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Facilitation theory, sometimes also called facilitative teaching, is a humanist approach to learning, developed during 1980s by an influential American psychologist Carl Rogers and other contributors and is best described in his own words:
Rogers' first significant area of interest was psychology and psychotherapy where since 1940s he started to apply a client-centered therapy which promotes trying to help or counsel the client viewing the problem through his eyes. In the second half of the 1960s he started to promote a similar approach for learning and educational process. His beliefs were that people are by nature good and healthy and that every living creature strives to do best from his existence (the actualizing tendency).
Rogers addresses two kinds of learning introduced in earlier theories: rote learning, referring to meaningless memorization of facts, and experiential learning in everyday life, which has meaning and personal relevance. This second kind of learning is the result of natural curiosity, and recognized importance of the learned material, often acquired through doing, or at least facilitated by student's active participation in the learning process, and often self-initiated. Still, this kind of knowledge is difficult to communicate to another.
Rogers' theory therefore sees the teacher as the key role in the process of learning, but not as a walking textbook, but as the facilitator of learning. The attitudes in his personal relationship with the students are of most importance. Rogers introduces three core conditions necessary for facilitative practice (both in counseling and education):
Other tasks of teachers include establishing a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom and thereby facilitating learning and acquisition of new ideas by reducing external factors. A facilitative teacher should also be open to new ideas, listen to students, pay as much attention to his relationship with the students as he does to the content he is teaching, encouraging learners to take responsibility for their learning and actions and to take self-evaluation as the highest form of evaluation. He should also use class feedback for further improvements.
Still, not all of the work during the educational process can be done by the teacher. Its effectiveness does depend on the learner as well. In order to contribute to their own learning, students should be:
If all the necessary conditions are satisfied, ”learning becomes life, and a very vital life at that. The student is on his way, sometimes excitedly, sometimes reluctantly, to becoming a learning, changing being.“5)
Rogers' theory, as stated, has rather clear implementation goals, yet they are not always so easy to introduce to the classroom. Establishing a close contact with the students, getting to know them and offering them empathy and support requires a great amount of effort from teachers, who mostly ignore this side of educational process and orientate only on knowledge they are supposed to pass to the students.
Advice for implementing the the core conditions are the following:
Theories of learning: Holistic learning theory. Oxford Brookes University. Retrieved March 22, 2011.