Glossary of Key Concepts for Cowell College 1A, Summer 2021

“Active Listening”: Giving the entirety of your attention to a speaker and endeavoring to
understand them in their own terms non-judgmentally. One test to see if you have been actively
listening is to paraphrase what you believe someone has just said. If your interlocutor agrees with
your characterization, then good, if not, then you will need to try again. Active listening to a
partner may also involve paying attention to non-verbal communications (body language), tone,
setting, or emphasis on particular words or sounds. Class discussions are a great place to further
develop your active listening skills.

“Analysis”: The word’s etymology is useful: ana is a Greek prefix meaning “up, back,
throughout,” while lysis means to unfasten. Analysis is reducing something complex into its
basic elements. For example, one analyzes a painting by beginning with a description of its
composition, color palette, brushwork, style, and subject. Thinking about how these various
elements are organized, can help you understand how the painting works visually and what it
might mean.

“Critical Thinking”: We all think we know what this means, right? But, let’s again turn to
etymology for some guidance. The word ‘critical’ and the word ‘crisis’ share a common root, but
first, ‘critical’ derives from Ancient Greek kritikós meaning “of or for judging, able to discern.”
Critical thinking is learning to think with considered judgment, which takes time and effort. It is
not so much a single skill in itself as a variety of skills ranging from attentive reading to problem
solving to analysis to careful observation, to name a few. In times of crisis, critical thinking is
invaluable. A crisis is a moment of decision. Ancient Greek krisis is the root of English ‘crisis’,
and both kritikós and krisis derive from the verb krino, “to decide, choose, or distinguish.” The
word ‘crisis’ enters the English language in 1543, as a medical term denoting a decisive change
in condition, leading to either recovery or death. Critical thinking is preparation for decision
making at times when the stakes are high with serious consequences for the future.

“Engagement with Others Across Difference”: Learning with others from different
backgrounds or who have different points of view. Understanding that difference of perspective
is an asset, as you will discover when you read Nick Sousanis’s Unflattening.

“Imposter Syndrome”: Feeling as if one is a fraud or that one does not fully belong on campus.
Feeling as if others know more and more capable than you are, which can lead to self-isolation,
reluctance to make friends on campus, hesitance to get support, and to not taking advantage of
professors’ or TAs office hours . Imposter syndrome undermines self-efficacy and the earlier and
more consciously addressed, the better. We will discuss imposter syndrome in student hours on
Tuesday, August 3rd and Friday, August 6th.

“Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle”: The widely influential Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle
describes steps in an experience-based learning process. It was developed by David Kolb and
helps students visualize where they are in their learning process. The cycle isn’t a one and done
circuit; it be repeated as you investigate further, reconsider ideas, and revise your writing. I offer
two versions below; one is taken from Kolb’s personal website and the other is a version I
developed for writing classes and Cowell Core. The first image depicts Kolb’s original cycle, the
second is my altered version. We will discuss the Kolb Learning Cycle during student hours on
Tuesday, July 20th and Wednesday, July 21st.
“Metacognition”: We can learn from the word’s etymology. Meta comes from Greek meaning
‘after’. Has been expanded to mean ‘about’, e.g. metadata is data about data. ‘Cognition’ derives
from the Latin prefix com meaning together and gnoscere’, to know. Metacognition is knowing
how you know something, which can help you to become more aware of your strengths and
weaknesses as a student. Importantly, metacognition is not knowing that you know something
but is being aware of your own learning process. Cowell College 1A, keeping a reading journal,
class discussions, and conversations with your professor can help you develop your
metacognitive skills. Metacognition is a form of practical reflexivity (see below).

“Peer Review”: Peer review of a fellow classmate’s work involves an approach similar to that of
active listening as far as your attention to their work goes, but differs in that in addition to being
able to recapitulate your classmate’s argument, you offer substantial questions about their work,
moving beyond a summary assessment that renders a quick judgment—“I like it”—to formative
assessments that help your classmate identify leaps in logic, the need for clarification of a key
idea, or places where their argument might benefit from engaging with other class texts or class
discussion. See the handout on summary and formative assessments on the pages for Part II, step
1 and Part III, step 1.

“Practical Reflexivity”: Questioning one’s beliefs and assumptions and examining how they
affect one’s everyday relationships with others. Matthew Eriksen gives an expansive definition
when he writes,

Practical reflexivity is a form of existential questioning. It is a questioning of one’s self

and can take place in the moment of action or retrospectively. Practical reflexivity allows
us “to understand ourselves, our ways of relating to others, and how to participate in our
social world” (Cunliffe & Easterby-Smith, 2004, pp. 35-36). It allows one to choose who
to be, how to act and speak. Through the questioning of one’s beliefs and assumptions,
one is challenged to consciously take into account how these beliefs and assumptions
affect how one relates with others in one’s day-to-day life (Cunliffe & Easterby-Smith,
2004). Practical reflexivity creates self-awareness. (748)

“Self-Authorship”: Taking responsibility for one’s intellectual, personal, and practical

autonomy by becoming aware of one’s motivations, principles, ambitions, and values . Baxter
Magolda defines self-authorship as “the internal capacity to determine [one’s] beliefs, identities,
and social relations (26). Baxter Magolda contrasts self-authorship based on one’s personal
principles and self-understanding with conforming oneself to external pressures, such as parents’
expectations, peer pressure, or comparison with others. We will discuss self-authorship, along
with academic integrity and building productive study habits on Tuesday, July 27th and
Thursday, July 29th.

“Self-Awareness”: “Self-awareness is having conscious knowledge about one’s self, about one’s
beliefs, assumptions, organizing principles, and structure of feelings and their consequences on
one’s day-to-day lived experience” (Eriksen 748-9).

“Self-Compassion”: Self-compassion is a process of learning to support and accept oneself.

Learning to be less judgmental about your academic performance, especially when you do not
achieve the results you had wanted and worked hard for. “Self-compassion entails three main
components: (a) self-kindness—being kind and understanding toward oneself in instance of pain
or failure rather than being harshly self-critical, (b) common humanity-perceiving one’s
experiences as part of the larger human experience rather than seeing them as separating and
isolating, and (c) mindfulness—holding painful thoughts and feelings in balanced awareness
rather than over-identifying with them.” (Neff 85).

“Self-Efficacy”: Stanford psychologist Albert Bandura developed the idea of self-efficacy in

work from the 1970s in an effort to understand group learning, and the idea has since gained
wide usage. The Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences defines it as:

The belief in one’s own competences to perform a behavior in spite of barriers,

e.g., “I am capable of adhering to my exercise schedule in spite of the temptation
to watch TV” (from Schwarzer et al. 2011, p. 163). Some definitions also mention
that self-efficacy reflects having an influence over events that affect one’s life.

Having confidence in your plans, preparations, adaptability, determination, and resilience so that
you believe that you are capable of achieving your goals is another way to think about it.
Bandura claims that being successful through what he calls “mastery experiences” leads to
greater self-efficacy. It is important to develop study habits that help you create the conditions
for such success, which we will discuss on Tuesday, July 27th and Thursday, July 29th.

“Self-Narration”: Telling a story about yourself in your own, not someone else’s, terms. Nick
Sousanis argues in Unflattening that people find meaning in creating stories about themselves
(xx), and in Louise Erdrich’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Night Watchman, we will discover how
powerful and consequential stories are. When you create your own story about your life, values,
ambitions, culture, pleasures, or sorrows in your own terms, you create self-awareness. Not all
stories have an epic sweep, but they are all ways of representing yourself to others. You might
think of self-narration as the practical aspect of the idea of self-authorship.

“Self-Regulation”: The capacity to establish goals, to develop effective strategies, to create

benchmarks for one’s progress, and to be resilient and adaptive if one’s situation changes.
Meredith Terry and Mark Leary offer an intuitive basic definition of self-regulation.

Most models of self-regulation agree that, in its most simple form, self-regulation
involves setting a goal, engaging in goal-directed behavior, monitoring progress toward
the goal, and adjusting one’s behavior when sufficient progress towards the goal is not
being made (Baumeister & Heatherton, 1996; Cameron & Leventhal, 2003; Carver &
Sheier, 1981). (352)

You might think of self-efficacy as the belief that you are capable of self-regulation.

“Reflective Dialogue”: Examining values, beliefs, and assumptions in supportive, candid

conversations with others, in other words, practical reflexivity with others. Discussing ideas
about justice in Unflattening, The Night Watchman, or the Oresteia in class can produce
reflective dialogue if you have given time to thinking about the material, are ready to join the
class conversation (even if it’s outside of your comfort zone), don’t leap to conclusions, and are
ready to listen actively to others. Reflective dialogue is not limited to the classroom and it can
happen anywhere from the East Field House to the dining hall to dorms or walking around the
Pacific Garden Mall.

Works Cited
(Find them on the Canvas page for Tuesday, August 6th or through the links provided)

Bandura, A. “Self-Efficacy.” Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, edited by V. S. Ramachaudran,

vol. 4, Academic Press, 1994, pp. 71-81.
https://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Bandura/BanEncy.html Accessed 28 May 2021.
Baxter Magolda, Marcia B. ”Self-Authorship” New Directions for Higher Education, no. 166,
Summer 2014, pp. 25-33.
Eriksen, Matthew. “Authentic Leadership: Practical Reflexivity, Self-Awareness, and Self-
Authorship.” Journal of Management Education, vol. 33, no. 6, December 2009, pp. 747-
771.
Neff, Kristin. “Self-Compassion: An Alternative Conceptualization of a Healthy Attitude
Toward Oneself.” Self and Identity, vol. 2, no. 2, 2003, pp. 85-101.
Terada, Youki. “How Metacognition Boosts Learning.” Edutopia, 2017,
www.edutopia.org/article/how-metacognition-boosts-learning. Accessed 5 May 2021.
Terry, Meredith L. and Mark R. Leavy. “Self-Compassion, Self-Regulation, and Health.” Self
and Identity, vol 10, no. 3, 2011, 353-362.