1) William James was a psychologist who wrote like a novelist. In 1876, he created, and began, teaching the first psychology course offered in this country. James had a two-volume text for his courses titled "Principles of Psychology". James saw that psychology had to look to the natural environment for much of its information. He thought that laboratory experiments were not the best route for teaching children. James's best known effort was to convince educators that the observations, thoughts, and questions they brought out of their work with children would be a significant source of "scientific feedback". James wanted educational psychology to study teaching and learning in the classroom in order to view educational problems in their real, or natural, environment. One of the most renowned names in educational psychology stands today as Edward L. Thorndike. Thorndike set out to eliminate speculation, opinion, and naturalistic investigation. Contrary to James, Tho!
             rndike considered visiting a classroom an extraordinary waste of time. Thorndike preferred animal testing in a laboratory. Thorndike was best known for his experiments with his cats in his specially designed puzzle boxes. Thorndike mostly concentrated on one aspect of learning, that of trial and error. Thorndike believed that transfer occurred only when elements in one situation were identical with or at least similar to elements in a second situation. It has been said that Thorndike was so influential that all subsequent research in education was merely a footnote to his work.
             2) The famous nature/ nurture controversy was between a group who called themselves the herediterians, and a group who called themselves the environmentalists. Herediterians, who were in favor of nature, said that all psychological traits were transmitted directly through the genes from generation to generation. This group also said that the surround...