Holistic development in relation to the many changes in society and students’ many potentials.

Holistic development in relation to the many changes in society and students’ many potentials.

Education is the key to development. However, the pertinence of education depends on many factors. To some, is its ability to offer jobs to those that have attained that education.

Holistic development

It is a philosophy based on the premise that each person finds identity, meaning and purpose in life through connection to the community, to the natural world and humanitarian values such as compassion and love. Holistic education aims to call forth from people an intrinsic reverence for life and a passionate love of learning. In considering curriculum using a holistic approach, one must address the question of what students need to learn. The scope of holistic for students refer to the difference areas of: physical, social, emotional, language, intellectual, psychosocial, cognitive, ethical, and spiritual . The areas are there but the technique or method to manipulate them should according to the level of the student whether primary school student or secondary school student.

Children move through stages of development as they mature. The rate of development varies from one child to another. Development is influenced by the experiences children have, as well as by hereditary factors. Children may grow rapidly in one area and more slowly in another. The direction of development is from general to specific, from dependence toward independence and interdependence, and from gross motor control to fine motor control.

The descriptions of children are grouped according to the four areas of holistic development. They are the socio-emotional, physical, intellectual, and spiritual dimensions. Children, no matter what their cultural and experiential background, have characteristics in common with other children of their age while other characteristics are theirs alone.

Socio-emotional Development

Children develop socially and emotionally during the Kindergarten year. At the beginning of the year, some children may be shy and appear to lack initiative. As they come to know the situation, their teachers, and their peers, children usually gain confidence and begin to establish friendships and become an active part of the class. Other children may be too aggressive before learning from experience more appropriate ways of relating to peers. It is a time of testing and exploring social relationships.

Physical Development

Physical activity is one common characteristic of Kindergarten children, although children vary a great deal in the development of physical skills and abilities. Some children are slow and cautious about trying new things; others seem to accept any challenge that is presented. Most Kindergarten children are full of energy, ready to run, swing, climb, and jump, and are eager to try their strength by moving big blocks or boxes. Kindergarten children are developing a sense of rhythm, and enjoy such activities as marching, jumping, or clapping to music. These group activities need to be short and allow for more participation than standing. Required stillness is more exhausting and stressful for most Kindergarten children than movement.

Sensory development is uneven. The coordination of the eyes and other senses are still developing. Physical growth has slowed down. It is a time of consolidating gains and developing fine motor control. Over-emphasis on fine motor activities, however, such as writing, cutting, and making very discrete visual discriminations may result in tension and frustration.

Intellectual Development

Kindergarten children love to talk. Their intellectual development is reflected in the rapid growth of vocabulary and the power to express ideas. They are developing visual and auditory memory, and the ability to listen to others. Their ears are keen but they still need help in distinguishing sounds, although they can pick up another language and accurately imitate other people’s intonations and inflections. Children are especially interested in acquiring new words and using such words as “actually” and “trillion”. Kindergarten children welcome opportunities to be inventive with language, to play with rhyme, to joke, to explain things to each other, and even to argue.

Spiritual Development

Spiritually, children develop as they grow in their understanding and appreciation of the spiritual dimension in life. Kindergarten children are beginning to develop an awareness that thoughts and feelings are part of the self that cannot be seen. The concept of an “inner self” as part of the self that is important but not visible to others is beginning to develop in Kindergarten children. The idea that people cannot always tell how a person is feeling unless words are used may be a new concept for some children. Children in Kindergarten are becoming aware that individuals and families may have different spiritual or religious beliefs and practices, and are developing a sense that these differences should be respected. As young children explore questions of meaning and purpose, they engage in wondering, exploring, and discussing larger questions which are of particular importance or interest to them. Questions such as “What are the stars for?” and “How did the stars get up in the sky?” may be asked. Since holistic education seeks to educate the whole person, there are some key factors that are essential to this type of education. First, children need to learn about themselves. This involves learning self respect and self esteem. Second, children need to learn about relationship. In learning about their relationships with others, there is a focus on social “literacy” (learning to see social influence) and emotional “literacy” (one’s own self in relation to others). Third, students need to learn about resilience. This entails overcoming difficulties, facing challenges and learning how to ensure long-term success. Fourth, students need to learn about aesthetics. This encourages the student to see the beauty of what is around them and learn to have awe in life.

Holistic education feels that meaningfulness is also an important factor in the learning process. People learn better when what is being learned is important to them. Holistic schools seek to respect and work with the meaning structures of each person. Therefore, the start of a topic would begin with what a student may know or understand from their worldview, what has meaning to them rather than what others feel should be meaningful to them. Meta-learning is another concept that connects to meaningfulness. In finding inherent meaning in the process of learning and coming to understand how they learn, students are expected to self-regulate their own learning. However, they are not completely expected to do this on their own. Because of the nature of community in holistic education, students learn to monitor their own learning through interdependence on others inside and outside of the classroom. As mentioned above, community is an integral aspect in holistic education. As relationships and learning about relationships are keys to understanding ourselves, so the aspect of community is vital in this learning process. Forbes (1996) states, “In holistic education the classroom is often seen as a community, which is within the larger community of the school, which is within the larger community of the village, town, or city, and which is, by extension, within the larger community of humanity.

Recommendations

Ø  To create conducive environment for teaching and learning, our thought should be governed by holistic development of students.

Ø  Access, retention and through put should always be seen as one concept

Ø  Both academic sector and student services should be given a balance attention in all respects or should have an arena where they can interact and collaborate on projects or programmes.

Ø  Enough resources should be allocated to student services as per findings on the working paper by a Cornell University graduate student, Douglas Webber, and Ronald Ehrenberg, director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute, who found that in certain instances, graduation and persistence rates are linked to greater expenditures on student services.

Students’ potentials

Potential can be defined as totality of ability, total endowment, and total power. Potential refers to capacity to act. On the other hand, education refers to the skills acquired through various methods aggregated as teaching or training. Various authors consider the concept in different ways. Some look at the education as a concept to refer to schooling, certification, initiation and Indoctrination. Some see it from functional angle; others from its aims while many see it as a process (Dada, 1999).

We need to maximize potential because we are under utilizing the potentials that are availed in us. Vehicles that are made to travel at the speed of 180KM/H would reach differently if driven by two different drivers who observe different speed. Assuming that two drivers are driving two similar make vehicles and the journey total length is 180,000 Kilometers per year. This could take about 41 days to accomplish the journey if the vehicles are optimized (driven at 180 KM per hour speed). Assuming the stipulated length is to be continued annually for ten years then the total number of days will be about 410 days when the car is optimized. In order to understand the concept of maximizing potential, let us name the two drivers as X and Y. X has decided to optimize the vehicle’s speed in all his trips and thus throughout the journey. Y has decided that he will maintain the speed of 80KM per hour.

The scope of holistic development in relation  to the many changes in society and students’ many potentials. Refers to the whole background of Chinese educational system, education in China is an on-going efforts towards further developing the potential of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner, so as to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced and harmonic, based on a firm belief in and devotion to God. Such an effort is designed to produce Chinese citizens who are knowledgeable and competent, who possess high moral standards and who are responsible and capable of achieving high level of personal well-being as well as being able to contribute to the harmony and betterment of the family, the society and the nation at large

  

Holistic education aims to call forth from people an intrinsic reverence for life and a passionate love of learning. In considering curriculum using a holistic approach, one must address the question of what students need to learn.

The  scope of holistic for students refer to the difference areas of : physical, social, emotional, language, intellectual, psychosocial, cognitive, ethical, and spiritual . The areas are there but the technique or method to manipulate them should according to the level of the student whether primary school student or secondary school student.

The approach of  teaching mathematics for example Every mathematical symbol with a quantitative interpretation in (static) analytic terms, has a corresponding qualitative interpretation that is dynamic and holistic. Thus if we take any number, operation, function, relationship or theory it has dual interpretations in mathematical terms.

Mathematical symbols - when appreciated from the dynamic holistic perspective - have a truly remarkable scientific integrative capacity. Because integral understanding is based on the complementarily of opposites in experience, this means that holistic mathematical interpretations apply equally to both the physical and psychological aspects of reality (which have underlying common structures). Thus for example we can use Holistic Mathematics as a precise means of ordering the psychological levels of the Spectrum; equally we can use Holistic Mathematics to map out the various levels of scientific interpretation of reality. 

In the area of spiritual development, it is  is like a doughnut, a ring doughnut to be precise. Teachers have liked this rather unusual analogy when I've used it in INSET sessions. Why? Is it because it comes with edible visual aids or does the image encapsulate something significant about 'wholeness' and 'holeness' for those grappling with this sticky subject?

For some,  spiritual development was about the development of a relationship with God, while for others,

 it was about the development of the  human spirit and for others, a continual quest after truth. For all, it was vital to spiritual development that people be allowed the space to develop their own faith, beliefs and values.

This is where the doughnut came in: a ring doughnut has two parts; a tangible outside and an intangible 'holey' inside and both parts are vital to the whole. This analogy gives a clear image to help to chew over this subject. In a  school, one can aim to encourage pupils'  whole  development (body, mind and spirit) and also to allow for pupils whole development, i.e., the development of their own faith or life view, their own beliefs and values.

Since holistic education seeks to educate the whole person, there are some key factors that are essential to this type of education. First, children need to learn about themselves. This involves learning self respect and self esteem. Second, children need to learn about relationship. In learning about their relationships with others, there is a focus on social “literacy” (learning to see social influence) and emotional “literacy” (one’s own self in relation to others).

Third, students need to learn about resilience. This entails overcoming difficulties, facing challenges and learning how to ensure long-term success. Fourth, students need to learn about aesthetics. This encourages the student to see the beauty of what is around them and learn to have awe in life.

So for instance a student might be highly intellectual and then be unable to butter bread. This isn't because the student is incapable of buttering bread, it just has not had the chance to practice the physical skill.

 Another example is a student needs to wear glasses for school (physical) and other kids are skitting, this can mean his self esteem is being undermined and his confidence will diminish (emotional development) and could also lead to him becoming isolated from his friends as he cannot deal with the teasing (social) so he stops wearing his glasses to become socially acceptable and then he can't see properly (physical) so he cannot do his schoolwork and progress (intellectual)

With the goal of educating the whole child, holistic education promotes several strategies to address the question of how to teach and how people learn. First, the idea of holism advocates a transformative approach to learning. Rather than seeing education as a process of transmission and transaction, transformative learning involves a change in the frames of reference that a person may have. This change may include points of view, habits of mind, and worldviews. Holism understands knowledge as something that is constructed by the context in which a person lives. Therefore, teaching students to reflect critically on how we come to know or understand information is essential. As a result, if “we ask students to develop critical and reflective thinking skills and encourage them to care about the world around them they may decide that some degree of personal or social transformation is required.”

Second, the idea of connections is emphasized as opposed to the fragmentation that is often seen in mainstream education. This fragmentation may include the dividing of individual subjects, dividing students into grades, etc. Holism sees the various aspects of life and living as integrated and connected, therefore, education should not isolate learning into several different components. Martin (2002) illustrates this point further by stating that, “Many alternative educators argue instead that who the learners are, what they know, how they know it, and how they act in the world are not separate elements, but reflect the interdependencies between our world and ourselves” . Included in this idea of connections is the way that the classroom is structured.

Third, along the same thread as the idea of connections in holistic education, is the concept of transdisciplinary inquiry. Tran disciplinary inquiry is based on the premise that division between disciplines is eliminated.

One must understand the world in wholes as much as possible and not in fragmented parts. “Tran disciplinary approaches involve multiple disciplines and the space between the disciplines with the possibility of new perspectives ‘beyond’ those disciplines. Where multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary inquiry may focus on the contribution of disciplines to an inquiry trans disciplinary inquiry tends to focus on the inquiry issue itself.”

Fourth, holistic education feels that meaningfulness is also an important factor in the learning process. People learn better when what is being learned is important to them. Holistic schools seek to respect and work with the meaning structures of each person. Therefore, the start of a topic would begin with what a student may know or understand from their worldview, what has meaning to them rather than what others feel should be meaningful to them. Meta-learning is another concept that connects to meaningfulness. In finding inherent meaning in the process of learning and coming to understand how they learn, students are expected to self-regulate their own learning.

However, they are not completely expected to do this on their own. Because of the nature of community in holistic education, students learn to monitor their own learning through interdependence on others inside and outside of the classroom.

Finally, as mentioned above, community is an integral aspect in holistic education. As relationships and learning about relationships are keys to understanding ourselves, so the aspect of community is vital in this learning process. Forbes (1996) states, “In holistic education the classroom is often seen as a community, which is within the larger community of the school, which is within the larger community of the village, town, or city, and which is, by extension, within the larger community of humanity.

B. Relevant areas that should be included in the curriculum

1.     Language

2.     Arts

3.     Science

4.     Mathematic

5.     History

In spiritual development for example , teacher  can provide primary school students in three vital ways: Windows: giving student opportunities to become aware of the world in new ways; to wonder about life's 'Wows' (things that are amazing) and 'Owws' (things that bring us up short). In this student are learning about life in all its fullness. For example telling students about numbers of cows in New Zealand and compare with the population in that country.

Mirrors: giving student opportunities to reflect on their experiences; to meditate on life's big questions and to consider some possible answers. In this they are learning from life by exploring their own insights and perspectives and those of others.

Door: giving student opportunities to respond to all of this; to do something creative as a means of expressing, applying and further developing their thoughts and convictions. In this they are learning to live by putting into action what they are coming to believe and value.

In our present result-driven educational climate, how will we know whether students are developing 'spiritually' through the opportunities provided in school? Is spirituality really something one can become progressively better at with effort, perhaps as one develops intellectually or with age and experience? (In that case, surely adults should be much more spiritually developed than children?)

Perhaps students can sometimes realize their innate spirituality more perceptively than adults. In this light a list of characteristics of spiritually developing people might be a useful guide for schools aiming to monitor their provision for pupils' spiritual development. Such a list would include traits such as curiosity, generosity, hopefulness, trust and vision, elements that students  often display quite naturally

6.     Teacher’s role

In holistic development education, the teacher is seen less as person of authority who leads and controls but rather is seen as a friend, a mentor, a facilitator, or an experienced traveling companion Schools should be seen as places where students and adults work toward a mutual goal. Open and honest communication is expected and differences between people are respected and appreciated. Cooperation is the norm, rather than competition. Thus, many schools incorporating holistic beliefs do not give grades or rewards. The reward of helping one another and growing together is emphasized rather than being placed above one another.

7.      School’s role

For various reasons, the diversity of alternative schools sets them apart from mainline education. Each school has its own methods and approaches to teaching. Therefore, each school may have different beliefs about what education should include. Even school does not state the method of holistic in education  but that does not mean that there are no holistic values in their individual philosophies of education. In addition, many individual teachers in different venues of education try to incorporate ideas of holism into their own classrooms.

Holistic school classrooms are often small and consist of mixed-ability and mixed-age students. They are flexible in terms of how they are structured so that if it becomes appropriate for a student to change classes, (s)he is moved regardless of what time of year it is on the school calendar. Flexible pacing is key in allowing students to feel that they are not rushed in learning concepts studied, nor are they held back if they learn concepts quickly.

8.     Teaching and learning

In language development  language among student, activities provided for the students should be well selected. For students at elementary level the activities which should be carried out is through story telling. Even the student with very limited language  skills can enjoy building and telling a story. For children who are not delayed in their language  acquisition, the more advanced forms of this activity can be great for stimulating imagination and even greater language  skills.

 

Language development at all levels -- informal, problem-solving, and academic -- should be fostered through use and through purposeful, deliberate conversation between teacher and students, not through drills and de contextualized rules. Reading and writing must be taught both as specific curricula and integrated into each content area. The ways of using language that prevail in school  discourse, such as ways of asking and answering questions, challenging claims, and using representations, are frequently unfamiliar to English language  learners and other students at risk of educational failure. However, their own culturally based ways of talking can be effectively linked to the language  used for academic disciplines by building learning contexts that evoke and build upon children’s language  strengths. The development of language and literacy as a meta goal also applies to the specialized  language genres required for the study of science, mathematics, history, art, and literature. Effective mathematics learning is based on the ability to “speak mathematics,” just as the overall ability to achieve across the curriculum is dependent on mastery of the language of instruction.

Reading, writing, speaking, listening, and lexicons can be taught and learned in every subject matter, and indeed all the subject matters can be taught as though they were a second language. In language development, some indicators can be implement to see the teacher and learning effective or not effective. Teacher give chance to students through listens to student talk about familiar topics such as home and community, responds to students' talk and questions, making 'in-flight' changes during conversation that directly relate to students' comments, assists written and oral language development through modeling, eliciting, probing, restating, clarifying, questioning, praising, etc., in purposeful conversation and writing, interacts with students in ways that respect students' preferences for speaking that may be different from the teacher's, such as wait-time, eye contact, turn-taking, or spotlighting,  connects student language  with literacy and content area knowledge through speaking, listening, reading, and writing activities, encourages students to use content vocabulary to express their understanding.  provides frequent opportunity for students to interact with each other and the teacher during instructional activities.  Encourages students' use of first and second languages in instructional activities.