Stephanie Canuel 10034458

Reading Summary for: Towards a philosophy of human learning: an existentialist

perspective

This document focuses on what it means to learn through the act of being human. Jarvis

rejects Descartes notion that I think, therefore I am and instead changes it to be I do, therefore

I am. Where Descartes believes in a dualism in which body and mind are separate, Jarvis

believes that the human is both those things and more. When we are in the world, we are both

doing something and thinking about it at the same time. We cannot separate action and

knowledge because they are fundamentally intertwined. A whole person is more than just their

mind, but everything that defines our thoughts and actions. It is an amalgamation of our beliefs,

emotions, actions, and thoughts.

The majority of the paper focuses on Jarvis refined Kolb Cycle. He criticizes Kolbs

cycle because the focus of it is knowledge, not the whole person. In a sense it only tells part of

the story of learning. In Jarvis much more complicated cycle he makes room for experiences to

either change us, or not, through means of emotions, thoughts, and actions. Every day we

encounter events that have the potential to change us. Sometimes we are given new information,

like being taught about something new in class, or instead we might try something active for the

first time like snowboarding, or perhaps we are presented with some terrible news about a family

member. All three scenarios have the possibility to change us if we choose to let them. In the

paper there are multiple different headers that he uses to explain his modified reflective cycle.

The first is being in the world. This gets at the idea that people are not just a mind. Instead

body and mind are extensively intertwined, and a part of who we are. As people we experience

the world through multiple different avenues, our senses, our minds, our actions, and through our

emotions. All of these are of vital importance if we are to understand ourselves as a whole. The

whole self, then is always interacting with the other and have the freedom to determine how

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the other will affect them, if at all. The second and third header is time and awareness of

the world. This section explores the notion that time can either fly by or drag on. Usually

time flies when what we are experiencing fits in with our own predispositions; it is in harmony.

Time tends to drag on when we experience disjuncture; that is when it doesnt fit into our own

natural inclinations. For myself, our three-hour mentoring class seems to fly by because I like to

think about the things we explore in class, and it fits with what I value as important. However, I

have had other classes that only last an hour, but they feel as if they will never end. Usually it is

because I find the material difficult, unimportant, or boring. The first learning experience is far

more enjoyable because I dont have to change, however, the second experience means I am

going to have to put some work in. If it is too difficult I will have to study harder to understand

it, if it is something I think is unimportant I might have to redefine what important is, and if it

is boring, I might have to look for something interesting in it so that I can continue studying it. In

any case I have to put effort in to get myself back to harmony with the class. This is what Jarvis

is getting at with being aware of the world. It is a constant bombardment of things we might have

to change in order to return to a harmonious place, which all people desire at their core.

The next headers are experience and transformation of experience. This section

focuses on how we learn through complex experiences. There is no single formula that qualifies

an experience, rather there are a bunch of different possibilities. Experiences can be short lived

(episodic), or something that is lifelong. They might be something we go through ourselves, or it

might be something we learn from someone elses primary experience. The experience might be

something we like, or something we dont, and we can either learn from the experience or not. In

any case, transformation by an experience is at the heart of learning. This transformation is what

Jarvis is after in his last two headings the person changed and more experienced and lifelong

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learning. Learning is about change. If we learn to respond differently to our situations in the

world then we are behaving more intelligently (Jarvis, 2005). It is through change that we

grow and if we continue to do that as we go through life then we will become lifelong learners.

The experience of being a peer mentor has had its challenges, questions, and insecurities along

the way, however, I think it has changed me. I feel like I approach others differently than I used

to, and I am much more driven than I used to be. As the semester is ending there are a few

people in the class that I have seen their enjoyment of it that I feel would benefit from doing this

course next year. I believe that it would be valuable to try and share with them my own insights

from this course and see about nudging them in the direction of participating next year. I have

learned so much, changed so much, and gained so much. I believe that this is what Jarvis

intended through this paper. We are complex human beings with many different elements that

impact our lives, but if we challenge ourselves in a multi-faceted way, it is possible that we can

be transformed not just in our thoughts, but in our whole being. This is the goal of education;

not merely giving content, but helping to encourage learners to grow.

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