Activity 1.5

Summary of Chapter’s 1-4 of William James

In chapter one, James discusses the importance of teachers analyzing their students’ minds or “mental machines” in order know them more intimately as learners. Also, he discussed that psychology is a tool that teachers can use in their profession but that it doesn’t make them a better teacher. An example of this is when teachers observe that a student is acting out during math. The teacher that has learned their student would know that something was amiss and use this information to support their student during math time.

In chapter two, James defines consciousness and explains to teachers that students’ will have a steady flow of sensations, thoughts and feelings that affect their ability to learn. An example of this is a child that is unable to focus in class because they’ve had a death in the family. The negative feelings that the student is experiencing is interfering with their learning. As a teacher, I’m enlighten to read about the consciousness how it can impede upon learning.

In chapter three, James describes the function of the conscious as being for practical and rational purposes. He goes into depth about the fundamentals of the brain functions and connects students’ behaviors to factors such as their environment. For example, students’ behaviors are directly impacted by their environment. When a student uses bad language that’s a result of the environment they’ve been exposed to. The student has “adapted” to his home environment.

In chapter four, James provides a definition for education and explains that we demonstrate our education through our behavior. Also, he states that the education that students receive evokes a behavior. An example of this in the text is the German students that trained so well that they are able to complete research independently. A connection to this is when children are taught to eat using utensils and eventually they have developed those skills so well that they can hold chop sticks.