Deep Learning in the Sociological Classroom: Understanding Craving and Understanding Self

INTRODUCTION Does emotion have a place in learning? Intellectual learning takes center stage in the college seminar; students exert effort to learn the material at hand. Yet, those profound emotional experiences that make up our lives are effortlessly integrated into the very fabric of our being. Is there another way of learning whose focus is not solely the intellectual understanding of information as normally encountered in the classroom? The role of emotion in learning about craving is the focus of this study. This study is neither an assessment of a classroom exercise nor a research project on craving, per se, although some assessment conclusions and understandings about craving can be clearly gleaned. Rather, this study explores the potential of integrating an emotional experience with the intellectual learning that is already taking place within the sociological classroom as one way of adding depth to the learning experience. The deep learner emerges with an understanding of one's self in relationship to the subject matter, and this understanding may motivate action. This paper begins with an overview of the theoretical roots of deep learning as experiential learning, continues with the development of craving as an experiential object, follows with the methodological processes at work, and then elaborates on the results of this exercise in relationship to the intellectual, emotional, and self-revelatory process of learning about craving. DEEP LEARNING AS EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING Imagine that there is a fundamental learning experience. It is at once emotional and intellectual, mental and physical, social and personal, totally unique yet freely shared. There is a communal place where this experience becomes positively energized and charged. This is the kind of experience which I call "deep learning. " (Bentz 1992:72) Deep learning is both intellectual and emotional. According to Bentz (1992), intellectual learning, the first element of deep learning, is a rational, cognitive, "philosophical quest for understanding" (p. 72) that focuses on discovering meaning. The traditional educational seminar is organized around this goal. The second element of deep learning is emotion or feeling that emerges from self-revelatory feedback; however, emotional learning is normally considered to be antithetical to intellectual learning. Bentz (1992) proposes that deep learning is the synthesis of the dialectical tension between these two elements, resulting in the production of a more mature social actor. The mature individual is one who has an understanding of one's self in relationship to the intellectual material. Emotion and self are intimately connected. According to Denzin (1984), emotion is at the core of the self; emotions are "self-feelings" and are both the "self-in-feeling" and those feelings directed toward and about the self. An existing emotion provides insight into the self; for example, when one feels remorse about stealing a vehicle, that remorse reveals a self who values upholding the law. Insight about the self is made possible because emotions are at the core of the self and define its very existence. Experience evokes emotion. This fundamental proposition is the starting point for the sociological theories of emotion (Denzin 1984). Emotional experiences are powerful because they have transformational potential. Not all experiences are transformational or lead to a change in how one views one's self. Those that are directed toward and about the self can have significant consequences for the self; it is these experiences that I refer to as "emotional experiences. " Action is made possible through reflexive (Mead 1934) experience that "transforms the impulses, feelings, and desires of concrete experience into higher-order purposeful action" (Kolb 1984:22) that is based upon foresight of consequences. By viewing oneself as the object toward which the community responds, one finds one's place in the social world; this placement brings with it an understanding of one's self, whether good or bad, that evokes emotions; these revelations are the substance of emotional learning and, thus, have the power to change. …