James presents behaviorist inklings as he talks to teachers about native and acquired reactions, training oneself with regard to habit, and even at the beginning where he likens the child to a much simpler organism. However, as James defines and discusses apperception and the association of ideas, we can see constructivist concepts emerge.
These are powerful concepts. However, the most powerful concept for me right now as I begin to assimilate these notions and make them my own is that behaviorism and constructivism may peaceably coexist. There are synergies and delineations which allow a teacher to understand what is happening to students in the classroom under the lenses of any and sometimes all of these constructs.
In the first chapter, James tells is that myriad practices may be derived and correctly applied relative to the science of psychology:
"A science only lays down lines within which the rules of the art must fall, laws which the follower of the art must not transgress; but what particular thing he shall do poitively within those lines is left exclusively to his own genius. One genius will do his work well and succeed in one way, while another succeeds as well quite differently; yet neither will transgress the lines."
Glad you're making these connections, Chris. And a great link back to James. You are correct that I select him for how well he foreshadows all that is to come in the course.
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