A Few More

A Few More

Ways of Knowing

And then, a Summary

Intuition

• Messages from the Heart

• Gut Feelings

How to Develop Intuition

The ability to acquire immediate knowledge, independent of analytical or conscious reasoning.

Where does intuition come from?(many alternative explanations)

• We are all connected to a “universal mind” or universal consciousness”, and we receive intuitive messages from it or through it.

• Intuition is the “divine spirit” speaking to us.• Intuition is the “Life Force” speaking to us.• “High-speed information processors” in our subconscious

send intuitive messages long before our rational brains do.• Intuitive messages travel “from the heart to the brain”

when the two organs are in synergistic coherence.– Just one example

Lots of Ways to Learn Things(Types of Intelligence)

Emotional Intelligence (EI) or (EQ)

The Explainer: Emotional intelligence

Emotional Intelligence (EI or EQ)

• Self-awareness

• Self-management

• Empathy

• Social Skills

• Intuition• Emotional

Intelligence• Messages from

the Heart• Gut Feelings

So, let’s briefly summarize

Ontology

What exists?What are the categories of

reality?

Epistemology

How do humans acquire

knowledge?

Ontological Theories

Some Epistemology Theories• Rationalism justifies claims by offering clear, analytical, and persuasive

reasoning, or deductive and inductive logic.

• Empiricism justifies claims by citing sensory experience, life experience, or scientific evidence.

• Religious Faith justifies claims by citing revelation, special teachers, important texts, or insights from personal prayer, meditation, intuition .

• Mysticism justifies claims by citing realizations derived from deep or transcendental meditation.

Some Epistemology Theories (continued)

• Occultism justifies claims by citing lessons or insights gained

from some type of supernatural or paranormal force or agency.

• Intuition (immediate knowledge) justifies claims by pointing to deep

feelings or emotions or to gut feelings.

• Emotional Intelligence justifies claims by drawing on self-awareness

and social awareness.

Your Epistemology??

• Do you have a primary tendency?

• Are you multi-modal?

• Are there some that do not work for you?

Emotional Knowledge

Epistemology??The point is not to figure out

which ways of knowing are real and which are not.

Rather, the point is to better understand the

alternative ways of knowing that you and others use.

Let’s Practice

Epistemology on Display

Epistemology on Display: A Fictional ExampleThe Chancellor’s Office was encouraging all campuses to “disenroll” students who did not demonstrate solid basic skills in math and English writing by the end of their first year. So, CSUMB formed a faculty and student committee to consider this issue: Should CSUMB disenroll the students, or should we allow them to stay and continue to help them? Which course of action would best serve students?The following is how different members of the committee processed the issue.

1. If we disenroll the students and encourage them to go to the community colleges to develop their basic skills, they will get much better assistance. Then, in a year or so, the students can return to CSUMB with a much better chance for success and graduation. The community colleges have more resources and better services in this area. CSUMB is a university that just is not equipped or financed to provide basic skills development.

2. The Vision Statement says that CSUMB is particularly committed to helping educationally underserved students from across California. By definition, these students we are talking about are educationally underserved. So, our stated Vision requires us to allow these students to stay and to continue to serve them. Kicking them out because they are educationally unprepared would contradict what we say we stand for.

3. I have reviewed all the existing research on this topic, covering 17 universities around the country that have faced this same issue. Ten (10) universities chose to disenroll the students, and 7 allowed the students to stay and continue working on their basic skills. Where the students were disenrolled, 38% of them eventually returned and graduated from the university. Where students were allowed to remain in the university, 26% of those students went on to graduate. So, it’s fairly clear that disenrolling students would be the best policy for CSUMB to follow.

4. I can’t really put it in words or fully explain it, but I just have this deep feeling that

telling some of our students that they will have to leave would be really wrong. Particularly the ones who feel like they are part of our community and whom we know are working hard to improve their skills. Like I said, this is a gut feeling, but its message to me seems so clear.

5. Look, most of us have experience at only one or two campuses. The Chancellor, on

the other hand, has been responsible for many, many campuses over two decades in a number of different states. So, if the Chancellor thinks that disenrolling students would be the best policy, then I think we should rely on his extensive knowledge and experience. He was selected to lead the largest university in the nation for a reason.

6. In my seven years here at the university, I have worked with many students who need further work in their basic skills. The very students that we are talking about today. And, I can tell you that they think that their skill levels in reading, writing, and math are just fine. So, they resist every suggestion that they engage in further development work. Therefore, I strongly believe that sending these students back to the community colleges is the only way that they will get the message that they are not ready for university-level academic work.

7. At my tribal council meeting the other evening, I asked our tribal elders to consider our dilemma. After deliberating on the issue, they reminded me that the occupants of this land have a tradition over thousands of years of nurturing and protecting members of the community. They advised that kicking out some members because they need help would seriously violate the spiritual traditions of this space. Of course, they did note that more recent occupants of this land had different ways that might well approve of disenrollment.

8. You know, when I was in college, I was a student who had a lot trouble with math, but I was able to work my way through it and to successfully graduate. So, I try to imagine how I would have felt if my university had told me to go back to a community college. I think I would have felt devastated, like a real loser. And that’s what I think our students would feel like. It’s a feeling that would probably crush them, not motivate them.

9. I frequently consult with my psychic when I have these difficult issues to deal with, and I had a session with her last night. She suggested that the Ouija Board or talking board could be helpful, so I posed our question to the board. The Ouija Board responded by spelling out something that was a lot like “Tough Love”. I take this message to mean the we should disenroll the students because it would be the best way to show them that we care.

10. Frankly, I’m having trouble making sense of what any of you is saying. I think it’s all just

different ways of guessing. How in the world can we know how an individual student will react to a disenrollment letter or to being allowed to stay? Anger, relief, challenge, depression, fear, inspiration…these are just some of a million possible reactions. Every single student will decide how she or he is going to make sense of whatever we decide, so let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that we know what will be best for the students. If that’s really our goal, we ought to just let each student decide for themselves if they want to go or stay.

Assignment on 3-09