The Effect of a Special Method of Instruction in the Development of Scientific Attitudes

Sharing the views of many other educators, particularly certain political scientists of the day, Professor Arthur S. White contends that democracy...has failed, not only to produce leaders of intelligence and vision, but it has failed to produce that degree of intelligence essential to its survival. Convinced that education for information only has proved inadequate to meet the demands of a self-governing society, he has developed a type of classroom procedure which he believes will more effectively produce habits of thought essential to the survival of democracy than the traditional methods of teaching used in our colleges. This study has its origin in certain hypothesis growing out of this contention and certain information which voluntarily came to the department of government in the institution in which he was teaching at the time. A number of former students credited his teaching method with having produced a profound change in their general attitude toward all problems. Data collected systematically over a period of years through the use of questionnaires offered additional evidence to support the belief that this method of teaching was achieving results not commonly developed by other teaching methods