The Humanistic Theory of Learning

 Humanistic theory of learning is a principle based on the appreciation of other human beings, unconditionally, for their self-fulfilment in life. Humanistic learning theory came into effect after the behaviourist and psychoanalysis theories. Hence, it is the duty of this section to discuss the Humanistic learning theory by looking at
what it is, key principles and its influence on education.

The Humanistic learning theory as already alluded to, is one that came after the Behaviourist and Psychoanalysis theories where the latter sought to understand human beings by analysing the deep unobservable unconscious processes and the former sought to understand human beings by looking at the changes in the outward observable behaviour.

Humanism is a paradigm, a philosophy and a pedagogical approach that believes learning is viewed as a personal act to fulfil one’s potential. The Humanistic learning theory’s birth is traceable from the likes of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. It is worth noting that this theory took a different approach to the study of human beings.

Humanistic is understood in the principles of humanism; a belief in human-based morality which is a system of thought that is based on the values, characteristics and behaviour that are believed to be best in human beings rather than on any supernatural authority, a concern with the needs, wellbeing, and interest of the people. 

It is also known as the ‘Third Force Psychology’ as represented in the work of American psychologist Carl Rogers, who views personal growth and mental health as the natural condition of human life.
The humanistic school view every human being to possess a drive toward self-actualisation which is the fulfilment of a person’s greatest potential.

The works of Maslow (1970) and Santrock (2008) attest to the fact that human beings have the potential to attain or move toward self-actualisation. It is this inner propensity to grow and develop in every person that makes humanistic psychology to remain with no option apart from it embracing a positive or optimistic view of all people. As a result of people’s ability to move towards self-actualisation humanistic psychology, therefore, attaches a lot of emphasis on having an unconditional positive regard toward all people.

The Humanistic theory as already alluded to, is one that came after the Behaviourist and Psychoanalysis theories where the latter sought to understand human beings by analysing the deep unobservable unconscious processes and the former sought to understand human beings by looking at the changes in the outward observable behaviour. The Humanistic learning theory’s birth is traceable from the likes of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. It is worth noting
that this theory took a different approach in the study of human beings.

The Humanistic Learning style

MAIN CONCEPTION
OF THE HUMANISTIC THEORY OF LEARNING

Humanism is the school of thought that lays emphasis on human behaviour
and human centred education. It is concerned with the individual’s feelings,
perceptions, beliefs and purposes. Humanist psychologists believe that human
beings determine their own behaviour. One of the main proponents of this theory
was Carl Rogers.

CARL ROGERS HUMANISTIC LEARNING PRINCIPLES

1. The desire to learn

Human beings have a natural desire to learn. Therefore, failure to learn
is not due to the person’s inability to learn, but rather it is due to problems
with the learning situation or environment. In the humanistic classroom,
learners are given the freedom to satisfy their curiosity, to pursue their
interests and to discover for themselves what is important and meaningful about
their environment.

2. Significant learning

Significant or meaningful learning takes place when it is perceived by
learners as being relevant to their own needs and purposes. The humanists
regard learning as a dual process that involves both the acquisition of new
information and the personalization of this information. Students learn best
when learning is personally significant.

3. Learning without threat

Rogers argued that learning is best acquired and retained in an
environment that is free from threats. The learning process is enhanced when
students test their abilities, try new experiences or even when they make
mistakes without experiencing any criticism.

4. Self-initiated learning

Learning makes sense when it is self-initiated and when it involves both
the feelings and mind of the learners. Choosing one’s own learning is highly
motivating and provides the student opportunity to “learn how to learn” and
a sense of independence.

5. Whole-person learning

Learning must involve all aspects of the person: the cognitive,
practical and affective aspects. This creates a feeling of total accomplishment
or all –round development.

6. Learning and change

Learning must be suitable to the changing environment. Since knowledge
is in a constant state of change every day and that yesterday’s learning may
not enable a person to function successfully in the modern world, an individual
must be capable of learning in a changing environment.

Carl Rogers identified two categories of learning, namely, meaningless
(cognitive) and meaningful (experiential) learning.

Meaningless or cognitive learning

It involves academic knowledge and there is no personal learning for the
individual. Since it only involves the mind, this type of learning has no
relevance for the whole person.

Meaningful or Significant or Experiential Learning

This learning involves applied knowledge, such as how to repair
something (e.g. a car). It is the learning that addresses the needs and wants
of the learner, and thus has the qualities of personal involvement,
self-initiation, self-evaluation and long –last9ing effects.

To Rogers, experiential learning is equivalent to personal development.
In his view, all human beings have the natural propensity to learn. And so it
is the teachers role to facilitate that learning by encouraging, clarifying and
organizing learning resources, but not to impose their own view of knowledge on
their students. Rogers suggested that learning is facilitated: –

1.       When the student participates in the learning process,
having control over its nature and direction;

2.       When learning is primarily based on confrontation with
real problems, whether they are social, personal, scientific or practical
problems;

3.       When learners are required to use self-evaluation to
assess their progress.

Experiential education, or “learning by doing” is the process
of actively engaging learners in an authentic experience that has benefits and
consequences. Learners make discoveries and experiment with knowledge
themselves, instead of hearing or reading about the experiences of others.
Learners also reflect on their experiences, thus developing new skills,
attitudes and ways of thinking. Experiential education also empowers learners
to take responsibility for their own learning.

Instructional implications of humanistic theory

Learning should be person-centred. The curriculum, content and teaching
methods should be responsive to the learners’ feelings and personal
development. There must be good interaction between the learners and teachers
during teaching and learning. In order to further promote humanistic learning,
the following instructional strategies and methods may be used:

·        
Provide learners with a variety of resources that can support and guide their learning experiences.

·        
Make use of peer
tutoring. This involves learners teaching one another for the mutual benefit of
the student tutor and student tutee.

·        
Use discovery
learning to allow learners to seek answers to real questions, make their own
discoveries and become involved in self – directed learning.

Role of the humanistic teacher

Carl Rogers made significant contributions to the field of education
with his theory of experiential learning. Experiential learning’s key idea
involves engaging student voice in active roles for the purpose of learning.
The experiential learning mindset changes the way the teachers and students
view knowledge. Knowledge is no longer just some information on paper. It
becomes active, something that is dealt with in real life situations. It starts
to make teachers become experience providers, and not just transmitters of the
written word. Students become knowledge creators as well as knowledge
gatherers.

Besides changing the roles of students, experiential education requires
a change in the role of teachers. Teachers become active learners too,
experimenting together with their students, reflecting upon the learning
activities they have designed, and responding to their student’s reactions to
the activities.

In humanistic education, the teacher’s role is mainly that of the
facilitator. Teachers have to create a conducive learning atmosphere by
encouraging students, clarifying issues and organizing learning resources. They
also have to have to demonstrate realness or genuineness, i.e., to be honest in
their relationship with learners.

Teachers also need to be trustworthy so that learners can feel free to
explore with support from teachers. Teachers need to be empathetic to the
learners, i.e., to put themselves in the place of learners and experience the learners’
perceptions and feelings.

To conclude, it should be noted that the humanistic theory of learning
emphasizes democratic and discovery methods of teaching and learning. It
encourages the involvement of pupils in the learning process. There should be
unconditional positive regard because people function well when accepted as
they are. Therefore, positive attitudes like love, respect, tolerance and
acceptance are important in the learning-teaching process.

How does learning comes about;

There are three main divergent views among psychologist on how learning
comes about: these are categorised as:

(i)                
behaviourism

(ii)              Social constructivism

(iii)            
cognitivism

Munsaka (2011:53) writes: “Humanistic psychology was designed as a general theory to explain how the full human potential can be tapped from all human beings, regardless of who or what they are”. In this, it is seen that the Humanistic theory can be appreciated that it is one theory that is designed to give room to human beings in the category of learning so that self-actualisations, a paramount parameter in the development of human beings is realised.

This is in line with what Maslow (1970) contributed that the focus of the Humanistic perspectives is on the self which translates individuals’ perception into their experience thereby individuals have the freedom to choose their own behaviours rather than reacting to environmental stimuli and reinforcers.

It is worthlearning that the Humanistic theory is aimed at tapping the full potential of human beings where the whole rounded development of learners is sought for.

This is also supported by Woolfolk (2010) where he observes that Humanistic theory is concerned with personal growth and the full development of each human’s potential not just at intellectual level but also at emotional,
psychological, creative, social, physical and spiritual levels. With this, the physiological needs, psychological needs, spiritual needs, social needs, creative needs and emotional needs can be monitored.

In all these needs, it will be to the knowledge of the teacher to understand that limitations in any of the above mentioned needs will result into impaired learning. Hence, under the Humanistic theory of learning, a teacher is better positioned because learners’
achievements or failures will be understood accordingly where a moderated room for learning is created for the less privileged so that full potential of all learners is achieved.

Humanistic
theory is different from other theories bordering on the three key principles
as observed by Munsaka (2011:53-54):

–         
Humanistic psychology unlike other theories takes a
positive or optimistic view of all people.

–         
Humanistic psychology views each human being as a
unique whole.

–         
Humanistic psychology believes each person’s
perspective or point of view should be respected. It places a lot of emphasis
on having an unconditional positive regard toward, all people…

In this, it
is learnt that every child has the potential to learn; hence the teacher should
not judge negatively or positively depending on the outward appearance. They
should instead strive to motivate learners into complete use of their full
potentials.

 

Principles of Humanistic Education

There are five basic principles of humanistic
education:

1.      Students should be able to choose what they want to learn. Humanistic teachers believe that students will be motivated to learn a subject if it is something they need and want to know.

2.      The goal of education should be to foster students’ desire to learn and teach them how to learn. Students should be self-motivated in their studies and desire to learn on their own.

3.      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 personal satisfaction. In addition, humanistic educators are opposed to objective tests because they test a student’s ability to memorize and do not provide sufficient educational feedback to the teacher and student.

4.      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.

5.      Humanistic educators insist that schools need to provide students with nonthreatening environment so that they will feel secure to learn. Once students feel secure, learning becomes easier and more meaningful.

APPLICATION OF HUMANISTIC THEORY TO THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

Appreciating the fact that the Humanistic theory was designed as a general theory to explain how human beings’ full potential can be tapped to acknowledge the importance of the theory in the classroom:

The facilitator helps to establish the climate of the class attitude towards learning.

(1)    The facilitator unconditionally helps the class or individuals classify their purposes.

(2)    The facilitator helps each student utilise her/his own drives and purposes as the driving force in learning.

(3)    The facilitator provides a wide range of resources for learning.

(4)    The facilitator provides students with content which is relevant to the learner’s needs and interests, to give them control over their own learning and to equip them for the future by teaching them how to learn and how to solve
problems.

In addition to the above-stated application of humanistic theory to the learning environment, educators who embrace the humanistic theory of learning should not condemn learners based on their past mistakes or behaviour, but instead focus on the present state of the learners and see how best to help them progress. After all, humanistic psychology holds the belief that the present is the most important aspect of the person thereby focusing on the here and now rather than looking at the past or trying to predict the future.

Furthermore, teachers should create a learning environment that will enable pupils to become psychologically healthy. At the same time, educators should train learners to take responsibility for their own achievements. This is due to the fact that humanistic theory is reality-based, where learners should be responsible for their actions whether those actions are positive or negative.

Last, but not least, the aim of educators should not only centre on making pupils obtain super grades during examinations but also on creating a conducive learning environment where learners will be able to achieve personal
growth and understanding through self-improvement and self-knowledge.