Holistic Learning - Mind, Body & Spirit
Holistic Learning – Mind, Body & Spirit
A number of years ago I took a Bronze level course in the Kirkpatrick Model taught in Dubai. Most people in Learning & Development will have heard of it as it is perhaps one of the best known models for analysing and evaluating the results of training and educational programs. Rather than teaching a course with the primary objective of your students passing an exam at the end, it is centred around providing learning which can actually be applied in real life and measured in that way using post course tasks and varied evaluation methods.
Learning & Development lies at the very heart of everything we do here at C&E HR Consultancy. All programmes are essentially designed to be a learning experience. Over the past year, with the world in the grips of a pandemic and mental health issues becoming more and more pertinent, I began to ponder the notion of Holistic Education and how that could be applied by the learner to everyday life.
Holistic education is a relatively new movement in education that seeks to engage all aspects of the learner, including mind, body, and spirit. Its philosophy is based on the premise that each person finds identity, meaning, and purpose in life through connections to their environment, to the natural world, and to humanitarian values such as compassion and peace. Holistic education gives attention to experiential learning and looks to utilize a range of teaching styles.
When I did my Post Graduate Diploma in Teaching in 2008 I learned a lot about something called Suggestopedia which always very much intrigued me and although the world may not have been ready for it then, I believe it is now!
Suggestopedia is a language teaching method which originated in the 1970s by Bulgarian psychologist Georgi Lozanov. The name combines the terms "suggestion" and "pedagogy", the main idea being that accelerated learning can take place when accompanied by de-suggestion of psychological barriers and positive suggestion. Essentially, people learn better when they don’t really know they’re learning at all!
I loved creating sessions based around the theory of Suggestopedia. Lozanov also believed that language learning can occur at a much faster rate than ordinarily transpires. The reason for our inefficiency, Lozanov asserts, is that we set up psychological barriers to learning…According to Lozanov and others, we may be using only 5-10% of our mental capacity. In order to make better use of our mental reserves, the limitations we think we have need to be ‘desuggested’. This means that students are optimistic about learning instead of believing that they cannot be successful. (‘Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching’ by Diane LARSEN FREEMAN. Oxford American English 1986.)
Here is an example of a Language Lesson I would have created all those years ago around this Natural Learning approach:
What are therefore the implications on teaching? How does one execute such a lesson?
There are different variants, some more extreme than others, this is my perception of how to execute a lesson based upon ‘suggestopaedia’.
Stage 1
• Ensure that the classroom is filled with pictures which create a relaxing mood –scenes of peace and tranquillity such as gardens, beaches and far off exotic lands. Learning is facilitated in a relaxed, comfortable environment.
• There may also be some language focus posters because students learn from what is present in the environment, even if their attention is not specifically directed to it – this is called osmosis.
• There should be dimmed lights and classical music playing in the background as music helps reinforce the teaching material. Consciously the learner attends to the language whereas subconsciously the music suggests that learning is easy and pleasant.
• Comfortable chairs and cushions are provided to help students to relax.
Stage 2
• Students are lulled into a state of relaxation using a visualisation exercise which encourages them to think positively about their success, these visualisations often incorporate situations where the students see and hear themselves speaking fluent English. Lozanov believed that activating the learner’s imagination would aid learning and the more confident the students feel about speaking English the better they will learn.
• Students close their eyes, rest their hands on their laps or knees, relax any points of tension in the body. Students relax their shoulders and point the chin upwards which helps to maintain their physical and mental balance. Students need to become aware of their bodily contact with the ground yet sitting straight up as if supporting the sky with the head. Students shouldn’t be allowed to slump otherwise their mind will find it easier to wander. There is an excellent visualisation exercise we can use in ‘Dictation’ by Rinvolucri and Davis (p70 &71) which gives you the full relaxation exercise as well as a text to use with the students.
• You must include a focus on breathing before and even after the visualisation. You start with long, deep breaths. Students mustn’t imagine the breath as something invisible entering and leaving the body. Eventually you let the breathing resume its own rhythm, without interfering with or controlling it.
• A sample of a visualisation exercise you could use is ‘Imagine you have arrived on an exotic island in the Caribbean-the sea is clear, bright blue, the sky meets the ocean far, far away. The sun is high in the sky. The waves of the sea are lapping peacefully onto the gorgeous, golden sand. You are in a beautiful little beach bar, drinking cocktails. You can hear everyone around you speaking in English, you are happy listening to their conversations all around you. There is some nice music playing in English – you appreciate the words of the singer. You are talking to the waitress in fluent English and you are talking about the beautiful weather. You feel extremely relaxed speaking English. Night starts to fall and the sun starts to go down – the gorgeous island starts to disappear into the sunset.’
• ‘The teacher should integrate indirect positive suggestions (‘there is no limit to what you can do’) into the learning situation.’ (Larsen-Freeman:77-80)
Stage 3
• Students are given a new name to be used in the classroom. The premise of which is that by leaving behind your old identity you automatically leave behind your qualms. Supposing a new identity enhances students’ feeling of security, they feel free to be as imaginative as possible because they know that there are no boundaries. They can create a whole new world in the classroom, a whole new persona which is the English speaking persona.
Stage 4
• A text of some sort is given to the students in both English and the mother tongue. The teacher reads the text to the students and they are free to look at the text in front of them. This first reading is usually done to the sound of classical music in the background.
• The teacher should present and explain the grammar and vocabulary, but not dwell on them as it is assumed that the environment and the confidence in the teacher will aid learning regardless of focus on form.
• When their attention is off the form of the language, and on the process of communicating, students should learn best.
Stage 5
• Students put the text away and again the teacher reads the text to the students to the music. Students visualise the text and absorb the information.
Stage 6
• Any homework set by the teacher is usually a text to be read last thing at night and first thing in the morning – they believe that these are the times when the boundaries between the conscious and sub-conscious are the most blurred.
• Students are given time for quiet reflection and leave the room in silence.
Is there a practical application for this?
The emphasis on Relaxation, Comfort, Meditation, Visualisation, Breathing and Calmness may not have been a huge part of our educations growing up. I know it certainly wasn’t a part of mine! I think the notions of Success, Lifelong Learning & Confidence could be unlocked for many people who have always been adverse to doing courses in their adulthood if only we adopted a more Holistic approach.
If we take some of the activities in the above lesson plan and apply them in a working environment, is it not therefore possible that employees could be more productive and successful in their work lives?
Visualising success, for example, offers several benefits:
· Visualizing outcomes that you want can increase your confidence. "Seeing" yourself succeed helps you believe that it can – and will – happen;
· Visualization helps you "practice" success. When you imagine every step of an event or activity going well, you get your mind and body ready to take those steps in real life;
· Anyone can benefit from visualization. You don't have to be a life coach or personal development expert to use visualization to achieve your goals.
Over the coming months we will be launching a number of new initiatives with Mind, Body & Spirit at the very heart.
What are our objectives?
1. To create a positive learning environment in which mentees/ students/ employees don’t need to try to learn, learning is all around them and it will just happen;
2. To use visualisation exercises in order to stimulate the imagination and provoke discussion;
3. To use the creative arts as a means of learning.
If you’d like to learn more please do not hesitate to get in touch – otherwise, watch this space as we plan to launch several Holistic Learning Courses for 2021!
