Self-Rapport: A Note on Psychology and Instruction

Abstract

It is argued in this note that we can take instruction and give it because we instruct ourselves, with a self-rapport as the basic movement of our cognitive activity or thinking. Psychology does not, it is argued, have to explain human curiosity or human understanding; but it can talk about how to and how we deal with these things — that is, their conditions of operation — if it pays attention to the instructional facts. When attention is given to the interactive and social context of cognition, some educationists' criticisms of instructional psychology may be countered, and the psychology of cognition and its development will benefit from being more reality oriented. It is concluded that the empiricism of psychology is not a cold recording of behaviour, but rather a study of instructive plans for action, with both better plans and better action as the goal.