Humanism and Social Interactionism in Educational Psychology

Humanism and Social Interactionism in Educational Psychology

We will study now some Approaches to Educational Psychology:

Kaplan (1990) in Williams and Burden (1997:6) defines Educational Psychology as “the application of Psychology to education by focussing on the development, evaluation and application of theories and principles of learning and instruction that can enhance lifelong learning”.

Educational Psychology passed through different fashions and these were reflected on the practice of teachers according to the impact that they had. Analyses and understanding of these theories will lead to an awareness of their contributions to language teaching.


Humanistic Approaches:


“Humanistic education starts with the idea that students are different, and it strives to help students more like themselves and less like each other” (Hammachek, 1977:149 in Williams and Burden, 1997:36)

They highlight the importance of the learner’s inner world. In the centre of all human development, they put the individual’s thoughts, feelings and emotions. As Williams and Burden (1977: 30) maintain these areas are “often unjustly neglected and yet they are vitally important”.

We can identify three main figures in this approach:
• Erik Erikson
• Abraham Maslow
• Carl Rogers

Erik Erikson:

*1963: Childhood and Society: “human psychological development depends on the way in which individuals pass through predetermined maturation stages.” (Williams and Burden, 10997:31)

EPIGENETIC PRINCIPLE
8 STAGES FROM BIRTH TO OLD AGE: each with a particular crisis



STAGES /CHALLENGES PARENTS’/TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES

1-Early infancy: Basic Trust in the world as a predictable, caring place.
A caring atmosphere
2-Age 2/3: Establishing Autonomy: foundations of feelings as opposed to doubt and shame
Appropriate actions by caregivers can foster a basic attitude of ‘I can do it’.


3- Age 4: Sense of Initiative
Parental Encouragement.
Punishment for exploratory activity can generate feelings of guilt, which will inhibit future initiative.

4: Early school years: Industry
Basic educational skills and learning competence are developed.
A sense of inferiority can result if these learning experiences
are beset with failure.
Emphasis must be put upon co-operative learning.
Teachers should foster a spirit of co-operation rather than competition.

5-Adolescence: Search for Identity.
An important function of teachers at secondary level is to foster a sense of personal identity by encouraging learners to make decisions for themselves and helping them to express their individuality in constructive ways.

6-Young Adult: Intimacy: to establish intimate relationships.
How well this is accomplished will depend on how well each of the previous life challenges have been met.
7- Middle Age:
The challenge here is to maintain a sense of generavity: to continue to see oneself as a person capable of generating new interests and insights.
This is intimately related to how creative instincts have been encouraged to flourish during early years and later school careers. Therefore, this is a strong theoretical justification for the use of music, art, drama and games, all familiar techniques with language teachers.

8- Old Age: it revolves around the conflict between integrity and despair.
Old people should be able to look back on a life of self-fulfilment and personal accomplishment, and look forward to the inevitability of death without fear.

(Adapted from A life-span View of Psychological Stages in Williams & Burden, 1997)



Abraham Maslow:
For some Psychologists human behaviour has a close relationship to the satisfaction of basic needs. Abraham Maslow (1968, 1970) suggested a hierarchy of needs which is generally presented in a pyramidal form.










Being Needs

Self-actualisation
Aesthetic Needs
Cognitive Needs
----------------------------------------------------------------
Deficiency
Needs

Need for self-esteem
Need for interpersonal closeness
Need for safety and security
Basic Psychological Needs


Fig. 5. Source: Williams & Burden, 1997:34

Some difficulties at school may be connected to the degree of fulfilment of learners’ needs.
Teachers have responsibility in “establishing a secure environment where learners feel that they belong and where they can build up self-respect by receiving respect from others” (Williams & Burden, 1997:35).

Carl Rogers:

Rogers (1969) identified key elements if the humanistic approach to education.
Human beings: have a natural potential for learning.
Significant/Meaningful learning = what is learnt is perceived to be of personal relevance.
Experiential Learning =involves active participation
Openness to experience =prepares learners to adapt themselves with the difficulties of the world around them.
An atmosphere of positive regard = vital for best learning
Teachers: see learners as clients with specific needs to be met.

“Learning which is self initiated and which involves feelings as well as cognition is most likely to be lasting and pervasive” (Williams and Burden, 1997:35)

Learning experiences which do not have an impact on the learners’ human condition will have “limited educational value.” (Williams and Burden, 1997: 36)

Implications of the Humanistic Approach on ELT:

Personalization of educational experiences.
Differentiation: teachers should be able to identify individual learner’s needs.

“A learning experience of personal consequence occurs when the learner assumes the responsibility of evaluating the degree to which he or she is personally moving toward knowledge instead of looking to an external source of evaluation” (Williams and Burden, 1997: 36)
A number of methodologies have come up taking a humanistic approach:
Silent Way
Suggestopedia
Community Language Learning

These methodologies have the following aspects in common:

They are based more on Psychology than on Linguistics.
They all consider affective aspects of learning and language as important.
They treat the learner as a whole person, with whole-involvement in the learning process.
They all see the importance of a learning environment that minimises anxiety and enhances personal security.

Williams and Burden (1997:38) summarise the messages that Humanistic Approaches have for language teachers as follows:
Create a sense of belonging;
Make the subject relevant to the learner;
Involve the whole person;
Encourage a knowledge of self;
Develop personal identity;
Encourage self-esteem;
Involve the feelings and emotions;
Minimise criticism;
Encourage creativity;
Develop a knowledge of the process of learning;
Encourage self-initiation;
Allow for choice;
Encourage self-evaluation.

These messages can fit very well in a Communicative Class and can provide a powerful background at the moment of designing tasks and making up yearly plans.

Social Interactionism:

It is associated to two well-known psychologists:
• Lev Vygotsky
• Reuven Feuerstein
As Williams and Burden (1997: 39) explain,
“(F)or social interactionists, children are born into a social world, and learning occurs through interaction with other people. [. . . ] Thus we can begin to see in social interactionism a much-needed theoretical underpinning to a communicative approach to language teaching, where it is maintained that we learn a language through using the language to interact meaningfully with other people.”

Lev Vygotsky: (Russian) Thought and Language (1962)
Mind and Society (1978)
Here are some key issues from his theory:
• Importance of language in interacting with people, not only speech but signs and symbols. (Williams and Burden, 1997:40)
• Language is the means through which culture is transmitted, thinking develops and learning occurs.
• “Mediation”: this is a central concept. Significant people in the learner’s life=“mediators”
• “Zone of Proximal development”: this is the layer of skill or knowledge just beyond that with which the learner is able to cope. When he works with another person (teacher or peer) who is more competent he can move to the next layer.


Reuven Feuerstein: (Israeli)

Assessing children’s full potential = to provide them with the skills and strategies to overcome their learning difficulties, and to become effective learners. (Williams and Burden, 1997:41)

• Dynamic Assessment: assessment is part of learning and it is the result of interaction between assessor and learner.
• Role of the mediator. (Teacher or peers)
• Emphasis on the social context in which learning takes place.
• Advantages of collaborative work.

A Social constructivist model:

Social constructivism: Four key sets of factors interact as part of a dynamic ongoing process: teachers, learners, tasks and contexts, as can be seen in Fig.6 below.
Teachers select tasks which reflect their beliefs about teaching and learning. The task is, therefore, the interface between teachers and learners. (Williams and Burden, 1997:42-45)






APPENDIX UNIT I:

Compiled Bibliography for Unit 1:

• Armendariz, A. (Ed.) (2000) Propuestas para el aula. Material para el docente. Ministerio de Educación. Argentina. (Chapters 4 & 5pp.14-19)
• Brown, H. (2001) Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. 2ndEd. New York, Addison Wesley Longman. Chapter 2 (pp. 13-38) & Chapter 3 (pp.39-53)
• Harmer, J. (2001) The practice of English language teaching. 3rd Ed. Harlow, Longman Pearson Education. Chapter 4 (pp. 56-67)
• Harmer, J. (2007) The practice of English language teaching. 4th Ed. Harlow, Longman Pearson Education. Chapter 4 (pp. 62-80)
• Scrivener,J. (2005) Learning teaching. A guidebook for English language teachers. 2nd Ed. Oxford, Macmillan Ed. Chapter 1 (pp. 11-26)
• Williams, M. and Burden, R. (1997) Psychology for Language Teachers. A social constructivist approach. Cambridge. CUP. (Chapter 2)