Abstract
Chapter Three explores the issue of confidence as a focus of learning. This transition occurs against the background of the importance of confidence in supporting ongoing learning. The chapter takes its lead from Amedeo Giorgi’s notion of existential learning, deriving phenomenological clues as to its nature from the context of psychotherapeutic counseling. The chapter then presents original research on existential learning within the day-to-day process of skill acquisition. Given the fact that self-confidence is first learned during the early portion of the lifespan, a developmental point of view is subsequently adopted in the interest of attaining a broader understanding of existential learning. The results of these analyses will suggest that an adequate understanding of ongoing learning requires a fuller appreciation of the motivation to learn.
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DeRobertis, E.M. (2017). Existential Learning. In: The Phenomenology of Learning and Becoming. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95204-5_3
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