PROF. G. G. DE-METZ. General Methodology of Teaching Physics. GIZ. 1929. Pp. 423. Price 3 rub. 75 kopecks.

Prof. G. G. De-Metz is one of those men of science who pay their debt not only by promoting the development of knowledge, but also by disseminating it. From 1906 he stood at the head of the journal Physical Review, which was an irreplaceable and unsurpassed school for Russian teachers of physics; on his initiative and under his direction the physics cabinet of the Pedagogical Museum in Kiev was created, developed, and lived; he wrote many articles and delivered numerous reports on questions of training physics teachers, introducing the laboratory method, describing work, instruments, installations.

In the book under review, De-Metz shares his knowledge and experience with the broad audience of our teachers and students. The reason that prompted him to take up the pen is thus explained in the preface: “In our literature we have a number of well-known manuals on the methodology of physics… It would seem that this is quite sufficient. However, when one has to stand face to face with a contemporary audience, the need is now felt to go deeper into contemporaneity and to be more strongly imbued with new ideas and new methods of work.”

Relying both on his own observations and experience and on a detailed analysis of Russian and foreign literature (general pedagogical and specially physical), the author aims “to bring the reader to such a state that he himself, armed with knowledge of lived experience, could best apply himself to the actual conditions of his teaching and make it fruitful.” The chief peculiarity and originality of the book lies in the art of carrying out this tendency.

Chapter I is devoted to general pedagogical considerations and only partly concerns the methodology of physics. General questions are examined: conditions for successful teaching, ways of compiling programs, the role of the teacher, etc. Analysis of the ideas presented gradually clarifies the main features of the new methodology of physics and establishes that it makes very high demands on the teacher.

Chapter II. The evolution of physics teaching abroad. A very instructive, detailed history of methodological searches in America.

Chapter III. The evolution of physics teaching in the Russian school. An extremely important chapter. The teacher must know what was done under the conditions of the old school to improve the teaching of physics, especially since

were headed by such outstanding professors as F. N. Shvedov, N. A. Umov, O. D. Khvolson, and a number of the best teachers of physics.

Chapter IV. The unified labor school. After the history of the development of the ideas of the labor school, beginning with Comenius, the position of physics in our labor school is vividly described.

Chapter V. The compilation of problems in physics and their elaboration. A thorough survey is given both of the methodology for compiling problems, with numerous examples, and of a general exposition of the essence of the Dalton Plan methods, projects, etc.

Chapter VI. The position of physics in vocational schools and in FZU schools. The curricula and programs of these schools are presented, and their present state is assessed according to the opinions of leaders and workers in this field of education.

Chapter VII. The position of physics in workers’ faculties; it is noted that precisely this type of school regards physics as a separate scientific discipline.

Chapter VIII. The scientific organization of labor in the school and the accounting of work. American experiments are interestingly analyzed; numerous examples of tests are given.

Chapter IX. The organization of the training of physics teachers in Germany, France, and in our country is examined.

Chapter X. The physics classroom and laboratory. This chapter gives little to the student and the teacher, since all the questions touched upon in it are considered too briefly. True, there are numerous references to the existing literature, but this only partly remedies the substantial shortcoming of this chapter, which is of the greatest importance for the teacher.

The final, XI chapter considers the question of the physics textbook and gives a very complete and thorough list of Russian literature (up to 1928).

From this review of the contents of the book the following conclusion follows:

1. The book does not at all touch upon the methodology of physics, the state of which is strongly reflected in methodics.

2. In setting forth the various methodological systems and tendencies, the author everywhere deliberately avoids expressing his own opinion, leaving the reader to form his own view of the question under study. For students and beginning teachers this is a difficult task.

3. The organization of the physics classroom and laboratory is insufficiently analyzed.

4. The evolution of the methodics of physics is very well presented, and the position of physics in schools of various types (abroad and in our country), contemporary general-pedagogical ideas and their connection with methodological tendencies in the field of teaching physics are excellently clarified. In our literature there has hitherto been no such complete and admirably compiled survey of the ideas determining the position of physics in our schools and its contemporary methodics.

Bibliography

The book by Prof. G. G. De-Metz is a very useful and necessary aid both for the teacher and for the student.

N. K.