Foreign languages faculty

The Project at European and American Technical Universities
Learning by projects did not for long remain unique to architecture. By the end of the 18th century, the engineering profession (closely related to architecture) had been established and was being incorporated into the new technical and industrial colleges and universities. Important examples include (in order of their establishment): (a) the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris (1829), (b) the Ducal Polytechnic School in Karlsruhe (1833) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (1854), and (c) the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston (1864). This transplantation of the project method from Europe to America and from architecture to engineering had an important influence on how the project method was used and supported theoretically. Stillman H. Robinson, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Illinois Industrial University at Urbana, thought (around 1870) that theory and practice belonged together-the student must be a craftsman in order to become an engineer. This view isolated Robinson from his colleagues in Paris, Karlsruhe, and Boston, where the "scientific" engineer was seen as the ideal. Students were required to learn how to apply the laws of science and technology, and be able to develop machines, apparatuses, and turbines. To Robinson, this was insufficient; he required his students to carry out the "complete act of creation." This involved not only drafting their "projects" on the drawing board, but extended to actually constructing them in the workshop. In his report to the Board of Trustees, Robinson observed, "In practice instruction consists mainly in the execution of projects, in which the student is required to construct machines, or parts thereof, of his own design and from his own working drawings" (Illinois Industrial University, 1872-73, p. 29). Through this "construction" requirement, Robinson wanted to achieve two purposes: enable students to become "practical" engineers and "democratic" citizens (i.e., citizens who believed in the equality of men and the dignity of labor).
Learning by Projects in Manual Training and the Industrial Arts
Robinson's conception, however, had one clear disadvantage. It restricted the amount of time that remained for the students to study and conduct research. Therefore, the engineers sought an alternative approach. In 1876, this alternative came via the Russian display at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. The display also had a powerful influence on John D. Runkle, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Calvin M. Woodward. Runkle and Woodward proposed moving training in the handicrafts down from college to the secondary school level and using the so-called "Russian system" as the medium of instruction. Woodward, in 1879, put this proposal into practice by founding the first Manual Training School in St. Louis.
At the Manual Training School, pupils worked successively in the carpentry shop, on the lathe, in the smithy, foundry, and machine shop. There, in accordance with the Russian system, students became acquainted with the art of handicrafts in two phases. First, by passing through a series of basic exercises, they learned the "alphabet" of tools and techniques. For example, in the machine shop they filed cubes, turned screws, and drilled cylinders. Second, at the end of each teaching unit and school year, they were given time to develop and carry out "projects" independently regarded the projects as "synthetic exercises." The techniques earlier learned in isolation (i.e., in the construction of lathes, steam engines, or electrical apparatus), were then applied in context. Thus, instruction was designed to progress systematically from elementary principles to practical applications, or, in Woodward's terms, from "instruction" to "construction." At the end of the third year, the manual training course culminated in what was called, the "project for graduation." As was stated in the "Ordinance establishing the Manual Training School" of June 1879. "Before receiving a diploma of the school, each student must execute a project satisfactory to the faculty of the Polytechnic School. The project consists of the actual construction of a machine. The finished machine must be accompanied by a full set of working drawings according to which the machine is made, and the mold used for the castings. Both the drawings and molds had to be the work of the student. All projects remain the property of the school." (Washington University, 1880-81, p. 50) (cf. Ham 1886, pp.100ff).
Thanks to Woodward's indefatigable efforts, the handiwork approach rapidly gained credibility and support nationwide. A decade after the foundation of the Manual Training School, thousands of males and (since 1897) females at American high schools participated in instruction in carpentry and ironwork, cooking, and sewing. Manual training became so popular that, through the influence of kindergarten educators, it was also introduced into elementary schools in the 1890s. It was at this point that Woodward's conception was heavily criticized. A reform movement arose that was critical of using the requirements of work and study as the primary impetus for manual training. Rather, the view was that manual training should be based on the interests and experience of the child. Creativity, it was stated, was just as important as technical skills. Teaching should not only be arranged systematically, but organized so that it proceeded from the "psychology of the child" to the "logic of the subject." The chief exponent of this reform movement was John Dewey, philosopher and leading representative of pragmatism in American education. His idea of "constructive occupations" was adopted quickly by Charles R. Richards, Professor of Manual Training at Teachers College of Columbia University in New York.
Like Dewey, Richards thought that "construction" and, consequently, project work should not be the final goal of the educational process. Rather, construction should be the starting point of manual training or, as he called the new subject, industrial arts. Children should work with "natural wholes" before dealing with artificial parts. As they developed an understanding of tasks as a whole, they would then be equipped to identify with their work, and recognize and solve the identified problems. In a gentle critique of Woodward, Richards (1901) observed that "When we take up the problem of handiwork in this spirit, we are going to recognize that a nice sequence of difficulties in the work may be of less importance than the question of motive or the significance of a project to the real interest of the particular moment" (p. 102). Children were not expected to develop the entire plan and design for each thing done, since this would result only in "crude projects" and "unsatisfactory work." Commenting on Dewey's now famous sentence that "The only way to prepare for social life is to engage in social life," Richards added (1900) "Where the project is a common end that inspires all with a unity of thought and effort, such work is perhaps the most natural and effective means of bringing the community spirit and conditions into the school" (p. 256). Richards' concept of natural and social learning was put into practice at the Horace Mann School of the Teachers' College. On the teacher's initiative, for instance, second grade pupils decided to carry out an Indian project (cf. Richards 1900). They read Longfellow's poem "Hiawatha," discussed the customs and rituals of the Indians, and visited the Museum of Natural History. Then they constructed tents, made costumes, and carved bows and arrows in order to live as Indians for a day. The pupils acquired the knowledge and skills they needed to execute the project. Thus, the "instruction" did not (as with Woodward) precede the project, but was integrated into the "constructive" project work (pp. 267ff.).