יום רביעי, 6 באוגוסט 2014

Existentialism and Anthropogogy

Anthropogogy: The study of human learning. (Greek) – Anthrop (άνθρωπ) means human being and Agy (άγω) means to conduct / lead.Existentialism and Anthropogogy state that man exists and in that existence man defines himself, his identity and the world in his own subjectivity, and wanders between choice and freedom.


In today's reality, culture is changing rapidly, so education has to be a lifelong process: where the teacher helps the learner discover the unknown without repeating information about the known.
Nir Golan, educational & leadership expert, offers a new definition of Anthropogogy as: "Leading a person (regardless of age) throughout significant learning towards behavioral change that can be implemented immediately." (Golan, 2014)
 We are what we can become, according to our characters.
This assumption supports the first principle of anthropogogy.
According to Golan, Anthropogogy has four basic principles:

1. The independent learner: the perception of oneself as an independent entity. A person sees him/herself as someone who is self-directed; choosing what to learn, how much and how to learn it. The role of the teacher is not to give ready answers to predetermined questions, but to help the learner find out for him/herself what the important questions are and how to answer them. Through these questions, the dependence – independence conflict will decrease and there will be fewer objections to learning.

2. Adapting learning to that person's needs: the person is ready to learn when he/she needs that specific learning process, and it is incorporated into daily tasks and social functioning. He/she sees that the learning process serves his/her personal development.

Since every person has their own characteristics and needs, therefore, the most effective way of learning is to adapt learning to the needs and characteristics of that individual person with reference to their emotional and mental components, and not only to cognitive and behavioral aspects.

3. Renovating learning: In the digital age where there is widespread availability of network information, learning should give news and added value to the learner.

People approach learning in possession of their life experiences. For learning to be more significant, the learner needs to connect the current learning knowledge with his/her prior knowledge. As such, educators have to find out the prior knowledge of the person and his/her previous experiences in order to connect it to the learning experience and not teach him/her things they already know. Thus the person who teaches should renovate learning.

4. Immediate and practical learning: The main motive for human learning is for problem solving. The learner has a need for the immediate application of the learned material, so learning has to be more focused in giving solutions to the particular problem. Learning which cannot be implemented immediately is perceived as a waste of time.

Human existence is a learning process, in which past and present are subordinate to future, based on our individual experience.
We always have a choice to change our behavior immediately.
Existentialism and Anthropogogy do not stand for any kind of determinism except the one that determines our individual facts (existence) and identity.
We choose according to our needs and values, and in choosing (in good or bad faith) we define our unique identity. 


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