New Pxiblications

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editor in charge of the department of the Psychological Bulletin dealing with the sense of hearing, eminently qualifies him for such an undertaking. It has the unique distinction of being the only work of its kind in any language, representing a systematic interpretation and organization of the increasingly large number of experimental studies in this field, as well as that of being a lucid and trustworthy account of its many ramifications. The book comprises a discussion of the physics and physiology of hearing, an analysis of tone, vocal sound and noise, and the parts they play in music and language, localization of sound, pathology of hearing and aural education. Notwithstanding the range of treatment, which ordinarily would lead to superficiality and arbitrariness, one is favorably impressed with the author's attempt to marshall the significant facts and to maintain an attitude of openmindedness on all debatable issues. The extensive list of sources, utilized and specifically referred to, is an outstanding feature. One must appreciate the fact that the author has kept the varied interests of a wide range of readers constantly in mind. Consequently, this contribution should prove an indispensable aid, not only to the psychologist and otologist, but to the teacher and student of music and phonetics in the solution of his special problems as well.
J. KUDERNA.

CUBRICULTJM-MAKING'FOR CHINA

Education for Modernization in China, by Peng Chun Chang. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1923. Pp. 92. The task to which the author of this book addresses himself is the formulation, through analysis and constructive type6 of reasoning, of a plan for curriculum revision in China's middle schools. China has great need of leaders in her effort to become modern. The present tendency toward undiscriminating imitation of the forms and materials of Western secondary education is not likely to meet this need successfully. To be safe, it is necessary first to answer such qustions as these: What are the significant characteristics of this modernism that China so much desires? What influences produced them? How can these influences, probably adventitious in the West, be consciously generated in Chinese schools so as to develop in prospective leaders the essential qualities of the modern spirit?

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The Journal of Educational Psychology

The author goes to the foremost analysts of the day for an interpretation of modernism. He concludes from this research that scientific method, individuality, and democracy (the three chief characteristics of Western modernism) have been the direct outgrowths of the "exploring, pioneering, frontier community-building, large-scale producing, and the like" incident to Expansion in the last four or five centuries. On the basis of this hypothesis he next sets up criteria for the selection of curriculum materials (activities) that will serve in a Chinese environment as substitutes for the influences identified in the expanding life of the Western nations, particularly of America. Finally he reaches the point of offering suggestive outlines of projects, formulated subject matter, and types of social organization among pupils. These outlines are purely tentative and intended only for the initial direction of experimentation. The study as a whole is a remarkably fine illustration of constructive thinking, very clear in its progressions and not too far removed from practical needs and possibilities. It would be hard to find a more thorough or consistent application of the educational philosophy of Professor Dewey and the Columbia group to the exigent problem of curriculum revision not only in China but in America as well.
M. H. WILLING.

A HANDBOOK ON READIXG METHODS

How to Teach Reading, by Mary E. Pennell and Alice M. Cusack. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1923. Based on the theory that, for ordinary purposes, a teacher needs to know the results and not the processes of psychological research, Pennell and Cusack's new book on reading bridges the gap between the laboratory and the classroom. The conclusions of the psychologists are stated briefly and without technical language. The results of investigations concerning the work of the eye in reading are admirably summed up. The authors consider the laws of learning only as they apply to reading. Throughout, the book is based upon sound psychological principles, which it accepts as a major premise and from which it proceeds deductivity. How to Teach Reading is distinctly the product of persons who understand the problems of the classroom. A chapter