This is The Reading Instruction Show and your
host, as always, Dr. Andy Johnson. Topic of today's
podcast is called Belief Systems. Now each of
us has a vast network of belief systems that
act as a sort of template to help us interpret
and organize new information and experiences.
Included in this belief system is what we think
is true in regards to the nature. of reality.
And as we encounter new data, we use this network
to interpret, analyze, and organize this data.
Now our belief systems also act as filters to
eliminate data that does not correlate with our
constructs. In this sense, our belief systems,
our beliefs, can limit our perceptions, and keep
us trapped in our current ways of thinking. This
podcast describes three different levels of belief
systems, each successively harder to access and
more resistant to change. Level one is knowledge.
Level one contains our knowledge constructs.
These are that which is addressed in traditional
education. Change here occurs through assimilation
and accommodation and is relatively easy and
data -friendly. Assimilation occurs when current
schemata or mental constructs are used to interpret
and process new data or experiences. When these
constructs are found to be inadequate, accommodation
is used to revise or rebuild new ones. At this
level, there is little resistance to new data
as long as they support level 2 beliefs. Let's
look at level 2 belief systems, personal and
cultural paradigms. Included here might be our
philosophical views. our cultural and religious
views, and our deeper assumptions about the purposes
of individuals, institutions, and society. All
of these are used to help us interpret the world
we experience and to prioritize our resources.
Now, we don't address these beliefs directly
in our educational system. However, they are
clearly expressed in the kinds of things that
are valued, the allocation of resources, curriculums
and the type of information that's presented
to students, the type of data that are measured
and reported in what we call assessment, the
accomplishments that are rewarded, the hierarchical
structures and the amount of empowerment given
to teachers and students, and educational models
and philosophies. Now change at this level is
resisted. However, when it takes place, it begins
with a state of dyssynchrony. This is a perceived
difference between the ideal and real states.
Here one receives new data in the form of experiences
or insights only to discover that these data
do not correspond with existing personal and
cultural paradigms. To continue to receive this
data while maintaining old structures creates
disequilibrium, an internal disorder or cognitive
dissonance. For growth of any kind, there must
be disintegration of the old belief systems so
that the new ones can be built to accommodate
the new data. The time between structures is
the time of disequilibrium, often resulting in
anxiety or depression. This resembles Dabrowski's
theory of positive disintegration. which states
that advanced development of any kind requires
a breakdown or a disintegration of existing psychological
structures in order to form higher, more evolved
structures. Level 3 is our metaphysical paradigms.
This is our basic paradynamic structures related
to the nature of reality or our metaphysical
perspective. These include our fundamental assumptions
about both the phenomenal reality of space, time,
and matter, as well as the trans -phenomenal
or the transcendental reality. described by mystics
and shamans, prophets, poets, and quantum physicists.
Contained here also are our most essential religious
or spiritual beliefs. One's metaphysical perspective
greatly impacts the type of data that's perceived
and processed, and it's extremely resistant to
change. When change does occur at this level,
it brings about a whole new way of seeing or
visioning the world. In many cultural traditions,
people engage in a vision quest in order to have
such a change. If successful, the quest causes
them to re -vise or re -vision their world, to
see again, re -vision. Now, this revision seldom
happens instantaneously. Instead, it's a process
that occurs after a series of successive stages,
which include preparation, incubation, insight,
and verification. And these are also the steps
described in the Wallace model of creativity,
a process similar to that of enlightenment. This
movement from one perceived reality to another
is similar to the shamanic death experience.
A shaman is one who is able to transcend the
human condition and move freely between dimensions,
realities, or states of consciousness for the
purpose of bringing back wisdom, insight, or
healing. A shamanistic state is usually preceded
by a death experience in the form of great sickness,
trauma, or by an initiatory experience created
by tribal elders. These experiences serve to
break traditional perceptions of our reality
or our assumptions about reality and dissolve
the existing personality structures so that a
new one might be birthed. So are beliefs about
belief systems? We all like to think that we
are objective, rational beings who come to conclusions
based solely on data. However, as we move higher
in levels of belief systems and deeper at each
level, our beliefs become increasingly data -resistant.
And at these higher levels, our view of reality
is more apt to define what is relevant and determine
which data gets processed. Finally, the levels
of beliefs described here illustrate why what
follows may be difficult for many. In the next
podcast, I examine the deepest level three belief
systems related to the nature of reality, which
are most resistant to change. I would, however,
encourage an objective examination of these ideas
with the goal of expanding what you might consider
to be possibilities. In order to see things as
they really are, one must be free of subjective
perceptions. This reflects the Buddhist idea
of the empty cup, where one perceives reality
apart from preconceived ideas, emotions, experiences,
and expectations in order to separate what is
from one's ego state. This has been The Reading
Instruction Show. I'm your host, Dr. Andy Johnson.