This Beliefs and Assumptions Survey was adapted from a survey used in a study (Tart) to determine the range of 18th, 19th and 20th century unproven assumptions (often unquestioned) held by psychologists. It was completed by a sample (100) of staff and students at a Tasmanian College in September 2000.
At least half of the students and teachers held a range of mechanistic and materialistic assumptions borne out of the reductionistic and positivistic world-views of the 19th century.
35% of 100 students surveyed believed
there is little purpose to human life and 15% believed that not everyone has a
place in the world. One third of students and teachers held some 20th
century quantum and systems thinking assumptions.
In many cases both student and teacher world-views appeared to be
undefined and/or fragmentary and/or contradictory.
World-views provide important frameworks to understand the world and our
place in it. Experiences such as failing exams, difficult relationships or
coping with depression or suicide test a student's world-views.
World-views can have a profound influence on:
Solving problems and creating preferred futures:
Most of the challenges facing local and global communities are systemic in
nature where mechanistic/reductionistic thinking is much less useful than
systems thinking.
Search for meaning: Many students are searching for meaning and purpose.
Mechanistic/reductionistic thinking makes it difficult to find relevance and
meaning in life. It promotes isolation and alienation.
Dealing with change - Resilience:
Systems and quantum thinking involves the principles of interconnectedness and
wholeness which are key factors in increasing resilience.
Understanding others: Different people can hold similar values but widely
different world-views. Making world-views explicit promotes understanding and
growth.
Learning and open-mindedness: World-views
serve two powerful and conflicting motives. One is the need for a cognitive
framework to interpret new experiences, the other is to ward off threatening
aspects of reality. World-views can help make sense out of raw experience but
they can also close the mind if necessary to preserve the illusion of order.
Should a teacher with a set of beliefs and assumptions try to hide these
from students? Is this even possible or do students read
between the lines and deduce teacher beliefs and assumptions anyway? If teacher
beliefs and assumptions are not explicit do some students pick them up
unconsciously and unquestioningly?
Do teachers use a range of models and metaphors from different
world-views
or just those of their own world-view? Are mechanistic and reductionistic models
and metaphors still widely used because that is how most teachers were taught?
How often do teachers from all subject areas use 'billiard-ball' models of
reality with 'cause-and-effect' thinking, ‘pull things apart’ processes. How often do teachers use "wheels of change", "machinery of
government", "switched on thinkers" or similar mechanistic
metaphors?
Do
we still tacitly, if not explicitly, teach that physics explains chemistry,
|
Mechanistic |
The world-view of the classical sciences which conceptualises nature
as a machine composed of intricate but replaceable machine-like parts. |
|
Materialistic/Atomistic |
All phenomena are ultimately the result of matter/energy interactions.
Humans can be objective observers. |
|
Reductionistic/Positivistic |
We learn about reality by studying what we can measure and by reducing
complex phenomena to their constituent parts. |
|
Systems |
Natural systems are wholes with irreducible properties. Natural
systems are self-maintaining and adaptive in response to self-creativity
in other systems. |
|
Quantum |
The universe is seen as an interconnected whole that is intimately
connected to the consciousness of the human 'observer'. |
|
Transpersonal |
Higher (or deeper) states of consciousness are possible than the
limited ego-bound state. |