AN OVERVIEW OF HOLISTIC EDUCATION – Project topics materials

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Traditional Education (Content-Based)

Freire (1987:10) stated that: “the lecture-based passive curriculum is not simply poor pedagogical practice. It is the teaching model most compatible with promoting the dominant authority in society and with disempowering students.” Traditional methods of education have been described as being controlled by calendars and timetables, where opportunities are limited and content is organised in subjects or courses that have to be completed in a specifictime before credits are received (Spady 1994:32-35). According to the Department ofEducation (DoE) (1997:6), traditional methods encourage rote learning that is textbook orworksheet-bound and teacher-centred.
Progressive thinkers in education often paint a very unflattering picture of traditional education, saying that students were required to memorise endless facts and formulas from a dreary academic curriculum remote from their own youthful interests. Often in traditional education, teachers have defined good pedagogy as drill and practice; their job was to hear recitations, not lead discussions. Classroom life was austere. Teachers established unilaterally the rules and regulations, and they punished misconduct harshly. Administrators deferred to school boards often enmeshed in factionalism and political patronage (Hampel at http://www.faqs.org/childhood/Pa-Re/Progressive-Education.html).
In the traditional teaching environment, the teacher is the controller of the learning environment. Power and responsibility is held by the teacher and they play the role of instructor (in the form of lectures) and decision maker (in regards to curriculum content and specific outcomes) (Novak 1998: 24-25). According to Novak (1998: 24-25), teachers of traditional education regard students as having ‘knowledge holes’ that need to be filled with information and that it is the teacher that causes learning to occur.
Piaget argued that “children do not learn by sitting passively in their seats, listening to the teacher” (Pulaski 1980:206). In traditional learning environments, content need not be learned in context (Johnson et al. 1991). This idea of learning promotes the importance of content and delivery thereof, which is chiefly accomplished through drill and practice (rote learning).

Reasons for Changes from Traditional Education (Content-Based) to Outcomes-Based Education (OBE)

The structure of the world at work has changed rapidly from traditional industrial society to a more knowledge-based society. This in turn has changed patterns of work and has also generated different types of work (Hargreaves 1999:45)
Dewey (1951:1) observed, that “the history of educational theory is marked by opposition between the idea that education is development from within and that it is formation from without”. This idea often tends to cause theorists to break terminology into exclusive opposites: instruction versus facilitation, didactic versus inferential, passive versus active and traditional versus progressive.
Dewey, as one of the most influential theorists of progressivism and change in education, envisioned progressive pedagogy as a means to, not an avoidance of, intellectual exertion. The curiosity of children and the flexibility of teachers should enhance, not diminish, the life of the mind (Dewey 1951). Dewey was therefore endorsing a strategy which would convey serious subject-matter through an experiential learning process.
Olivier (1998:20-21) says that the move from mainly content-based education to OBE was thought of at a time when the quality movement in business and manufacturing was introduced. The shift from traditional (content-based) education to OBE was thought to have a specific aim. This was to prepare learners for life in society and for performing tasks based on the new demands of the job market.
There have been many arguments in favour of OBE. One argument is that OBE is able to measure what students are capable of doing, something which the traditional education system often fails to do. An example of this is how assessment methods in traditional education systems often grade students on their ability to choose correct answers, thus not allowing them to demonstrate their understanding of what they have learnt, but instead expecting them to reproduce verbatim their content knowledge.

READ Quality in early learning centres – investigating the literature

CHAPTER ONE: MOTIVATION AND DIRECTION FOR RESEARCH
1.1 INTRODUCTION
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.2.1 Analysis of the Problem
1.2.2 Awareness of the Problem
1.2.3 Statement of the Problem
1.3 AIM OF THE RESEARCH
1.3.1 General Aim: Literature Study
1.3.2 Specific Aim: Qualitative Research
1.4 MOTIVATION FOR THE RESEARCH
1.5 CLARIFICATION OF CONCEPTS
1.6 RESEARCH METHODS AND DESIGN
1.7 CHAPTER DIVISION
1.8 CONCLUSIO
CHAPTER TWO: AN OVERVIEW OF HOLISTIC EDUCATION
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 WHAT DOES HOLISM MEAN?
2.2.1 Holism Defined
2.3 HOLISTIC EDUCATION
2.3.1 The Roots of Holistic Education
2.3.2 Ideals of Holistic Education
2.3.2.1 What Holistic Education Claims to Be
2.3.2.1a Goals
2.3.2.1b Attention to Experiential Learning
2.3.2.1c Relationships Within the Learning Environment
2.3.3 Making Connections to the World
2.3.4 Dr Ron Miller: Renewal of Meaning in Education
2.4 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER THREE: PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES WITHIN MAINSTREAM
SCHOOLS
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 EDUCATION IN MAINSTREAM SCHOOLS
3.2.1 Defining Mainstream
3.2.1.1 Mainstream Education: A South African Context
3.3 TWO MAIN METHODS USED IN MAINSTREAM SCHOOLS
3.3.1 Traditional Education (Content-Based)
3.3.2 Outcomes-Based Education (OBE)
3.3.3 Reasons for Changes from Traditional (Content-Based) to OBE
3.4 LIVING WITH CHANGE
3.4.1 Globalisation
3.4.2 Science and Technology
3.5 FACTORS TO CONSIDER BEFORE DECIDING WHICH EDUCATIONAL
SYSTEM TO USE:
3.5.1 Inclusion
3.5.1.1 Reaching All Students
3.5.1.2 Students at Risk
3.5.1.3 Students with Disabilities
3.6 TRADITIONAL OR OBE: A RESPONSE TO SOCIAL AND FAMILIAL
DYSFUNCTION
3.7 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER FOUR: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN HOLISTIC AND
MAINSTREAM EDUCATION
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 AN ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION
4.2.1 A new culture needs a new educatio
4.2.2 Alternatives that exist within Education
4.2.2.1 Alternative Schools and Home-schooling
4.2.2.2 Life Orientation programmes
4.2.2.2.1 Objectives of a Life Orientation Programme
4.3 A SELF-EFFICACY APPROACH TO HOLISTIC STUDENT
DEVELOPMENT: A SOUTH AFRICAN STUDY
4.3.1 Under-Preparedness for Higher Education
4.3.1.1 Possible Reasons
4.3.1.2 What does the Research say?
4.3.1.3 What are the Implications?
4.3.2 How Does the ‘Advancement Programme’ Help Students?
4.3.2.1 What is Self-Efficacy?
4.3.2.2 Has the Programme Been Effective?
4.4 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER FIVE: RESEARCH APPROACH
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.2 RESEARCH DESIGN DESCRIBED
5.2.1 Personal Growth Programme (PGP)
5.2.1.1 Purpose
5.2.1.2 Outline and Contents of the Programme
5.2.1.2.1 Outline
5.2.1.2.2 Aim
5.3 RESEARCH METHOD EXPLAINE
5.3.1 Understanding the Context
5.3.1.1 The College Context
5.3.1.2 Why a Personal Growth Programme?
5.3.2 Qualitative Research
5.3.2.1 Methodolog
5.3.2.1.1 Role of the Researcher
5.3.2.1.2 Ethical Considerations
5.3.2.1.2.1 Ethical Measures taken when doing the questionnaire
5.3.3 Data Collection
5.3.3.1 Sampling and Selection
5.3.3.2 Sample setting for PGP
5.3.4 Field Work
5.3.4.1 Length of Fieldwork
5.3.4.2 Fieldwork Methods
5.3.4.2.1 In-Depth Interviews
5.3.4.2.2 Direct Observation
5.4 CONCLUSIO
CHAPTER SIX: RESEARCH FINDINGS
CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY