Communication is central to all human learning processes. I encourage class participation and open discussion in my courses. My philosophical viewpoint incorporates but is not limited to understandings from the Theory of Social Construction of Reality (Berger & Luckmann, 1967). According to this theoretical perspective all human knowledge is intersubjectively constructed. Any sense of objective truth and/or absolute truth is outside the framework in which humans operate to construct reality. Another way of saying this is that in a human world people create, maintain, and transform their understanding of reality through communication (their culture, relationships, and personal experiences and responses).
A notion of a reality beyond our earthbound and human existence is a matter of faith and personal belief (understandings which have been socially constructed over time ever since people began organizing). Regardless of the way in which one may construct his or her reality, the mechanisms of human knowledge construction are essentially the same -- we each are born into a family, an existing social framework and culture(s); we learn a language (or more than one) to communicate; we learn social rules and roles (socialized prescriptions/choices regarding expressions of appropriate and/or inappropriate behavior); we each build, maintain, and let go of relationships throughout our lives.
And it is in this social matrix that we become who we are over time. We construct our own realities based on secondhand human knowledge at best. We add to this historical mix our own unique experiences and perceptions. Some of us add a spiritual understanding of reality too, but no matter how we each believe these ideas and understandings may have originated, they have nonetheless been socially constructed and transformed over time in a human world. The most empowering thing we can do for ourselves in this life full of multiple and potentially conflicting human realities is to become socially responsible, educated, compassionate, critical thinkers and to trust that our own construction of reality will ultimately serve us well both personally and collectively.
-Jean
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4 comments:
One of the first things you "talk" about in this post is that you encourage class participation and open discussion when you are the instructor in your classes. I do too ... I very seldom lecture! Instead i try to facilitate conversation among the participants. It works well most of the time for students to learn from each other with my guidance.....
It is definitely an exciting challenge for me to figure out how to facilitate conversation in this online forum. I think you guys have done a great job connecting so far. What do you think?
I think that we are doing great with the communication so for and connecting in class. Its like one big conversation that keeps going with a little response delay [hour or two]depending who is online. I think it is great they we are able to read each others thoughts and comment as if we were in class with them all week. :)
B'Neika and Terri,
thanks for commenting on my post about my communication viewpoint. I too value conversation in doing our everyday routine (personal and professional). I often say to others when we must part to go our own way in our daily dealings, "let's just place a bookmark in our conversation, until later . . ."
I feel this way about class conversations about learning too. We bookmark our thoughts just to continue the conversation when we are back together.
-Jean
This is my first time participating in a blog, and so far I think that we are doing a great job! I like this idea of connecting in person, and then continuing that connection over the blog. You can really get to know someone by the way they respond to a blog, or when they post their own. It is a really interesting and fun way to communicate!
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