CHAPTER III French-Speaking Countries:

been conducted mainly by laboratories or experimental schools attached to institutes of higher education. It would seem, however, that the authorities are coming to appreciate the scientific concept of teaching. After the war, the French Ministry of National Education set up a Service de la recherche pédagogique; Belgium established the less ambitious Commission consultative universìtaire de pédagogie; and for some time past the Ecole Expérimentale du Mail has worked in conjunction with the Geneva educational institutions and authorities. By and large, however, educational research has been initiated by re search centers rather than by authorities or the teaching profession; both groups still often favor intuitive instruction over experimental teaching. These facts explain the diversity of the subjects treated. Several common trends emerge from what has been done in recent years: There has been a preoccupation with backwardness in school and, in this connection, with questions concerning attainments in reading and spelling which ar