Chapter VI.-Courses

When this survey was planned many of the home economics heads and staffs in the land-grant institutions were requested to suggest phases of study that would be of special interest or value to their work. Of the suggestions made those that dealt with courses and curricula were more numerous and more insistent than those that concerned any other aspect of home economics work. Home economics displayed more concern about its offerings than did any other division of the institutions. Since home economics is in process of development this interest is, of course, natural, but the searching nature of the requests for study and the evidence afforded that the home economics staffs are conscious of the intimate relationship between offerings and definition of objectives seem to justify somewhat more detailed presentation of these matters than has been attempted with reference to other divisions of land-grant college activity.

The institutions cooperated so heartily in furnishing information about courses and curricula that a larger amount of detail has been assembled than can be presented in the space and time available. Much of the data must be treated by this report in a rather general and summary fashion. It is hoped, however, that the specific detail collected may be further studied and supplemented by graduate students and others interested in home economics matters. This report will consider in turn methods and means used by the institutions in determining what shall be offered, the number and types of courses listed, the organization of courses into curricula, and finally methods of instruction.

Determination of Offerings

Five points related to determination of what subject matter shall be offered by home economics deserve separate treatment: First, the administrative processes and considerations that determine offerings; second, relationships to previous preparation of entering students; third, prevention of undesirable duplication between college home economics courses; fourth, means used to determine actual content of courses; and fifth, methods adopted to improve the quality of courses.

The development of home economics objectives and the changes in social conditions and subject-matter fields to which home economics instruction must be adapted make especially important the function of determining what shall be offered. This responsibility, subject to institutional confirmation through agencies of control applicable to all divisions, rests upon the head of the home economics unit in the 43 institutions that report upon the subject. In 39 of these institutions she also finally selects and approves the texts that are used. In practice other members of the staff commonly participate actively in curricular reorganization (28 institutions) and in selection of texts (37 institutions).

An important aspect of changes in and extension of offerings is the initiation of new courses. Thirty of the institutions report that responsibility for initiating a new course is shared by other members of the staff with the director of home economics.

It is, of course, common practice for staff members in all the divisions of colleges and universities to suggest new course offerings and in many instances the desire and ability of a staff member to offer a new course are in effect the determining factors in spite of machinery of control set up to pass upon and unify offerings. This sometimes results in curious specializations of courses and multiplication of minute subdivisions in harmony with the personal interests of teachers rather than in response to definite student needs or institutional objectives. It is interesting, therefore, to list the factors involved in the initiation of new courses according to the reports of home economics heads although these considerations may not in fact always be the determining causes to the extent that the record would seem to indicate.

Among the primary factors that lead to the initiation of new courses first place is given by 28 of 39 institutions to State demand for home economics training, especially for the training of SmithHughes teachers. Second, is the amount of money available listed by 21 institutions; third, undergraduate student demand cited by 17; and fourth, requests by graduates indicated by 16. Twelve institutions give primary consideration to demands made by the public schools. Twelve also make decisions upon the basis of staff conviction that new courses are needed to create or maintain the prestige of the unit among higher educational institutions; and closely related to this point is the statement of 11 institutions that new instruction is begun in order to conform to the practice in the majority of land-grant colleges. Of somewhat the same order is the reason given by 10 which regard the opinion of the American Home Economics Association as of first importance in determining what new courses shall be offered.

It is perhaps permissible to suspect that institutions that determine the development and growth of their home economics work upon the basis of "authority" rather than upon the basis of their own situations and objectives exercise little leadership in the creation of college home economics standards and service. In this connection it is probably significant that secondary factors mentioned by the home economics reports as determining new offerings include in order of frequency-opinion of the American Home Economics Associa tion, conformity to departments in the majority of land-grant institutions, and prestige of institution. The value of changing courses or curricula at the instigation of organizations or to conform to opinions and standards set up by organized groups is in direct proportion to the soundness of the principles and practices represented by such opinions. It would be unfortunate for home economics development if practice should become conventionalized prior to the best adaptation of means to the accomplishment of well-defined objectives. Inconsistency and change are much less objectionable than consistency and permanence of practices upon a mediocre level.

It is somewhat surprising that a group as keenly interested in the development of its work as is the home economics group should determine its new offerings to so slight an extent upon the basis of scientific analysis of the activities and interests of women. Several institutions report that this is done. Three institutions reported that the staff is continually at work analyzing the needs of girls as a basis for curriculum development and adjustment, but no evidence was submitted to show whether these studies were merely observations or were carefully controlled and systematic investigations. A few institutions report that students make suggestions, but there is little indication of any thoroughgoing attempts to secure student judg ment. Certainly such student reaction as is secured does not lead to the fallacious practice of substituting immature and inexperienced opinion for the trained judgment and wider knowledge of the responsible staff.

Ways of Avoiding Duplication of High-School Work

Duplication of high-school work is not only wasteful in the sense that it takes time in college which might be used in other ways, but it acts in a much more destructive way in discouraging the student. Therefore, ways of avoiding such duplication are important. Among 39 of the institutions reporting on the methods used to insure students against duplication of high-school work, 37 show that they are paying considerable attention to the solution of this difficulty. Only one institution reports nothing done to avoid duplication; another that no satisfactory method has yet been evolved. The majority

of institutions use tests or examinations of one sort or another, together with the examination of high-school notebooks, textbooks, visits to high schools, reports from the State department of education relative to approved high schools in the State, and a valuation of high-school courses by a teacher trainer in home economics to avoid repetition of subject matter given in high schools. Five institutions report using a trial and error method, putting all students into the same courses at the beginning of the year, then regrouping them later on according to demonstrated abilities. Four institutions. have separate courses for those who have had home economics work in high school. One reports that students presenting home economics credits from accredited high schools are registered in courses carrying less credit.

From the varied ways in which so large a number of departments of home economics in land-grant colleges are working to avoid duplication of high-school work, it is clear that further systematic study of this problem is desirable. In part, solution probably lies in development of research in home economics that will provide subject matter sufficiently advanced to be distinctly separate in type from that offered in secondary schools. Problems of articulating college and secondary offerings in home economics will nevertheless demand adjustment by the colleges upon the basis of present offerings in both units. In this process the obligation rests most heavily upon the college.

Duplication of Subject Matter in College Home Economics Courses

Of somewhat the same character as duplication between highschool and college home economics courses in duplication between courses offered in the college itself. The former is most serious because it indicates that some home economics instruction in college is of secondary grade, but the latter is just as wasteful and especially reprehensible since it testifies that courses under the control of the home economics unit itself are not designed for the accomplishment of definite home economics objectives.

As specialization develops within home economics, with attendant grouping of courses into subject-matter units or departments, with curricula for each, the problem of avoiding duplication of subject matter in various courses becomes increasingly great. The home economics staffs are attacking this matter with considerable energy by means of frequent revision of courses, observation of classes, conferences, and use of course outlines. Probably in part because of the tentative nature of home economics development, the home economics unit displays more interest in and use of these methods than is the case of the older and better established subject-matter fields. In

more than half the institutions reporting the head of the department of home economics personally observes classes as a means of keeping in touch with the content of courses. Thirty-seven institutions report conferences with department heads other than home economics used as a means of avoiding serious duplication. One institution reports using, in the textiles and clothing courses, a list of objectives as a means of avoiding duplication, and adds further that this is the beginning of a plan to be worked out for all subject-matter departments. Another institution reports a similar system in which the course content is arrived at in the first place through conferences of all divisional teachers.

In the majority of institutions reporting, the course outline method is used to keep in touch with current developments in use of subject matter by the different courses.

Among 42 institutions reporting, 39 report that course outlines are required as a means of checking duplication. In 32 institutions the head of the home economics department reviews the outlines for purposes of revision. In 16 of these, the author of the outline also goes over it with the entire home economics staff. Seven institutions report the course outlines reviewed by members of the staff without the assistance of the director; in 13, the director alone does this work.

One institution reports a group of instructors working on general curricula reconstruction, the membership in which is voluntary, and represents about one-half the staff. It is this group which reviews course outlines presented by their authors. Another institution reports conferences of faculty members in each department of the school, where outlines of courses are discussed and duplication thus avoided. Another reports that plans for courses must be accepted by a curriculum committee before the courses are given. In this way, every course outline comes before a committee which has the opportunity and responsibility for comparison and elimination.

The activity and determination thus displayed in the field of course and curriculum control is highly commendable. But it would probably be more effectively and intelligently carried on if it were placed upon the basis of experimental procedure conducted cooperatively by a number of institutions rather than upon the present basis. In this respect is must be acknowledged that home economics differs very slightly from other subject-matter fields and units in higher education institutions.

Determination of Content

A considerable proportion of the institutions that report concerning methods of determining course content indicate that studies of the work of teachers, dietitians, home demonstration agents, dress designers, tearoom managers, homemakers, research workers, and others, form the basis for the special curricula offered to students pre