Introspection

The Illumination Metaphor frames knowledge and learning in terms of visibility and clarity. Perhaps most commonly encountered in phrases such as “I see” – meaning, “I understand” – the Illumination Metaphor tends to be coupled with either the Acquisition Metaphor’s version of knowledge (i.e., there’s an object to be seen) or the Nativism’s version of knowledge (i.e., there’s an inner truth to be pulled into the light).

Embodiment Discourses comprise perspectives on learning that refuse a separation of mental and physical. Mental and physical are understood as integrated and inseparable aspects of the body. Phrased differently, the body is not seen as something that a learner learns through, but as the learner. Correspondingly, behaviors are not seen as goals or indications of learning, but as integral elements of learning.

Reflective Practice refers to both one’s inclinations and abilities to reflect – that is, to critically review one’s actions, responses, interpretations, and motivations – as an integral aspect of one’s learning. Multiple descriptive and/or prescriptive models have been proposed, with varying levels of sophistication. Models typically involve sequences of describing, analyzing, planning, and implementing.

Literally meaning “beyond knowing,” Metacognition refers to “thinking about thinking” – that is, being critically aware of perceptions and interpretations as they happen. More pragmatically, Metacognition attends to abilities both to self-monitor and self-regulate, oriented by the conviction that such capabilities will enhance learning.

Phenomenology might be better construed as a discourse on “unlearning” than a discourse on “learning.” It begins with the assertion that the world one experiences is not the world as it is, but the world as one has learned to perceive it. It seeks to break with familiar acceptance of “how things are” and to interrogate what phenomena were like before we learned to perceive them.