ABSTRACT
Teaching is a natural and spontaneous form of human activity that its origins are lost in prehistory. A "science" of teaching, however, begins in the late nineteenth century. Probably the first scientific studies of teaching to have a major impact on public consciousness were those conducted by Joseph Mayer Rice, whose exposes of American educational practice created a national furor. This chapter outlines a research procedure wherein lies the roots of the development of the scientific study of teaching and of the attempt to build a program of teacher education on that foundation. Franklin Bobbitt, an extraordinarily prolific writer and influential reformer who was particularly active during the first quarter of this century, set the tone. The new era in education would be governed by Science—scientific management in the administration of schools, scientific curriculum-making, and the scientific discovery of the qualities of a good teacher.
