The student took two biology courses at Brown University for a total of 5 weeks. Emotion positively related to their experience by providing motivation to learn about subjects they found interesting, like biology. However, emotion also negatively impacted their learning by causing them to quickly switch out of literature and psychology courses they disliked due to strong beliefs. Their emotions often trumped their reasoning abilities. This experience revealed emotions are more involved in their learning than reason, and they need to achieve better balance between emotion and reason when approaching future learning.

1. Mint A.
Script for WOK Project
1. What are the ways of knowing?
The ways of knowing are Perception, Language, Emotion and Reason. We have been
studying in our Senior Seminar class how these four ways of knowing can help or hinder our
understanding of the world around us.
2. What experience did you choose to relate to the ways of knowing?
The summer I spent at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
3. What courses did you take at Brown? How long did you stay?
I took two biology courses. I took “Biomedical Sciences” for 3 weeks and “The Biological
Basis of Disease” for 2 weeks. I stayed at Brown for five weeks overall.
4. What ways of knowing are you going to relate to your experience?
Emotion and Reason.
5. How does emotion relate to your experience? What are the values and limitations of
this way of knowing?
I think that emotion is the most important way of knowing involved in my learning experience.
Emotions can be a help to knowledge: it can provide us with the emotional energy to pursue
knowledge. The James-Lange theory states that we can control our emotions by changing
our physical symptoms. Emotions can also be a hindrance to knowledge: emotion can affect
our perception reason and language.
6. Why does it relate to your experience?
This is because my emotions provided me with emotional energy to learn at Brown. When I
first began taking classes, I found that it was hard to find any point in actually paying attention
to the teacher and remembering what I learned because there would not be any tests and it
would not be possible to fail the class. However, I really enjoy biology and I am particularly
interested in human biology. And the course I was taking was about human biology and I was
soon very interested in what I was learning. My emotions provided me with the energy to
engage in intellectual activity. The class might seem boring to others, but for me it was really
interesting and I had the motivation to learn.
7. What theory specifically can you relate to this?
The James-Lange theory. According to the James-Lange theory, emotions are pysical in
nature and bodily changes cause emotional changes. Because I mimicked the appropriate
physical symptoms - I tried to act happy - I ended up generating the corresponding emotion
and I made myself feel happy.
8. Can you think of another instance during your experience that emotion was negatively
involved?
Yes. I had to switch out of 2 classes before taking my second biology class at Brown. I first
chose a course on contemporary literature and I took it for a day. I found that I did not like it
and switched into a psychology class. However, I found that I did not like that, either, and
finally found a biology class to take. I think emotion was involved in my decision-making and it
was an obstacle to my learning.

2. 9. How did emotion hinder your learning?
I found that I disliked contemporary literature and I felt that it was not real literature so I
refused to continue taking the class. I also felt that psychology was not an actual science. It is
a soft science but I refused to learn anything that was not hard science like biology.
10. Does reason relate to this?
Yes.
11. What are the values and limitations of reason?
Reason is an important way of knowing. However, people are not very good at abstract
reasoning and may make all sorts of errors. There are 3 main types of reasoning: inductive
reasoning, deductive reasoning and informal reasoning.
12. How does reason relate to this?
I think my reason was negatively affected by my emotions. When I took the contemporary
literature class, I did not want to learn because I had a strong belief that contemporary
literature was not actual literature. When I took the psychology class I did not feel that
psychology was the class for me, either. My emotions trumped my reasoning.
13. How did this hinder your learning?
My emotions prevented me from being open-minded.
14. How else does reason relate to this?
I think generalizations or inductive reasoning was also involved. I thought that because the
first day of contemporary literature was boring, the other days would also boring. I made the
same generalization for the psychology class, too. I generalized that all contemporary
literature is dull and all psychology classes are uninteresting.
15. What does the example say about you personally or as a student?
This experience shows that my emotions are more involved in my learning than reason. My
emotions give me energy and they motivate me to learn. If I do not like what I am learning or I
am not enjoying a class, I refuse to learn. I am unable to reason properly because I hold my
beliefs with too much passion.
However, this example also shows that when I am really interested in a subject, I have a lot of
motivation to learn about it.
16. In reflecting on your example, what impact does what you have studied in class have
on your learning experiences?
In reflecting on my example, I think what I have studied in class has an impact on my learning
experiences. It will change the way I am aware of the four ways of knowing and how they can
benefit or impede my learning.
17. What do you know about yourself as a student that will change how you approach
learning in the future?
I know that emotions are an important part of my learning. This will change how I approach
learning in the future because I will have to try to enjoy the subjects that I do not usually
enjoy. I should achieve a balance between emotion and reason when I approach learning in
the future.