"INSIDEPIDP"

Head, Heart and Hands. Are they enough?

Introspection of the holistic framework of student engagement in the text by Barkley (2010)

 

Brief Overview

This article is a discussion on one of the third strategy of creating engaged students as mentioned by Barkley (2010). Barkley’s third strategy of teaching students in a manner that they learn holistically is based on the very famous bloom’s taxonomy of learning domains. The central theme of the taxonomy is that learning is a product of three domains the cognitive, the emotional and the psychomotor domain. Simply speaking learning happens when hands (body), heart and head (mind) are all involved in the learning process. This article builds on the fact that the adult learner’s learning process has long been treated as a fragmented one where the learner has always been expected to leave his emotional, psychological, esteem needs outside the classroom in order to endeavour on the intellectual pursuit of knowledge. The holistic model which talks about bringing the learner’s heart, mind and body in the classroom still appears to be a fragmented model of learning.  The physical, intellectual and emotional only form our human self; who we are, is our spiritual self and when engaged, it is our spiritual self that has the capacity to create new solutions, new knowledge and new pathways. Thus, this article postulates that it may be the time to stop having a fragmented view of the learner and treat him as a whole person. 

 

 

“I wish to learn for the sake of learning, I know myself, I know my son and I know my men, I know my world-well! Just a bit. “

 

BACKGROUND

In terms of learning, student engagement appears to be the most important concept. Yet, as Barkley (2010) states in the very opening paragraphs of her book that a consensus on the definition of student engagement is missing. Most of literature refers to engagement as how the student engages in his own learning process. Barkley (2010) stated out that student engagement is the product of motivation and active learning. If one element is missing there is no engagement. Barkley pointed out that by creating classroom conditions that let student be motivated and actively involved in learning one can create an atmosphere where students are engaged in learning. She described three situations where the synergy between motivation and active learning could be created. These are building classroom communities, helping students work at their optimal level of challenge and teaching in a manner that students learn holistically.

This article will discuss the relevance of the third strategy of creating synergy by teaching in a manner that students learn holistically.

 

CONCEPT

The concept of holistic learning comes from the idea that the brain and body cannot be separated (Ratey 2002). Historically higher education expected that students bring into the classrooms purely their intellectual side but now educators realize that the mind, body and heart are all involved in learning (Barkley, 2010). This discussion on bringing in the mind, body and heart in the classroom has been mainly conceptualized and implemented on the basis of Bloom’s Taxonomy by various authors at different stages of research.

As per research, the affective and psychomotor domains have long been ignored by teachers, as while designing lesson plans they tend to focus on the cognitive domain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1: How emotions impact learning

 

 

Affective domains refer to feelings, values, enthusiasms and attitudes and psychologists suggest that they cannot be separated from the cognitive domain (Ratey, 2002 and Barkley 2010). Emotions have effect on our learning. How we feel about things we learn, is strongly related to our level of engagement. As mentioned by Barkley (2010) emotions are affected by learning, environment and content.

Physicality has also always been undervalued, where physical movement has been thought to be lower level brain function and cognition a higher level brain function. But evidence now suggests that movement is crucial in every level of brain function.  Thoughts and feeling are expressed through actions. Therefore, separating physicality from learning is impossible and in order to engage students, the psychomotor domain cannot be ignored.

According to Barkley (2010) today higher educators are talking about the needs for new kinds of learning that creates leaders, builds ethics and character, tolerance and adaptability to change. Cultivating such attributes are only possible if students are engaged by the synergy of all the three domains.

 

EVALUATION

Knowles (1973) in his notable text the adult leaner: a neglected species, had noted that most of the theories on adult education are derived from those based on children. The adult learner is different. The adult learner is matured, experienced, problem centered, growth focused and rational. Thus engaging an adult learner is a different story.

An adult learner who is coming into a class to get a degree, certification that will get him a job or a promotion or a pay raise is hurried, restless and divided. Moreover, an adult leaner with responsibilities of family and kids is a tougher challenge to engage rather than a young under graduate student or a child. An adult leaner sitting in the class may be at the same time worried about his sick child or a serious relationship issue. Engaging such a learner in the active learning process may not be truly a function of cognition, emotion or physicality. In other words the three domains of learning may not be able to engage such a learner who is pressed by time, emotions, affections and commitments.

 

Taking a few scenarios,

• An adult running late for office, sitting in the early morning career development class would be least interested in the content, no matter how engaging the content or teaching strategy is- his focus would be on reaching his workplace in time.

• A person studying statistics or number would not be able to find any connection, community or purpose in concentrating, in a class when he has a sick child at home.

• Another scenario in the same situation may be of an adult studying about cancer with a sick child at home suffering from the same disease. An emotionally connected content may have emotional feel for others but may make the adult learner an emotional mess.

 

THE POSSIBLE ANSWER

For adults to be engaged in learning, a different and truly holistic strategy is needed. Adults are experienced and as per Maslow’s hierarchy once they have met their basic, sociological, psychological needs, and esteem needs they move to the need for self-actualization, studies now-a-days add the next step to the ladder of needs - self-transcendence.

An adult learner, irrespective of his objective of learning is looking for higher level knowledge than what he has accumulated over the years. Higher level knowledge has the power to lead an adult learner to the path of excellence – if real learning happens. In this scenario the adult learner can truly be empowered and be on the highest level of the motivation ladder- the feeling of self- transcendence.

 In simple words higher level learning leads to wisdom and knowledge, this creates excellence and makes adults experts in their field of study. Thus, to attain such higher level of learning it is the spirit of the adult that needs to be evoked. The adult learner should be made self-aware that the journey of learning he is about to start as a learner is the path to excellence. This would create a powerful picture of self and his spirit in his mind and walking on the path of excellence through learning the adult learner would be truly engaged. Thus, there is a need for research on learning as a way to transcendence, knowledge leading to power and excellence as motivation to learn.

 

“When I learn I feel closer to knowledge, every dip in the ocean of knowledge brings me closer to myself, when I come closer to myself, I experience joy… this joy I call the joy of learning….

No feeling, no emotion, no greed, no stress, no distraction can keep me away from taking a dip in the ocean of knowledge…

In knowledge I excel, for knowledge I live, knowledge is my God, knowledge is my belief… it makes me powerful, it makes me live… “

 

 

 

References

Barkley, E. F. (2010). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Knowles, M. (1973). The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species. Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing Company

Ratey, J. J. (2002). A user’s guide to the brain: Perception, attention, and the four theaters of the brain. New York: Pantheon Books.

 

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