Humanistic education
Humanistic education is an approach to education based on the work of humanistic psychologists, most notably Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.[1][2] In a more general sense the term includes the work of other humanistic pedagogues, such as Rudolf Steiner,[3][4][5] and Maria Montessori. All of these approaches seeks to engage the whole person: the intellect, feeling life, social capacities, artistic and practical skills are all important focuses for growth and development. Important objectives include developing children's self-esteem, ability to set and achieve appropriate goals, and development toward full autonomy.[citation needed]
Principles
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Choice or Control
The humanistic approach focuses a great deal on student choice and control over the course of their education. Students are encouraged to make choices that range from day-to-day activities to periodically setting future life goals. This allows for students to focus on a specific subject of interest for any amount of time they choose, within reason. Humanistic teachers believe it is important for students to be motivated and engaged in the material they are learning, and this happens when the topic is something the students need and want to know.
Felt Concern
Humanistic education tends to focus on the felt concerns and interests of the students intertwining with the intellect. It is believed that the overall mood and feeling of the students can either hinder or foster the process of learning.
The Whole Person
Humanistic educators believe that both feelings and knowledge are important to the learning process. Unlike traditional educators, humanistic teachers do not separate the cognitive and affective domains. This aspect also relates to the curriculum in the sense that lessons and activities provided focus on various aspects of the student and not just rote memorization through note taking and lecturing.
Self Evaluation
Humanistic educators believe that grades are irrelevant and that only self-evaluation is meaningful. Grading encourages students to work for a grade and not for intrinsic satisfaction. Humanistic educators disagree with routine testing because they teach students rote memorization as opposed to meaningful learning. They also believe testing doesn't provide sufficient educational feedback to the teacher.
Teacher as a Facilitator
"The tutor or lecturer tends to be more supportive than critical, more understanding than judgmental, more genuine than playing a role." [6] Their job is to foster an engaging environment for the students and ask inquiry based questions that promote meaningful learning.
Methodology
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Environment
The environment in a school which focuses their practice on humanistic education tends to have a very different setting than a traditional school. It consist of both indoor and outdoor environments with a majority of time being spent outdoors. The indoor setting may contain a few tables and chairs, bean bags for quiet reading and relaxation, book shelves, hide-aways, kitchens, lots of color and art posted on the walls. The outdoor environment is very engaging for students. You might find tree houses, outdoor kitchens, sand boxes, play sets, natural materials, sporting activities etc. The wide range of activities are offered for students allowing for free choices of interest.
Related movements
A number of contemporary school movements incorporate humanistic perspectives within a larger, holistic context: these include the Waldorf, Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and Neohumanist schools. These originated independently of the humanistic psychology movement and at least some of them incorporate spiritual perspectives absent from the traditional humanistic approach.[7]
Early humanism
Humanistic education has its roots in Renaissance philosophers who emphasized the study of the humanities: grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry and moral philosophy; these in turn built upon Classical models of education.[8]
References
- ^ Power, F. Clark. Moral Education. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 218. ISBN 0313336474.
- ^ Hall, Eric; Carol Hall (1988). Human relations in education. Psychology Press. p. 14. ISBN 041502532X.
- ^ "The Waldorf Schools offer an approach to humanistic education which has stood the test of time." Sarah W. Foster, "An Introduction to Waldorf Education", The Clearing House, Vol. 57, No. 5 (Jan., 1984), pp. 228-230
- ^ Timothy Leonard, Pedagogies of the Imagination: Mythopoetic Curriculum in Educational Practice, Springer 2008, p. 232
- ^ R. C. S. Trahair, Utopias and Utopians: an historical dictionary, Greenwood Press, 1999, p. 348
- ^ Rowan, J. (n.d.). Humanistic education. Retrieved from http://www.ahpweb.org/rowan_bibliography/chapter17.html
- ^ Lucila Telles Rudge, "Holistic Education: An Analysis of its Pedagogical Application", dissertation, Ohio State University
- ^ Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought II: Papers on Humanism and the Arts (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1965), p. 178.
External links
- "The New Humanistic education at Gurukul" - possibly an example of new humanistic education
- "The New School at Dawson College" - possibly an example of humanistic education at the community college level
