AHP - A GUIDE TO HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

HUMANISTIC EDUCATION
We think that education can be a disrespectful and alienating experience. It too often asks people to learn things which someone else has decided upon. Too often it does not consult or negotiate with the learners in any meaningful way. We agree with those who say half-jokingly that the four R's are reading, writing, arithmetic and respect.
The humanistic approach can be applied to the content of courses, the skills taught in courses, and the structure of the school or college itself.
As to content, we like to see relevant courses, which have directly to do with the lives of the students or trainees involved, and which they perceive as relevant to them. There might be a course on human sexuality, or a course on substance abuse, or a course about aggression and violence.
As to skills, we think it is important for students to learn about identity (who they are), power (they are entitled to a proper measure of power) and connectedness (with each other and with adults), and these in an experiential way, using well worked out exercises which involve the learner's body and feelings as well as the intellect. Values clarification, as taught by Simon and others, is one such approach, emphasising the skills of prizing, choosing and acting. It can be used in a number of different subject areas. Communication exercises, so useful to adults, are also useful to children. Parent Effectiveness Training is a way in which the school can reach out to the parents and enrol them in a programme whereby the aims of the schools and the aims of the parents can be better aligned. Group work can be used in various ways to break down the isolation which some children feel. Co-counselling can be taught to children from the age of five upwards, so that children can be emotional resources for each other. Assertiveness training is useful to girls and boys alike, teaching the skills of listening, giving and receiving feedback, handling conflict, etc. "Achievement Motivation" emphasises goal- setting, moderate risk taking and achievement planning, useful in every aspect of life.
As to the structure of the learning establishment itself, we emphasize self- choice on the part of the student, and de-emphasise marks and grades. The teacher or lecturer becomes a facilitator rather than just an authority figure or a provider. Students have a voice in the decisions which may affect them. All those places which have learning contracts, negotiated study or student-led project work are humanistic to that extent.
A second way of describing humanistic education looks more closely at what happens in the room. There are five ways in which we can look at this.

(1) CHOICE OR CONTROL: We encourage students, as time goes on, to exercise more and more control and choices concerning the course of their education - both their education goals and their day-to-day activities
(2) FELT CONCERN: As education becomes more humanistic, the curriculum tends to focus more and more on the felt concerns and interests of the students
(3) THE WHOLE PERSON: We pay attention to feeling, choosing, communicating and acting, and ask students about their dreams as well as their thoughts and actions. We may use guided fantasy to illuminate physics, or drama to illuminate history or geography, for example.
(4) SELF EVALUATION: Learners more and more are encouraged to evaluate their own learning progress, occasionally choosing to take tests, or asking for others' feedback, or gathering data about themselves.
(5) TEACHER AS FACILITATOR: The tutor or lecturer tends to be more supportive than critical, more understanding than judgemental, more genuine than playing a role.

Labels such as "confluent education" or "the open classroom" are sometimes used to describe humanistic education. The concept of a learning community also came out of the humanistic viewpoint. Today's educational psychologists are calling for a psychology of self-discovery and awareness, and this is what humanistic psychology has to offer.
BOOKLIST
Borton, Terry (1970) Reach, touch and teach McGraw-Hill, New York. The best introduction to experiential education. Gives the full rationale of how such methods fit with information processing in the brain.
Brown, George (ed)(1975) The live classroom Esalen/Viking, New York. Gives full details of what the open classroom means and is.
Garry, Anna & Cowan, John (1986) Learning from experience Further Education Unit, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. A tutor's guide to the use of small groups in continuing professional development. Shows how humanistic ideas have penetrated into orthodoxy.

Hammond, John et al (1990) New methods in RE teaching: An experiential approach Oliver & Boyd, Harlow. Contains many good ideas which could be applied to other subjects too.
Hendricks, Gay & Fadiman, James (eds)(1976) Transpersonal education Prentice- Hall, Englewood Cliffs. Applies transpersonal principles to education with striking success. Fascinating.
Rogers, Carl (1980) Freedom to learn in the Eighties Charles E Merrill, New York. An excellent compendium of papers, some by other people, giving the theory and practice of the person-centred approach to education.
Salmon, Phyllida (1989) Psychology for teachers Hutchinson, London. Not strictly humanistic, but definitely humane and civilized.
Simon, Sidney B et al (1972) Values clarification Hart, New York. A very fine approach which can fit into a number of different subject areas.

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