Situated cognition

Discovery is a transformative journey that can lead to renewed perceptions of ourselves and others and new understandings, as well as how one fits into the structured order of society. ‘The Tempest’ by William Shakespeare and ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak illustrate imaginative journeys leading to the restoration of order through new worlds and renewed perspectives. ‘The Tempest’ depicts a literal new world, causing the re-evaluation of values and morals, while ‘Where the Wild…

The brain and nervous system are not topics widely covered at A Level, so I am extremely curious about concepts such as movement, perception and memory and would be interested in studying the fascinating complexity of the brain, a structure controlling important human and animal functions such as memory, thought, emotion and the senses. Research into the central nervous system, it seems, is limitless. The brain, despite being so directly relevant to us, is only recently being understood and…

Martyn’s entrance turned heads when he walked into the crowded restaurant. It was only for a furtive glance though. The diners quickly returned their attention back to the plates in front of them. As if they were not interested. Yet a shift in the atmosphere was marked by the stillness descending on the room. The conversation had stopped. Many of the diners looked as though they were shrinking like turtles into their jackets and chairs. Hoping they would not be singled out for a glance from the…

Hello, I’m Joseph Kim in EDCI246 - Good Stories: Teaching Narratives for Peace and Justice. Throughout this course, I’ve developed and refined a question that originally popped in my head in the second week of this course when I compared Lazy Jack and Epaminondas. My Big Question is: Sometimes we have misconceptions in our initial impressions and -- because of our stubbornness -- refuse to correct them. How does an event such as this affect ourselves and those around us? We see several…

Iconography: Iconography is the practice of perceiving a visual work for more than what it is plainly seen as. Through different lenses a viewer can assume more deeper meanings about the artwork. These assumptions can be related to many areas such as: time period, how it relates to literature, social classes, culture, values, and the relationship between the artist and his/her subject. An example of how we learned, as a class, to use iconography was with our observation of Jan Van Eyck’s…

Discourse Analysis A discourse analysis is the term used for a number of approaches to analyze written, vocal, or sign language use. For this paper I decided to analyze a conversation that was between my sister, Sarah, and her boyfriend, Evan. I made this decision because I thought it would be interesting to hear how they would talk about things, work out problems, or just chat. They are recently new parents to my two month old niece, Mariah. I think age, gender, race, sexual orientation,…

It is assumed that as adults, we retain vast understanding of the physical world, yet our knowledge of infants’ perception of the world is ambiguous. In the first year of life new-borns’ observe numerous events, however, do they and if yes, how do they make sense of their world? Until 1980s, it was habitually accepted that infants have little awareness of outward things, partly due to Piaget’s 1952, 1954 denial of existence of inborn knowledge based on the analysis of the results in…

“The real voyage of discovery consists in not seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust. Consider the quotation above and consider how perceptions of discovery vary according to personal, cultural and social contexts and values. Discovery is a part of human condition; its inevitability is inescapable and is at the core of any personal growth. However, just as most things are a product of their context, any realisation is highly dependent on the personal, social and cultural…

Recognize the Numerator of Self-Worth Recognition is a powerful tool in both business and life. Recognition is the fuel of our self-worth and many of us crave it above all else. At some level, we all want recognition. In fact, when we do something to receive recognition and none is forthcoming, we feel hurt. At this point, we are on a cross road and can respond in one of two basic ways. First, we can increase our efforts in the hopes to break the recognition threshold in others. Second, we can…

I was really nervous and didn’t know what it was going to be like. All I knew was that I was probably not going to go home for several hours. My mom told me that it was my first day of school and that there was nothing to worry about. My mom took me to the car and took me to school. The car drive seemed to take forever but finally I got to where I was going. I didn’t know what was going to happen next and I didn’t know that today was going to be a crazy day. I got out of the car and felt the…