in connection with public administration in national, state, and local
affairs, is tending to modify the content as well as the methods of
the teaching of government. New methods and a new content are changing
the emphasis from the formal, theoretical, and historical study of
government and turning attention to the practical phases and to the
technique of administration. As a result of this change and through
the work which is being undertaken by bureaus of reference and
research, instruction is brought much closer to public officers and
greater service is rendered in a practical way to government
administration.

=Some unsolved problems=

Among the difficulties and unsolved problems in the teaching of
political science are, first, the beginning course; second, the
relation of courses in government to economics, sociology, history,
and law; third, the extent to which field investigation and the
problem method can be used to advantage in offering instruction and
the development of new standards and of new tests which are applicable
to these methods; fourth, the introduction of the scientific method.

=1. The introductory course=

While the elementary course in government is now usually American
government and is, as a rule, offered to sophomores, both the content
and the present position of the course in the curriculum are matters
on which there is considerable difference of opinion. Where the
subject matter now offered to beginning students is comprised of
comparative material selected from a number of modern governments, it
is contended that this arrangement is preferable to confining
attention to American institutions with which there is at least
general but often vague familiarity. If provision is made in the high
school, by which the majority of those who enter the university have
had a good course in American government, there seems to be a strong
presumption that the beginners' course should be devoted to
comparative government. It is quite probable that the introductory
course will cease to be confined to a distinct and separate study of
either foreign governments or of American government and that the most
satisfactory course will be the development of one in which main
emphasis is given to one or the other of these fields and in which
constant and frequent comparisons will be made for purposes of
emphasis, discussion, and the consideration of government issues and
problems. In some cases it is undoubtedl