Two American
psychologists, Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers pave way for new approach to
understanding personality and improving the overall satisfaction of
individuals. For Rogers, the focus of psychology is not behaviour (Skinner’s behaviourist perspective), the unconscious (Freud’s psychoanalytical perspective),
thinking (Wundt’s
cognitive perspective) or the human brain but how
individuals perceive and interpret events. Rogers is therefore important
because he redirected psychology towards the study of the self. The humanistic
approach in psychology developed as a rebellion against what some psychologists
saw as the limitations of the behaviourist and psychodynamic psychology.
For Maslow, all
activities and behaviours a human is involved in are toward the satisfaction of
various needs with the ultimate need being ―self-actualization‖-a concept he brought most fully to
prominence in his Hierarchy of
Needs Theory as the final level of psychological
development. The
humanistic approach is thus often called the ―third force in psychology after psychoanalysis and behaviourism (Maslow, 1968). Humanistic
psychology expanded its influence throughout the 1970s and the 1980s.
A ASSUMPTIONS OF HUMANISTIC
CURRICULUM
1)
Humans have free will; not all behaviour is
determined
2)
All individuals are unique and have an innate
(inborn) drive to achieve their maximum potential.
3)
A proper understanding of human behaviour can
only be achieved by studying humans - not animals.
4)
Psychology should study the individual case
(idiographic) rather than the average performance of groups (nomothetic).
5)
The
present is the most important aspect of the person’s life. They don’t look at
the past or try to predict the future.
6)
People
must take responsibility for themselves, whether the person’s actions are positive negative.
7)
The individual, merely by being human,
possesses an inherent worth.
8)
Only through self-improvement and
self-knowledge can one truly be happy.
9)
An individual's behaviour is primarily
determined by his perception of the world around him.
10)
Individuals are internally directed and
motivated to fulfil their human potential.
SUPPORTING PRINCIPLES OF HUMANISTIC CURRICULUM
1. Students should be able to choose what
they want to learn. So students will be motivated to learn.
2.
The
goal of education should be to foster students' desire to learn and teach them how
to learn.
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.
4.
Humanistic
educators believe that both feelings and knowledge are important to the
learning process.
5.
Humanistic
educators insist that schools need to provide students with a nonthreatening
environment so that they will feel secure to learn. Once students feel
secure, learning becomes easier and more meaningful.
I.
CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMANISTIC CURRICULUM
Humanistic curriculum
includes Purpose and Role of the teachers as its characteristics.
Purpose- curriculum is to provide
- Each learner with intrinsically rewarding
experiences that contribute to personal liberation and development.
- The goals
of education are related to the ideals of personal growth, integrity,
and autonomy.
- Healthier attitudes toward self, peers, and
learning are among their expectations.
- The ideal of self-actualization is at the
heart of the humanistic curriculum. A person
- Quality is not only cognitive but also
developed in aesthetic and moral ways,
- A person
who does good works and has good character.
- The humanist views actualization growth as
a basic need.
- Each
learner has a self that must be uncovered, built up, taught.
Role of the teachers- Provides
- warmth and nurtures emotions
- resource and facilitator.
- present materials imaginatively and create
challenging situations.
- motivate their students through mutual trust.
- encourage a positive student–teacher
relationship
- the belief that each child can learn.
- a leadership role in affective approaches to
learning get in touch with themselves and students.
- Albert Einstein’s comment, “The supreme act of
the teacher is to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.
The humanistic educator should be
1. Each student is respected
2.
Empathetic
understanding
3. Genuineness or congruence
II.
FORMS OF HUMANISTIC CURRICULUM
This curriculum contains two forms of curriculum, such as,
1. Confluent curriculum
2. Consciousness
curriculum
