Overview

          The humanistic paradigm of education can be understood as an approach to education which enables the expression of the full potential of the whole person. There is a strong connection within this paradigm between theories about psychotherapy and educational theory.  Carl Rogers was one of the core theorists of the humanistic paradigm whose work began in psychotherapy, with later application to the educational process.  He applied his “client-centered” approach to therapy to interactions between teachers and students, resulting in a strongly student-centered approach to education.

 

Current Applications

          A Rogerian approach to education seems to lie behind much of standard adult education practice.  The ideas of self-directedness on the part of the learner and a facilitative, non-directive role for the instructor are pervasive within adult education, and these are principles that are firmly rooted in a Rogerian paradigm.  The use of “learning contracts” is a practice specifically cited by Weibell (2011) as reflective of education rooted in Rogers’ thought.  Heim (2012) details a specific attempt to apply Rogerian principles to facilitating humanities tutorials.  There are, however, some criticisms of such a “therapeutic” approach to education (see http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/books/step-outside-the-rogerian-circle/403329.article).

          The following video contains a helpful summary of some of Rogers’ ideas with some indication of how they might be relevant to contemporary educational problems:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoxhA8fD5q0

 

Learning Transfer withing Roger's Educational Theory

          Rogers’ approach to education was rooted in his “person-centered approach” to psychotherapy.  His psychological theories were rooted in a strong belief in human potential and each person’s capacity to resolve her own life problems.  Roger’s approach to psychotherapy was therefore based on the goal of unleashing the client’s individual potential rather than having the therapist function as an expert problem-solver.  Likewise, within education, Rogers intended that the instructor/facilitator unleash the potential of the learner, based on the passions and interests which characterized each person. Thus, his 1951 book on Client-Centred Therapy included a chapter on “Student-Centred Teaching” which emphasized that the role of the instructor was to facilitate rather than direct.  Furthermore, three themes consistently emerge in any discussion of Rogerian theory.  His approach to therapy was based on therapist authenticity (“congruence” in Rogerian terminology), empathy for the client’s frame of reference, and “unconditional positive regard” toward the client.  Likewise, within education, the instructor must demonstrate personal authenticity, empathy toward learner’s emotions, and unconditional positive regard (Zimring, 1999). 

          Rogers also worked out more specific implications for the educational process.  He insisted that “significant learning can occur only to the degree that the student is working on problems that are real to him” (Zimring, 1999, p. 2).  Rogers articulated principles of learning which included belief in human potential to learn and an understanding that learning is most effective when there is alignment between the learning content and the personal goals of the learner, that learning which involves a change in self-concept can be threatening and thus facilitated by a non-threatening environment, that active involvement by the learner facilitates learning effectiveness, that involving the whole person (emotionally as well as cognitively) is important to learning, and that self-directedness as well as self-evaluation should be primary in the learning process (Zimring, 1999).

          In sum, then, Rogers’ approach to education seems in many ways ideally suited for the facilitation of learning transfer, because of two major elements:  a focus on the needs and problems of the learner, and a self-driven approach to learning.  Like others within the humanistic paradigm, Rogers did not begin with prescribed course content and try to figure out how it could be transferred to real life problems “out there.”  Rather, those real life problems were the starting point.  When the personally-defined needs and problems of the individual learner are the centerpiece of the educational process, the learning experience will be significantly meaningful to the learner, and this meaningfulness will support learning transfer.  Furthermore, Rogers’ self-initiated and self-evaluated approach to learning also supports learning transfer through nurturing learner independence.  Rogers emphasized that one of the key educational objectives was learning how to learn.  When this kind of self-directed “meta learning” takes place, the foundations for effective transfer are well established.

 

Facilitation for Learning Transfer

          For Rogers, successful facilitation of learning was rooted primarily in a set of interpersonal relational attitudes between the facilitator and learners.  Rogers explicitly specified some of the key characteristics (his “core conditions”) of effective facilitators (Cooper):

 

Personal authenticity.  This is about being transparent and “real,” not just putting on a show or setting oneself up (unrealistically) as the problem-solving expert.

 

Valuing the learners.  Within the therapeutic relationship, the counselor was expected to give “unconditional positive regard” to the client, and likewise within the educational relationship the instructor should value each individual learner.

 

Interpersonal empathy.  The instructor must value the perspectives of each individual learner and, to the fullest extent possible, learn to see the world through his or her eyes.

What follows, then, are some practical guidelines to realize Rogers’ ideal educational practice (with its attendant benefits for learning transfer):

-Create a safe (non-threatening) climate for learning. Make sure that the environment for learning is emotionally safe.  Help people relax and not be on the defensive.

-Facilitate the identification of both individual and group purposes/goals for the learning experience.  Again, a Rogerian approach to facilitation makes the learners’ purposes and goals the focal point of the learning process, so facilitating an identification of these goals is critical.

-Depend on the desires of students for motivation.  When the learners’ goals are the focal point, the facilitator can trust that the inherent meaningfulness of the learning will be a significant motivator to the learners.

-Make a wide variety of resources available to learners as they pursue their learning goals – and (as the facilitator) be one of those resources.  This is where the expertise of the facilitator can come in – not as the “know it all” dominating the class, but as a readily available resource (and provider of resources) to the learners as they pursue their learning goals.

-Create space for both emotions and intellectual content within the learning experience.  The facilitator can model the expression of both within the learning experience.  For instance, she might say, “I am feeling frustrated by our inability to make a clear decision on this.”  Remember that effective learning involves the whole person.

          Use reflective listening to convey empathy.  One way to make sure that learners know they are “heard” is through using reflective listening – restating what learners have said to convey empathetic understanding

 

References

 

Cooper, S. (2014). Carl Rogers (1902-1987): Experiential learning. Retrieved from http://www.lifecircles-inc.com/Learningtheories/humanist/rogers.html

 

Heim, C. (2012). Tutorial facilitation in the humanities based on the tenets of Carl Rogers. Higher Education, 63, 289–298. doi:10.1007/s10734-011-9441-z

 

Weibell, C. J. (2011). Principles of learning: 7 principles to guide personalized, student-centered learning in the technology-enhanced, blended learning environment. Retrieved from https://principlesoflearning.wordpress.com.

 

Zimring, F. (1999). Carl Rogers (1902-1987). Retrieved from http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/ThinkersPdf/ rogerse.PDF