the reflective student

Joyce Arnold welcomes comments to her thoughts.
The article regarding Donald Schon
donald schon (schön): learning, reflection and change© Mark K. SmithFirst published July 2001. Last update: February 11, 2005m http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-schon.htm

Donald Schon saw change as fundamental.

I imagine that evolution is part of the equation of continual change. The pace of change is variable and some changes are so fast they are called revolution ( (r ) evolution).Alvin Toffler talked about the acceleration of change causing a crisis, existential anxiety, particularly of the knowledge revolution.

So much knowledge, infromation, the question is how do we make sense of it all? We might need to be somewhat critical and not accept all of it as trusims. We could also see many ideas as fads or fashion. Of the many ideas that are starters inthe race, only a few will go the course.Picking the winners is more a gambling man's domain.

So reflective practice, the ability to think is important to negotiate the information highway.

I like to think of life from the three main scientific paradigms

Linear thinking is unidirectional,logical and at times hierachical

Quantum reasoning, shows stepwise accumulation of knowldge and is an hierachical process. Often the 'aha' moment indicates a quantum leap of knowledge

Chaos theory is akin to post-modern concepts of thought. In amongst the chaos there are fractals of organisation, 'truths'.

These three models all co-exist and any one model may be an appropriate methodology for reflection .

The post-modern reflective practice is more in keeping with an existential approach. It reveres the individual within society and follows their life history. making meaning for that life. This contrast sharply with the deontological approach that specifies the Truth.

I see a paralell with the work of Bion in the leaderless groups as society moves away from 'authority' (Bion, working with groups ). Using Freud's analysis in Civilisations and its Discontents ,the immature projection of the father figure and the oedipal anxiety created a society that was authority bound Power became the greatest exchange agent. This resulted in war and conflict. The current democratic proess challenges the rights of authoprity and at one level can be seen as the maturation of society. I can't help thinking however of Plato . In The Republic, he reviews political processes and the cycle of political systems. Democracy, rule by the lowest common denominator was posted as the worst possible scenario , just before complete chaos.

Final thought- the baddie at the moment is the rational positivist scientist who is technical and lacks empathy. Unfortunately the warm fuzzies of anything goes philosophy is mostly just wrong. The human race may revert to lemming like behaviour abandoning all logic.

Joyce Arnold