LESSONS IN HUMANE EDUCATION
Overview of educational
techniques for Grades k-12
In attempt to deliver humane education
to a broad range of students we have incorporated a variety of educational
techniques and models. The following is a brief look into three
educational approaches driving the program.
EXPERIENTIAL
EDUCATION
The process of learning is dependent
upon doing or experiencing. L.B. Sharp explains the objectives of
the process are planned and articulated prior to undertaking the
experience, involving activity that is meaningful and real. Experiential
education activities typically involve direct experience in the
five stage process listed below:
- Exposure to and participation in
the experience that is the basis of the educational activity.
- Experimentation with that type
of experience.
- Individual reflection and facilitated
debriefing during the educational activity aimed at enhancing
the learning that occurs.
- Application of the principles involved
to reinforce the learning and link it to new and old knowledge.
- Internalization of the new knowledge
in a way that will facilitate both recall and application for
the learner
VALUE CLARIFICATION
The
goal of the value clarification approach is to help students process
what is of value in their own lives through self discovery into
life’s situations. John Dewey proposed that these values can be
applied to the beliefs and behavior patterns students are in the
process of formulating. Decisions are based on our consciously or
unconsciously held beliefs, attitudes and values. Valuing is composed
of the following:
- Prizing and cherishing one's beliefs
and behaviors.
- Publicly affirming these beliefs
when appropriate.
- Choosing one's beliefs and behaviors
from among alternatives.
- Choosing after consideration of
consequences.
- Choosing freely.
- Acting on one's beliefs.
- Acting with a pattern, consistency
and repetition.
The greatness of
a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals
are treated. - Mahatma Gandhi, Indian Statesman and Philosopher
PHILOSOPHY
Information
is presented in a philosophically logical manor by exposing the
elements of reason. By doing so the learner has the opportunity
to view the formation of their thoughts and reflect on their meaning.
The individual’s process shown by Richard Paul is as follows:
- Point of view – look at how I live
my life and reflect upon it to live a rational life.
- Purpose – live a reflective and
rational life.
- Personal inferences – judgments
about the manner in which I live and ought to live my life.
- Key questions – what must I do
to live a reflective and rational life?
- Assumptions – it is possible and
desirable to live a reflective life.
- Implications and consequences –
the consequences that follow for myself and for others if I live
a reflective life.
A man is ethical
only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants
and animals as well as that of his fellowman, and when he devotes
himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help. - Dr.
Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian Theologian, Musician, and Medical Missionary
He who is cruel
to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge
the heart of a man by his treatment of animals. - Immanuel Kant,
German Philosopher
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