The Concept of a World View - Essay Example

Using the concept of a world view, identify some of the beliefs and attitudes, particularly to education and learning that you bring to your learning now. Reflect critically on how your worldview has been shaped by factors such as your gender, age or community. Each person has a unique way of looking at the world which is shaped by their perceptions, beliefs and attitudes. Similarly, as an individual it’s safe to say that I also look at the world with my own unique perspective which has been formed by a number of different factors for example my Lebanese heritage, combined with the life I’ve lived in Australia has shown me two vastly different cultures, each with their own colours and stigmas. I’ve lived in two worlds and learned how to survive in both of them. In essence, my perspective that I’ve shaped in these two worlds is my world view; this not only defines how I see the world but also defines how I will react to it. Speaking specifically of education and learning, I can once again safely say that I have a very diverse understanding and this is simply because, although the most significant years of my life were spent in Lebanon, I am Australian born and I did choose to continue my education here once I came back. So, even when it comes to education and learning, I have two very varied perspectives. My world view has touched every part of my life, especially my perspective on education and learning. In order to understand how the world view affects us we must first understand what the term signifies; Hobson puts it best when she says, “… a set of beliefs that we hold and through which we organise our understanding of ourselves and our understanding of others.” (Hobson, p. 2). Try thinking of it this way: throughout our lives we collect values and experiences and place them in a box. At a later point when we come across an obstacle, event or any situation as such, we open that box and relate our past perceptions to the new situation. How we deal with the situation is directly related to how our world view has been previously shaped. It can be further described as a kind of “overreaching philosophy” that is used to construct social worlds. There is no deliberate attempt on anyone’s part to create a world view of their own liking. This is something they unconsciously learn throughout their lives (Samovar & Porter, p.103). Education and learning is thus no different; our view of this is also intertwined with world view. A person’s emotions, cultural affinity, beliefs, locality etcetera, all affect learning in some way or the other. A guide to learning independently further addresses this aspect when it talks about the concept of the self and in particular the physical and emotional self, the cultural and social self, and one’s surroundings and their correlation to the learning process (Marshall & Rowland, p.2). Lack of physical activity mostly slows me down and that in turn makes it harder to study or concentrate, not many people can stick to their books if they’re feeling sluggish; the same goes for my emotional state. If I have a huge fight with a close friend and need to study for a test, I will not be able to do so because my thought will stay stuck to the fight. The anger and regret will spill onto the pages of the textbook that I am reading and I doubt that I’ll find it in myself to continue studying. Education and learning is also heavily influenced by cultural and the social patterns a person has been following all his/her life, and the same is true for me. My Lebanese heritage is attached to every part of my life. No matter what I do or where I go I take that part of myself with me. Culture has had a lot to do with shaping my world view because it gave me a definitive set of values and fundamentals that I could associate myself with. This is true for both the Lebanese and the Australian culture. Coming into the Australian education was an altogether different kind of experience for me. Lebanon has had its fare share of problems but it has one of the best school systems in the entire Middle Eastern world, so much so that people actually send their children to Lebanon because of it. However, that being said, their system is a very rigid and obsolete one. Education for me, in those years, was merely an obligation. The teachers teach regardless of the individual potential of the students and the students in turn stay oblivious to their potential as well. My time in Australia was different because after a very long time I was asked to put forth my understanding of a subject and not a textbook answer. Along with this, religion and conflict are deep rooted in Lebanese schools, which is why I also began associating education with these two things, although now I’m learning that they have nothing to do with education as such. It was because the culture allowed it and it was so accepted that I was able to create a bridge between learning math and fighting in the civil war. With the lack of an ongoing civil war in Australia, all I could do was dive into my subjects. I was often tired and found education to be tedious because of the fact that Lebanese education had a close proximity and perpetual association with theory; practical work is almost nonexistent in their curriculum. I was lucky enough to be able to study in Australia which instilled pratical elements in my apporch as well. Before coming to Australia however, education was merely an exercise which I had to undertake in order to put something down on my resume so that I would appear qualified to the world. It wasn’t until I experienced a different education system that I realised that education and learning can be an extremely nurturing experience and it can verily help a person grow. My world view therefore has shifted from its original point. In summation I would once again like to state that a person’s world view is the lens through which he looks at his own life and the plethora of situations he is thrown into. My world view is based on a number of facts, my experiences, my values, my perceptions are all derived from the life I have so far. They have moulded the world as I see it. And they have also affected the way I view education and learning. My world view has evolved over the years and will continue to do so as time moves forward. Work Cited Hobson, Julia. Concepts of the Self: Different ways of knowing about the self. Author Marshall, Lorraine A. Title A guide to learning independently / Lorraine Marshall and Frances Rowland. Published Frenchs Forest, N.S.W. : Pearson Education, 2006 Read More