ART & ORGANISM
IDEA:
THE TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
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ALL learning transforms the organism to some extent.
But some learning experiences go beyond mere KNOWING to a deeper sense of REALIZING
THESE are TRANSFORMATIVE
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The most dramatic of transformative experiences is a spiritual epiphany: “We may dance toward it and away, achieve glimpses, and even dwell in its beauty for a time; yet few are those that have been confirmed in that knowledge of its ubiquity which antiquity called gnosis and the Orient calls bodhi: full awakening to the crystalline purity of the bed or ground of one’s own and yet the world’s true being. Like perfectly transparent crystal, it is there, yet as though not there; and all things, when seen through it, become luminous in its light” (Joseph Campbell 1968 — speaking of “aesthetic arrest”).[i]
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“The transformative learning experience is recognized when course content is realized beyond mere knowing. A realization that is owned by the student in ways that enable its creative applicability in other contexts. The difficulty is in the fact that meaning for us and for each individual student are never exactly the same. But as teachers we can launch students into the world where they can grab hold of the abstract knowledge we want them to realize by finding, in their own depths, the ties that bind content to life and foster a life of creative connections. Enabling students to do this is an aspect of the true teacher’s self-actualization, “their greatest legacy.”(adapted from Chap 2 of The Phenomenological Heart of Teaching and Learning (Routledge 2019) Chap 2, p.29; and see Greenberg et al. 2015 (key Powerpoint slide accompanying lecture below)
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Read brief excerpt from KH Greenberg et al. on trasformative learning
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FROM KNOWING to REALIZING. “The teachable moment is a rare opportunity for a transformative learning experience. It is at such moments that inner and outer environments are aligned–in ways unique for each individual–to allow an extraordinary, unusually penetrating learning experience. In traditional teaching we are too often and too easily satisfied by traditional metrics of successful teaching–usually memory of facts. At such times, we may neglect the higher calling of our profession: to engender meaning. [This is done by creating connections that result in course content being realized beyond mere knowing. A realization that is owned by the student in ways that enable its creative applicability in other contexts. The difficulty is in the fact that meaning for us and for each individual student are never exactly the same. But as teachers we can launch students into the world where they can grab hold of the abstract knowledge we want them to realize by finding, in their own depths, the ties that bind content to life and foster a life of creative connections. Enabling students to do this is our self-actualization, this is our greatest legacy.” (adapted from Chap 2 of The Phenomenological Heart of Teaching and Learning (Routledge 2019); also, LOOK IN ON: “The Natural History of the Teachable Moment” (Greenberg et al., 2016) … emphasizing its DEEP ETHOLOGY) also in A&O notes on CONNECTIONS.
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NEXUS
- CONNECTIONS CREATE, CONNECTIONS CHANGE (Phenomena have MEANING to the extent they are CONNECTED; they can alter the way in which cognitive processes (such as those in ART and SCIENCE) are coordinated). What about CONNECTIONS between INDIVIDUALS?
- TEACHABLE MOMENTS, a PERFECT STORM: a SYNERGY of CIRCUMSTANCES that enables TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING, an EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCE
- CHANGE (all change involves connections and all changes in connection involve STRESS; the balance between disintegration and renewal) These have meaning to the extent they are COMMUNICATED.
- COMMUNICATION (…involves CREATING CONNECTIONS within and between individuals) information must be transmitted. When information is communicated within or between levels of organization (as in within or between individuals) and coordinated with change, learning occurs. Communication involves transmitting and receiving information. Sounds like “teaching” and “learning.”
- DEVELOPMENT: change in organisms across their life-span; specific processes can occur at specific developmental stages.
- TEACHING/LEARNING (learning involves coping with STRESS; resolving cognitive dissonance; error detection and correction))
- TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING (some learning experiences are deeply affecting and we move from KNOWING to REALIZING)
AND SEE notes on CREATIVITY
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