Creating a Holistic Learning Environment

1. Creating a Holistic Learning Environment Features of the Holistic Learning Design • Significant holistic learning takes place when what is being taught is relevant to the personal interests of the learner. • Holistic learning can capitalize on the wealth of experience of students. • Students must understand the purpose and benefits of what they’re learning. • Students need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their learning. • The experiences (including mistakes (drop-ortunities)) of holistic learners can provide the basis for learning activities.  • Holistic learners are most interested in learning material that has immediate application to their lives.  • Holistic learning is problem-centric rather than content-specific.

2. Creating a Holistic Learning Environment Features of the Holistic Learning Design Turn to a neighbor and choose one of the previous items from the list. Discuss how you may have seen this idea in action. Share out.

3. Creating a Holistic Learning Environment Features of the Holistic Learning Design Significant holistic learning takes place when what is being taught is relevant to the personal interests of the learner. Holistic learning can capitalize on the wealth of experience of students. Students must understand the purpose and benefits of what they’re learning. Students need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their learning. The experiences (including mistakes (drop-ortunities)) of holistic learners can provide the basis for learning activities.  Holistic learners are most interested in learning material that has immediate application to their lives.  Holistic learning is problem-centric rather than content-specific.

4. Capacity for Thinking and Perceiving Anew Multiple Pathways to Thinking and Perceiving Anew • Providing opportunities to learn in ways harmonious to the holistic learner’s unique ways of knowing • The theory of multiple intelligences was developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard Gardner. It suggests that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, is far too limited. Instead, Dr. Gardner proposed eight different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults. These intelligences are: • Linguistic intelligence ("word smart"):Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")Musical intelligence ("music smart")Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart") • Dr. Gardner says that our schools and culture focus most of their attention on linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence. Society tends to esteem the highly articulate or logical people of our culture. • However, Dr. Gardner says that we should also place equal attention on individuals who show gifts in the other intelligences: the artists, architects, musicians, naturalists, designers, dancers, therapists, entrepreneurs, and others who enrich the world in which we live.

5. Capacity for Thinking and Perceiving Anew Multiple Pathways to Thinking and Perceiving Anew Tapping into "higher realms of human nature,” including descriptions of peak experiences, archetypal dreams, and other transpersonal experiences of children Perceiving emotions: nonverbal reception and expression of emotions Using emotions to facilitate thinking and perceiving Understanding emotions and what they convey as patterns of possible messages Managing emotions in order to increase oneness to emotional signals as a tool for thinking and perceiving anew

6. Capacity for Thinking and Perceiving Anew Multiple Pathways to Thinking and Perceiving Anew PERCEIVING EMOTION. The initial, most basic, area has to do with the nonverbal reception and expression of emotion. The capacity to accurately perceive emotions in the voices and faces of others provides a crucial starting point for more advanced understanding of emotions.

7. Capacity for Thinking and Perceiving Anew Multiple Pathways to Thinking and Perceiving Anew USING EMOTIONS TO FACILITATE THOUGHT. The second area is every bit as basic as the first: The capacity of the emotions to enter into and guide the cognitive system and promote thinking. For example, cognitive scientists point out that emotions prioritize thinking. In other words: something we respond to emotionally is something that grabs our attention. Having a good system of emotional input, therefore, should help direct thinking toward matters that are truly important. A number of researchers have suggested that emotions are important for certain kinds of creativity to emerge. For example, mood swings and positive moods have been implicated in the capacity to carry out creative thought.

8. Capacity for Thinking and Perceiving Anew Multiple Pathways to Thinking and Perceiving Anew Insight Dialogue Structures Rapid Re-membering Closure/Review

9. Increasing Integral Awareness • As the Red Queen says in Through the Looking Glass, “It takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place.” • “What HAVEN’T you noticed lately?” as a tool for increasing integral awareness.

10. Increasing Integral Awareness Children’s Books on Compassion Show You Understand: Learning about Compassion and Caring K-3 Facing Change: Falling Apart and Coming Together Again in the Teen Years To Walk Humbly: Stories and Activities for Teaching Compassion and Justice Ages 10-13

11. Internet Resources • www.intentblog.com • www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_ intelligences.htm • www.unh.edu/emotional_intelligence • www.utoronto.ca/mcluhan

12. Let’s Stay in Touch OPENING DOORS TO ENDLESS OPPORTUNITIES® www.DrKyle.org (206) 550-3596 Email: DrKyle@DrKyle.org