Introduction

INTRODUCTION:
Name: RaeAnne Smith
Age: 17
Nationality: American
Hometown: Seattle, Washington
Years in Thailand: 6
Attending: Hopefully UW

WoK
There are four ways of knowing - perception, emotion, reason and language. In this PowerPoint,
I'm going to focus on the two ways of knowing of emotion and reason.

Interviewer: What experience have you chosen?

The experience that I have chosen to talk about is my global citizenship, or week without walls
trip to Africa in 9th grade.

Interviewer: What did you do on this trip?

During this trip, we went to Zambia and Botswana. In Zambia we stayed in Chalets and did
many fun activities such as white water rafting and a cliff jumping activity. We also sent one day
doing community service helping build a local school. We also spent a few days in Botswana,
where we camped out in tents in the African bush. Every morning we woke up just before
sunrise to take a safari. We did this again in the afternoon and the evening. We saw a huge
variety of the African wildlife such as elephants, monkeys, baboons, giraffes, crocodiles and
many more. Unfortunately we didn’t see any lions, though we did see their tracks. On our last
day, we went to Victoria Falls, which was also incredible.

Interviewer: Why did you choose this as your example?

I chose this as my example because GCW Africa was by far my favorite trip I have taken for
GCW, surpassing even Prague in my sophomore year.

Interviewer: What ways of knowing does this experience relate to?

Emotion and Reason.

Interviewer: How does your experience relate to these ways of knowing?

While in Zambia, we spent a day doing fun activities that included jumping off of a cliff (with a
harness), and gliding on a zip line across a canyon. Emotion ties into this because my emotions
before I was about to jump off of this cliff were filled with fear. I was nervous and
uncomfortable for the entire hour wait before I went. Most of the group went before me, and
seeing their fear as well and hearing them scream as they jumped off affected my emotions,
making me more scared. When the time came for me to jump off, I was paralyzed with fear and

stood at the edge of the cliff for a good 5 minutes before. Finally, I jumped off and the entire fall
was a blur. Once I got down, I felt relief and a sense of accomplishment for having done
something that terrified me.
The WoK, emotion, strongly influenced my attitude towards jumping off of the cliff. Since I was
so afraid of doing it, I felt negatively towards the idea of doing it and had negative thoughts
before jumping and further enhancing my fear.

Interviewer: What specific concepts or theories from emotion does this experience relate to?

I think that it relates to the James-Lange theory which says that emotions are essentially physical,
and that bodily changes come before and cause emotions. I think that because I was aware of the
fact that there was nothing to be afraid of, but yet I still felt scared, supports James Lange's
theory because the physical change is occurring first. If it had been the other way around,
rationalizing my fear would have been much easier and perhaps I would not have been afraid at
all.

Interviewer: How does this experience relate to reason?

Although I was fully aware that during this, I would be securely harnessed and that there was
almost no chance of anything going wrong. To further enhance my knowledge that nothing
would go wrong, many people in my GCW group went before me and I could clearly see them at
the bottom, landing perfectly intact and filled with so much excitement in having done it.
Although I was fully aware that I would be completely fine and there should not be anything to
fear, my emotions interfered with my ability to reason and thus making me scared to jump.

Interviewer: What does this say about you personally as a student?

I think this experience says that in times of high emotional state, my ability to reason is
hindered. This is evident when I have a lot of homework or tests on the same day because I don’t
rationalize well and so I procrastinate and then cause myself to become more stressed. But at the
same time, my high emotion level motivates me to do my work and not stop until its finished.
This can sometimes be negative though because I stay up all night working and find myself
falling asleep in classes the next day.

Interviewer: In reflecting on the example, what impact does what you have studied in
class have on your learning experiences?

After studying these areas of knowing (emotion and reason) I am now much more aware of my
emotion and reason and how emotion can sometimes (often) hinder my ability to reason.

Interviewer: What do you know about yourself as a student that will change how you
approach learning in the future?

Now that I'm fully aware of emotion and reason and their effects and especially of the effects of
emotion on the ability to reason, I will use this knowledge to my advantage and rationalize better
in times of stress. For example, if I have a huge test the next morning and I am so stressed that I

want to stay up all night to study, I will be aware of the fact that my high-stress state is hindering
my ability to reason. Thus, I will be able to make better decisions, such as sleeping early rather
than pulling an all-nighter and help myself academically.

Introduction

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