Over the Edge: Can Holistic Education Contribute to Experiential Education?

Abstract

This article compares and contrasts experiential and holistic education and suggests some points of entry where basic principles of holistic education could serve to enhance the conceptual foundations of the philosophy of experiential education. The article begins by comparing three curriculum orientations: transmission (back-to-basics education), transaction (progressive and experiential education), and transformation (holistic education). The paper then assesses the definition of experiential education put forward in three recent contributions to the Journal. It is suggested that these definitions could well be enriched by privileging forms of consciousness beyond the cognitive, by deepening the notion of relationship to include embeddedness, and by honouring the “state of being” alongside “acts of doing.”

University students’ perceptions of a holistic care course through cooperative learning: implications for instructors and researchers

“…Although holistic education scholars (Clark 1991;Flake 1993;Hutchison and Bosacki 2000;Lin 2001;Miller 2001) agreed that holistic education nurtures the development of the whole person, students who have taken holistic-related courses seem unable to either apply or sometimes even recall what they learned in the courses taken previously (Miller 2001;Ting et al 2008).…”

“…Recently, a consensus was made that the basic premise of holistic education is based on its focus on relationshipsthe relationship between linear thinking (a method to think logically from A to B to C) and intuition, the relationship between mind and body, the relationship among various domains of knowledge, the relationship between the individual and community, and the relationship between self and Self (Hutchison and Bosacki 2000;Lin 2001;Miller 1999;Miller et al 2000;Miller 2001). However, it is not clear whether this premise is fully perceived by our students through class teaching or not.…”

“…In fact, a holistic education program may consist of a series of core courses and a selection of curricular from different fields, and even an enhancement of campus culture (Miller 1999;Ting et al 2008). Several researchers in the past have developed curricula for an integration of the subjects in holistic education such as lifelong learning and holistic education, ecology and holistic education, holistic education and experiential education, a holistic approach and teacher education, and the spiritual life and holistic learning (Clark 1991;Dougherty 1998;Hutchison and Bosacki 2000;Korthagen 2004;Miller 1999;Ting et al 2008). Regardless of the structure of a holistic education program, the underlying assumption is that students will be able to transfer what they learn in these holistic education courses to their discipline-based courses by means of teacher-student interactions, reading materials, and self-reflections and, eventually, to their careers.…”

We All Need WE: The Effect of Using Facebook and Group Fieldwork on Students’ Interdependence and Awareness of STSE Issues

“…Cervatiue and Ricento (2012) suggest that transmission perpetuates existing social and education structures. It is an orientation considered useful for transmitting facts, skills and values (Stanberry & Azria-Evans, 2001), however, they point out that the The goal of the transformation orientation is to raise social awareness and to bring about personal change in beliefs and behaviours (Cervatiue & Ricento, 2012); it is holistic and spiritual in nature (Russell, 1997), recognizing the world as more than the sum of its parts (Hutchison & Bosacki, 2000). The transformation approach demands reflection, (re)visioning of viewpoints, and critiquing assumptions; the educator gives up power/superiority in favour of a shared learning experience.…”

“…Freire referred to this as a banking model (1990), reductionist in nature, breaking content into small bits, or fragments, to be deposited with the learner. Indeed, the transmission orientation suggests that the world can be understood mechanistically (Hutchison & Bosacki, 2000) -that is, it is the sum of its parts. Cervatiue and Ricento (2012) suggest that transmission perpetuates existing social and education structures.…”