Evaluating the Humanistic Approach To Learning - Essay Example

INTRODUCTION As human beings, we are all capable of acquiring, adapting and changing knowledge and skills. We stop living if we stop learning. Learning is a life-long process to consider. Learning defined as 'the act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge or skill.' (American Heritage, 2000). On a psychological perspective, 'learning is often defined as a change in behavior (Birkenholz, 1999), which is demonstrated by people implementing knowledge, skills, or practices derived from education.' There are several theories that attempted to explain and conceptualize the process of human learning. The following theories are based on the psychology's schools of thought, which are Behaviorism, Social, Humanistic and Cognitive. In this paper, I have chosen to research and contrast two learning theories in application to teaching and learning photography. Behaviorists like Ivan Pavlov (1936) and Skinner (1990) states that behavior is explained by environmental causes, rather than by internal forces. It also emphasizes that the environment influences human behavior. Whereas, the Social Learning theory, states that people learn through the observation of other people. According to Bandura, (1977, p22) 'Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasion s this coded information serves as a guide for action.' (1977, p22). On the other hand, Cognitive Learning theorist 'were concerned with cognition - the act or process of knowing.' (Smith, 1999). Researchers like Jean Piaget, while recognizing the contribution of environment, explored changes in internal cognitive structure. It explained that every human being is bound to these stages. This also tells us that learning depends on the level or stage that we are in. Lastly, Humanistic approach to learning have explained that human beings as self-actualizing. The theory explains that people are bound to growth. In this paper, I have chosen to contrast two learning theories, which are the Cognitive and Humanistic approaches to learning. HUMANISTIC APPROACH TO LEARNING Humanism, states that it is important to look at a person as a whole. An individual is bound to develop and grow. Humanism is focused on self, motivation and goals. Humanistic theorists, Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, proposed the purpose of human is their development, which leads to self-actualization. In humanism, 'learning is student centered and personalized, and the educator's role is that of a facilitator. Affective and cognitive needs are key, and the goal is to develop self-actualized people in a cooperative, supportive environment.' (Huit, 2001) The famous theory of Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of needs (1954) identifies the needs of individual that needs to be considered in a learning environment. The hierarchy of needs is illustrated by a triangle in most references. The hierarchy are as follow: 1) Physiological: hunger, thirst, bodily comforts, etc.; 2) Safety/security: out of danger; 3) Belonginess and Love: affiliate with others, be accepted; and 4) Esteem: to achieve, be competent, gain approval and recognition. 5) Self-actualization: to find self-fulfillment and realize one's potential. According to Maslow, if an individual successfully fulfilled the needs, they will achieve self-actualization. Applied to a learning environment, a student should be able to satisfy his/her physiological needs in order for him/her to focus on learning a lesson. We can consider the physiological needs as food, clothing, shelter and the like. Imagine a student who has not eaten breakfast and came to school for his/her first class, the student may not be able to understand or comprehend his/her teacher if his/her stomach aching out of hunger. Once the physiological needs are in place and all right, Safety and security is next to be addressed, a student may consider his/her physical safety going to school. If the student feels that he/she is not secured in the school, he/she may not be motivated to learn. Whereas, Belonging needs are classified as the need of the student to be accepted in an environment, it could be support coming from family, friends, classmates and teachers. We may refer to this as the relationship with the people around the student. It is important that the student should feel that he/she is welcomed in a learning environment. 'Maslow stressed that only when we are anchored in community do we develop self-esteem, the need to assure ourselves of our own worth as individuals. Maslow claimed that the need for self-esteem could be met through mastery or achievement in a given field or through gaining respect or recognition from others. Once the need for self-esteem has been largely met, Maslow stated, we would develop a new restlessness and the urge to pursue the unique gifts or talents that may be particular to that person. As Maslow stated, "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be at ultimate peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. He must be true to his own nature" (p. 48). Maslow referred to this final level of need as Self-Actualization.' (Kunc, 1992) While on the theory of Carl Rogers applied to teaching and learning, openness is an important aspect of the learning process. One of the models included in the overall review of open education was facilitative teaching developed by Carl Rogers. The facilitative conditions include empathy, congruence and positive regard. "Aspy and Roebuck (1975) studied teachers in terms of their ability to offer facilitative conditions (including empathy, congruence, and positive regard) as defined by Rogers (1969) and Rogers and Freiberg (1994). Teachers who were more highly facilitative tended to provide more response to student feeling, use of student ideas in ongoing instructional interactions, discussion with students (dialogue), praise of students, congruent teacher talk (less ritualistic), tailoring of contents to the individual student's frame of reference (explanations created to fit the immediate needs of the learners) and smiling with students. To directly relate this theory to learning arts like photography, learners can freely express their own ideas and concepts. Arts are not like other field that needs to be approached rationally for it focuses on the human beings themselves. Therefore, learning must come from within. It has to be facilitated by supportive and lenient teachers. As teachers, as stated, must always elicit positive response to students learning the technicalities of arts and photography. They must accept that every student has their own capacity to create their own artworks and own style. It is their role to emanate positive attitude in learning but it is not advisable to dictate a structured process in learning. Therefore, Humanistic approach to learning elicits positive response from the students' learning process. COGNITIVE APPROACH TO LEARNING 'Cognitive learning is defined as the acquisition of knowledge and skill by mental or cognitive processes. Cognitive processes include creating mental representations of physical objects and events, and other forms of information processing.' (Think quest Team, 2008) The primary focus of the cognitive psychology emphasizes the internal processes and structures processes inferred through the observation of behavior. However, the focus on the mental structures and processes in cognitive psychology does not explicitly indicate its philosophical position. It is purely taking into consideration the mental processes of the individual. Cognitive theories are under the school of thought, Gestalt psychology. Gestalt psychology believed that knowledge comes from more than just experience; it also involves the knower actively imposing organization on sensory data. Kohler (1925, The Mentality of Apes) proposed that behavior could not be explained by the principles of association alone. He proposed that there was an inner process that enabled the apes to grasp the structure of a situation, in which learners recognized the interconnection based on the properties of things themselves. Learning, therefore, does not occur in a regular, continuous way from a pattern of trial and error. Instead, learning occurs with a realization of a new relationship, 'the insight experience'. A famous theory based on Cognitive Learning Theory is Jean Piaget's Cognitive Development. It proposes Piaget (1970) proposed that children progress through an invariant sequence of four stages: sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational. Those stages are not arbitrary, but are assumed to reflect qualitative differences in children's cognitive abilities. Being controlled by the logical structures in the different developmental stages, learners cannot be taught key cognitive tasks if they have not reached a particular stage of development. Also, Piaget (1985) suggested that learning process is iterative, in which new information is shaped to fit with the learner's existing knowledge, and existing knowledge is itself modified to accommodate the new information. Cognitive Learning theory is limited to understanding the physiological perspective, on how the mind works. It does not consider anything about the environment. Cognitive Learning theories have specified some techniques in learning and teaching through an instructional design. Collins, Brown, and colleagues (e.g., Collins, 1991; Collins, Brown, & Newman, 1989) have developed an instructional model derived from the metaphor of the apprentice working under the master craftsperson in traditional societies, and from the way people seem to learn in everyday informal environments (Rogoff & Lave, 1984). They have called their model cognitive apprenticeships, and have identified a list of features found in "ideal" learning environments. Instructional strategies, according to the Collins-Brown model, would include modeling, coaching, scaffolding and fading, reflection, and exploration. Additional strategies are offered for representing content, for sequencing, and for maximizing benefits from social interaction. Some of the teaching models being offered by cognitive researchers bear strong resemblance to traditional ID models. Larkin and Chabay (1989), for example, offer design guidelines for the teaching of science in the schools (pp. 160-163): (1) Develop a detailed description of the processes the learner needs to acquire. (2) Systematically address all knowledge included in the description of process. (3) Let most instruction occur through active work on tasks. (4) Give feedback on specific tasks as soon as possible after an error is made. (5) Once is not enough. Let students encounter each knowledge unit several times. (6) Limit demands on students' attention. In learning photography and the arts, cognitive learning theory may work in some ways but it can be somehow limited. Creating an "ideal" learning environment may somehow be an opposition to learning the arts for it contests freedom of the mind of the learner. A structured learning process may be applicable to learning photography's technicalities, like kinds of camera to use, do's and don'ts and how to but in the field itself, indeed, the learner must grasp his/her own concept of arts and apply it practically. HUMANISTIC VS. COGNITIVE To compare and contrast the two theories of learning, we may observe that the two theories are coming from different perspective. The humanistic theory focused on the positive regard, esteem and self-actualization of an individual. It is stating that in order for an individual to learn new things, he/she must be motivated enough to pursue it. It does not specify learning capabilities of an individual as major reason of an individual to learn. On the other hand, Cognitive theory gives emphasis on the physiological aspect of the learning process. It specifies that an individual be bound to stages of learning. Plus, learning is limited to some extent if you are on a stage. As stated, the two learning theories have cited process of learning differently. Cognitive theory, specifies structured learning, instructional and rationalized teaching method whereas Humanistic approach to learning and teaching, contested that learning happens when the learner is given much support and positive regard. It also stated that the teacher must be supportive to students, encourage them to create and have their own concepts. PHOTOGRAPHY Photography has affected our lives greatly. It serves as an important tool in recording the scenes in history that have touched us all. Priceless memories were saved because of photography. Photography plays vital role in the present society. It is used in advertising, magazines, science and research, newspapers and perhaps even during events, recreation and leisure. Without photography, our lives would certainly not be as exciting. "We would have never been able to show Earth from outer space, or the first man walking on the moon. We would of never been able to find a cure for many diseases if photography was not around. So, science and art heavily depend on photography." (ThinkQuest) To some, they consider Photography and painting as the same for each renders imagination in tangible form. The difference is that painters can work completely from imagination, although most of us work from life as a starting point. Photographers and painters both work from imaginations. Painters can be a little freer with their imaginations. (KenRockwell.com, 2007) While to most people, photography is an art. It is an interest and best pursued if a person has deep interest on it. A camera in photography is basic. A camera is 'an apparatus for taking photographs, generally consisting of a lightproof enclosure having an aperture with a shuttered lens through which the image of an object is focused and recorded on a photosensitive film or plate.' (American Heritage, 2000) The original cameras did not even have a glass lens. The first cameras used a tiny hole in the front of the box to allow in light and to focus the image onto the viewing surface. Presently, there are different cameras innovated for the purpose of photography. Today's cameras use glass lenses to focus and capture light much more quickly and to allow us to magnify images. Film is much more sensitive and finely detailed than the first film surfaces and now we also have digital sensors that sometimes take the place of film. Today's cameras also have shutters that control the light from reaching the film or sensor with the touch of a button and have powerful flashes to help illuminate scenes. The camera has come a long way from its humble beginnings, but it is still just a box that controls the amount of light that reaches a piece of film. (About.com, 2008) As a teacher, teaching photography is not as easy as everyone thought. One must employ a unique but effective teaching strategy. It is very important to consider the student's point of view and see to it that they have opinion on things. It is also good to hear if they have questions in mind but in the long run, they are the one who is responsible in answering their own questions. In the first place, photography must be part of their interest and passion. PHOTOGRAPHY IN EDUCATION In a research conducted by Chopra (1998), he has concluded that photography can be a rewarding and enriching method of learning. The project had involved children from slum areas in India, who have been disinterested in education due to the socio-economic status of the city. Chopra have held a training institute for photography, he has taught children to use camera and be creative in choosing their subjects. Later on, the children were interested in the said project and took it seriously. This has proven that photography, indeed, is an avenue to learn and for creativity. The project has turned the children to be self-righteous in preserving the environment for it has become their arena. Photography has also proven to be an opening for employment opportunities. Photography is relevant in the field of arts, mass communications, journalism, fine arts and even in the business or entrepreneurship. There are several schools and universities across different countries that offer photography as a subject or as a course. Photography classes are embed on Fine Arts and Mass Communications while there are schools that offer short courses for online photography, digital photography, photo journalism and conventional photography. As a teacher, it should flourish ad be supported. One interview with a photography lab technician, who also stands a teacher to students learning photography, he stated when asked about his job " There's a checkout window, but my job is not really about being in a Cage (as exotic as that sounds). Rather, it involves a lot of running around a large lab facility. It's about managing the facility, managing student workers, making sure everything else is working, making sure that all of the supplies are ordered, and that all of the teachers have everything they need. A huge part of the job is interacting with students, and giving them feedback. It's a pretty social job." (Fields, 2008). PHOTOGRAPHY AND HUMANISTIC LEARNING THEORY Learning photography could be associated to the concept of Humanistic Psychology of Learning. In Humanistic approach, we recognize the importance of self-actualization and esteem in order for an individual to attain it, there should be the presence or fulfillment of needs based on the hierarchy of needs presented by Maslow. Humanistic have given emphasis on the role self and motivation. In learning Photography, one will be able to learn it if an individual as deep interest on it. For most people, photography and arts is their passion. If an individual is a self-actualized person, as described by Maslow, who is self-fulfilled and realizes one's potential then he/she will become an effective photographer. Humanistic approach is open and exudes positive regard. Applying the approach to learning photography enables the individual to be appreciated whether he/she is a beginner or a professional photographer. As teachers, we may feel that we are the most important part of a students' school experience but as stated by Humanism, learning focuses on the student himself/herself. For example, in choosing a subject in photography cannot be taught by the teacher but it is the student who will employ his or her own ideas and concepts. The teacher will just teach the technical like how to run the lab, negative-positive and other stuff but in the long run, it can just be very easy for the student. CONCLUSION The Humanistic approach of learning is suited to explain how learning photography is effective. Learning photography always comes from within. The self initiates it and having esteem makes an individual self-actualize and appreciate environment through taking pictures of it. The application of theory can create a good and deep impact to the history of teaching and learning photography when it is best employed by most teachers. If the teachers will employ this teaching style, indeed, every student may feel that their artworks are appreciated and important. It can help them to be motivated to produce more great works and it can benefit the photography industry. Supportive teachers will produce artistic students and later on, they will also become supportive teachers to beginners. References AIB. (2006). Mission statement. Bournemouth: The Arts Institute at Bournemouth. AIB. (2006). Teaching, learning and assessment action plan. Bournemouth: The Arts Institute at Bournemouth. AIB. (2006). Teaching, learning and assessment strategy. Bournemouth: The Arts Institute at Bournemouth. 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