c or instructional aim. The former sums up the hope of an
entire course or an entire subject. In the teaching of literature we
hope to develop a vital interest in reading, a discriminating taste,
an enlivened imagination and a quickened perception which enable the
student to visualize the situations and to acquire the thought on the
printed page. The instructional aim, however, is much more specific;
it posits a task that can be accomplished in a very limited time; it
seeks to give an insight into Shakespeare's mastery of words, or into
his power of character portrayal, or into his methods of enhancing
dramatic interest. Each of these two types of aims has its
unmistakable influence on methods of teaching.

=The variety of aims that may govern teaching=

What aim should we select to guide us in formulating principles of
collegiate teaching? The question is almost basic, for the selection
of a proper aim gives color and direction to all our teaching. In
brief, the aim may be one of the following:

(_a_) _The informational aim._ A given course in chemistry or physics
may be designed to sum up for the student the vital facts necessary
for an intelligent comprehension of common phenomena. With such an
aim, it is obvious that only so much laboratory work will be assigned
as will give the student a general knowledge of the tools and methods
of laboratory work; that the major portion of the work will be divided
into occasional lectures, regular book assignments, and extensive
applications of knowledge gained to surrounding chemical and physical
phenomena. A language course may seek to give pupils a stock of words
designed to develop power to read the language in a very short time.
Obviously, grammatical work and translations into the mother tongue
will now be minimized, and those devices which give the eye the power
to find thought in new symbols will be emphasized. There is no
standard for determining the relative importance of this informational
or utilitarian aim when compared to other aims. The significant thing
is, not so much to discover its relative importance, but, having
adopted it, to devise methods which clearly tend to bring the students
to an effective realization of it.

(_b_) _The disciplinary aim._ On the other hand, the controlling aim
in any subject may be to develop the power to reason about natural
phenomena, the power to observe, and the power to discriminate between
vital and inconsequential details.