Here’s another A-B-C-D example. From this afternoon.
Activating Event
I was re-reading an Aristotle passage, from the Categories, in preparation for class. I’m teaching, for the first time, a History of Philosophy of Language class and that’s what was on tap for this evening. I realized that I’d misunderstood the passage previously. A key word – ‘synonymy’ – didn’t mean in the context what I’d supposed.
Consequence
I felt frightened. I got a bit shaky physically. I cried, though Anita quickly comforted me and I stopped right away.
Belief
I believed that the students, and others, would realize that I wasn’t an authority in Ancient philosophy of language after all. In particular, I thought of a very good student in the class, a genuine expert, who would surely spot my mistake. I believed that everyone in class would lose respect for me. I worried that making this mistake meant that, likely, there were many other errors that I’d made in the previous weeks, and hadn’t noticed. And more still that I would make as the course progressed. I thought that I ought better to have stuck to safer, more familiar material; that, being depressed and anxious, I shouldn’t have bitten off so much.
Dispute
I made a mistake, but that’s not a disaster. Mistakes are constant. It’s the human condition. More than that, that I caught the mistake myself during pre-class review shows that I’m very careful and responsible as a teacher. I’m doing my best. Even if were caught out in a mistake, that wouldn’t be a catastrophe. The very advanced student isn’t judgmental at all, but rather has quickly proven happy to share his knowledge – pretty humbly, actually – with myself and his peers. Besides, I don’t need to be perfect for students to respect me or to respect myself. I know the material very well, especially given that it’s not my speciality. It was brave of me to take this on. And I can do it.