Learning is not a function
of the mind alone but of the total person which is the overreaching principle
of holistic education, that is, to provide learning opportunities for the
development of the physical, intellectual, psychomotor, character and social
development of human beings.
Definition of Holistic
Education - The concept of holistic education, based on
a spiritual/philosophical orientation‘s encapsulated in the Primer for 2002
Basic Education Curriculum: “The Department of Education envisions every
learner to be functionally literate, equipped with life skills, appreciative of
the arts and sports, and imbued with the desirable values of a person who is
makabayan (patriotic), makatao (mindful of humanity), makakalikasan (
respectful of nature) andmaka-diyos (godly).
Purpose of Holistic
Education - The purpose of holistic education is to
prepare students to meet the challenges of living as well as schooling. To
ensure holistic education, it is important for young people to learn a variety
of human concerns which include knowing and understanding about the following:
(Holistic Education, 2003)
1.
Themselves
2.
Healthy relationships with others
3.
Social development
4.
Resilience
5.
Beauty, truth and transcendental experience
Cognitive Development: Cognition
represents the manner by which a human being acquires, stores, processes and
uses information about the internal and external environment.
Three famous cognitive
psychologists:
1.
Jean Piaget -
considered the development of the intellect according in four sequential stages
that form a continuum of mental processes which increasingly become more
sophisticated as the individual grows and develops.
2.
Jerome Bruner -
like Piaget. Bruner considered intellectual development as taking place in
stages, fromthe simple tothe complex. According to Bruner, human beings
represent in their minds the world around them based on the cognitive level
they are in at a particular point in time, however, unlike Piaget, Bruner did
not consider cognitive levels as age-bound.
3.
Lev Vygotsky - on
the other hand, he focused on the important role of language and social
interaction in cognitive development. To Vygotsky, it is necessary to
understand the interrelations between thought and language, in order to
understand intellectual development.
Social emotional development,
like cognitive development is the product of interaction between the biological
and environmental factors. The social dimension refers to the interaction with
others, while the emotional refers to feelings about oneself.
Eric Erikson is
known for ―identity crisis‖. He formulated a theory of
social-emotional development based on his extensive experience in psychotherapy
and dealings with children and adolescents from all social class levels. He
proposed that socialization consists of ―the eight stages of man‖
each stage involves a ―psycho-
social crisis‖.
Lawrence Kohlberg, proposed
six stages of moral development. The first three of which share many features
with the stages in the Piagetian model. He believes that moral development
tales place through a series of six under three levels of development.
Krathwohl, Bloom and Masia (1956)
developed a taxonomy of objectives in the affective domain. Affective phenomena
run through from simple behaviors to increasing more complex ones that require
organization and characterization or internalization.