Humanistic Education
Humanistic education is an attitude that promotes the overall development of the individual by giving first place to the emotional, social, and cognitive growth. The starting point of this is the conviction that education needs to be a medium for individual differences, creativity, and self-actualization. Hence, it is an essential tool for the growing of well-trained people who are independent thinkers and can sympathize with others.
Student-centered learning, personal growth, and intrinsic motivation are the main principles of humanistic education. This style of teaching promotes teachers to manually create a caring environment where kids are given the chance to learn independently, follow their interests, and develop responsibility. An instance is project-based learning, which provides students the chance to work on projects that are personally meaningful to them to achieve both acceptance and learning outcome of their project.
The main difference between humanistic and traditional education models lies in the fact that the former focuses mainly on the learner's experiences and needs instead of adhering to a strict curriculum. Traditional educational schemes are mostly concentrated on memorizing and standardized testes, while humanistics affirm the experience, togetherness and emotional awareness as the best forms of learning. By way of example, a humanistic classroom will have discussions and reflections that are encouraged and leave space for the students to connect their learning, for instance, to their values.
In humanistic education, the instructor is not just a transmitter of knowledge but more like a facilitator and a guide. This job includes being the creator of an inclusive and safe environment in which students feel appreciated and respected. Teachers promote autonomous learning and analytical reasoning through supporting and supplying sources while also allowing students to examine themes of their liking. For instance, the instructor can hold open debates that enable the pupils to state their opinions and feelings about a thematic unit, thus creating a feeling of a group and a collaborative way of working.
Certain instances of humanistic education in practice are the Montessori schools, which allow the students to autonomously select their activities and progress at their own rhythm, and the experiential learning programs that form many students in the real situations. Another one is the service learning, in which the students take part in the community service project that helps them develop social responsibility and empathy, at the same time they apply their academic knowledge in the meaningful context. Such practices show that it is the personal development and community involvement that are with humanistic education the most important things.