined as 'any means,

75
vocal or o th er, o f expressing thought or fe e lin g ." '^

a r is e s , however, there seems to be a discrepancy*

As to how language

Dewey m aintains that

i t i s dependent upon common experiences; Crocker, on the other hand,
seems to say th at a word i s a convention, mutually agreed upon, fo r he
says,
To understand our language, the person to whom we speak oust agree
w ith us that ce rta in symbols stand fo r ce rta in exporieaoes* Lan­
guage is thus a r b itr a r y . An Infant can communicate with i t s mother
through a s e t o f symbols which both have agreed to understand, but
no one o u tsid e t h is two-way c ir c u it can understand them.7®
Furthermore, Crocker says th at throu^i u sin g words "The speaker i s in­
te r e s te d in awakening in h is lis t e n e r s a sim ila r exp erience--n ot the
same one, fo r th at i s i m p o s s i b l e . D e w e y would say th at through a
common exp erience, in so fa r as that i s p o s s ib le , the speaker and audi­
ence would come to use the same word.
7 3 lb id ., p . 11 .
7**Ib id . . p. 183
7 5 rb ld ., p. 291

232
The text Indicates that speech is to h e used "for communication mxA
not for exhibition. " ^ 8

This statement corresponds with Dewey's insis­

tence upon the meaning of words rather than upon words for the sake of
words, for "words for the sake of words" results in formalism and osten­
tation.
Eight rules are given for improving the vocabulary.79

These in­

clude the use of a good dictionary, use of n e w words, checking to see
that variety of diction is employed, maintaining a knowledge of a for­
eign language, reading widely and looking up all unfamiliar words,
reading alound the speeches of others to improve pronunciation, and
keeping up the habit of writing.

The text includes a four-column, tWD-

page 1 1 8 1 of words frequently mispronounced, six pages of pairs of
words frequently confused, and fifty-eight grammatical expressions in
both their right and wrong forms.

Besides these, in the Chapter on

Language in Speech the student is advised to learn new words with the
help of a dictionary and is provided in the Exercises with almost six
pages of Vocabulary Drills.

gA

The emphasis in this text seems to be

on learning already existing labels for experiences, whether or not
they have any significance in experience.
While "Public speaking does not exist to adorn life nor to give
aesthetic pleasure....,"

81

the student is advised that if he performs

his assignments in public speaking faithfully it will help him "enjoy

7g Ibid., p. 9 0 .
79ibid.,p. 9 7 .
8° lbld.. pp. 319-324.
81Ibid., p. 13.

233

his campus life,"

82

This, of course, is not an intrinsic value of pub­

lic speaking; it is the value accruing from fulfilling assignments. ^
since language is for the purpose of communication, not for exhibition
as the elocutionists supposed,8^ the text classifies public speaking
among the useful arts; "it does not exist for its own sake."

sU

The

student is also informed that public speaking has work to do, namely,
that of "instructing, actuating, convincing. Impressing, and entertain­
ing."^

The student furthermore is told the working world wants pub­

lic speaking talent for leadership and Job efficiency, ability as a
public speaker is frequently the direct means of securing high financlal remuneration, and it is essential in a democracy.

86

Its value,

then, lies heavily on the instrumental side as a means to other desired
goals*
This text, too, places little emphasis upon the value of experi­
ences in public speaking upon the manifold phases of student growth.
The guiding principle seems to bet learn the principles well, practice
their application, become skillful in platform techniques, and success
in terms of dollars and cents is Just short of guaranteed.

This at­

titude toward the value of such a course bears no resemblance to exper­
imentalist values.

Indeed, Dewey would frown on the vocational and

financial benefits of public speaking here laid before the student*

82Ibid., p. 12.
g3 lbld.. p. 2h.

8^ Ibid.. p. 13.
g ^Loc. clt.

8bIbid., pp. 3-7.

On

the contrary, Dewey would insist upon intelligent handling of the tools
and upon the intelligent growth in ability as a public speaker.
This textbook, then, does not conform significantly to the prin­
ciples of experimental ism.
role.

The pattern of inquiry has a negligible

It seems inconsistent to emphasize, on the one hand, that "Prob­

lems and their solutions," as cited above, are of tremendous Importance
to an audience, and then to neglect, on the other, any serious attempt
to show the student what is that problem-solving pattern.

The method

of learning differs notably from experimental ism as does the notion of
language.

On values there is some agreement in emphasis on instrumental

value but Crocker fails to make important what the experiences in a
public speaking class do to a student.
Basic Principles of Speech
Revised Edition
by
Lew Sarett and William Trufant Foster^
In the absence of either a Preface or an Introduction the reader
is laft largely to infer the point of view of this book; for that reason
it is omitted at this point in the hope that it will become clear in
the discussion of the wrlous phases of the text.
The Table of Contents divides the twenty-three chapters into two
sections, the first eleven dealing with Delivery, the latter twelve with
Speech Composition.

Chapter One deals with Speech in Everyday Life and

emphasized the importance of speech in today* s world.

8 7Lew

Chapter Two sets

Sarett and William Trufant Foster. Basic Principles of Sp eech
Revised Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 19^0.

235
forth the functions and nature of effective speech and so presents the

88

authors* "philosophy of speech."

The remaining chapters of Part I

deal with specific aspects of delivery in turn:

Developing Confidence,

Poise, and Power; the Basic pattern of Modern Speech; Bodily Action; A
Method of Self-Motivated Action; Principles of Bodily Action; The Voice;
Melody; Tine; Force.

Part II traces the order of steps in speech com­

position and adds, more or less as a special chapter. Radio Speaking.
The eleven chapters are:

First Steps in Composition; Finding, Choos­

ing, and Recording Ideas; Methods of Arranging Ideas; Outlines; The
Introduction; The Body; Persuasion; The Conclusion; Suggestion; The
Language of Speech.
Man, according to this text, is a malleable being upon whom exper­
ience paw effect manifold changes.
he sees and touches.

"A man is a part of everything that

No man can come constantly into contact with

cheap books, cheap plays and cheap persons without becoming like them.”39
Taken literally, this statement Indicates that the authors regard man
as a part of nature as does the experimentalist; in the absence, however,
of further indication on this point it is not safe to say that they would
go that far.

They do regard man as capable of being transformed by his

experiences when they state, ”Man comes into the world with instincts,
but he lives only a little while before most of those instincts are mod­
ified by experience and by h a b i t . M a n

interacts with his environment,

and this interaction reflects upon him so as to reshape him according to

88

Ibid., p. 1 3 .

8 9lbld..

p. 3 1 8 .

9 ° Ibld..

p. 494. Cf. Footnote.

236
those experiences.

One suspects, however, that this interaction le re­

stricted to other men, for they may,
The world Is a complex, social machine with wheels and gears that
Interlock at a million pointp. Every human being, a cog in that
machine, touches thousands of other units. If he has the power of
speech, he can work smoothly and to good purpose with other units;
if he has not, he remains a more or less isolated gadget.91
In other words, speech is the medium of interaction, and since

alone

has the ability to speak, this Interaction is limited to interaction
with other men.

Furthermore, they seek to have the student restrict his

interactions, via speech, to the 'better* class of things, such as plays,
speeches, and persons lest he become as low as the "cheap"things with
which he night have consort.
On the other hand, they also say that the influence of experience
is not merely a one-way process for, "It is not the business of a speaker
to get pleasant things said of his art but to get things done."^
Through his speech the speaker is to exert an influence upon his hearers
which will transform them from something they were to something else.
On this point that interaction has a two-way influence they would agree
with the experimentalist, but if they actually mean to limit interaction
between men, then interaction and experience have a narrower meaning
than the experimentalist attributes to them.
The experimentalist pattern of inquiry too has a limited sphere of
influence in this text.

As Dewey describes it, it appears nowhere, and

what specific references to problem-solving there are do not elaborate
it enou^i to render it easily distinguishable.

91lbid.. p. 7 9^Ibid.. p. 16.

For example, in connection

237
with the discussion of "feelings of inferior!ty" the student is present.
ed some of the symptoms, then is adrised to seek out its causes and face
the facts*

93

Again, the difficulties with accoustics are explained

briefly and possible solutions are suggested. 9** Or, various kinds of
indirectness are described, the causes are noted, and then follow sug-

OR

gestions as to how to overcome it. ^

Similarly, a "Specimen Brief"

follows the pattern but its arrangement and form of statement illus­
trate more clearly a deductive, logical pattern; only upon analysis
will the student find the problei^dolutlon sequence in it*

96

In the

same way the discussion of the stock issues, while including the pattern,
does not make it clear to a student unfamiliar with it.

97

Chapter ar­

rangements are, it is true, frequently in this sequence, but the student
is not given a clear statement of it as such— which suggests that the
principles of logical arrangement and relations are a more important
consideration for the authors than is the pattern of inquiry.

The

Chapter on Persuasion, for example, begins with an illustration which
establishes a problem so as to prepare the student for the subject mat—
ter of the chapter.

98

If the student is to recognize this sequence,

he muBt either discover it for himself or have it pointed out to him
by the instructor.

93Ibid., p. 6 9 ff.
94 ibid., pp. 1 0 3 - 1 0 5 .
95ibid.. pp. 1 0 5 -1 1 1 .
9 6 ?>ld.,

pp. 375-373.

97ibid., pp. 442-m+3 .
98 Ibid.. pp. 478-509. Chapter 19•

238
Apparently the authors, without specific mention of it, believe
that the experimentalist pattern of inquiry is an effective method of
learning.

Part of their learning theory may be this method of Inquiry,

but the fact that it is left for the student to discover suggests at
least that it is not the major method in their opinion, or that it is
one of several methods*
Actually various learning techniques are referred to in one or an­
other place.

Under the heading of developing poise and confidence, the

student is urged to adopt the "will-to-fight1* attitude lest his platform
fears overcome him.

Several successes with this technique, they say,

will give him power to stand before an audience and then they add*
Such power can be achieved, not through reading books, memorizing
rules, practicing gestures, or swallowing pills, but only through
wrestling repeatedly with tough audiences. There is no easy road.
This way prepares a man not only to face audiences, but to maet
other situations in which he has to come to grips with B e n . ™
Another method is to adopt a "speaking— for— a— cause" mental attitude;

ion

this will help the student overcome his difficulties. w
terpret these suggestions as learning from experience.
stance they suggest that learning is understanding.

One might in­
In another in­

At the end of the

chapter on Suggestion the student is told to prepare an extemporaneous
speech in which he is to show his grasp of the fundamentals and "In ad­
dition you should show that you understand and can apply the basic
principles of speed*...."101

They also suggest that the student must

"fix in £his7 mind" certain principles before he goes about applying

" i b i d . , p. 65IOOl q c . clt.

101Ibid.. p. 41,

239
them.

1.02

This phrase suggests stamping principles in by frequent re­

petition and *study1 •
following statement:

Perhaps their whole theory is summarized in the
"There is only one way to power on the platform:

that is the long road of self-development through study, hard work,
self-denial, experience, strengthening of moral fiber, exposure to great
books and great p e r s o n s . " ^

In this way the student is to become "an

able speaker /who^ is an able person, intrinsically fine, honestly and
earnestly conmunicating at all times, and, ideally, serving a cause,

104

institution, or principle bigger than himself."

He must become the

ideal.
While experience is one entry on the list of items leading to self­
development, its role is minor; and from another standpoint its meaning
is different from that of the experimentalist.

The Exercises at the

ends of Chapters— and they are labelled Exercises—— indicate shat it
means, namely, reading and "fixing in mind" the principles of the Chap­
ter and then applying them in ready-made Exercises.

Examples of Exer­

cises are:
Review the chapter on Time. Fix in mind the principles that re­
late to rate, pause, quantity, and rhythm. They are not so simple
that one reading is enough; they require study. The control of
the elements of time is so important that an interpreter of liter­
ature must sooner or
later master the subject if he is to read ef­
fectively. Practice the exercises in the chapter.
Read aloud, all the following selections and try to communicate
their full meaning by the skillful use of rate, pause, quantity
and rhythm.
Finally, choose a
selection to which you respond deeply. Memor­
ize it and deliver it in class, or read it from the book, with

102Ibid., p. 285.
1Q3lbid.. p. 558IQ^Ibid.. pp. 1^40-1^1.

2k0
primary attention to oomnuni eating its full moaning and beauty,
secondary attention to the control of rate, pause, quantity
rhythm* 105
On any subject in the following list, make an outline for an sxt essporanedus speech. Use one of the following types of Conclusion
or a combination of types: the dawn-of-a-new-day Conclusion; the
quotation type. /Ten topics are listedT^
Deliver your speech in class*1®®
These exercises, which are typical, together with the advice to the
student to associate only with the best indicate that the "learning ex­
periences" sure designed to compel the student to conform to the estab­
lished principles and to the best*

It is not an experience in which

the student analyzes the problems and develops ideas about solutions;
it does not include the hypothesis, experiment, and evaluation sequence,
as the experimentalist would recommend*
The authors' method of learning does not present the student with
a problem which he has to come to appreciate or which has come from his
own experiences in living.

The speaking topics are listed for him;

from these he is usually told to choose one whether or not he has any
interest in it*

He need not, at least so far as the exercises are con­

cerned, have a problem in speechmaking; he needs only to use the prin­
ciples suggested.

He need, therefore, not carry through the process of

inquiry; he needs but to satisfy the dictates of the instructor who
selects the exercises for him.

Whatever measure of understanding the

student develops after he has the experience of fulfilling the assign­
ment does not need to be an understanding of the principles but merely
of the extent to which he complied with the principles,

105Ibid., p. 285.
10bIbid., p. 523*

ihe result is

2kl
no real appreciation of the principles, for the method of learning here
prescribed does not insure that.

It does not result in learning, for

assaying the degree of compliance is neither the knowledge nor the skill
sought in this instance.

However, what the student needs to understand

is how to attain certain ends in speaking, not how well or how poorly
he meet8 certain standards.

Consequently, even if there is an appraisal

with emphasis on extent of conformity, the kind of knowledge which has
to do with the worth and efficiency of speech principles is probably
passed by.

The knowledge, then, has to do merely with how well the stun­

dent conforms, not with what the authors would have him know.

Accord­

ing to the experimentalist, the knowledge which the student has of the
principles is information, not knowledge at all.
Thinking, in this text, seems to mean to handle material according
to the recognized logical forms or according to recognized patterns of
arrangement of ideas, such as space, time, and cause-to-effect.

With

regard to argumentation they say, "...the basic requirements of sound
thinking must be met.

No one can win the desired response except through

the application to his specific purpose of the basic principles of logic
and persuasion."107

A major part of the chapter then has to do with

evidence and reasoning.

The pattern of inquiry which constitutes think­

ing in the experimentalist view is not mentioned in connection with
this discussion.
Within the limits of the subject matter of this text the authors
seem not to diverge essentially from the view of the experimentalist in
what constitutes language.

107Ibid., p. 439.

Language is, of course, words, written or

242
spoken, but there is also recognition of the fact that--and this is one
of the "Seven Basic Principles" of deli very-.-" Impressions of the Spanker
Are Derived from Signs of Which the Audience is Unaware*"10S

That is,

what the speaker does on the platform, his action, voice quality, state
of ease, timing, rate, and gestures are coas from which the audience
obtains some kind of meaning.

One suspedts that here is one of the

reasons for emphasising the delivery aspect of speaking so heavily as
to devote eleven chapters to it.
On the purpose of language they seem also to agree with the exper­
imentalist.

They say, "The ultimate objective of every speaker is to

influence human behavior; to move an audience to believe, to enjoy, to
act— in short, to respond as he wishes it to respond.
However, on the method of learning language there is less agreement.
For the student at the college level the advice is, "The first require110
ment of a good style is conformity to good use...."
Negatively, he
is to avoid, among others, barbarisms, slang, provincialisms, archaic
and foreign words, hackneyed and overworked words and phrases.

Posi­

tively, he is to learn accuracy, force, colorfulness, and several other
characteristics of good style or language usage by "mingling with wellbred persons and reading formal and informal essays in the classics and
contemporary magazines and published l e t t e r s . F u r t h e r and more im­
portant suggestions are to associate with inspired writings of various

108Ibld.. p. 30.
109lbld.. p. 504.
H O lbld.. p. 545.
111Ibid.. p.

565-

a^3

kinds, "through listening to good speakers, actors, interpreters;
through hundreds of avenuws of education; and through persistent selfnip
development.
The experimentalist recommends the sharing of experi­
ences as the

nay to learn language.

The authors believe that speech training may have real value for
a person, value for the man himself irrespective of whether he uses it
for an ulterior purpose or not.

They say, "The setting up of good

speech habits trains the mind in many ways."*^

Among such values are:

clarifying ideas, organizing materials, discriminating between what is
logical and what is not and between good and bad taste.

Beyond these

such training may also "develop powers of value1* through training in
oral interpretation, "develop character," that is, if the examples are
ill;
of sufflciently high quality.
The techniques of speaking have in­
trinsic value as means toward some other value.

They state, "The tecl^

niques of speech are not ends in themselves but means to an end——unob­
trusive means,"11^

That is, speech techniques are valuable as means

because the ends attainable through their use are valuable.

They do,

however, deny that speech should be used for purpose of exhibition.

The

purpose of speech, they aver in the first of the seven basic principles,
i8, "Effective Speech is not for Exhibition but for Conmunlcation."11^

^ ^ Loc. clt.
113ibid.. p. 7lli+Ibid., p. S.
115Ibid., p. 23.
ll6Ibid.. p. 14.

244
They decry the methods of the elocutionist as belonging to "an artific­
ially heroic age, an age of self-display.wll7
At the same time, the authors state, "Speech is a functional tool."11®
Or, "The chief justification of a speaker is his success in comnxunieating
ideas that hare value for his audience."

liq

Or its value may he stated

in another way, namely, to move an audience to believe, to enjoy, to act.
In this way they recognize the instrumental value of speaking.

They do

not emphasize its specific place in various occupations, such as selling,
though it may well be implied in the citations above.
Here again, as in the instance of the other two texts already com­
mented upon, the view of values ostensibly rather than actually conforms
to experimental ideas.

Since the student is to become more and more

like the ideal by following precept and by imitation, he will find little
encouragement here to analyze his experiences intelligently and to mod>ify his beliefs, attitudes, and skills.

Classroom speaking experiences

are not seen to warrant reconstruction of earlier beliefs and attitudes.
This t e x t , then, is essentially not experimentalist in its point
of view.

Taken as a whole and by implication the conception of exper­

ience and Interaction seems in the main to conform to experimental
principles, but on the matter of inquiry they differ widely from exper­
imentalists.

Emphasis in inquiry seems to be on "thinking logically"

instead of on the scientific method of investigation.

Consequently,

the learning theory of this text depreciates the role of experience and

X17 Ibid.. p. 15*
*18Ibid.. p. 24.
X19 lbid.. p. 94.

4

2^5

of Ideas and emphasizes rather the learning of principles which the stu­
dent is to pit into practice.

Language theory, so far as it becomes

evident, corresponds with the experimentalist view.

Conformity to prin­

ciple is considered somehow capable of producing desirable effects upon
the student even though virtually no attention is given to evaluation
either of the results of speaking experiences or to the method of ar­
riving at such an evaluation.
Basic Training in Speech: Brief Edition
by
Lester Thonssen and Howard dilkinson

120

In the Introduction the authors state that "Speech behavior is complex and may be viewed in maqrdifferent ways."

121

After enumerating

several different ways of looking at speech behavior, they point out
that a brief edition such as theirs does not permit a broad treatment
of all the related topics; they have therefore "selected those topics
which seem most relevant to the purposes of a short, practical, introductory course." 122 Just what those purposes are is stated in each of
the four immediately following paragraphs which describe briefly the
sections of the book*
The first section is "a discussion of some of the Intellectual and
emotional factors which lie at the base of effective speech:

the speak­

er' s tendency to react thoughtfully and imaginatively to his environment

l^OLester Thonssen and Howard Cilkinson. Basic Training in Speech; Brief
Edition. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 19^912:1Ibid., p. 3*
122l o c .

cit

246
and experience, hie social fear or confidence, his personal attitudes
IPX
toward himself and others." J They regard as a "fundamental fact that
the growth of an individual's speech effectiveness depends to a consid­
erable extent upon his intellectual and emotional development
In the second main division they treat some of the mechanics of
speaking, such as the visible and audible symbols of speech, articula­
tion, and vocabulary.

They say, "One of the ultimate aims of speech

training is to make all of these components function adequately and more
or less automatically as a matter of habit, leaving the speaker free to
-125
concentrate on his ideas and his audience."
The third area of subject matter is speech composition and includes
topic selection, research for materials, organization and support of
ideas, the use of visual aids and delivery.

Mastery of this phase of

speech making is hard work, they say, but extremely rewarding in devel­
oping speech-skill and contributing to the general education of the
student.
The last major division deals with several special topless
reading, debate, discussion, and radio.

oral

These are included because

everyone, they say, will have use for them at some time in his life in
a democratic society.
In these two-hundred forty-one pages they have condensed much mater­
ial common to most college texts in public speaking.

Because it is a

brief edition, some matters are treated so lightly and tersely as to

123l o c . clt.
lgl+Loc. clt.
125Lo c . clt.

d

247

leave the student short on understanding of the material which is in­
cluded.

Particularly the first section, actually only twenty pages of

copy, excluding the space for Exercises, deals with the Reflective Ex­
perience, Social Adjustment, and Personality.

Obviously much will have

to be supplied by the instructor or by references to instructor-selected
supplementary material.

This brevity makes it somewhat more difficult

to get a clear picture of what their points of view on some significant
subjects are.

These will appear in the discussion below*

The concept of experience seems to be in accord with the view of
the experimentalist.

Frequent references throughout the text indicate

that the authors Interpret the term broadly, for example:

"One student
12b
talking before her speech class, related the following experience."
The description of the content of the speech suggests that she inter­
acted with a specificenvironment
and critical
experience.

through carefulobservation,

evaluation. Thisexperience

theyclassify

On another occasion they aver:

analysis,

as areflective

"Through an experience re­

sulting from direct observation, listening, or reading, we encounter
something which implies the existence of a certain state of affairs, sit­
uation, or condition."12^

They stress the uncertainty of experience and

the impossibility of reducing speechmaking to a simple set of rules:
"The good speaker tries to avoid unnecessary risks.

He knows that, even

with the utmost careful preparation, conditions may develop in the speech
situation which may complicate his original plans."

12bIbid.. p. 11.
127lbid., p. lh.
1 2 8 I b l d .. p.

106.

From these

2MB
citations it seems fairly olear that on these points the authors have
an experimentailstic concept of experience*
They devote Chapter One to "Reflective Experience."

This discus,

sion of thinking and speaking they base on a quotation from William
James when they say:
In describing the act of thinking, William James said that the
mind *ulust first get its impression from the object which it confronts; then define what that object is, and decide what active
measures its presence demands; and finally react. The stage of re­
action depends on the stage of definition, and these, of course, on
the nature of the impressing object.'^-^9
In the subsequent paragraphs they develop a pattern of thinking quite
similar, even if simplified, to Dewey's pattern of inquiry, and this
constitutes to all intents and purposes the reflective experience.

In

passing it may be noted that the Index refers the reader to page sixteen
for a reference to John Dewey, but close scrutiny of page sixteen fails
to contain any such reference to him either in the text or in a footnote.
The reference is apparently to a three—statement sunmary of the act of
thinking so popular in speech circles and taken from Dewey's How We Think,
but the studentunfamiliar with Dewey's volume will be at a loss to un­
derstand to what the allusion refers*
While this reflective experience, probably adequately described for
the student who is first getting an introduction to it, seems to corres­
pond to the experimentalist point of view, it does not mean that the
two main criteria of an intelligent experience are always met through­
out the text.

The criterion of continuity is especially violated in

some of the Exercises which seem wholly without purpose.

For example.

lg9 lbid.. p. 13. Quoted from William James. The Will t£ Believe.
York; Longmans, Green and Company, 1931* P* 123*

New

249
Exercise No. 3 on pages 104 and 103 directs the student to search for
sources of information on one of eight listed topics.
continue:

The directions

"In this project you are not asked to read any of the hooks

or articles on the subject; simply get a representative bibliography of
selected materials by consulting the appropriate catalogs and indexes."*30
Exercise No. 5 on the same page says:
Prepare a bibliography of at least six items (two for each of the
book, periodical, and newspaper dlvldlons) on one of these general
topics: Strikes, United Nations, Medicine, Badlo, Good Neighbor
Policy.
Make sure that the entries are recorded so as to be consistent
with the method suggested in the preceding chapter. ^
Both of these eemple exercises violate the principle of the continuity
of experience because mere collecting them is all that is asked; the
task leads to nothing else, for the student does not even have to read

the sources he finds.

©ie second Exercise assumes that learning is

possible by complying with some highly organized information presented
earlier.

The student has no problem and the task is set for him by mn

instructor, a task in which he probably has no Interest and which sermes
no issuediate purpose beyond fulfilling an arbitrary assignm ent.

In only rare instances do the exercises direct the student to make
a speech.

The usual task set by them is illustrated by the following

examples:
Now, try your hand at outlining the contents of an editorial
from your favorite newspaper. 1 3 2

150Ibid., pp. 104-105*
1?1Loc. clt.
1 3 2 I b i d . . p.

133. Ex. No.

2.

250
Using the dally newspapers and the magazines as the source, find
specimens of the various types of argument. .Keep a record of them
— or, even hotter, the clippings themselves. ^
Rehearse the following selection for manuscript delivery. Then
read it before the class, making an effort to engage the listeners
as fully as possible through eye contact.
Check the pronunciations of either, neither, andbeen. ^ 5
In each case the principles related to the Exercise arepresented in
the Chapter to which they are pertinent.

The implication is that the

student will read the chapter, directly apply his 'knowledge' to examples
of the instructor* s or authors' devising, and thus will he learn.

This

procedure in no way conforms to the method of learning of the experimen­
talist.
The experimentalist pattern of inquiry is presented in Chapter I
under the title Reflective Experience.

This pattern they regard as the

habit of thinking, of which they say:
Summarized, these are the habits of thinking which have abasic
influence upon the quality and effectiveness of ourspeech:
1. Lively response to the environment, and the further probing and
analysis of the resulting experiences.
2. Delaying decision until we have become familiar with the essen­
tial elements in a state of affairs.
3. Delaying a final Judgment until we have considered alternative
solutions.*
Clearly, then, this pattern, abbreviated and adapted to the speaking
situation, is considered the method of thinking.

^•^Ibld.^ p# 157. Ex. No. 3*
13^Ibid.. p. I85. Ex. No. U.
135ibid_., p. 85. Ex. No. 4.
^

Ibld., pp. 15-16.

It follows that it is

251

also the accepted method of learning although they do not eay that it is.
In fact, the only application they oahe of it is in the construction of
speeches.

An analysis of Chapters Nine through Sixteen comprising Part

III and entitled "Technique of Speech Composition" reveals some similar*
ity to it*

The steps, in genmrsLl, are:

Select a topic, preferably from personal experience*
Narrow the topic and determine the general end of the speech*
Gather materials.
Analyse subject, occasion, audience.
Determine the central idea*
Determine the main divisions of the material*
Find the main points and the supporting materials for each*
Determine the form of discourse: narration, description, exposition.
Rehearse*
The individual chapters do not follow the pattern either.

The

style and usual organisation of chapters is an introduction, presentation
of the subject matter, and the Exercises.

Thus the student ordinarily

is not presented with any problems but rather with brief treatments of
material and factual data which he
projects and exercises.

This

is expected to apply in selected

lackof organising according to the pat­

tern of inquiry may be due more to insufficient appreciation of the pat­
tern than to unfamiliar!ty with it.
tive Experience they conclude

At the end of the chapter on Reflec­

withthis terse comment:"This

time (l) to take inventory ofone* s skills and to find out

is the
in what r«-

epect they are deficient; (2) to discover ways and means of improving
them; and (3) to set about the task."1-^7

If they assume, as they seem

to do, that the student is unfamiliar with the pattern, and if secondar­
ily they want to build the habit of reflecting in this way, and if this
pattern is the method of thinking, it would seem helpful to the student

1 5 7 Ibid.,

p. 16.

252

to have the chapters serve as a series of successive experiences so ar­
ranged In the sequence of inquiry that the ha hit would he hullt more
easily.

They do not recommend this pattern either for speech organi­

zation hut emphasize Instead the Aristotelian divisions of Introduction,
Body, and Conclusion.
Much of their theory of learning seems, ,on the other hand, to he
based on building hahit hy means of a stimulus-response mechanism.

They

say, "One of the ultimate alms of speech training is to make all of
these components function adequately and more or less automatically as
a matter of hahit... .w3-39 They explain speech in a similar way when
they say:
Speech is nonaally an Intentional act directed at other people;
it is a response to people— not merely people in general, hut indi­
vidual persons. That is shat speech has heen all through the speak­
er's life. He has thus stored in his nervous system normal habits
of expressive speech. The habits are there, and he exercises in­
telligent control over them when he permits them to come into op­
eration hy attending the stimulus which is normally attached to
them. When we swing a golf club, we attend (look at) the hall.
When we drive a car, we attend the road. When we speak, we attend
the person or persons whom we address.
What this citation seems to say is that people have learned to speak
as a response to other people, the other people heing the stimulus.
These responses become habits stored away in the nervous system.

In­

telligence consists in permitting habit to function hy attending (look­
ing at) the stimulus.
From the experimentalist point of view several observations with
regard to these statements seem apropos.

1 38I b i d . ,

p. 119 .

1 39ibid.,

p. 3-

lU° Ibld.. pp. ?3-2H

Stimulus-response mechanism

255

does play a significant role in learning speech, but the response is
not only to persons but to the entire situation in which the learner
and the other person are only some of the elements.

The statement Just

cited seems to take too narrow a view of the role of environment, ex­
perience, and interaction as the experimentalist conceives of them.
Secondly, many aspects of speaking are a matter of habit, more or less
automatic, for the adult speaker.

His articulation, vocabulary, voice,

tune pattern, and granmmur and syntax fall under this category.

But

habits, in so far as they are automatic at least, are celled into operation by the appropriate stimulus rather than by Intelligence; they will
function automatically without conscious application of intelligence.
Furthermore, intelligence for the experimentalist consists in the method
of resolving problems, not in looking or not looking at a stimulus.

In­

telligence or reflective thinking enters when impulse as a response and
habit as a response are in conflict.

Finally, if these statements rep­

resent the theory of learning of the authors, it omits insight entirely,
an essential feature in the experimental pattern of knowing.

How does

the student, to whom this statement is directed, determine whether or
not to attend a stimulus?

How does he go about recontructing old habits?

By practice, so as to build new ways into the nervous system?
he decide what it is that .he shall practice?
ulus tell him when his skill is perfected?

How does

Does looking at the stimThese questions the experi­

mentalist would surely raise about these statements.
The authors do use the term 'insight* but with an altogether differ­
ent meaning from that usually designated, namely, understanding relation­
ships.

In the chapter on Personality they describe several desirable

personal qualities a speaker should have.

Of one of these they say,

"Closely related to self-acceptance is the quality of objectivity, or
insight, by which we mean the understanding or awareness of one's emo­
tional tendencies.

In other connections, however, they advise the

student to discover relationships, e.g., between the speaker, the speech,
lU2
the occasion, and the audience,
but the term 'insight* seems reserved
for this "awareness of one's emotional tendencies."
Many of the Exercises and illustrations in the t ext deal with cur­
rent materials which may be of concern to the student and a part of his
present environment.

There are directions to analyse materials from

the dally newspapers, recent and current magazines and speeches, and
from the student's dally experiences.

But these are directions and are

stated in imperative sentences, not as problems of concern to the stu­
dent to solve.
The authors do recognize that the principles of effective speaking
cannot always be cast into fixed and formal rules.

For instance, in con­

nection with the discussion of the Visible Symbols of Speech they say,
"Let it be clear that in the following discussion of principles of bodily
activity in speech we are not interested in laying down any hard and fast
rules regarding the details of the actions in which the speaker

e n g a g e s . " 1 ^

And again in the chapter on Discussion they aver, "The discussion plan
need not follow fixed rules so long as it brings out the essential
lhh
phases of the problem in logical order."

l^llbld..
l42Ibld.. pp. 106-118.
l43lbid., p. hi.
11+4I b i d . , p.

255

Evaluation of speeches receives considerable treatment.

Of its i m ­

portance to increasing effectiveness of the student speaker they say
that this increment of excellence is largely accomplished by affording
the student sufficient opportunity to speak before an audience and by
helpful criticism from his listeners.

They describe what they consider

to be 'good speech* and issue seven points of advice to the student for
making himself more effective as a listener and critic.

It would seem

that they regard appraisal of actual results important to the student*
They fall to mention in this connection, however, the other steps in
the learning sequence though they do say that at the level of expert
criticism the critic should offer suggestions as to how the speaker mey
improve his performance.^^

This is reminiscent of the preceptive meth­

od of learning already discussed above.
One entire chapter is devoted to Word Study. 146

A full three pages

are devoted to the use of the dictionary, nearly four pages directly to
vocabulary building, and six pages to word tests.
building

Dewey recognizes that

a vocabulary is an important element in developing language

facility and accuracy, and the authors of this text would be in accord
with him.

Three word lists are given to help the student make finer

discriminations between words:

synonyms, antonyms, and Frequently Con­

fused Words such as 'adapt* and 'adopt', 'ability' and 'capacity'*
Several notions about the authors' concept of the value of speech
training may be gleaned from the text.

One resultant value is increased
147
"effectiveness of the student as a speaker."
What this means is

1*+5Ibid.. pp. 4-8.
l ^ Ibid.. pp.
11+7Ibid., p.

65-79*
4.

Gh»

7*

perhaps more clear from the definition of "good speech" which they say
is "the kind of speech which evokes a favorable response from an andlUg
ience."
A second value resides in the general education the student
receives, as a by-product perhaps, from preparing materials for speeches;
this process Includes gathering the materials, evaluating them and or­
ganising them into patterns clear enough for an audience to comprehend
easily; it Includes the many subject matter areas about
which the
lhg
student may speak.
It also has an instrumental value in that the
techniques of radio speaking, debate, discussion, and oral reading may
have utility in the life of the student at a future but unknown date.
This scheme of values suggests some awareness of the relationship between
public speaking experiences and student growth.

Tet the position, so

far as it becomes evident, is suspect in the light of the learning theory
here accepted, namely, following precept, for following directions does
not necessarily result in student growth.
In summary, this text has some of the concepts of experimental!sm
and lacks others.

It seems to accept the pattern of inquiry but slights

it in practical application to the materials in the text.

The concept

of learning includes the stimulus—response mechanism in a major way.

In

spite of the prominence given to the pattern of inquiry, conformity to
principle is the major method of learning.

In language study and value

theory it seems not to disagree with experimental ism, but this agree­
ment i8 more apparent than real.

257
Principle* and Type* of Speech
Third Edition
by
Alan H. Monroe*’-*®
The thirty-three chapters in this text cover, a* the title indi­
cate*, both the principle* of delivery and speech composition and the
basic and special types of public speeches.

In addition, the two in­

troductory chapters treat "Essentials of Effective Speaking" and "Back­
grounds and Fundamental Concepts" while Part Five concludes with three
chapters devoted to Group Discussion and a final chapter to "Parliamen­
tary Law for Informal Groups."
The author states that he has preserved the functional approach in
this text by which he seems to mean, "The basic philosophy of this edi­
tion. ..is that the purpose of speech is to communicate and that its rf151
fectiveness must be Judged by the reaction of the audience."
A
basic assumption, then, is that public speaking has work to do, it is
not an activity to be engaged in for its own self, and its purpose ex­
cludes formalism and exhibitionism.

A second feature of this text is
152
that it "reflects a frankly psychological slant."
This point of
view, the author says, is most evident in dealing with such topics as
attention, motivation, and to a lesser extent in the discussion of
audience analysis and adaptation of the speech to the specific purpose

150Alan H. Monroe. Principles and Types of Speech. Third Edition.
ago: Scott* Foresman and Company, 19^9151Ibid.t p. vi.
152L o c . cit.

Chic­

258
and to a specific audience.

It is also revealed in explaining problems

of delivery as it relates to "the influence of habit and emotion on
153

voice and action... •"

In this connection the author comaents, "the

psychological viewpoint of the writer is frankly eclectic.1,1

He has

taken ideas from a variety of sources even while recognizing a discrep­
ancy between the several schools of thought.

He explainst

The fact that some of these theories are mutually irreconcilable
weigh* far less in the writer's opinion than the fact that they
have a practical value in the speaker's problem of analysis and
speech construction. Thus, in the present instance, /audience
motivation/ the writer's discussion will be seen to combine McDougall's concept of purposive reaction with the idea of tensions
caused by unclosed patterns which Gestalt psychology advances.A55
A distinctive feature of the functional and psychological approach

is the recommendation of the "motivated sequence" as the method of
thinking and, therefore, the dominant method of speech organisation.
This sequence replaces the well known type of speech organization of
introduction, body and conclusion by expanding the recognizable steps
in a speech from three to five and naming these steps according to the
function of each in the total process.

These steps are: attention,
need, satisfaction, visualization, and action. 156
v
This plan of organ­
ization the author adapts to each of the types of speech he discusses
in the text.
Lest the impression remain that all of the subject matter included
in this text is based on current theory, it may be observed that various

153lbid., p. vii.
154Ibid., p. 193. cf. fn.
155lqc. clt.
1^feIbld.. p. vii.

259

points of view of several rhetoricians of an earlier day are also in­
cluded, as for instance, Quintilian and Aristotle are credited with the
idea that the speaker must he a "good man."1-^

The good man is one who

has a high measure of personal integrity, extensive knowledge, suffic­
ient 8elf-confidence, and well-developed skill.
Perhaps the educational point of view is best expressed in this
statement, "You can build on the foundation you have already laid, and
you will need to correct what mistakes there are in yesterday's build­
ing.

Education is thus a matter of development and reconstruction,

beginning with what the Individual is upon enrolling in a course in
public speaking.
The concepts of man and experience seem not especially remote in
this text from the experimentalist point of view.

Mam, it is said, has

a tendency to act in response to the environment.

In Monroe's words:

...in all human beings there are certain universal action tendencies
— the organism has within it the capacity and the tendency to move
in different directions; ...these tendencies are set in motion and
modified in their direction by pressure put on the individual by
his environment.^59
Man is capable of being moulded by his environment and what he becomes
and thinks depends upon what he has experienced in his Interactions with
that environment.

We read, "Either as the result of personal experience

or because of repeated assertions by parents, teachers, respected friends,
and 'great authorities,' people tend to develop pretty definite opinions

1^7Ibld.. pp. 5-7158Ibid., p. 7.
l59Ibid.,

P-

193*

260
about many things in thsir environment."1*50 Man is a social being dapendent upon others to a large extent in such a highly organised society
as exists today. lbl

As a society men "Join forces to control our envi­

ronment, developing the great strength of our industrial and political
1hP
organisations."

The medium of interaction of man with his environment in order to
effect some kind of control over it is language.

"We hold these Joint

enterprises together and direct their course of action through language,
written and oral."lb^

So important is the use of language in the pro­

cess of adaptation that by it "the human race has speeded greatly the
lb4

rate of its own development."

Language is seen to be the medium of

interaction and adaptation which emphasizes its importance and explains
in part the reacon for the functional approach to speech by this author.

The pattern of inquiry is represented in this text as the "motives,
ted sequence" which has already been mentioned.

This sequence of steps

constitutes the framework of a speech, and each division is functional
in that it describes what duties it performs "in directing the mental
processes of the listener." lb5 The attention step serves to ^iln the
attention of the audience; the need step presents the problem which
needs consideration; the satisfaction step presents the solution the

160Ibid., p. 208.
161 Ibid.. p. 435.
lb2Ibid., p. 27.
lb^Loc. clt.
164Loic. cit.
l b 5 i b i d . . p.

319*

261

speaker is advocating; in the visualization step the speaker leads the
audience orally and imaginatively to see the results of putting the
proposed solution into operation; and the final step, action, serves
as the conclusion and asks for the audience to engage in a specific
action.

It is clearly a problem.solution sequence with the need step

analysing the problem and the satisfaction and visualization steps de­
termining the solution.

In a speech, of course, probably only the sa­

lient features and most important details will be elaborated though it
is quite conceivable that the speaker will have to do much more analyz­
ing privately than he will present to the audience in his final speech.
Likewise in presenting the solution he will probably focus on the solu­
tion he is recommending rather than discuss all of the alternative pos­
sibilities he might have considered while he was studying the problem.
He may, on occasion, present alternative plans, especially if the
audience already knows of them, but then he will have to show their
a 166
inadequacies in order to^t the recommended one adopted.
There are other references to this pattern although in briefer
form.

The process of preparing a speech is cast into the problem-solu—

tion sequence in that the first three steps (Determining the Purpose of
the Speech, Analyzing the Audience and Occasion, Selecting and Narrow­
ing the Topic) are called "Surveying the Problem" while the succeeding
three steps (Gathering the Material, Making an Outline of the Speech,
and Wording the Speech) correspond to the solution stage though Monroe
calls them "Building the Speech."lfc>7

------------------

Ibid.. pp. 319-330.
l 6 7 i b l d .. p.

15b.

These six steps plus a final one.

262
Practicing Aloud, constitute the "Seven Essentials of Speech Preparation."
This sequence suggests that this pro hi em- solution plan Is recognized as
a method of study or learning.

The same plan is also recommended as the

thinking process for deliberative discussion groups.

It is not ex­

plicitly suggested as the five steps of an act of thought as proposed
hy Dewey in How We Think but as the motivated sequence adapted to the
reflective thinking of a group.
The method of learning receives direct treatment in several places
In this text.

This revision of the book was done "to improve the teach­

ing efficiency of the book while also extending its scope and refresh­
ing its c o n t e n t . T h e keynote of the method of learning the author
advocates is sounded in the Preface where he says, "...the close combin­
ation of precept and example, a marked characteristic of the earlier
editions, has been retained and extended in the present book."1^

Here

he suggests that the method is essentially to provide the principles,
illustrate them, and expect the student to apply them in his own speeches.
On the other hand, he also says* "Undoubtedly the best method of

.171

learning to speak well is practical experience."

At first blush

this statement would seem to reflect the experimental point of view,
but the context suLkes clear what "experience" here means.

He says,

"Study of principles, actual practice, constructive criticism»-all are
at your disposal."

lfagIbid.,

pp.

599- 60h.

lb9 lbld.. p. v.
*7®Lo c . clt.
*7*-Ibid.. p. 3*

172

Loc. cit.

172

Experience as a method of intentional learning

263
signifies learning of time-tested principles, applying them in practice
speeches, receiving an evaluation from the instructor to assess the ex­
tent of conformity to those principles.

At the end of the chapter on

Analyzing the Occasion and the Audience the student is told:
A systematic method for finding out the other fellow's point of view
has been presented. Tour task is to apply this method in the speci­
fic situations that arise. Examine carefully the sample analysis
outline which follows and notice how the speaker used the facts at
his disposal to draw a clear picture of the audience which would
confront hinu^'3
Similarly in discussing motives he advises the student, "It will he ex­
tremely worth your while to learn the list /of motive appeals^, to get
a thorough understanding of the meaning of each item listed, cad to be­
gin your analysis of people and the main points of your speeches upon
them. "17^
While the class activities or assignments, in other hooks usually
called Exercises, are in this text labelled "Problems", many of them
actually reflect the learning theory suggested above.

For example, the

following assignments illustrate the method:
Take a simple topic from the following list (or a similar topic
which interests you) and prepare to give a two- or three-minute
speech on it. Follow the suggestions for increasing self-confidence
presented on pages 10 through 15; make a rough outline of the points
you expect to make, and practice aloud often enough to be sure of
the sequence. When you step before the class, do so firmly; move
about occasionally as you talk; and make shat you say interesting
to the audience. £. list of nine topics follows
On some subject not familiar to your audience prepare an inforsu
ative speech employing the technic explained in this chapter. Be
sure to make effective use of both initial and final summaries.17®

173ihid.. p. 189.
174Ibid., p. 195175lbid., p. 21 .

176i\>ld.. p. *+10.

264
Bie student is assured that this method will he rewarding, for he
is told, "A careful study of these principles of speech composition

as

they relate to speaker, subject matter, and audience— *coupled with fre­
quent practice in the preparation and delivery of speeches in ehich
these principles are applied will increase the clarity, logic, and per­
suasiveness with which you speak.»*77

Qn another occasion the student

is told the virtue e of practice under competent guidance:

"Praotice,

and more practice, under intelligent and critical guidance, will develop

178

the precision, power, and vividness of your oral expression*n
Practice, however, is not to be mere rote repetition.

It is true

that practice is also strongly recommended for making habitual the
physical aspects of delivery*-^ ^

for improving voice quality,*8® but

the author does recognise that undesirable action patterns or voice
qualities may also become habitual and so defeat the purpose ef the
practice*

To avoid this result the student mast know something, in

this case, about how sound is produced and what a good voice is.

Then

he should consult his instructor who has a more experienced and trained
ear for help in analysis and for suggestions as to what and how to
practice*
The final page of text in this book reminds the student, "You have
prepared speeches of different sorts and have received the criticism of
your instructor upon them.

1 77ibld.. p. 151*

178pbid., p. 55.
179ibld.. p. 70*

180Ibid., p. 77*

As a result of these experiences your ability

265
to speak has undoubtedly improved,"181

This statement, as well as

others, indicate that competent criticism has an important function in
a class for which this book is the text.

It is not certain, however,

that this experience and criticism is at all what the experimentalist
would mean by the same terms.

In this text it would seem to mean crit­

icism, constructive to be true, of the skill in applying principles;
the experimentalist would mean by the same terms evaluation of the idea
the student is proposing to test in a given speech, that is, the extext
to which it is appropriate to the situation at hand, the extent to which
it had the desired consequences, the possibility of finding a better
way of doing what the student is attempting to accomplish, and inciden­
tally possibly also the skill with which the student used it.

Hence,

the learning theory of the present text diverges widely from that of
the experimentalist.
It is strange indeed that in this text the problem.solving sequence
should constitute the method of speech organization and a method of
thinking but have no rcle in the learning process.

Apparently learning

and thinking as processes are not seen to have anything in common.

Of

course, the author warns that consistency has not been a primary con­
cern in the selection

of psychological principles*

As already indicated, the author regards problem-solving as one
method of thinking.

The topic sentence for the discussion of the think­

ing process is, "Thinking consists essentially of Identification, class—
182
lflcatlon. determining relationships, and solving problems."
It is

I81Ibld*. p. 645.
182Ibld.. p. 33-

not quite clear whether these four items constitute one unit in process
or whether they are entirely separate entities, for they are designated
as "types", on the one hand, while on the other they are alBO a part of
the problem-solving method.

The text states, "Much thinking of the typei

described above would be purely academic were it not for its application
to another form of thinking which we do, namely, problem solving.
The first three of these are included in the fourth which is a process,
a method.

It is this method which the experimentalist considers think­

ing*
For the experimentalist, mind also has to do with method.

Monroe

would seem to regard it as an entity somewhere in the organism, for he
says, "... photograph upon your mind the profile of the whole speech...
This statement and similar comments to the student bear out the inferenc
that he does consider mind an entity instead of an equivalent of method.
Likewise intelligence seems to be 'capacity* rather than application of
method in problem solving.

He says, "If, however, a young man or woman

has little character or intelligence to begin with, speech training can
do little more than make him a glib rascal or a slightly more efficient
p a r r o t . O n

the other hand, he says, MIf you have intelligence and

character, careful training in speech will help you express your ideas

1S6

with clearness and force....'*

Intelligence seems in the author's

opinion, to be a fixed capacity at birth, incapable of fluctuation or

183l b i d . . p. 33*
l gl+I b i d . . p. 12.
I85l b l d . . p. b.
186I b i d . , p. 5*

267

Improvement, a capacity enabling the organism to think, to adapt, to
develop skill within the limits set by heredity for an individual.
These citations also Indicate that the fact of individual differences
is recognized at least so far as heredity endows different individuals
with varying degrees of capacity.
Knowledge, too, is not what the experimentalist calls knowledge,
but information.

Knowledge, Monroe indicates, is attained by living,

reading extensively, observing, and studying— nothing is said in Chap­
ter One to indicate that knowledge comes from testing hypotheses.^8?
Later, however, the author indicates that there are two sources of
knowledge, one being the scientific method of controlled observation,
the other the method of the artist, who, he says:
...projects himself into his work: he applies a sensitive and
creative imagination to his observation until he has conceived a
design which embodies the true essence of the thing he has ob­
served or felt, and which is expressed in an effective pattern.
He then applies his artistic skill in molding the raw material
with which he works into a complete and beautiful expression of
that design.
if he is engaged in one of the practical arts
like architecture, his design and execution will be concerned
with usefulness as well as beauty.
The Btudy of speech employs both of these methods: the sci­
entific and the artistic. Thus, through the scientific study of
speech, we may learn a great deal about its phenomena, and we
may test many of its basic hypotheses in an objective manner.
And since speaking, like writing or painting or designing bridges,
is a form of creative expression, we may learn a great deal about
how to do it by a study of the creative methods recommended by
experts and by a study of the great aaterpieces themselves. We
must not expect all the principles we study to be capable of sci­
entific demonstration, for creative expression is an individual
act and varies from person to person. 8
Knowledge is thus derived from these two sources, according to Monroe,

l8?Ibld.. pp. 7-10*
188Ibid., pp. 3b-57-

268
whereas the experimentalist would regard both processes as exemplify­
ing the same method.
Memory is dependent upon frequent use, says Monroe in agreement
with the experimentalist, "Only by constantly applying them will the
principles you hare studied remain fresh in your mind. .. " ^ 9
Even beyond the difference in the meaning of the terms 'experience'
and 'criticism' as used by Monroe and by the experimentalist, the role
of the teacher seems to be different in the two points of view.

Monroe

says, "Tour instructor will help you to overcome any genuine difficulties that face you... •"

190

Again, "Whenever you are in doubt, consult

your instructor; he will show you how to apply these suggestions to your
own individual p r o b l e m s . T h e

instructor is not a co-learner when

he performs these functions, as the experimentalist prefers to have him,
but one who tells and provides the answers to a confused student.
On the theory of language there is closest agreement between Monroe
and the experimentalist.

Monroe says, "... speech develops in the child

as in the race in order to meet a social need.
tive function."192

It serves a communica—

Words "are only the symbols of meaning"*^ whose

precise denotation depends upon the mutual experiences the individuals
have had.
nxuBt

Hence, the student is advised that to clarify something he

use language with which he /the listener^ is familiar or make

189 lbid.. p. b45.
19Q Ibld.. p. 18.
191Ibid., p. 57*
192Ibld.. p. 2b.
193ibld.. p. 359*

269
IQll

comparisons to experiences which are cortaaon to him." '

More than that,

laxifWgs, also for Monroe, Includes more than merely words, namely,
various aspects of the voice and the physical behavior of the speaker
on the platform.

This includes eye contact, posture, movement, and

gesture. 195
Vocabulary building may be accomplished through "Wide reading,
close observation of the language of cultured people, even the systema­
tic attempt to 'use a new word every day' ...."*-96

But the most impor­

tant method is using that vocabulary which a person already has lest
he forget it through disuse.

Audience adaptation, of course, suggests

also that language must be chosen which, will express to the listeners
the intended meanings of the speaker, but in this connection the speaker
is advised to approach an audience in terms of their understandings
rather than in terms of his own. lq7
The value of public speaking is amply pointed out to the student
of this volume.

The intrinsic value is thoroughly de-emphasized when

it is said that public speaking is not designed for exhibition as an
end in itself.1^8

The Instrumental values are correspondingly maximised,

particularly in the chapters dealing with the types of speeches, in
which a section at the beginning of eAch chapter is devoted to pointing

- Ibid.. p. 361.
x95rbid., pp. 56-63.
1 9 6 I b i d . , p. 367.

x97ibid.. p. UhO.
19g Ibld., pp. 16-18.

See also pages 362 and U89.

270

out the specific situations where the respective types are used.1^
Consequently, as a means public speaking has an intrinsic value; as
Dewey pointed out, the moans are safely guarded if the end to he at­
tained is significant*

But here congruence with experimental ism again

seems to end, for as in the texts already discussed, no appreciable
attention is given to the reflective effect of classroom speaking ex­
periences upon the attitudes and appreciations of the student*
Monroe employs the basic structure of the pattern of inquiry as
the organ!national framework of various types of speeches.

His basic

assumptions about man and experience are closely akin to those of ex­
perimental ism.

He agrees with the experimentalist also on the topics

of retention, language, and value*

But he differ-*

in that he believes

learning occurs through the prlnclple-appllcation-criticism method.
Likewise the problem-solving method is but one method of thinking in
his view although the other methods he enumerates, namely, identifica­
tion, classification, and determining relationships, are a part of the
experimental method of problem-solving.

Furthermore, what he considezs

knowledge is what Dewey would designate information, and the teacher in
Monroe's view is in the classroom largely to provide information and di­
rections while according to the experimentalist he is a guide and co­
learner.
Of course, the author is not concerned with discrepancies between
the various parts of his psychological theory.

It is cause for wonder,

though, that he can, on the one hand, devote a portion of one chapter
to the forms of support thereby indicating some concern for logical
reasoning and, on the other, be deliberately oblivious to consistency
in developing his own psychological theories*

1 9 9 l b i d . , See pages ?33 » 373t

3^7. ^30*

509»

271
General Speech: An Introduction
by
A. Craig Baird and Franklin H. Knower2^
This text of nearly five-hundred pages has its purpose stated in
the opening paragraph of the Preface which says:
Our purpose in preparing this text has been to write a book for
those college students who take a speech course generally with the
expectation that it will be their only such college course* Al­
though the text may serve simply as an introduction to college
speech, it is also focused on speaking for general education. ^
To fulfill this objective the authors include in the twenty-three chap­

ters a treatment of the major elements in speechmaking, such as speech
habits, composition and delivery, listening, informative, argumentative
and persuasive speaking, and discussional and radio speaking and oral
reading.

Its inclusiveness is designed to cover all the major aspects

of speaking plus the several kinds or forms of speaking so that the
student who takes only one course will have in one volume at least
some guidance in all of the more common phases of speaking.
Four Appendixes include the chief symbols of the phonetic alpha­
bet, a word list for pronunciation, some information on library research,
and the Speech Performance Scale.
The authors refer on numerous occasions to experiences the student
may have had.

They advise him to go to his experience for speech topics,

remind him of the "experience of straight and productive thinking," 202

200A. Craig Baird and Franklin H. Knower. General Speech: An Introduc­
tion. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 19^9*
^ ^ Ibld.. p. v.
2 0 2 I b l d .. p.

5b.

272

describe stage fright as a "typical emotional

e x p e r i e n c e , 1,203

SUg-

gest to him the possibility of haring had problems of clear and effec204
tire informative speaking
as typical examples. They further recog­
nize the continuity of experience when they advise the student:
Tour experience in trying to marshall ideas into departments
and subdepartments will no doubt sharpen your awareness of methods
of analysis. Your exploratory attitude will stimulate you to fresh
inquiries and so lead you into the realm of creative thinking. ^5
In fact, they have arranged the chapters of the book in such a way as
to lead from one phase naturally into another so that "As the student,
under competent criticism, acquires experience with the elements of
good speech, he is better prepared to see the value of more intensive
pQk
work on specific processes and principles.1*
They also recogdize that experience is not the same for everyone.
What man is or becomes is largely culturally determined, is dependent
upon the environment in which he lives and moves.
training he has had will make a difference:

Even the kind of

"Much of our failure in

learning to speak as effectively as we might, in spite of our many
year8 of talking, may be traced to the education to which we have been
exposed.w2^7

or, they point out that many of our speech habits have

been acquired in the home and from other contacts; of this they say,
"Such learning, when purely incidents^., has been shaped by the habits
and standards of speech of those about us.11^ ®
233Ibid.. p. 184.
2 0 4 . p- 315-

20W

.,

p. 5b.

gQ^Ibld.. p. vi.
207Ibid.., p. lb.
208Ibid., p. 17.

And because experience

273
is not the same for all and so produces Individual differences,
is malleable, changes from one set of habits to another.

sho

This modifi-

ability is true even with regard to personality; on this point they
clearly state, "One's personality may seen to him to be 1natural1, but
much that is important in this human nature is subject to modification."
In so far as a point of view of man and experience becomes clear
in the context of this subject, it seems in close harmony with the con.
cepts held by the experimentalist.
The relationship between speech and inquiry into problematic situ^>
at ions is indicated as early as page two, "Speech is a form of practical
communication and closely tuned to the world in which we live.

Such

oral communication aims at helping us handle problematic situations and
meeting our responsibilities in dealing with those situations."

210

The

steps in settling a problem are enumerated in connection with the dis­
cus sion of sources of materials, and while they are not exactly as
Dewey lists them, the pattern is nevertheless clear, and the footnote
indicates the source in Dewey's How We Think.

The authors write*

TOie steps of thinking in working out a controversial problem
will give a clue for one type of procedure. We ask concerning a
problem, 'What is the difficulty or perplexity?' Here we attempt
to visualize it as clearly as we can. We view the phenomenon be­
fore as. Further, we inquire, 'What are the probable causes and
results of its operation?' We raise questions about the suffici­
ency of the alleged cause and results. Moreover, we ask, 'What
course or courses are best for us to choose in dealing with the
problem?' 'Why is one course more satisfactory than the others?'
Our pursuit of these questions will constitute what John Dewey
calls 'thought in process.*211

^Ibld.,

p.

2 1 0 l b i d .. p.

161.
2.

2 H l b l d . . p. 55*

27U
This pattern of thinking is illustrated by the organization of
the various chapters.

Chapter Four, for instance, on "Ideas: Subjects

for Speaking," opens with the question,”■What shall X talk aboutt'"212
After explaining that topics for the first few speeches may not be dif­
ficult to find, they point out that the task of finding topics becomes
more burdensome; they then offer several objectionable solutions, re­
call typical instances which frequently happen in a speech class, and
then launch into the subject matter of the chapter. They discuss

audi­

ence interests, speech occasions, the speaker's interests and beliefs
and activities, then offer suggestions on how to limit and test the
subject, and upon completing the Inquiry to this point they list four­
teen points following this statement, "We are warranted in subscribing
to the following conclusions, directly or inferentially developed in
this chapter...."21"

Each chapter then has a series of Projects and

Problems followed by a list of references.
plan of organization is:

In other words, the usual

problem, solution, evaluation, practise.

The usual Exercises found at the ends of chapters are in this text
called "Frojects and Problems," not Exercises,

liany such suggested as­

signments, it is true, are simple directions to give a speech:of a speci­
fied kind; for example, "Deliver a short argument (four minutes) in which
you include at least one fully developed analogy.
logical grounds.

One of the more extended illustrations of the

project type is this one:

2l2Ibid., p. UO.
?13lbid.. p.

50.

21^Ibid., p. 375*

Justify its use on

Project No. 13-

275

Project l_j

Using Visual Alda

Purposes of This Assignment: The main purpose of this assignment
is to develop skill In exposition with the use of visual aids. This
means the use of a blackboard or cardboard drawing, the demonstra­
tion of a pattern of action such as that used in the strokes of
tennis or applying splints or shooting a bow and arrow, or the ex­
planation of am object or model, such as a clarinet.
Suggested Subjects for This Assignment:
(fourteen are listed)
Procedure in Preparing and Presenting This Project: Read the dis­
cussion of informative speaking presented in the chapter. Select a
topic and assemble materials for a five-minute speech. Organise mat­
erials and rehearse the presentation of this speech with an object
or diagrams* Present the speech to your classmates. Be sure you
have provided for the presentation of visual aid materials. Have
your classmates rate you on this performance. Conduct a discussion
of the speech content and your speech methods.
Questions to be Considered in Evaluating This Type of Informative
Speaking:
1. I8 the drawing large, in relative proportion, and clearly
labeled?....................... * ...................... ______
2. Does the drawing simplify without oversimplifying the
object? ...............................................
....
3. Are important parts clearly labeled? .............
....
4. Are all references to the drawing stated clearly and arranged
in order?............................................. ......
5. Is the drawing for the speech done easily, with confidence
and with poise?....................................... ......
6. Does the speaker handle the pointer effectively, speak di­
rectly to the audience, and avoid action which distracts attention
from the diagram?..................................... ......
7. Are the general processes of language and speech used effectively?
........................... .
....
For discussional speaking they also recommend following the steps
in inquiry, tJrnt is, "(a) the recognition of a 'felt difficulty1, (b)
the testing of various avenues of escape or of solving the perplexity,
and (c) the full endorsement and description of the chosen 'way out'."

~ I b i d . . pp.
2 l b I b i d . , p.

342-343

72 .

216

27b
In the chapter on Discus sional Speaking they point out that "The aim of
discusslon&I speaking is the analysis and solution of a problem," and
explain that "the discussers caucus to determine and define the diffi­
culty, to note the most reasonable methods of dealing with it, to weigh
each proposed outcome, and to map out that course of action which re­
flects the group conclusions.
Even in listening the pattern applies, for they state that "Effeotive listening nsxst be an active process"

218

in which, if it is to be

profitable for the student, "He must recognise the ideas presented, eval­
uate and organize them, discover relationships among them, and select
219
from what he hears those ideas he finds worth remembering."
How the
student is to do this is the subject matter for the remainder of the chap­
ter.

Incidentally, the first project at the end of the chapter on lis­

tening is a thirty-question inventory of listening habits.
The experimentalist pattern of inquiry is in evidence throughout
the text so that the student is constantly confronted with it and will
therefore be enabled, incidentally if not intentionally, to acquire it
as his own method of solving problems.

And at the same time, of course,

it is the recognized method of learning.

The fact that the chapters

are cast more or less consistently in this pattern and that many pro­
jects are set up according to this pattern increases significantly the
experiences the student will have with it.

2l7Ibid., p. *405.
218 Ibid,., p. 281.
2^Loc. cit.

277
The authors clearly specify what the steps in learning speech are.
You will need (1) to develop an interest in this subject; (2) to
analyze your individual needs and abilities in speech; (3) to keep
clearly before you certain objectives, such as increased skill,
favorable attitude toward speaking, knowledge of speech techniques;
(4) to engage in much practice under direction; and (5) to profit
by repeated and constructive criticisms of your speech performances?2®
In the ten succeeding pages they explain each of these steps so that the
student can clearly understand what the task before him is.

First of all,

he is urged to recognise his own deficiencies in terms of present and
future undertakings.

He is secondly advised to study his problems with

expert help and in various areas and types of speaking; four distinct
procedures are reconxaended:

getting a clear understanding of speech pro­

cesses and activities; evaluation of his speaking by an expert; a criti­
cal analysis of his own spsaeh processes; a self-evaluation to enable
him in conjunction with the instructor to determine what to do.

1.

Speech Performance Scale for instructor evaluation of his problems is
provided at this point. “
In the third step they emphasize that the student^ practice and
study ought to be purposive, guided by ideas of what he expects to ac­
complish, and based on insight into principles of effective speaking
instead of on a trial-and-error basis.

Each speech performance, they

assert, ought to have its own purpose or goal, e.g., "In this short oral
description I am going to make use of words of vivid sensory imagery."
Fourthly, they encourage the student to engage in directed practice,

? 2 0 Ibld.,

p. 18.

? 2 1 I b i d . , p.

21.

22gx M d . . P- 24.

222

278
practice being used to mean "all preparation for and participation in
selected learning activities under favorable conditions."^3

more

specific directions for practice and study are included so as to insure
student understanding.

Finally, they recommend that the student eval­

uate his achievement so that he may know what he has accomplished.
This step, of course, refers to competent criticism of his speeches to
enable him to determine to what extent he has been able to accomplish
the objectives he established for a specific performance.

Clearly,

then, the method of learning is that of the experimentalist adapted to
the public speaking class situation.
The authors recognize that the chief purpose of speech training is
"the substitution of new and effective habits of speaking for older and
relatively ineffective ones."

Now habits, although the authors do

not use the label in this connection, are "The organized response pat­
terns of the indivldualN and "consist of reflexes or of acquired forms
225
of behavior which have proved satisfying in meeting his needs."
How this is to be done seems to be clarified in their saying:
"...without minimizing the importance of practice, we agree that
an intelligent rather than trial-andp-error method of learning speech
is preferable. At the college level, moreover, we are concerned
with the objectives of learning that include Intellectual insight
into facts
principles as well as the acquisition of skills
themselves.~
In other words, understanding, insight, and purposeful practice are of
signal importance.

^ ^ Loc. clt.

22UIbid., p. 14.
?25Ibld.. p. 382.
?26Ibid., p. 23.

They conznent in another context, "It is commonly

279

conceded that adult learning based on a thorough understanding of the
elements and processes involved is more satisfactory than learning di­
rected singly to practice on the development of skill."22^

In relation

to stage fright they stress the importance of insight in reconstructing
a reaction pattern when they say, "When we acquire insight into the
nature of our emotional responses and learn that what was considered
a mystifying, embarrassing peculiarity is a commonplace experience sub­
ject to natural law and reasonably precise explanations, the panicky
feeling which aggravates fear gives way to hope and determination to
develop new habits of response."228
Impulse as here used seems to mean uncritical suggestibility, for
under the heading of 'Suggestibility1 the authors Bay, "The suggestible
229
person tends to be unlnhiblted( submissive, and impulsive."
Suggest­
ibility is heightened by stimulated emotions so that thought fails to
play a role in the responses made to stimuli.

This conflict between

emotional and impulsive reactions and intelligent behavior they regard
as one of the major aspects involved in b tage fright.

The remedy then

lies in increasing intellectual activity and delaying the impulsive
responses. 230
It has already been pointed out that thinking is using the method
Dewey explained in How We Think.

In explaining reflective thinking as

the method to be used in discussion, they say that it begins with a

2g7 ibid.. p. 223.
228Ibid., p. 193?29lbid., p. 171.
g30ibid.. pp. 190-191.

280

felt difficulty, and proceeds through these steps, "(1) it penetrates
the factors and causes of the problem; (2) it formulates a series of
hypotheses concerning the facts to be ascertained and proposes possible
conclusions; (3) it weighs in turn the possible outcomes; and (4) after
a comparison of the choices, it determines the solution to be followed.
Following this pattern enables the student to know what he is doing
why and to make better adjustments.

In this connection the authors

state, "But if you know what you are doing and why you are doing it, the
new habits also may soon become natural.
ful but also intelligent."2^2

Then you become not only skill­

In this way the relationship between

method, thinking, and intelligence becomes clear.
ing is the method of intelligence.

The method of think,

Again the close adherence to the

experimentalist point of Tiew is apparent.
The role of the instructor in the educative process then becomes
a secondary one while the limelight is on the learner.

The individual

student must think for himself, and the present authors assert, "The de­
velopment of the necessary interests for education is not exclusively
the responsibility of our teachers.

He who would be surely educated

must shoulder his own responsibilities for learning." ^ 3

Generally the

point of view as to the function of the instructor seems to be that he
is to help the student realize his problems, serve as an expert critic,
and to help and guide the student to reconstruct his speaking habits.

2 ^1 I b l d . . p. 407.
^ 2 I b i d ., p.

36.

2 ^ I b i d . . p.

17.

281
Individual differences in speaking ability and habits are recog­
nised in various places throu^iout the book.

In the Preface they state

that "The book is sufficiently broad in its treatment of principles to
permit the student and the teacher to adapt individual and group differ­
ences to spaach needs and a b i l i t i e s . T h e y accept the fact of individ­
ual differences and attribute it to speech handicaps largely of an organ­
ic nature, to differences in the way speech has been taught in school, to
differences in Interests and attitudes resulting from varying experiences,
and to the influence of the environment which produces primarily incidental learning. 235 While their major concern is with speaking ability,
their point of view seems best expressed in these words:
Why these differences? The results are explainable neither al­
together nor chiefly on the assumption that some are 'natural-born
orators* or that they are superior in intelligence. The real an­
swer is to be found in the variable opportunities for learning,
the effectiveness of the Instruction, and the extent to which we
have applied ourselves to the Job of learning, *
On retention and forgetting, too, they represent the experimentalist
point of view.

After saying that evaluation of

what

has been done ought

to follow any period of study, they observe further, "Learning is best
retained when real satisfaction is derived from it.

If one does not

know what he has achieved, his skills are lost more quickly than if he
237
can take some pride in accomplishment."
Their statement on forgetting

23U

Ibid.. p. vi.

2^ Ibld.. pp. 1*4-17*
236

Ibid.. pp. 1*4-15*

237Ibid., p. 28.

282
will remind one of Dewey* a statement on the same point; it is that
"Skills in speaking, like other skills, are dulled by disuse."2^8
In this regard they observe that the satisfaction of accomplishing
something is excellent motivation to continued study.
If the student discovers that his Study of speaking has been profit­
able for him, he should not only continue to practice his newly ac­
quired habit8, but also formulate new goals and set out to develop
further skills. If learning is so conceived and practised, life
continues to be a challenge.239
There Is thus motivation for continued growth.
Beyond that, they contend that materials of the classroom must come
from the daily lives of the students and be among those things which make
a difference to them.

They say, for Instance, "The essential features

of useful practice are that the performances be typical activities in
realistic situations...." 240 In selecting topics for speaking engage­
ments in the class or otherwise they advise the student to go to his
own personal experiences, to the things he has seen, come to believe,
haB read, appreciated and reflected upon, has done or studied in an­
other course.2J+1

Typical of the Projects emphasising this point are

those at the end of Chapter 17 on "Adapting Speech to the Listeners."
The first asks the student to indicate which re-written version of the
Gettysburg Address would fit one of the listed situations.

The second

lists twelve situations which might be typical of 'bull sessions' at
college and asks the student to indicate whether the character in the

238

Loc. clt.

g39ibid..

p. 28.

2 4 0 I b i £ . , p.

19 .

2 4 1 I b i d ..

40ff•

p.

problem situation used hie arguments well, poorly, or questionably.
Five other Projects ask the student to adapt the treatment of a topic
of his own selection to varying kinds of audiences.

piip

Not only are

these Projects problem situations— many more could be secured from ad­
ditional sources— but they are typical of the life and experience of
the student and they require intelligent analysis in order to solve them.
The authors' concept of knowledge is difficult to determine on the
basis of the text alone.

Knowledge, they say, is "that insight into

the subject which makes it possible for you to develop your personality
243
as an educated person."
They further state, "Knowledge may be in­
creased by the correction of false understanding, by extending the pene­
tration of insight, by extending the boundaries of information, and hy
244
sharpening the habits of discrimination."
The latter statement oc­
curs in the discussion of informative speaking and there, in particular,
under the heading:

"The Informative speaker seeks to increase knowledge.
24*5
direct action, or provide a reliable foundation for Judjgsent or belief."
Now the informative speaker dispenses information, it is true, but this
factual material which he tells about remains information, not knowledge,

until it is used by the audience in resolving a difficult situation.
Knowledge accrues from the process of resolving a problematic situation;
merely telling someone a fact does not make it knowledge for him thou^i
it may be information.

242ibld.. pp. 308-314.
^ 3 ibid.. p. 23.
244
I b i d .. p.

317-

284

The authors agree that "Knowledge

Is

always about

s o m e t h i n g , " 2 *^

that It deals with particulars at a specified time and. place and under
givan conditions.

It would seem to follow from this that they would

not accept the notion of ultimate truth, but it is not at all clear
shat their attitude is from the text; they mention that hard and fast
rules for speaking are impossible to frame, but they also mention
'ultimate truth' in such a way as, not necessarily to indicate that it
is their own point of view, but certainly to suggest the possibility
that they beliere there is ultimate truth.

It seems safe to say that

they do not deny Dewey's concept of knowledge but they may accept also
aa knowledge facts stored through memorization.
Education is viewed as having a double function:

preparation for

the future and the extension of the possibilities of adapting to the
environment in the present.

The first function is stated in these words:

As we launch out from home and our environment expands, we may find
that circumstances demand of us performance in broader activities
and achievements of a higher standard than were^previously required.
V7e should prepare early to meet those demands.
However, there is recognition of the fact that those circumstances and
demands are at any given present time unknown; therefore adaptation is
a major function of education.

This point is clearly stated!

...since it is impossible to train one's self specifically for all
possible types of activities and situations to be met, an intelligent
understanding of principles will enable one to adjust to them more
effectively than if education were strictly a matter of developing
blind mechanical habits.2

2^ ^ L o

c

. clt.

2**7 I b l d . . p. 18.
248 I b i d . , p.

?3.

285
On the latter point they are in close accord with the point of view of
experimentallBm, but not on the former, for Dewey argues that educationas-preparation leads to a loss of motivation, to procrastination, to
merely an average expectation of what the individual is some day to b^.
come, and it encourages the use of artificial stimuli, notably pleasure
and pain.
A stimulus-response psychology also finds limited application in
this text.

We read, "...the speaker is reacting to stimuli which arouse

hi8 mental processes and are somehow translated into ooherent ideas,
ideas which he is impelled to transfer to those willing to listen."2-*®
The energy of the stimulus, we are told, "serves as a trigger to start
the chain of events which determines the nature of behavior.

The stlm-

uli in any situation are complex and the particular stimuli to which
anyone reacts are determined by his capacity and his experience."^5^
But this responding to a stimulus is not a mechanical process for it is
influenced by capacity and experience and between the two "there inter252
venes the process of selection and organization of behavior."
This
solution constitutes a problem which calls for analysis and resolution.
Apparently Intelligent inquiry involving insist intervenes at this
point.

The authors state that most situations involving stimuli are

more complex than simple and entail more ov less extended reflection.
In another context the idea of a whole being more than a sum of its

^^9.Tnhw Dewey.

Democracy and Education. 0p» clt., pp. 63—h^.

250a. Craig Baird and Franklin H. Knower.
251Ibid., p. 381.
252t
..
Loc. cit.

General Speech. 0£. cit., p. 5.

286
parts in it* meaning i* emphasized.

"Fact*, like the letter* used in

playing anagrams, may hare little meaning or significance in themselves.
When well fitted together, they form an idea, a picture, a map, or a
plan of action. "253

Apparently the authors recognize limitations to a

purely stimulus-respons* type of psychology as do the experimentalists
with whom, on this point too, they seem to feel a close kinship.
For the purposes of this text, at least, the definition of language
is somewhat more limited than is that of the experimentalist.

"Language",

they say, "is any means of expressing ideas through speech or printed
representation, or through signs or gestures."2*^

More particularly,

and within the context of public speaking, language is:
...the use of words and combinations of words in phrases, clauses,
sentences, and larger units, to provoke a specific response from
listeners. It is verbal expression in oral communication. Words
are the symbols by which the objects, experiences, ideas, and
emotions are represented.
It is not to be studied for its own sake or for sslf-gratificatlon.
"The study of communication as a form of

boc

I slI

behavior has no place

for the development of action patterns for purposes of exhibitionism."2^
Its purpose in the public speaking situation is said to be, "Communi­
cation is always a form of adjustment to a specific situation.

The ad­

justment to be made is primarily to the person to whom the conmunicatlon
is addressed.

Speech and writing are tools."^7

?53ibid.. p. 320.
?5*»ibid.. p. 132.
^55l o c . cit.
?5falbld.. p. 259.
257ibid.. p. 298.

267

Adjusting to the listaner is understood to mean, not the sslsction
of words which will appeal merely to his taste and sense of beauty, but
"To make your communication effective you must reach his mind--estab­
lish rapport with him.

Begin by trying to put yourself in his shoes."25g

That is, language must be chosen in terms of the meanings the audience
has experienced and understands in common with the speaker.

If commun­

ication is to be understood by a listener or an audience, "...we must
talk to him in terms of his own language.
difficult, but it is often overlooked.

In most cases this is not

Help the listener recall what

he knows, not only as a point of departure, but wherever needed for
clarity during the development of the idea."^59

That is why the student

is told at the outset, "What you want is ability in comrminjcation, not
pLVS
as a goal in itself, but as a means of social adaptation and influence.11
What the speaker really is attempting to do is to provide the listener
with such information and background as will enable him to develop for
himself the kind of intellectual experience the speaker desires him to
have.

For example, "'When we speak with the purpose of 'conveying in­

formation' we are engaged in the attempt to stimulate some other person
into developing certain ideas which, when fully assembled, will consti—
pci
tute for him the meaning which we wish him to have."1
The student is reminded that establishing the necessary rapport
necessitates constant attention to definition:

g58Ibld.. p. 299.
259Ibid.., p. 321.
2b0 Ibid.. pp. 2-3.
2blIbid., p. 13t>.

"These listeners, even

288
though they hardly realize the ambiguity or obscurity of the words,
should hare each important phrase or word carefully explained."2^2
Subsequent discussion In the text illustrates eight different problems
which the student will experience, problems which emphasize the impor­
tance of trying to establish a common meaning*
How is the student to improve his language facility?

His first

task is to enlarge his vocabulary through word study by reading widely
in the speeches of excellent speakers, by studying logic and semantics,
by careful listening for words others use, and by direct habit of defini­
tion with the help of

d i c t i o n a r i e s . 2 ^

In the area of argumentative

speaking the student is advised to make meanings more precise, for "It
2(>4
demands careful definition and sharp discrimination in word meanings.N
He is advised to use a good dictionary, to study words in context, and
to use examples and illustrations to help make meanings clear to himself.
Here again the author*' point of view coincides with that of the experi­
mentalist.
As indicated above, the authors state that the study of public
speaking has significant value for the general education of the student.
Specifically they say:
Training in the methods of finding and using sources of materials
for speaking; learning the techniques of analyzing, classifying,
reasoning about, evaluating and organizing data, drawing conclus­
ions, rendering Judgments, and formulating beliefs and attitudes;
putting ideas into words and ordering them effectively in various
types of communicative activities——these are part and parcel of the
educative system. You are to answer questions, to describe events.

2 b ? I b i d . , p.

107-

2 6 5 I b i d . , p.

155.

? b 4 I b i d . , p.

373.

289

to trace relationships, to generalize from examples, *nd apply a
principle to a specific case, to explain a system, to give instruc­
tions on the operations of a process, to experience the give
take of discussion, to make oral reports. ... Clearly, then such
training contributes significantly to your general education.
Here, then, is an expression of what the authors consider to be one of
the intrinsic values of speech education.

Along with that they mention

also that "Vocabulary extension and application is a problem in your
general education." ?bb

Furthermore, the projects in speechmaking "have

been selected for their contribution to general speech development,"^7
considered apart from any utilitarian purposes.
is recognition of the values

In other words, here

the experimentalist calls 'intrinsic1;

it is not a question of determining what they are good for— they are
desirable.

Growth is its own end.

On the other hand, the authors are aware also of the student's
daily needs for language and effective communication*

Tbm student needs

a text, they state, "emphasizing those objectives in speech education
which are most functional in the everyday living of college students
and college graduates.

This book concentrates on the fundamentals of
2fcg
speech which bear most directly on those practical objectives."

vrhat these practical values are, that is, what speech training is good
for, becomes clear in the first Chapter where several pages are devoted
to discussing the importance and practicality of effective communication.
It is first

?b^Ibid., p. h.
?bbIbid., p. 37^*
2b7Ibid., p. v.
?bSLoc. cit.

290
•••® m s m of 8Qcial &d&pt>tion ftod Inflvmncs. Your >p6&klDg pur—
pose is to influence others to take a given stand, or to give them
acceptable information, or to strengthen their good opinion of some
person, institution, or event. Your motive is a practical one. ™
These practical values correspond to the purposes of speaking, stated
in this text as to inform, to interest, arouse to praise or blame, convince, stimulate, persuade, or to achieve a combination of these. 270
Two other values are mentioned.271

One is the possibility of using

speech as a career, and they cite a quotation from Lowell Thomas and
another from Frank Knox to support the point, the former to emphasize
the importance of speaking in a 'speaking career,' and the latter to
indicate its significance for any man of public importance.

On this

point they are beyond what the experimentalist would accept under the
heading of the educational value of a public speaking course.

The other

value is its significance for the preservation of the democratic way of
life through its social and political institutions.
Thi8 analysis reveals how much the authors have appropriated from
the point of view of the experimentalist.

In practically every respect

under consideration the influence of experimentalism is apparent.

There

is direct evidence of their indebtedness in that Dewey is referred to
in the footnotes three times, twice in citations from Kow We Think and
once from Human Nature and Conduct. On the other hand, current mater­
ials and sources abound to the virtual exclusion of references to an­
cient rhetoricians such as Aristotle, Quintilian and Cicero, or, for

? b 9 I b i d . , p.
g 7 ° I b i d .. pp.
2 71 ibid_., pp.

36b-67.

291
that matt#r, even to tho mors recent British ones, namely Campbell,
Whately, and Blair*

Tills text incorporates more of the principles of

experimental ism than do any of the others included in this analysis.
Summary.

These six texts, then, range from practically no applica­

tion of the principles of experimental!sm in Fundamentals of Public
Speaking by Bryant and Wallace to a rather thorough experimental 1stic
approach in 3-eneral Speech: An Introduction by Baird and Knower. Mon­
roe has Included many of the elements in his text while Sarett and Fos­
ter's text, followed closely by the one by Crocker, are nearly as nonoxperimentalistic as Bryant and Wallace's book.

The one by Thonssen and

Wilkinson falls somewhere between the two extremes in that some elements
of experimental ism are apparent though intermingled with other points
of view.
Recency of publication has no bearing on the matter either, for the
latest of these six, Crocker's published in 1950 in revised form, leans
strongly away from experimentalism while Baird and Knower's text, pub­
lished in 1949, is written almost entirely from thiB point of view.

Hie

oldest text, by Sarett and Foster, in its latest edition antedates
Baird and Knower's by only two years.
The two texts closest to the experimentalist point of view emphasize
the functional value of public speaking proportionately more with the
exception of, perhaps, the text by Crocker.

But even in the instance of

Crocker there seems to be the difference that he slants more heavily
toward the economic value of public speaking ability instead of toward
its value in a wide variety of practical situations.

292

The more experimental the approach the less the emphasis is on
"rules" and imperatively stated principles.

It seems that the less ex­

perimental texts issue more frequent orders to the student to do so-andso upon the assumption that an explanation including an illustration is
sufficient for the student to understand a principle well enough to ap­
ply it.

In the main the more experimental text sets such problems for

the student as will require an evaluation and a judgment of ideas in
their relations*

It thus places greater premium upon understanding and

appreciation of the principles and upon the intervention of a larger
measure of Intelligence in applying them to practical situations*
The more experimental text permits greater freedom to the student
in selecting his topics for practice speeches, for selecting even the
kinds of speaking he prefers to do; the non-experimental texts tell him
whnt to do and sometimes even precisely how to do it so that freedom and
intelligence consist largely in following exact directions only*
It appears unusual that some authors stress problem-solving and
learning by experience and at the same time indicate, indirectly if not
directly, that learning occurs mainly through following precept, engag­
ing in frequent practice, and criticism of that practice.

Apparently

"experience" is used in several ways, once to suggest the usual exper­
ience of ordinary living, and then to signify the experience of apply­
ing precept in practice speeches.

Casual references to learning seem to

refer to the first meaning; direct comments about learning suggest the
second meaning is intended.

With the exception of the Baird and Knower

text, each of the others includes this semantic confusion*

CHAPTER VIII

SUMMARY AMD CONCLUSION
Summary.

The purpose of this investigation has been to ascertain

whether or not the philosophy of experimental ism, as developed primarily.by Dewey, has had any significant influence upon the points of
view of authors of selected textbooks in public speaking for college
classes.

The procedure has been to describe the essence of the phil­

osophy of experimentalism, to explain wh&t seem to be some defensible
implications of that philosophy for the teaching of public speaking,
and then to examine six representative public speaking textbooks cur­
rently being used in a considerable number of colleges and by a relative­
ly large number of students.
This philosophy, asserts that man lives in an environment, both
physical and social, which is neither thoroughly stable nor entirely
friendly to him.

Man is compelled to interact with it to maintain his

life and his equiliorium.

This interaction constitutes experience which,

if it is to be educative, must have continuity and the potentiality of
leading to further development of the individual.

Experience forms the

matrix of inquiry, and the experimentalist does not go outside of ex­
perience for explanations of human activity.
Inquiry signifies the transformation of an indeterminate situation
into a unified whole.

As a process it requires, first, that the problem­

atic situation be described by determining what precisely is uncertain,
unsettled, or disturbed.

Secondly, it is necessary to ascertain the

29 It
facts in th® situation and their relation to one another; this can he
done by observation, collecting data, inference, and hy comparison.
Such facts must then be ordered and arranged into a meaningful sequence*
From such data there arise, as the third step, suggestions as to which
operation must be performed with or upon them.

Suggestions when put

into use become ideas or hypotheses which serve as an anticipation of
a possible outcome and describe an operation to be performed.

Discourse,

the fourth step, also called reasoning, designates the process of devel­
oping meanings and establishing relationships between meanings through
the use of symbols or language*

Reasoning eventuates in an if-then

proposition which constitutes the hypothesis basic to the experiment to
follow.

Experiment as the fifth step is an arrangement of conditions

dictated by the hypothesis to determine whether the results theoretically
indicated by the hypothesis will actually occur.

The consequence of in­

quiry, lastly, 13 the institution of a unified situation.
not final and are said to be warrantably assertible.

Results are

Such results con-

stltute knowledge, are objectively verifiable by other experimenters,
and are subject to modification by later findings.

As they may be per­

tinent to a later inquiry, they become resource material or information.
Life, education,and growth are different ways of looking at the
process of intelligent interaction with physical and social environment.
Education, or growth, is dependent upon the intervention of intelligence
in solving life’s problems.

Man will act in any event, but educative

activity must have its source in present living and must require a
search for the means by which problems can be solved*
The method of learning follows the pattern of experimental inquiry.
A problem must be instituted and defined.

From the materials involved

295

in the problem will arise suggestions as to solutions.

Through estab­

lishing connections between the data the possibilities of solutions
will resolve into one plan deemed most advantageous; this plan is an
hypo thesis.

It is acted upon.

The actual consequences are compared

with anticipated results and the residue retroaets upon the hypothesis
thereby reconstructing the experience.

Furthermore, this residue as

the outcome of inquiry constitutes knowledge, knowledge which is valid
under the conditions of the particular inquiry but subject to modifica­
tion by subsequent inquiry.
Impulses, or unlearned responses, and habits as learned responses
to stimuli give rlBe to activity by the individual.

They are arrested

by the Intervention of intelligence which seeks to determine which of
the possible responses is the more desirable.

Intelligence, in this

frame of reference, is insight into relationships and ability to direct
activity in the light of consequences to be attained.

Thinking is the

process of discerning the connections between facts present and facts
remote but signified reliably by those facts present.
An aim is a foreseen condition capable of being attained through
available means.

Aims must arise from present conditions, be flexible,

and allow sufficient freedom to permit the activity necessary for ac­
complishing them.
Acting intelligently constitutes mind.

Mind is the ability to see

the reciprocal relation between present activity and future consequences.
Consciousness is awareness of what present activity is about.
Individual differences are recognized.

Differences in native endow­

ment are admitted but such initial differences are magnified by the kind

296

of environment In which the individual has his experiences*

Measure­

ment of ability in school is secondary to providing the kind of activ­
ity which will insure growth and to helping the individual think better
than he does*
Interest signifies personal concern for the outcome of an activity.
Learners are interested if they can discern a relation between school
activity and matters that make a difference to them.
Discipline is a positive power to persist in carrying inquiry
through to a successful conclusion.

This view militates against disci­

pline as fear of punitive measures.

It expects constructive and intel­

ligent activity in school; it opposes rigid seating arrangements and
absolute quiet in the classroom.
A motive is an act plus a Judgment of its consequences, particular­
ly praise and blame.

Since man is active by his very nature, it is not

essential to seek for motives for action or to attempt to classify them.
Memory involves a backlog of resource materials fromprevious in­
quiry.

Forgetting results when such materials are not used in inquiry.

Transfer of learning occurs only in terms of broad adaptation of
materials in similar situations.

Transfer of common elements or of

specialized skills is impossible because no two situations are identical.
The stimulus—response mechanism is too simple and too mechanical
to explain the adaptation of a response to a situation as a whole, the
experimental! st believes.

The tendency of this tx^eory is in the direo-

tion of the field psychologies, especially on the topics of learning,
insight, transfer, and intelligence.
The experimentalist's concept of language is very broad and includes,
over and above oral and written speech, whatever may deliberately and

297

artificially

used as a sign of something else*

the overflow of man1s energy in gesture and sound*

Language arose from
When sounds were

perceived and sorted out as indicative of certain types of behavior,
language was born.

The sufficient condition for the existence of lan­

guage is that the symbol must represent a mutual communication between
two or more individuals.

Meanings of symbols are relatively inexact

and subject to change in ordinary or common-sense usage; in scientific
discourse they are precise and fixed.

As a fence, a symbol sets the

bounds of its meaning; as a label, it in itself represents a meaning;
and as a vehicle it permits the transfer of a meaning from an old to a
new context.
Since mind deals with the meanings of things, and meanings reside
in symbols, mind and language are closely inter-related.

Because sym­

bols as meanings have implications which can be manipulated, inference
and reasoning become possible.

Kence, thinking is heavily dependent

up on 1anguage.
Language is consummatory when it is appreciated for its own sake;
it is instrumental when it is a means to an end.

Functionally, it is

both the repository of a culture and the means of its transmission.
Using language about something not experienced, as a substitute
for dealing with the things themselves, or without thorough awareness
of what it signifies, is fraught with danger.

Effective language usage

in school is dependent upon the learner's acquaintance with the actual
things symbolized.
thought.

It is used both to convey information and to aid

Its uws can be improved by enlarging the vocabulary, making

meanings more precise, and by forming habits of consecutive discourse.
If language usage constitutes a real communication between two individuals

298
it Is educative in that it transforms experience.

Communication is

held to be education*
Both Intrinsic and instrumental values are recognized, the former
signifying things prized for their own sake, the latter referring to
things worthwhile as means to some further end.

The experimentalist's

major concern lies with instrumental values*
Desiring means bo want conditions better than those now present.
Hence, a value is something which fulfills certain conditions, and the
"good" 18 the preferred outcome of present activity.
change, values cannot be fixed and final.

Since conditions

Taste as a standard of pref­

erence develops from continuous experiencing.

Because experience and

inquiry are observable, statements about values are possible and in­
volve a means-end relationship*
Values arise from interaction with the environment.

Interaction

involves inquiry during which choice based upon intelligent judgment
emerges as a unified preference for an outcome.

Judgments concern things

in their capacity as signs of other things capable of producing desired
consequences.

Freedom, or the ability to inquire with dispatch and

thoroughness, is pre-requisite to intelligent choice*
Values in school activity are apparent to students when they have
an appreciation of such activity and of the things involved in it.
Teachers* alms must be flexible, therefore, and adaptable to student in­
terests or appreciations.

Education via language alone is likely to ig­

nore interests and to become formalized and bookish.

The alternative to

such superficiality is to secure thorough appreciation prior to command
of techniques and to develop working instead of professed standards.
If necessary, instrumental values in school activity must be made clear

259
to students by way of generalizations of specific goods, but they must
not be labored when presented*
The concept of intrinsic value militates against a hierarchy of
values among studies.

A study is worth while if the student responds

intelligently to it.
The coneept of experience suggests that, basic to discovery of the
identity of his problems, are the communicative experiences the student
undergoes prior to enrolling in a public speaking course.

This backlog

of experience makes possible a real appreciation of his problems.

If

the Instructor and student together discuss an introductory speech to
define those problems more precisely, the activities of the class can
be built upon the needs thus established*
To solve such problems textbooks, lectures and discussions provide
helpful resource materials*

Information derived from these sources

must be made the student's own through use.

The student selects, with

instructor help but not dictation, such materials as are applicable to
solving hi8 problems.

Choice is guided by the end-in-view.

Thus, the

student works on the solution of his own problem by developing materials
and formulating hypotheses wnich he uses in experiment.

Ee compares the

actual results with anticipated outcomes and modifies the hypothesis as
necessary.

This method is based upon the pattern of inquiry, and it is

antithetical to instructor-dominated assignments, a rigid speaking sched­
ule, and learning ready-made principles, applying them upon command, and
criticism of extent of conformity to them.
Teaching by the experimental method can be done by framing ques­
tions as problems the students have with relation to the course content.
They investigate areas of the subject matter to solve their problems.

300
This pattern applies both to learning the course content and to prepar­
ing practice speeches.

In the latter case it may be taught directly

as course content*
Growth in public speaking ability occurs through experiences
that are belated to the student* a activities and goals, have continuity,
and require intelligent search for means.

An open mind, understanding

of relationships among the facts in a given instance, and awareness of
the connection between materials and method is requisite to growth.
Learning by the experimental method requires appreciation of ideas,
retention of related data, and testing the validity of hypotheses.
Routine memorising of predigested materials is inadequate, because it
leads to formalism and can occur without insight into relationships
among perceptual and conceptual data.

This method militates against

domination of a class by the instructor through imposing upon them a
textbook as a fixed and final authority, pre-conceived assignments re­
quiring only conformity to principles and rules, through criticising
performances on the basis of conformity to those principles, and through
demanding a close schedule of speeches in order to have each student
speak as frequently as possible within the time available in the course.
Impulsive and habitual responses need to be arrested by intelligent
search for appropriate responses.

Intelligent search follows the method

of experimental inquiry which requires insist and reflection.

Think-

lag occurs when relations between the constituent elements in a speak­
ing situation are perceived.

Mind signifies foreseeing possible conse­

quences of putting these elements into active combination.

These fac­

tors affect both learning of the course content and the preparation of
jractice speeches.

301

Aims for a course in public spaaking should be based on student
needs and activities, be capable of practical implementations, and be
general in the sense of a broad survey of the field of present activi­
ties.

The student should have aims in enrolling in the course and in

each speech he gives in the classroom.
Differences in ability, skill, and aim must be recognized.

Too,

such differences may become magnified as experience and apportunity
vary.

Students at all levels of ability must be permitted and enabled

to develop to their fullest potential.
The doctrine of Interest requires that class activity be of con­
cern to the students, it must make a difference to them.

Practice in

speaking must clearly enable them to accomplish their objectives more
efficiently.

If the activity is interesting, 9tudent^,s will pursue it

until it is concluded.

Discipline is this persistence in pursuing a

problem to its conclusion.

Both interest and discipline are taught,

if at all, indirectly.
Motivation occurs when the student recognizes the significance of
attaining greater knowledge of and skill in public speaking, or restor­
ing unity in a confused situation.
Frequent speaking and evaluating of the speeches of fellow students
are essential for retention.

Disuse tends to increase forgetting.

The staples in speaking, such as articulation, types of gestures,
voice quality, and patterns of organization may transfer between speak­
ing situations.

Choice of vocabulary, style, speech content and audience

adaptation are specific to individual speeches and therefore less amen­
able to transfer.

302

Speaking effectively includes many factors, all interrelated.

Dis­

crimination of relations between these elements requires insightful an­
alysis and synthesis, a process too complicated for successful accom­
plishment through a stimulus-response mechanism.

Problem-solving re­

quires intelligent reflection and evaluation, not a hasty, impulsive or
habitual response to stimuli*
Language, broadly defined, includes all that a speaker does and
says before an audience.

Platform activity and verbal language merit

improvement by speakers.

Language, to be communication, must have the

same interpretation by both speaker and audience.

Ideas must be exper­

ienced as well as transmitted if they are to be meaningful*

Instructors

may not assume a class understands through a lecture alone; information
so dispensed must be used if it is to become the student's own*
Language has consummatory use if it is enjoyed for its own sake,
as in poetry and some oratory.

Public speaking employs language mainly

as a practical instrument for securing a desired response.
Penuine appreciation results from practical association and direct
experience with a thing.

The student can get such appreciation in the

classroom through giving speeches.

Standards of taste for excellence

develop through a series of experiences.

Standards so developed are

real working standards, more keenly felt than professed ones*
Public speaking as an experience may have intrinsic value for a
student.
good for.

He responds and there is no further need to ask what it is
Primarily, however, the value of public speaking in an elemen­

tary course is instrumental and practical.

It is a means for securing

understanding, conviction, inspiration, or action.

303
The textbooks in public speaking examined in order to determine
the extent of influence of experimental ism upon their authors range from
practically no ostensible congruence with that philosophy to almost com­
plete accord with it*
Bryant and Wallace's fundamentals of Public Speaking reveals agree­
ment with experimental ism only in a minor way.

The pattern of inquiry

is not presented in a form recognizable by the student unfamiliar with
Dewey's writings.

The learning method is precept, application, practice,

and criticism, but also it includes experience and problem-solving*
The concept of language seems, in so fa r as it becomes clear, to corre­
spond with Dewey's view.

In emphasizing the instrumental value of lan­

guage and communication the authors approximate one aspect of the ex­
perimentalist ic interpretation of value*
Crocker's Public Speak!ng for College Students is based essentially
on classical rhetoric.

Experience is undergone but it has no apparent

relation to inquiry or learning in this text.

Inquiry deals with sol­

ving practical problems but seems to have no relation to learning.
Learning occurs by studying principles, applying them in exercises, and
receiving instructor comment upon how well, the application was made.
Intelligence and mind se-m to be distinct physical entities unrelated
to the problem- solving method.

Knowledge consists of the body of ma­

terial handed down by previous generations; even though the author in­
sists that students learn from the experience of others, his interpre­
tation is that what past generations have learned from experience is to
be learned now as subject matter and applied in practice*
Sarett and Poster in their Basic Principles of Speech emphasize
heavily the rhetorical tradition which began with the Greeks.

Equally

30U

important is their stress on adequate use of the language.

They regard

interaction as a two-way process during which man is continuously heiog
transformed.

Experimental inquiry seems an incidental matter for them

and therefore suffers from lack of explicit treatment.

It is admittedly

a method of learning, hut other methods are suggested also.

For example,

the principle-application-criticism sequence is probably their favorite
method even though it does not square with learning by experience.

Ac­

cordingly knowledge has to do with learning organized bodies of inform­
ation and thinking seems to mean handling material logically.

On the

definition and purpose of language they agree with the experimentalist.
Learning language is concerned here with good usage by imitation of good
examples and by following precept.

Stress also is given speech as worth

while for its own sake, and only secondarily does it have instrumental
value.
Tending toward experimental theory in a variety of w ay s is Thonssen
and Gdlklnson's Basic Training in Speech: Brief Edition.

Experience seems

broadly interpreted in this textbook; apparently it includes interaction,
overt and covert, with a widely varied environment.

The pattern of in­

quiry is explained, but its implications of continuity of experience are
not consistently followed.

The reflective experience is described as a

way of thinking but neither the subject matter organization of the chap­
ters nor the exercises indicate a realization of its implications.
Learning occurs through a stimulus—response mechanism by wdich actions
ars made habitual.

Insight signifies in this text "awareness of one's

emotional tendencies."
ulary

Language development deals with hu-llding vocab­

and accuracy of meaning.

Speech has botn intrinsic and instru­

mental value, in the former sense as general education, in the latter

305

for future occupations.

In spite of the basic emphasis on the pattern

of inquiry in the early part of this book, there is abundant evidence
that its implications are not carried through to other phases of teach­
ing.
A text which leans somewhat toward the experimentalist philosophy
is Monroe* s Principles and Types of Speech. The concept of
experience seems akin to experimental ism.

and of

The pattern of inquiry is

here called the "motivated sequence" and is the basic framework for or­
ganizing every kind of speech.

The introduction-body-conclusion sequence

is thus replaced by the five functional steps:
faction, visualization, and action.

attention, need, satis­

The series of chapters on speech

preparation also follow this plan of organization.

In spite of that,

the learning method is indicated to be precept and example followed by
application; experience is also a method, he says, but in this instance
experience again means study of principles, application in practice,
and constructive criticism.

Furthermore, the method of problem solving

is but one method of thinking for this author; other methods, actually
necessary procedures in inquiry, are identification, classification,
and determining relationships.

Other differences from experimentalism

are that in this text mind is an entity, "knowledge" corresponds to ex­
perimentalist "information", and a teacher is in school to provide an—
avers.

Agreement exists in that both say memory depends upon frequent

use, language developed from social need, and that the value of public
speaking is largely instrumental.
Baird and Knower's General Speech: An Introduction embodies many
principles of experimentalism.

Man is a social being whose direction

of growth is culturally determined.

Experiencing is a continuous

306

process of interaction.

The pattern of inquiry is explicitly explained

as the method of solving problems; it provides the organizational frame­
work of the chapters, and in the main student activity suggested at tlm
ends of chapters is cast into this mold.

Learning results from under­

standing, insight, and intelligent practice in problem-solving.
ing also occurs according to this pattern.

Think­

The instructor is the stu­

dent's guide and assistant, not his director.

They agree also on in­

dividual differences, retention and forgetting, motivation, and in the
main on the theories of language and value.

They differ from the ex­

perimentalist view in that they include under knowledge what Dewey calls
information, and they also stress, more than did Dewey, that education
not only enriches present living but is also preparation for life.
These divergences, however, do not constitute major differences from
experimentalist concepts.
Conclusions.

On the basis of this study of the philosophy of ex­

perimental ism, of some of its implications for the teaching of public
speaking, and of selected textbooks written for college public speak­
ing classes, it seems possible, perhaps desirable, to conduct such
classes in conformity frith educational implications of this philosophy.
At present, however, there is in the literature only meager evidence that
serious consideration has been given to this possibility.

Of the six

textbooks examined, only one gives extensive indication that this
philosophy has been the major and consistent point of view of its
authors.

Three of the others contain little more than an occasional

reference to it.

The remaining two incorporate several of its major

principles but they also include other principles whose implications

307

are not in accord with those taken from experimental ism; the result is
an eclecticism in which the principles are at variance with one another*
There is, of course, no cogent reason compelling textbook writers
to conform to the principles of experimental ism.

However, it would

seem desirable that such authors maintain some consistent point of view.
Even if it is an eclectic one, it might avoid contradicting itself.
Several writers are eclectic, one by his own admission, with the result
that they appear to contradict themselves.

They advocate logical rea­

soning in their textbook and at the same time fail to follow through
the implications of these principles.

They state that much is learned

from experience but their learning theory fails to include the same
kind of experiencing.

Again, they advocate building speeches on the

problem-solving sequence, implying that audiences learn best in that
way, but they seem to say that the student learns only by applying
learned principles and by being criticized on the extent of his conform­
ing to those principles*
Textbook authors, furthermore, are probably under no compulsion to
state their basic assumptions which guide them in their writing.

Nor

is it necessarily expected of them to say to what extent they are adopt­
ing the principles of a particular educational philosophy.

But when

they do enunciate such assumptions, it is not too much to expect that
they will persevere in their beliefs.

When, for example, a writer states

that no hard and fast rules exist in a particular instance and then, in
spite of that statement, in the Exercises at the end of the chapter di­
rects the student in his own speaking to apply the principles laid down
in that chapter* the reader is justified in inferring that the author

30?

is giving no more than casual lip service to his own basic assumptions.
This kind of illustration is not uncommon in these textbooks*
The results of this inquiry warrant suggesting, therefore, that
textbook authors determine which school of thought they are willing to
adopt as a basic educational point of view and then adhere to it through­
out the process of writing their books.

Such consistency of point of

view would avoid confusing the thinking student while he is using the
book as a text in a course.

In its long-range effect it might like­

wise avoid Inculcating, Incidentally if not Intentionally, habits of
thinking which are mutually at variance with one another*

On the other

hand, such consistency would well illustrate, if not develop, whole­
some habits of thinking about personal and social problems.

It would

enable the student to respect the educator for thinking a thing through
and for holding to one point of view, whether or not the student agreed
with him.

And were the student thu3 enabled to follow a consistent

philosophy in his own living and experiencing, significant improvement
could conceivably result in his thinking about public social issues of
the day*

APPENDIX A

QUESTIONNAXRE SENT TO 144 COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES TO ASCERTAIN WHICH
TEXTBOOKS THEY TJ7ERE USING IN THEIR PUBLIC SPEAKING GLASSES.

i

310

fame of School
.ocation of School

...........

luthor, Title, and E d i t i o n of text now b e i n g ucou ‘n your beginning Public
Speaking classes

Jow many students w i l l p r o b a b l y use it this year?

.................

low many years have y o u use d this text? .......................................
Please indicate b r i e f l y w h y y o u preferred this text to others on the market.

If you use a syllabus,

course of study, or other list of classroom exercises,

assignments, etc., h o w m a y a copy be procured?

Return to
Hugo J. David
Department of Speech, Dramatics,
and Radio Educatio n
Michigan State College
E. Lansing, Michig a n

10/213/51

At what price?

APPENDIX B

QUEST I0TH3AIRE RESULTS INDICATING PUBLIC SFEAKING TEXTBOOKS, NUMBER
OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, AND NUMBER OF STUDENTS
USING THEM ANNUALLY

i

312

Number of
Schools

Name of Text

1. Monroe, Alan H.
Principles and Types of
Speech. Third Ed. New York: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1949. 658 pp.

Number o f
Students

19

8165

8

3385

3* Sarett, Lew, and William Trufant Foster.
Basic Principles of Speech. Rex. Ed. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1948. 604 pp.

g

2535

4. Baird, A. Craig, and Franklin H. Knower.
General Speech: An Introduction. New York:
McGraw-Hill Book Compnay, Inc., 19^9• 500 pp.

6

2190

D. C. Heath and Company, 19^9• 249 pp*5

lbOO

2.

Bryant, Donald C., and Earl R. Wallace.
Fundamentals of Public Speaking. New York:
D. Appleton-Century Company, 194-7 • 580 PP«

5* Thonssen, Lester, and Howard Gilkinson.
Basic Training in Speech. Brief Edition.

Boston:

6. Crocker, Lionel. Public Speaking for College
Students. 2d Rev. Ed. New York: American
Book Company, 1950. 508 pp.

4

1720

7. Brlgance, William Norwood. Speech Comaun1cation. New York: F. S. Crofts and Company,
19^7.220 pp.

3

950

3

635

Principles of Effective Speaking. 4th Rev. Ed.
New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1942.
580 pp.
3

3250

8.

Gilman, Wilbur E., Bower Aly, and Loren D.
Reid.

The Fundamentals of Speaking.

New York:

The Macmillan Company, 1951* b08 pp.

9 . Sandford, William P., and W. Hayes Yeager.

10. Gray, Giles W . , and Waldo W. Braden.
Spo»tHng: Principles and Practice.

Public
New York:

2

670

11. Mulgrave, Dorothy I. Speech For the Classroom
Teacher. New York: Prentice—Hall, Inc., 193^*
398 pp.
2

200

Harper and Brothers, 1951- 581 pp.

12. Oliver, Robert T., and Rupert L. Cortright.
New Training for Effective Speech.

New York:

Rev. Ed.

The Dryden Press, 1951 • 5t>3 PP»

2

425

313

Name of Text
13.

14.
15*

lb.

17*

18.

Number of
Students

Oliver, Robert T.t Dallas C. Dickey, and
Harold F. Zelko. Essentials of Communlcap­
tive Speech. New York: The Dryden Press,
1959. 33« pp.

2

725

Soper, Paul A. Basic Public Speaking. New
York: Oxford University Press,19^9• 37b PP«

2

550

Barnes, Harry 0. Speech Handbook: A Manual
for a First Course in Speech Training. New
York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., I9U1 . 138 pp.

1

350

Borohers, Gladys,L., and Claude M. Wise.
Modern Speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace
and Company, lq47. 522 pp.

1

100

Dolman, John. A Handbook of Public Speaking.
2d Rev. Ed. New York: Harcourt, Brace and
Company, 1944-. 174 PP»
1

200

Ehrensberger, Ray, and Elaine Pagel. Notebook
for Public Speaking: A College Course in Basic
Principles. New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
1946. l6b pp.
1

1800

19. Eisenson, Jon. Basic Speech. New York:
Macmillan Company, 1950 • 344 PP»
20.

Number of
Schools

The
1

75

Ewbank, Henry L., and J. Jeffery Auer. Discus­
sion and Debate. New York: F. S. Crofts and
Company, 1941. 5 24- pp.
1

40

Huston, Alfred C., and Robert A. Sandberg.
Everyday Business Speech. New York: PrenticeHall, Inc., 19^3• 302 pp.
1

470

Lamers, William M., and M. Edward Smith. The
Making of a Speaker. Milwaukee: Bruce Pub­
lishing Company, 1937* 522 pp.

1

300

23. McCall, Roy. Fundamentals of Speech. New York:
The Macmillan Company, 1949* 240 pp.
1

4oo

21.

22.

24.

Murray, Elwood, Raymond C. Barnard, and J. V.
Garland. Integrative Speech. Denver: The Uni­
versity of Denver, 1946. 2b6 pp.
1

500

31*

Name of Text
25.

26.

27.

29.

30.

Number of
Student8

1

1000

1

462

Norvelle, Lee, R., and Raymond G. Smith.
Speaking Effectively: Preparation and De­
livery. New York: Longmans, Green and
Company, 1948. 238 pp.
Orr, Frederick W., Essentials of Effective
Speaking. New York: The Macmillan Company,
1944? 305 pp.

Parrish, W. M.
York:

28.

Number of
Schools

Speaking in Public. New

Charles Scribner's Sons, 19*+7» *bl PP*

1

150

Reager, Richard C. You Can Talk Well. New
Brunswick, N. J.: Rutgers University Press,
19*6. 312 pp.

1

100

Runion, Howard L. Essentials of Effective
Public Speaking. New York: Longmans, Green
and Company, 1948• 160pp.

1

225

Williamson, Arleigh B., Charles A. Frits, and
Harold R. Ross. Speaking in Public. 2d Rev. Ed.
New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 19^* 445 PP« 1

200

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baird, A. Craig. "The Educational Philosophy of the Teacher of
Speech." The Quarterly Journal of Speech. 24 (December IQ38) ,

pp. 5**5-55yr~
Baird, A. Craig, and Franklin H. Knower. General Speech: An Intro­
duction. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. , 19497”%94 pp.
Barnes, Harry G. "Basic Concepts of Speech Education."
Teacher. 1 (January 1952), PP* 14-19*
Bode, Boyd Henry.
19*+0. 30S pp.

How We Learn. Boston:

The Speech

D. C. Heath and Company,

Bryant, Conald C., and Karl H. Wallace. Fundamentals of Public
Speaking. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, Inc., 19^7.
568 pp.
Childs, John L. Education and Morals. New York:
Crofts, Inc., 1950. 299 PP»

Appleton-Century-

_____________. Education and the Philosophy of Experimental!sm.
New York: The Century Coppany, 1931* 264 pp.
Crocker, Lionel. Public Speaking for College Students.
tion. New York: American Book Company, 1950* 502 pp.
Dewey, John. Democracy and Education. New York:
Company, 191b. 418 pp.
__________ t and James K. Tufts.
Coppany, 1908. 606 pp.

The Macmillan

Ethics. New York:

__________ . Experience and Education. New York:
Company, 1938. 116 pp.

Second Edi­

Henry Holt and
The Macmillan

__________ . Experience and Nature. Chicago:
Company, 1925• 443 PP*

Open Court Publishing

__________ . How We Think. Revised Edition.
and Company, 1933* 301 pp.

Boston:

__________ . Human Nature and Conduct. New York:
Company, 1922. 33b pp.

D. C. Heath

Henry Holt and

__________ . "Inquiry and Indeterminateness of Situations."
Journal of Philosophy. 39 (1^42), pp. 290-296.

The

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16.

Dewey, John. Logic. The Theory of Inquiry.
and Company, 1938. 535 PP*

New York:

Henry Holt

17*____________ • ’’The Field of *Value'. " Ray Lepley, Editor.
Value:
A Cooperative Inquiry. New York: Columbia University Press,
I9U9 . i*70 pp.
18.____________ . The Quest for Certainty ^ New York;
and Company, 1929- 318 pp.
19.

. "Theory of Valuation."
of Unified Science. Vol. II, No. 4.
Chicago Press, 1939* 67 PP.

Minton,

£alch

International Encyclopedia
Chicago: The University of

20.

Essays for John Dewey* s Ninetieth Birthday.

Kenneth B. Benne and
William 0. Stanley, Editors. Urbana, Illinois: Bureau of Research
and Service, College of Education, University of Illinois, 1950.
92 pp.

21.

Ewbank, Henry L., and J. Jeffery Auer. Handbook for Discussion
Leaders. New York: Harper and Brothers, 19^7 • 118 pp.

22.

Fleischman, Earl Emery.

"Speech and Progressive Education." The
Quarterly Journal of Speech. 17 (December 19^1). PP* 511-517*

23. Freed, Conrad W. The Role of Speech in the Educative Process. Un­
published H u D. Thesis. The University of Southern California,
19^. 248 numb, leaves.
24.

Hilgard, Ernest R. Theories of Learning. New York:
tury-Crofts. Inc., 1948. 39b pp.

25.

Justmen, Joseph.
States.

Appleton-Cen-

Theories of Secondary Education in the United

Teachers College Contributions to Education, No" 8l4.

New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia
University, 1940. 481 pp.
26.

Kopp, George A. "Basic Principles of Speech Education."
College Record. 41 (February 1990), pp. 397-^04.

Teachers

27. Mayo, Elton. The Social Froblem of an Industrial Civilization.
Andover, Massachusetts: The Andover Press, 19^5. 150 pp.
28.

Monroe, Alan H. Principles and Types of Speech. Third Edition.

Chicago: Scott, Foresman, and Company, 1949. 647 pp.
29. McBurney, James H., and Kenneth G. Hance. Discussion in Human
Affairs. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1950. ^25 pp.
30.

O'Meill, James. "Speech in the Changing Curriculum." The Quar­
terly Journal of Speech. 22 (April 1936), pp. 183—190*

3X7
31 • Rodriguez, Alfonso. The Philosophy of a Fundamentals Course in
Speech. Unpublished M. A. Thesis. Wayne University, 1940.
120 numb, leaves.
32.

Sarett, Lew, and William Trufant Foster. Basic Principles of Speech.
Revised Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 194b. 595 PP*

33.

Smith, B. Othaniel, William 0. Stanley, and J. Harlan Shores. Fun­
damental s of Ourr1culum Development. Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York:
World Book Company, 1950* 7t>5 PP»

31*.

The Philosophy of John Dewey. Library of Living Philosophers. Re­
vised Edition. Paul A. Schllpp, Editor. New York: Tudor Publislu­
ing Company, 1951* 68b pp.

35.

Thonssen, Lester, and Howard Gilkinson. Basic Training in Speech.
Brief Edition. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1949 *""2^1 pp.

3b.

Wagner, Russell H., and Carroll S. Arnold. Handbook of Group Dis­
cussion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1950* 322 pp.

37.

Wilson, Howard W. Some Implications of Dewey1s Philosophy for the
Teaching of Speech. Unpublished M. A. Thesis. University of Il­
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38.

Winston Dictionary. The. College Edition.
C. Winston Company, 19^7*

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