Using the concept of a ‘world view’, identify some of the beliefs and attitudes, particularly to education and learning that you bring to your learning now. Reflect critically on how your worldview has been shaped by factors such as your gender, age or community. In your answer refer to Hobson (1996) and Samovar and Porter (2004) from the SSK12 Reader, and Chapter 1 in A Guide to Learning Independently (Marshall and Rowland, 2006, 1-18).
This essay will show how my worldviews have influenced my learning and how attitudes and beliefs of my social milieu have shaped my approach to learning. I will identify some beliefs and attitudes that were prevalent in my early years and conclude with a summary of my current beliefs I bring to my learning now. I aim to show how our worldview can disadvantage our learning. Although there were many factors both mentally and physically that disadvantaged me.
I will identify my lack of purpose, difficulties operating in a different social milieu and my lack of critical thinking skills as areas that caused me to be most disadvantaged, along with ideologies expressed in my social paradigm and how the worldview that I obtained through life experience centred around life as a eldest child white, female of low socioeconomic status hemmed in by worldviews others outside our milieu had constructed of which I had no concept of. Worldview-The knowledge concepts and beliefs, the unseen fabric which knits together a cognitive picture of the world one interacts with.
Purpose- My situated self, female from a low socioeconomic background sole purpose in life was to make a man happy by being a good wife and mother, by learning from my mother and other females in my community. What purpose did an education serve? Why do I need an education? The belief that education was not for someone like me was automatic and unconscious part of my cognitive makeup. (Samovar and Larry 2004) After all, I would always be of the working class poor unless I ended up a fairytale like Cinderella.
Early learning tools were not supplied (books, puzzles) nor did I attend preschool, opportunities to build competence and self esteem in formal and non formal learning environment were nonexistent. One could not work their way out of social class. Education was obviously a facilitator of social mobility so without belief in social mobility education was not important or necessary. Arriving at School I found they did not operate on concepts that I was familiar with. My conceptual skills were on a different wave length.
There was so much I didn’t understand, I put this down to purpose, I didn’t understand because I had no need of the information, It was above my comprehension when in reality it was a clash of interpersonal skills and my lack of understanding of middle class concepts and how to learn in a dominant worldview. Apart from language, there is another essential element needed to communicate successfully in bilingual, inter cultural situation. This is an awareness of each other’s worldview. Another area were my worldview disadvantaged me was my lack of critical thinking skills.
It can be said that critical thinking requires thinking deeply, being active, having purpose, being conscious, questioning, judging, thinking what to believe or not, and thinking what to do, and regarding these while deciding. My worldview was positioned that the teacher and the Institution were always right, you did not question what they told you, you did not analyse it you just believed everything you were told. Therefore I did not have any problems that needed to be solved or thought about critically, I just believed everything I was told.
The aim of education is to educate individuals who can adapt to different conditions, think flexible, question, be creative think in different directions, solve problems and think critically. (Aktamis 2010) How frustrating I lacked the perception and behaviours necessary to interpret a lot of the information being offered as education but I was unaware of this fact, I believed that I was just ignorant, incapable of learning this was just the way it was. In turn this just reinforced my worldview of social mobility and purpose. “What you believe and value directly affects your learning”. Marshall and Rowland 2006) As a result I did not aspire to do well; my self esteem was low compared to my peers doubt that I could ever accomplish even the easiest tasks made school wearisome and I would wrangle as much time as possible off. Currently I bring to my learning an awareness of these factors that influenced the way I learnt, new life experiences and changes in culture which I have found myself functioning in have changed my perceptions of my world and self. It’s not that these issues have disappeared altogether, I am now aware of them and this has changed the way I learn.
They are no longer an automatic and unconscious part of my cognitive make up. In summary, although no worldview is right or wrong just different, the framework of society and the concepts our institutions are built on favour the majorities ideologies ,to access them those of a differing worldview are disadvantaged. My beliefs and attitudes my conceptual framework did not bring me an understanding of what was expected or how to navigate and interact within the school culture and the institutions presumption that we all have the same basic knowledge and beliefs so therefore we all learn the same disadvantaged my learning. References
Abelev. M. S 2009 Advancing out of poverty journal of adolescent research Vol. 24 no. 1 pg 114-141 Sage publications http://o-jar. sagepub. com. prospero. murdoch. edu accessed 30. 6. 2010 Aktamis. H 2010 determination of the science process skills and critical thinking skill levels Procedia social and behavioural sciences Science direct http://www. sciencedirect. com/science? _ob=MImg&_imagekey=B9853-5016P5K-N9-1&_cdi=59087&_user=10&_pii=S1877042810005422&_orig=search&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F2010&_sk=999979997&view=c&wchp=dGLbVlW-zSkWb&md5=d01cf348b0811eaa082781b6b930ea12&ie=/sdarticle. df accessed 01. 17. 2010 Hunt. E . D Ch. VI adolescents: cultural deprivation, poverty and the dropout 1966 American educational research association Larea . A. Unequal childhood’s class, race and family life 2003 university of California press Marshall. L and F. Rowland, A guide to learning independently 4th edition pg11 Pearson education Australia Samovar. Larry. A and Richard E Porter 2004 Communication between cultures 5th edition Belmont, California Wadsworth/ Thomson learning worldviews pg 85-86
