CLICK on the picture to visit the National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology.
I always enjoy talking about the teaching of psychology, although I find that even after thirty years in front of the classroom, I continue to agree with William James’s comment:
“Psychology is a science, teaching is an art.”
A hundred years or so, William James edited a collections of his lectures entitled “Talks to Teachers.” He reminded us that although we might be scientists and researchers, we have a responsibility, we must be teachers, too. In his preface he wrote:
“The teachers of this country, one may say, have its future in its hands.”
William James also wrote an interesting analogy between the art of war and teaching:
“In war, all you have to do is work your enemy into a position from which the natural obstacles prevent him from escaping if he tries to; then to fall on him in numbers superior to his own, at a moment when you have lead him to think you are far away; and so, with a minimum of exposure of your own troops, to hack his force to pieces,and take the remainder prisoners. Just so, in teaching, you must simply work your pupil into such a state of interest in what you are going to teach him that every other object of his attention is banished from his mind; then reveal it to him so impressively that he will remember the occasion to his dying day; and finally fill him with devouring curiosity to know what the next steps in connection with the subject are.”
So join us this year and travel to the NITOP 2012 Convention (Florida) and see how many view the ‘art’ of teaching Psychology. A special at this conference is a keynote address by by John Cacioppo , “Five Vignettes for Teaching Psychology as an Integrated Science.”
Take the time to invest in your future.
