Caught by Our Dangling Paradigms: How Our Metaphysical Assumptions Influence Gifted Education:

Notions of intelligence and giftedness should keep pace with current knowledge of quantum physics and what is known about the nature of reality. There are three perspectives as to the nature of reality. Materialistic monism views the universe as being made up of only matter and energy. Dualism views the universe as being made up of matter and energy, as well as consciousness. Transcendental monism views the universe as being made up of consciousness. Currently, materialistic monism is the predominant view in our society and in education. This parochial perspective limits the research agenda and ultimately the ability to provide services to a wide range of gifted students. This article makes four recommendations in this regard. ********** "The scientific knowledge that has been gained influences the way we perceive the world. But the way the world is experienced in a particular culture influences what kind of science gets developed by that society." --Harman, 1998, p. 28 Many gifted education programs are still created around the notion that intelligence is a single, specific entity that can be measured and quantified (Hunsaker, Abeel, & Callahan, 1991; Richert, 1997). In Spiritual Intelligence, Dorothy Sisk and E. Paul Torrance (2001) suggest that our notions of intelligence should keep pace with quantum physics and our growing understanding of the universe. It may be, however, that our current assumptions related to the nature of reality sometimes get in the way of processing new data. This article explores how metaphysical perspectives influence educational philosophy, which in turn affect practices related to teaching, learning, and gifted education. Metaphysical Perspectives Harman (1989) describes three views of reality that he calls "metaphysical perspectives": materialistic monism, dualism, and transcendental monism. Metaphysical here refers to ontology, which is the study of the origins of the universe and the nature of reality. Materialistic Monism The materialist monism perspective views the universe as being made up only of matter and energy. Consciousness is something that arises out of matter. That is, our sense of self is solely an end product of neurological activity, which in turn is an end product of millions of years of evolution. All things in this purely materialistic universe consist of the sum of their parts and can be understood by breaking them down into their most basic components and measuring that which is observed and experienced. Newtonian law of cause and effect governs all events and can be used to know, predict, and ultimately control all things. Positivism, a philosophy consistent with this view, states that knowledge exists outside of the individual. Truth can be derived only through objective observations that are proven through reliable tests and predictions (Alkove & McCarty, 1992). It is only by collecting empirical data, isolating variables, testing, and retesting that we obtain truth or can say that a thing exists. Quantitative research methodologies are used to piece together small bits of knowledge in order to understand the world in which we live. The type of thinking valued here is deductive and linear. From this perspective, learning consists of receiving knowledge from outside of the individual, which must then be demonstrated outwardly for it to have occurred. The purpose of schools is to supply students with a designated body of knowledge and skills in a predetermined order. Teaching is a matter of transmitting knowledge from point A (teacher's head) to point B (students' heads). Academic achievement is students' ability to demonstrate or retransmit this designated body of knowledge back to the teacher (point A) or to some other measuring agency or entity such as standardized tests. Quantitative psychometric methods are used exclusively to determine and describe intelligence. …