week 5 EDU500 Discusion Question

Chapter 8

Summary

Embodied, spiritual, and narrative learning all have in common meaning-making that is embodied, constructed, and interpreted. These are not modes of learning that adhere to a way of thinking that elevates reason, logic, and theory over the body, the spirit, or the “story” of our experience.

Embodied or somatic knowing is knowing through the body. It is directly related to our physical being, our senses, and the experiences of the body. Examples of embodied learning were presented and discussed; these examples reflect  Amann's (2003)  model of somatic knowing, which consists of the four overlapping dimensions of kinesthetic, sensory, affective, and spiritual. This section of the chapter concluded with a review of three conceptualizations of embodied learning: embodied cognition, ontological performance, and a somatic epistemology for education.

In the second section of the chapter on spirituality and learning, we first grappled with defining spirituality as something different from but perhaps related to religion. Most of the authors we reviewed link spirituality to meaning-making in our lives, and on that basis it is an appropriate topic for exploration in adult learning. A number of instructional techniques were reviewed that foster spirituality in adult learning, including self-examination by the instructor of her or his views and assumptions, creating a safe space for this kind of learning to occur, mentoring learners, and engaging in creative and imaginative instructional activities.

The final section of the chapter dealt with narrative learning. Narrative learning is the use of stories in the construction of meaning, whether the meaning-making has to do with the self, with the content of instruction, or with the world around us. Using Rossiter and Clark's (in press) model, three uses of narrative in practice were reviewed: narrative as storying the curriculum, narrative as storytelling, and narrative as autobiography. A final section focused on a narrative perspective of adult development and transformational learning.