Module 19: The Spirit of Learning and Teaching in Holistic Education
“Education is what survives when you’ve forgotten all that you learned.”
BF Skinner
It was one of the rules which, above all others, made Doctor Franklin the most amiable of men in society,
“never to contradict anybody.” If he was urged to announce an opinion, he did it rather by asking
questions, as if for information, or by suggesting doubts.
letter to Thomas Jefferson Randolph (Jefferson’s grandson), November 24, 1808.
“teaching and learning …(is the) … continuous process of reconstruction of experience.”
Experience and Education, 1938; LW 13: 59
Abbs sees autobiography as:
“the search backwards into time to discover the evolution of the true self.”
Abbs’ (1974 p.7)
Module description:
In relation to a working definition of the process of holistic development this module looks at the nature of, and use of, the idea of ‘learning and teaching’ by the teacher, or other practitioner, so as to encourage learning, professional development and/or personal growth.
“Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher,”
Parker Palmer The Courage to Teach
Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge or skill through study, experience or teaching. It is a process that depends on experience and leads to long-term changes in behavior potential. Behavior potential describes the possible behavior of an individual (not actual behavior) in a given situation in order to achieve a goal.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning
Introductory reading/s to get started:
http://www.unicef.org/teachers/teacher/teacher.htm
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/teachtip.htm#core
http://www.bradfordcollege.ac.uk/college/research/allpd/Glossary.htm
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/argyris.htm
http://www.cop.com/tw-ch01.html
A sense of the field can be obtained from Roger Stack’s ‘Map’ of Holistic Education see also his blog
