Humanism

A LEARNING THEORY

ROBERT ADAMOWICZ
STUDENT
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA
 Origins
 Humanism came out in the  To be reality and problem
1960’s by Carl centered, it forces you to
Rogers, Abraham become creative, moral and a
Maslow, and later on by problem solving.
Malcolm Knowles.
 Maslow is considered to be
the “father” of American
Humanism. He founded the
Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow
believed that at the top of the
Hierarchy is Self-
Actualization. To be
considered in that category
you must be reality-centered
and problem-centered, which
can be considered the
foundation of humanism.
 Origins cont’d
 Rogers also believed in  While Knowles, who idolized
actualization. If you did Rodgers came in the mid
reach self actualization you 1970’s and proposed self-
were considered a “Full directional classes.
Functioning Person”.
 Rogers engaged a method
called the organismic
valuing process. This process
judges experiences and
based on those experiences
(good or bad), it will be
proven to have you either
avoid something or seek
after it. This is what the
teaching theory of Abraham Maslow Carl Rogers Malcolm Knowles
humanism is all about.
 What is Humanism?
 As summarized Humanism is a
“paradigm/philosophy/pedago
gical approach that believes
learning is viewed as a personal
act to fulfill one’s potential.”
 This basically gives students
the reigns in which to pick what
they are interested in and study
that topic.
 The teacher has different role
than in most learning styles . As
a teacher you would be more of
a facilitator. By this you would
just go along with what the
students want and have to
teach according to their
interest.
 In this learning style, students
are free to judge what is good
for them to learn and what is
bad for them to learn.
 This style is very effective for
students that are already highly
motivated. For those that are
unmotivated it is slightly
harder for them to accomplish
because there is no push from a
teacher to induce what to learn.
Rather students need to be at a
certain level where they want to
learn.
 Classroom Implications

Student Teacher

 Curriculum is up to the students.  Teachers would almost guide

They learn what they want to students as they set off into their
learn, when they want to learn it. It own educational journey to learn.
is based on students will know  Facilitating students would be the
what lessons will be useful to them main role of teachers. Also being
and which is just a waste of time. careful not to force what to learn
 As long as students have a passion but rather force wanting to learn
or drive to learn this theory something on the student is
becomes easy for teachers. genuinely interested in.
 Students that don’t have that drive
to learn will either need to be
pushed by a teacher or parent or
try another teaching
theory, because if students don’t
want to learn they won’t.
 Personal Use In My Classroom

 I personally could not have students pick the exact

curriculum because there are standards of learning that I
would have to uphold with state and federal standard.
 Ways that I could fit some of this theory into my style of
teaching is to:
 To help students learn, set realistic goals.
 Allow students to choose between a selection of lessons, all of which
would teach the same lesson just in different ways.
 Have group discussions and just facilitate the conversation instead of
controlling it.
 Have group work, this gives an open field to be responsible yet
creative for their class work.
 A Word From Experts…

According to a 1977 Aspy and Roebuck study of 600

teachers from kindergarten though 12th grade, they
found that students in classrooms of high facilitative
teachers (Humanism):
 missed four fewer days of school (5 as compared to 9 for low
facilitative teachers);
 increased scores on self-concept measures;
 greater gains on academic achievement measures, including both
math and reading scores;
 presented fewer disciplinary problems and committed fewer acts of
vandalism to school property; and
 were more spontaneous and used higher levels of thinking
(knowledge versus comprehension through evaluation).
 Credits

 http://www.learning-theories.com/humanism.html
 http://www.learning-theories.com/experiential-learning-
kolb.html
 http://www.learning-theories.com/maslows-hierarchy-of-
needs.html
 http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-knowl.htm
 http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/maslow.html
 http://wilderdom.com/personality/L10-2Humanistic.html
 http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/affsys/humed.html
 http://forpd.ucf.edu/facilitators/fff/Images/knowles.jpg
 http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/psychology/images/thum
b/d/d6/Carl_Rogers.jpg/220px-Carl_Rogers.jpg
 http://www.abraham-
maslow.com/maslow_Images/Abraham_Maslow.jpg