Week 1 Reflection- Dewey and the Threshold Concepts in Writing Studies

There is absolutely no way writing can be that complicated was my initial response after reading the Threshold Concepts in Writing Studies. I thought writing was simply following some general format depending on the genre you were writing and using it to portray your thoughts. I soon found out though that it requires full use of the mind, both cognitive (metacognitive) and emotional. After pondering on this notion for a little while it seemed to make sense to me. You need to not only access knowledge in order to lead a logical discussion about a concept, but you also need to discern why you make certain “rhetorical choices” in order to better connect interdisciplinary concepts, make your writing appealing to your intended audience and be able to adjust to new writing styles. Ultimately reflection allows us to know what is appropriate for the specific occasion. I think of it as a connective bridge that allows us to incorporate all of our knowledge in different subject thus “allowing us to be active agents of change” and leading to us thinking through how to approach a style of writing we’ve never used before.

I love the analogy used in the article How we Think by John Dewey that compares reflection to a forked road. If we are traveling to an unfamiliar destination, without modern day GPS, and come to a forked road we hesitate for a moment unsure which way to go. From that moment onwards, we analyze the situation and try to access additional information on which way to travel. Once evidence points to one direction we follow that path and it leads us somewhere entirely new.

This makes the act of reflection very comparable to the scientific process. First, a question about how something works drives a researcher to set up a systematic approach to objectively observe the environment and generate theories about why something happens. From there further tests can be set up to support their theory and naturally more questions will come up. Thus, the scientific process, just like thought, is continuously building upon itself (self-perpetuating). They are both driven by curiosity, suggestion and the desire to create order. In my Biology class Cell Structure and Function we learned that homeostatic balance ultimately keeps us alive and when things come out of equilibrium that is when systems start to function poorly; ultimately cellular dysfunction causes death. It is only fitting that the desire to create order is one of the natural resources Dewey outlined as training thought, as complex thought is one of the defining characteristics of human life.

This led me to the insight that education is definitely more than the simple acquisition of facts. It is equally important to learn how things came to be and draw logical conclusions about the world we live in and determine our place within.

I also found the concept that habituated practice can lead to entrenchment very interesting. Thinking back to neurobiology, we are continuously making new and strengthening synapses which relay electrical (or chemical) signals from one neuron to another in order to communicate and carry out complex thought processes. If we were continuously using the same ones though, there is a trade-off that occurs. On one hand, we are making what we use most often second nature (essentially automatic) but we are also limiting our neuroplasticity and therefore locking ourselves into a specific way and limiting our adaptability.

I thought of how many scientific labs I’ve written over the past 4 years and I think that although I have strengthened my writing in this manner significantly I very likely could have been weakening my more creative and abstract writing skills. I feel like this reflection brought me to the realization that I am now only adequate in writing in a step-by-step procedural manner. Realization and acceptance is the first step to change. Thus, from now on out I will look for opportunities to write more abstractly, while using a high degree of metacognition in what I am doing so that I am able to continue utilization of this style in the future.