ABSTRACT
By the middle of the nineteenth century, as already related, instruction in undergraduate classrooms followed three dominant modes—lecture, laboratory, and recitation. 1 Of the three, the lecture and laboratory methods gained a momentum in the balance of the century which carried them with little modification to the threshold of the twentieth century as the most popular forms of instruction. The old-fashioned recitation continued to lose ground throughout this period, successfully surviving only or principally where animated by a Socratic spirit. If little change occurred in methods of instruction in the latter half of the nineteenth century, a profound change came over the curriculum as the elective principle gained ascendancy over prescription. 2 Not only did this reform in the curriculum give play to individual differences of aptitude and preference but it also greatly expanded the number and variety of curricular offerings. 3 Yet, even with a modernized curriculum taught by tested methods, there was a noticeable misgiving at the opening of the twentieth century that all was not well with undergraduate instruction.
