or today in college teaching.
It is employed in the social sciences, in sociology, in economics, in
psychology, in education, as well as in the physical and the
biological sciences. Where it is followed the aim is clearly twofold;
viz., to teach the method by which the specific subject is growing and
to develop in the students mental power and a scientific attitude
towards knowledge.

=Value of laboratory method=

Let us illustrate these two aims of the laboratory method. A
laboratory course in chemistry or biology or sociology may be designed
to teach the student the use of apparatus and equipment necessary for
work in a respective field; the method of attacking a problem; a
standard for distinguishing significant from immaterial data; methods
of gathering facts; the modes of keeping scientific records,--in a
word, the essence of the experience of successive generations of
investigators and contributors. But no successful laboratory results
can be obtained without a proper mental attitude. The student must
learn how to prevent his mental prepossessions or his desires from
coloring his observations; to allow for controls and variables; to
give most exacting care to every detail that may influence his result;
to regard every conclusion as a tentative hypothesis subject to
verification or modification in the light of further test. Unless the
student acquires a knowledge of the method of science and has achieved
these necessary modes of thought, his laboratory course has failed to
make its most significant contribution.

In courses where the aim is to teach socially necessary information or
to give a comprehensive view of the scope of a specific subject, it is
obvious that the laboratory method will lead far afield. It is for
this reason that introductory courses given in recitations, with
demonstrations by instructors, and occasional lecture and laboratory
hours, are more liberalizing in their influence upon the beginners
than courses that are primarily laboratory in character.

=Cautions in the use of the laboratory method=

Most laboratory courses would enhance their usefulness by observing a
few primary pedagogical maxims. The first of these counsels that we
establish most clearly the distinctive aim of the course. The
instructor must be sure that he has no quantitative aim to attain but
is occupied rather with the problems of teaching the method of his
specialty. Second, an earnest effort must be made to acquain