[The Art of Choosing]
By Danielle Hall
In The Art of Choosing, Sheena Iyengar's discussion of automatic
and reflective choosing, heuristics, and self control (or our lack
thereof) is fascinating. She addresses the idea about the importance of
learning to understand how our acts of choosing derive "context" or
"emotion" (pp. 111-19).
Iyengar also highlights the use of intuition, sometimes what we call our
hunch or gut feeling, but even that must be developed. She brings up
Malcolm Gladwell's "10,000 hours"
of practice to achieve expertise in an area, but suggests that
practice alone is not enough. Here, she states that it also takes both
practice and self-critique to have an "informed intuition," which
involves sorting through our reflective and heuristic modes of thinking
(p. 129).
What can we--as a university community--do to ensure that we are
fostering informed intuition among students? Or, how do we develop a
space that encourages more appreciation for the diversity of contexts
that inform people's different choices here?
7 comments:
Personally, I do not think that there is anything that the university can do to encourage diversity within learning or within the institution itself. With the Student Success Center, tutoring opportunities, and professors engaging with the students, diversity withing learning at SIUe is far from a problem. It is also far from something that needs to be improved upon.
Diversity is one reason as to why I chose this school. Not just speaking upon different ethnic backgrounds that attend the school, but the different ways that professors teach their students and the different options we have as students to receive help for academic purposes.
So all in all, in my opinion, this institution does not need suggestions to improve on its diversity.
I believe that SIUE already has the things necessary to encourage diversity within the institution. I think the university already does a pretty good job with making sure these needs are met. There are many opportunities for people to develop their informed intuition as well as challenge their intuitions as well.
I think it's more a matter of people being unsure of how to really go about taking advantage of these opportunities.
In order to promote informed intuition among students I think it's essential for students with similar interests to have tighter links. In doing so they can get together and perfect their craft that they are studying. This will give them the opportunity to get practice that relates to their area of expertise. This will allow them to see multiple views of the subject and in doing so will increase their informed intuition. By collaborating with other students with similar interest it will allow them to react and be able to process information quicker pertaining to the subject through practice.
As a university community, I'd have to say that the necessary steps are being taken to ensure and encourage diversity on campus. It's not hard to become involved and there are always different groups promoting different activities.
Even thinking about just ethic backgrounds, a person is sure to see many differences floating around the SIUe campus. I can say that I experienced a bit of culture shock my first few weeks of classes. Thinking further about diversity, this campus has an amazingly diverse group of individuals. It's not just with ethnic backgrounds, but also with different ways of thinking and the majors that people choose. There are professors that teach the same course but each professor teaches it differently. I personally do not feel restricted on campus. I'd just say keep up the good work being such an accepting community.
Last week I might have said that this appreciation could be fostered by introducing more seminars on diversity or showcasing different cultures, but after seeing African Week and now witnessing Indian Week, I feel that SIUe is already developing a space that encourages appreciation for diversity.
As far as seminars, I think they should be more available because I know that there are quite a few speakers who come to SIUe, but I also know that there isn't a lot of diversity in the times that these speakers visit.
I believe that SIUe is already a diverse school. The university offers many different clubs and organizations of many different backgrounds for students to join. SIUe is also very diverse in its different areas of study as well. The school offers many different programs and majors that students can choose from. I don't think that diversity is an area where SIUe needs an improvement.
For the comment about the seminars, I believe that there should be more advertising done about them. I know that I have personally missed out on some because I simply did not know of them.
There are already many posters and flyers informing students of options on campus. The school website is also very informative of the choices that can be made on campus. The only thing that I can think to do that would help students stay informed of the different options on campus is to have upperclassmen and graduates of the school tell accounts of the options and choices that were afforded to them, how they became aware of those options, and how it helped them get on the path the are currently on. These accounts could probably be put on the school website.
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