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A PROFESSOR AT MESA COLLEGE in San Diego,
Jim Wales, has been using Principles For Personal Growth as one of
the textbooks for his class (Personal Growth 140: Life Skills
& Personal Adjustment) for the last three years, and he's
come up with a process to help his students use and apply the
principles (rather than merely reading and understanding them).
He calls the process ARENA, which he refers to as "a method
of meta-cognition — or — learning from what you learn."
He uses it as the structure in many of the Discussion Boards
in the course.
Once you have decided on a principle and
acted on it by putting it into practice in your life, you can
use the fol-lowing process — Act, Respond, Evaluate, Notice,
Apply (ARENA) — to deepen its impact on your life. It will
help make the principle really make a difference.
1. Act — describe what occurred
when you acted on the principle — when you took action.
Examples of questions you can ask are:
What did you notice?
What occurred?
What was accomplished?
What happened?
2. Respond — share your reactions,
discuss the importance to you. Examples of questions you can
ask are:
What did you learn?
What new insights did you gain?
How did you react?
Was it hard or easy?
3. Evaluate the experience. Examples
of questions you can ask are:
What changed as a result?
What helped?
4. Notice your body sensations.
Examples of questions you can ask are:
What did you feel?
Were your neck muscles relaxed or tense?
How about your stomach? Other?
5. Apply the experience for future
consideration. Examples of questions you can ask are:
What are the next steps?
What are helpful recommendations?
How will you use this knowledge?
It's best to do this process in writing,
and I'd love to post what you've written online. Share your experiences
with others here: Sharing the ARENA Process. |
