Excerpt from Growth in Understanding of Geographic Terms in Grades IV to VII, Vol. 4
Perhaps no more serious danger confronts the teacher of the social studies than that of accepting purely verbal statements as evidence of sound learning. The danger lies in the fact that such statements may represent no more than the mastery of words and phrases which have been identified by the learner as the appropriate responses to make in given situations. However accurate these verbalizations may seem to be, they may be almost wholly devoid of real meaning and significance so far as the child is concerned. The product of this kind of learning need not be imagined, for it is directly observable in the "knowledge" which school children acquire in their "study" of geography, history, and civics.
These facts and this danger have been known for years. Nevertheless, exceedingly little research has been done with a view to determining the extent and nature of this empty verbal learning, or, stated in positive terms, with a view to determining how children may be led to develop rich meanings for the terms and concepts which they encounter in the social studies. It is precisely this problem which Dr. Eskridge undertook to investigate. In the research reported in this monograph Dr. Eskridge attempted to trace the growth of meaning for certain important geographic terms through four school grades and to isolate the factors which condition such growth and the principles according to which the growth takes place.
The study as here reported is substantially that made by Dr. Eskridge in order to fulfill in part the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Minor changes have been made in the organization of Chapter III; new data have been included in Chapter IV; and the extensive statistical data in the appendix of the thesis have been omitted.
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