For example, I can distinctly remember one of my Grade 7 geography lessons where my teacher incorporated music into the lesson. When learning the provinces in Canada, as a class, we created a "jingle" that would help us remember the provinces in order, from the East Coast to the West. Here is a very similar example of a teacher incorporating song in her geography lesson by getting all the students involved as a collective whole. By incorporating music into a lesson, it creates an environment that encourages, supports and nurtures the holistic development of its students. Drake et al. (2014) states that a holistic curriculum is a philosophy of education that aims to teach the whole child-- body, mind and spirit. Moreover, it integrates the physical, emotional, spiritual and cognitive/intellectual development of students. It becomes this notion that everything is interconnected, as Drake et al. (2014) believes it takes on qualities of a constructivist classroom within the context of the whole child.  |
| Retrieved from http://humancure.com/eastern-holistic-medicine-vs-western-medicine/ |
Diamond (2010) discusses Whole-Brain Teaching (WBT) as an interactive, student-centered, holistic style of teaching that teaches to the whole brain, stimulating emotions and allowing students to become active and engaged learners. Students are encouraged to visualize, draw, or even use drama to develop new ideas. In addition, a teacher may present new vocabulary words by building a story or skit that uses them, as Drake et al. (2014) stresses that storytelling can be an important part of teaching. Here is a video that incorporates WBT within a Grade 1 classroom, as there is an emphasis on using the head, hands and heart; reflecting the mind, body and spirit.
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| Retrieved from http://goo.gl/xnIcQw |
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In the above photos, just take a look and compare WBT and its holistic elements, to many traditionally styled classrooms where teachers lecture and students are expected to listen. It is apparent that holistic education connects the body and the mind, as the whole brain is engaged in learning!! I find it truly fascinating! What I love about the holistic approach is that the teacher is a learner too, and holistic teaching can be very flexible to any teacher and their preferred teaching methods. Diamond (2010) suggests that learning should be focused on a positive attitude, and skills including critical thinking and creativity, as teachers should aim for constructing a balance between theoretical knowledge and life skills. I want to share with you a video that shows the successful outcomes that can arise for students and teachers who take part in a holistic education, as students are engaged as both discoverers AND creators of knowledge.
As a future teacher, I aim to transform my teaching practices in order to create a rich environment that incorporates a holistic approach, thus, taking all of my students' life experiences into account. All in all, I want to encourage uniqueness and individuality in my students, and challenge other teachers alike, to expand their horizons within a more holistic context as everyone truly benefits. My question to you is, can Whole Brain Teaching and its holistic elements be used at every level of instruction?
References
Badjanova, J., & Ilisko, D. (2015). Making Sense of Holistic Approach in the Context of Primary Education Content. Procedia - Social And Behavioral Sciences, 191(The Proceedings of 6th World Conference on educational Sciences), 1517-1521. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.343
Diamond, A. (2010). The Evidence Base for Improving School Outcomes by Addressing the Whole Child and by Addressing Skills and Attitudes, Not Just Content. Early Education And Development, 21(5), 780-793.
Drake, S. M., Reid, J.L. & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st century learner. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.
Free Stock Photos.biz. (2015). Illustration of music notation [Digital Image]. Retrieved November 1, 2015, from http://res.freestockphotos.biz/thumbs/16/16020-illustration-of-a-treble-clef-th.png
Success Academy. (2012, February 23). The success academy approach to teaching and curriculum [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN-bjKTsLy8
Ms. Schwarz,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post about teaching the whole child! I definitely agree that it is extremely important to teach students holistically including physical, emotional and spiritual aspects into your classroom. By involving multiple ways of learning and multiple subject areas into one lesson can fully engage a student in their learning. Your post really reminded me of the Finish curriculum, where they use cross curricular learning to benefit their students. To answer your question, I do not believe that it is possible to use holistic education in every level of education. I do believe that it can be attained in elementary and high school, I believe the problem starts in post secondary education. In a university or college setting in such large classes and professors not being involved in every students educational lives is a downfall where holistic teaching may not be able to occur. This was a really good post though, I believe you did not need to use so many sources, you would still have a strong augment without all the additional information. This is a great educational post, you added many different media sources that further push your argument of your blog.
Happy blogging,
Robyn Selvam
Ms. Schwarz,
ReplyDeleteThe passion that you have for involving the whole child in learning is contagious and exhilarating! Through the subtext of this post, you have made it loud and clear to my ears that no one child is the same, thus no one child should be taught the same. We are all so unique, with different strengths, and different weaknesses. We, as future educators, must remember this. We must remember, like you said, that we, as humans, do not just function using one part of ourselves. When we remember this, it will urge us to teach in the same manner that we act: holistically. You did a wonderful job including multiple different media sources that really helped strengthen the points that you had written about, as they were pertinent and complimentary. You also did a wonderful job in this blog post including your thesis of the post through out. You related all of your new points back to your thesis, which allowed me, as the reader, to see the key themes that you were trying to present. Constructive feedback moving forward: as it is an informal blog post, maybe see what the post would be like if you were to lighten up on the resources!! Too many in text citations can distract the reader from the actual points you are stating, as it does not read as well and fluently. Play around more with using enough resources to back up your points, and provide credibility, but not too many that your text becomes too broken up. Like I said before, your passion for teaching the whole child is contagious. Thank you for another holistic post!!
Ms. Sehl
Miss Schwartz,
ReplyDeleteHolistic learning and teaching is something that I hope will always be included in my teaching philosophy. It is so important that educators teach to more than just the mind of the students, because as we know, learning is more than just intellectual, it is also emotional, social, physical, and spiritual. I love the way your blog gave practical examples about what teaching the whole child can look like. It is clear that holistic learning connects deeper with students as you can remember lessons you learned in grade 7! Holistic teaching reminds me of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. How are students supposed to learn intellectually if they have not been met emotionally, socially, physically, and spiritually? When we teach the whole child, we encompass these aspects and create students that are well rounded, better equipped for the real world, with the capacity to engage more deeply with learning. Your visuals this week added so much value to your blog. I loved the picture highlighting brain activity. It really helps to drive this idea home for visual learners like me! To address your question: yes! I totally think that we can use whole brain teaching at every level of instruction. In fact, I think it is critical that we use this type of instruction at every level. I know that as a University student, I thrive in a classroom environment that is rich, with instructors that care about holistic learning. So I know that if this type of learning, although rare, can happen at high levels of education, it can happen at all! I would love to see an education system where holistic teaching and learning was the norm, wouldn't you?!
Once again, such a pleasure to read your blog.
Miss Scott