Fundamental Principles and Key Concepts of Holistic Education

Holistic Education is a multi-levelled experiential journey of discovery, expression and mastery where all students and teachers learn and grow together.

It is a quest for understanding and meaning. Its aim is to nurture healthy, whole, curious persons who can learn whatever they need to know in any new context. By introducing students to a holistic view of the planet, life on Earth, and the emerging world community, holistic strategies enable students to perceive and understand the various contexts that shape and give meaning to life.

Holistic education recognises the innate potential of EVERY student for intelligent, creative, systemic thinking.

Holistic Curriculum is inquiry driven, interdisciplinary and integrated, and is based on explicit assumptions of interconnectedness, wholeness and multi-dimensional being.

It recognises that all knowledge is created within a cultural context and that the "facts" are seldom more than shared points of view. It encourages the transfer of learning across academic disciplines. An holistic curriculum encourages learners to critically approach the cultural, moral and political contexts of their lives.

Holistic Learning is organised around relationships within and between learners and their environment while empowering learners to live fully in the present and to co-create preferred futures.

It is concerned with the growth of every person's intellectual, emotional, social, physical, artistic, creative and spiritual potentials. It actively engages students in the teaching/learning process and encourages personal and collective discernment and responsibility. It seeks to open the mind, warm the heart and awaken the spirit.

Holistic Education ...

• is concerned with the growth of every person's intellectual, emotional, social, physical, artistic, creative and spiritual potentials. It actively engages students in the teaching/learning process and encourages personal and collective responsibility.
• is a quest for understanding and meaning. Its aim is to nurture healthy, whole, curious persons who can learn whatever they need to know in any new context. By introducing students to a holistic view of the planet, life on Earth, and the emerging world community, holistic strategies enable students to perceive and understand the various contexts which shape and give meaning to life.
• recognises the innate potential of EVERY student for intelligent, creative, systemic thinking. This includes so-called "students-at-risk", most of whom have severe difficulties learning within a mechanistic reductionistic paradigm which emphasises linear, sequential processes.
• recognises that all knowledge is created within a cultural context and that the "facts" are seldom more than shared points of view. It encourages the transfer of learning across the chasms that have separated academic disciplines in the past. Holistic education encourages learners to critically approach the cultural, moral and political contexts of their lives.
• values spiritual knowledge (in a non-sectarian sense). Spirituality is a state of connectedness to all life, honouring diversity in unity. It is an experience of being, belonging and caring. It is sensitivity and compassion, joy and hope. It is the harmony between the inner life and the outer life. It is the sense of wonder and reverence for the mysteries of the universe and a feeling of the purposefulness of life. It is moving towards the highest aspirations of the human spirit.

Holistic Education is not any one technique or curriculum.

The following can emphasise the development of the whole person.

Whole-Brain Learning

Multiple Intelligences

Cooperative Learning

Knowledge of Whole Systems

Emotional Literacy

Meta-cognition

Individual learning styles  

Making the ordinary meaningful

 

 

Fundamental Principles	Connectedness	Wholeness	Being
Key Concepts	Interdependence Interrelationship Participatory Non-linearity	Whole systems Multiple perspectives Independence Multiple levels	Fully human Creative expression Growth Responsibility
Key Values	Compassion Community Ecosystems	Diversity within unity Sustainability Cultural identity	Love Responsibility Discernment Spirituality Wisdom
Social Issues	Cultural identity Globalisation Loneliness	Inclusion Ecosystems Poverty	Equity & equality Ethics Change
Curriculum	Inter-disciplinary Interaction	Integrated	Inquiry Identity Choice
Process	Dialogical Relationships Collaborative Co-creative Co-operative Sharing Celebrative	Whole person Whole community Whole of life Systems thinking Meta-cognitive Multi-levelled Integrative	Experiential Reflective Questioning Imaginative Inspirational Transformative Journeying
Perspectives	Critical constructivism Contextual	Multi-faceted Multiple intelligences Cosmic	Constructive postmodernist Evolutionary Epic Metaphoric
Outcomes	Meaningful Positive relationships Friendly Trusting Belonging Serving	Healthy Whole Happy Caring Empathic Confident Independent	Expressive Curious Preferred futures Participation Resilience Competence Purposeful Participation
Needs	Belonging	Self transcendence	Love Self actualisation
Teaching & Learning Strategies	Service learning IT&T integration Paradox & enigma Community based learning Play	Whole language Project based learning Experiential learning Open learning Whole brain   Integrated Studies	Meaning quests Vocational education Enterprise learning Indigenous education Storying Visualization
Contexts	Ecosystem   Community	Whole space/time Objective	Subjective Symbolic

 

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Fundamental Principles and Key Concepts

Connectedness

The concept of an interconnected reality which originated in the philosophy of holism and was further developed through ecology, quantum physics and systems theory.

• Interdependence - The function of each part of a system is mutually dependent on the functioning of other parts and the system as a whole.
• Interrelationship - A complex network of relationships exists among the parts of a system and with other systems.
• Participatory - The observer is always intimately connected to their environment, creating the reality they "observe".
• Non-linearity - Complex patterns of interaction, described through feedback loops, self-organising systems or chaos theory, are more common than simple linear cause-and-effect interactions.

Wholeness

The concept that "the whole is more than the sum of its parts". Whole systems have emergent properties that can't be deduced by studying their components.

• Whole systems - Thinking about whole systems involves shifting our attention from the parts to the whole, from objects to relationships, from structures to processes, from hierarchies to networks. It also includes shifts of emphasis from the rational to the intuitive, from analysis to synthesis, from linear to non-linear thinking.
• Multiple perspectives - Complex systems interact in complex ways and can be seen from many different points of view. There is no "one answer".
• Independence - Systems can operate as largely independent autonomous wholes  - that can be far from equilibrium with their environment.
• Multiple levels - Systems often include a network or holarchy of sub-systems that interact in complex ways.

Being

Being is about fully experiencing the present moment; it is about inner peace, wisdom and insight; it is about being honest and authentic.

• Fully human - A recognition of the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual dimensions of being human.
• Creative expression - A recognition of the importance of opportunities for creative expression of individuals ad communities.
• Growth - Transformation and growth allow each person to reach for the highest aspirations of the human spirit.
• Responsibility - Personal and collective discernment and responsibility for choices and actions at local, global and cosmic levels.  
  
  Source: http://www.hent.org/hent/fundamental.htm