A philosophy instructor was talking the other day about his experiences with trying to get students to examine the beliefs making up their "worldviews." His impression was that many (but certainly not all) students have no well-defined view of the world. In other words, the worldviews of many students are made up of a set of disconnected and vague beliefs--beliefs that are held for no reason that the students can verbalize coherently. If they have any strongly held beliefs, they often do not know why they hold them, and they cannot explain to others why these beliefs are reasonable. I think that, for many of us, the teaching of psychology is important because of the impact it can have on a person's worldview. However, if our students' views of their world are nascent and/or superficially commercial (which is far worse to me), it may be very difficult to engage them on this level. This may be a significant source of the apparent lack of motivation in our courses: we are trying to engage them on a level that does not, at the present time in their lives, make much sense to them. In other words, they see no reason to examine their views of themselves and others: these views seem to them to be "natural" and common-sensical. They simply want us to tell them what is causing people to act in ways that grab their attention (for example, I am sure I will get many questions today about why yesterday's tragedy occurred in the high school several hundred miles north of here). They are not very receptive to the idea that proposing an explanation requires one to make several assumptions about human nature, and that these assumptions must be examined before one can place much faith in the explanation. I blame this situation on the crassly commercial culture that permeates our lives. (For example, just this morning, as I was pumping gas, the pump began to broadcast a commercial for the Chevron station I was at!!!) It seems apparent (to me, at least) that the only things given much importance in this culture are money and self-aggrandizement (but that is another tirade). I suppose another place to look for responsibility is the sheer difficulty of examining fundamental assumptions about human nature: it requires much cognitive effort and it can be threatening. Just a few lingering thoughts as I continue to struggle with my thoughts about student motivation. Jeff Ricker Scottsdale Community College Scottsdale AZ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
