From Inattention to Attentiveness: Learning to Listen When Nature Speaks
摘要
In this text, I explore the role of audial attention as lived-bodily modes of experience in learning science and bonding with nature. The phenomenon of attentiveness towards nature poses three questions that relate to each other. First, the ontological question concerning how nature expresses itself; second, the aesthetic question concerning the character of attentive listening; and third, the question of how science education deals with the increasing problem of inattention. The central thesis I discuss is that attentive listening can potentially strengthen students’ aesthetic experience and nature bonding, as well as their learning and understanding of science. To acknowledge nature is the foundation for gaining knowledge about nature. I conclude by pointing at three aspects of science teachers’ phenomenologically pedagogical attitude: to foster the ability to pay attention to the phenomena as they appear, unfold, and speak of themselves; to practice pedagogical pointing as a balance between actively demanding the students’ attention and receptively giving them time and space to attend to nature; and to deal with the problem of students’ shrinking attention span.