On Thu, 10 Apr 2014 09:29:28 -0700, Christopher Green wrote:
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to discuss the
following claim:
"If the teacher, in the hope of understanding the inner life of
children better, studies the ganglion cells under the microscope,
he could substitute just as well the reading of Egyptian hieroglyphs.
All talk about the brain is, from the standpoint of the teacher, merely
cant."
- Hugo Münsterberg, "Psychology and Education," 1898.
NOTE: In 1898, Munsterberg wrote two articles with the title
"Psychology and Education": one was in Psychological Review
Münsterberg, H. (1898). Psychology and Education. Psychological
Review, 5(5), 500-503. doi:10.1037/h0065106
And the other was in Educational Review:
Munsterberg, H. (1898). Psychology and Education. Educational
Review, 16, 105-132.
Chris Green's quote is from the latter and is on page 124. The
volume for this journal is available on books.google.com and
be downloaded for free here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=FFEtAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA124&dq=%22educational+review%22++ganglion+cells+hieroglyphs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=79NGU9C3Iuy_sQTMnoGgCA&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22educational%20review%22%20%20ganglion%20cells%20hieroglyphs&f=false
Munsterberg had stirred up a hornet's nest earlier with the
following article:
Munsterberg, H (1898). The danger from experimental psychology.
The Atlantic Monthly, 81, 159-167,
James McKeen Cattell was one person who responded to the
Atlantic article (see his response at:
http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2005-12819-004 )
and Munsterberg was mainly responding to Cattell and other
critics in "Psychology and Education" articles. One response
to Munsterberg's original article was by Charles Bliss and
I quote:
"Prof. Munsterberg has not realized the inspiration of the hour.
He misses the whole spirit of modern science and American
science teaching. He betrays a low ideal of what teaching should
be, and an almost intentional ignorance of schoolroom work. He
tells us we can't do this and we can't do that, when we are doing
these very things every day. (Bliss, 1898, p. 214; Cited by
Benjamin 2006)
Bliss reference:
Bliss, C. B. (1898, April). Professor Munsterberg's attack on
experimental psychology. Forum, 214-223.
For more on this incident, see Ludy Benjamin's article:
Benjamin Jr, L. T. (2006). Hugo Münsterberg's attack on the application
of scientific psychology. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(2), 414-425.
Finally, after you get your kicks into Munsterberg, take a look at:
Spillmann, J., & Spillmann, L. (1993). The rise and fall of Hugo
Münsterberg. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 29(4),
322-338.
-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]
---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected].
To unsubscribe click here:
http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=36040
or send a blank email to
leave-36040-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
