Humanistic Education (part 2)Implications for the classroom [Archives:2003/624/Education]

DR. RAMAKANTA SAHU.

In the first part of this article we looked at some of the major themes, approaches and goals of ” Humanistic education”. We discuss, in this article, what these themes have to offer to the practical classroom teacher.
Process concerns the way in which the content of a lesson, syllabus or curriculum is taught and learnt from the point of view of the learner, and how that content can be relevant to the life of the learner. Further more “Process” focuses on the immediate subjective reality of the individuals in a learning group, and is concerned with how participants relate to themselves and each other in order to carry out the task. In other words, whatever contributes to the ambient learning atmosphere, including the attitudes values and awareness of the teacher and of the learners, is part of the “Process”.
The dynamics of process revolve around issues such as authority and determination, cooperation and competition, expectation and motivation, the individual and the group, security and risk, failure and success, self-esteem and its absence, personal meaning, and how participants feel, think and act in relation to themselves, to others and to what their doing. If a teacher feels it is not his job to take these phenomena into account, he may miss out some of the most essential ingredients in the management of successful learning.
An efficient and a successful teacher should be reasonably alert to some of the processes that go on in his classroom. As a matter of fact, the aim of a facilitator is to become more awake to the processes while at the same time, fulfilling the requirements of the tasks arising out of the processes from time to time.
The first and foremost resource that the teacher would do well to capitalize on in the classroom is the learners' subjective experience. An insightful teacher systematically tries to build in his pupils the qualities of introspective self-awareness. It is a matter of common experience that the learners' self-esteem (feelings about themselves), and metacognitive awareness (feelings about what they are studying and the way they are studying), have a significant effect on the quality of their learning. If the students don't understand the teacher's aims, or if they are bored, or anxious or frustrated, then that adversely affects the pace, quality and the quantum of their learning. Conversely, if they are to be engaged in a significant learning experience they must find that their learning is personally meaningful. Thus feelings are an essential part of the learning experience. To that extent feelings are part of the powerhouse of the classroom process, since how we are feeling at any given moment colours the way we perceive things. The Humanistic education, therefore, puts high premium on the feelings of the learning organism. The implications of this importance attached to learner's feelings for the classroom teacher are that the teacher should try and take care of the affective needs of the learners. Teachers need to be aware of the fact that every lesson has the potential to offer windows into the world of the learner's experience.
When a learner discovers himself as a member of a group, such as a class of learners, he is likely to find himself in a situation where he feels a partial or a total loss of identity. Some of the students may feel insecure as to whether conscious and unconscious needs are adequately met. They may be threatened with apparent risks and dangers of being neglected and uncared for and may be asking themselves questions such as:
To what extent my affective needs for acceptance, regard and love will be met?
Will I be included or excluded from the group or from subgroups?
Will I make a fool of myself?
How safe will it be to be myself, and what masks, roles and defenses may I have to adopt to protect my self- esteem?
What power networks will evolve in the group and where will I stand in relation to them?
How competitive will people be? How cooperative? How aware of all this will the group leader/ teacher be ?
These apprehensions and reactions to group processes affect the way students work , feel and participate in the tasks and the processes of groups.
The teacher involved in Humanistic education should strive to evolve more or less effective ways of meeting these uncertainties in the groups. Humanistic values emphasize the importance of the teacher's sensitivity and skill in helping learners to face these issues in ways that enhance both the learning of the lessons and their experience of being successful at learning.
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