Pedagogical Approaches

Integral Education
The philosophy and practice of education for the whole person: body, emotions, mind, soul,
and spirit. emphasizing physical embodiment, spiritual study, mental education, the practice
of creativity, and regular opportunities for cross-cultural study. Focus and emphasis is not
just information and skills acquisition but also self-development, triggered from
within. Integral education includes approaches to education from biological, neurological,
societal, cultural, psychological, and spiritual fields of study. It involves considering the
individual and collective aspects of teachers and students, as well as the interior and
exterior modes of experience and reality.
[Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri] called for three principles: (1) A sincere search for the supreme
truth and the ultimate meaning of life. In conducting this search, all biases, prejudices and
preconceived notions must be set aside. Critical inquiry must be combined with radical
open-mindedness. (2) A spirit of loving co-operation with fellow beings in the search for
truth. It is by virtue of working together toward the common destiny of human welfare and
progress that the bonds of universal love can be more and more strengthened. Active
transformation of life and society in the light of truth. (3) A resolute will not only to know
the truth but also to live up to the vision of truth. Such a resolution would naturally involve
the willingness to make sacrifices for progressive transformation of life and society in light
of the truth. (Chaudhuri 1966, pp. 2829).
Rigorous cultivation of the physical body as part of Integral Yoga. Beyond simple exercise,
they called for an evocation of the potentialities (Aurobindo 1952, p. 126), a fullness of
capacity (1952, p. 134), and a totalness of fitness (1952, p. 134). In the case of the
Integralists it was understood that the body was a nexus of action of the Divine.
Emotional education is the second realm of Integral Education. The technical term used by
all of them was education of the vital. It was perhaps the most important and the most
indispensable (Mother 1966, 62).
[The Integralists]approach is definitely yogic in that they expect a yogalike attention to be
brought to every aspect of the emotive life. It is a yoga meant to clarify and bring to an
almost aesthetical perfection the realm of feeling. The hope here would be for a refined,
sensitive, and powerfully moral human being to emerge from vital education.
Because of the emphasis by the Integralists on an indefinable transcendent, however, the
mental is not given supreme status as it is in the academic realm generally. The aim is
always higher values, not merely mental facility. This results in a thinking process that
focuses carefully on the dialectic of thought.
The Mother advises to think in terms of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. She urges that the
mind be trained to envision an antithesis to each thesis that is developed. When this is done
she urges a mental practice of envisioning a higher synthesis.

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Dr. Chaudhuri thought of an International Community Education, with the goal of human
unity and global peace (Chaudhuri 1977, p. 83).
[Dr. Chaudhuri prescribed]work toward what he called cultural integration, a term that
meant not eliminating diversity in cultural expression, but bringing it under a synthetic
understanding which would allow people to embrace difference.
Critical/Liberatory Pedagogy
Recognizes that education is a social project, a matter of politics as well as pedagogy.
Incorporates a struggle for meaning as well as a struggle for freedom and justice. Emphasis
is placed on profound respect for human nature, human needs and the human struggle for
growth towards complete humanization. The practice of education for liberation takes
place in circumstances of specific power relations. Fundamental expression is given to
power and politics and reflected in the meaning of language.
Education which recognizes the political aspects of teaching as well as the pedagogical
aspects is known as 'critical education' or 'critical practice'. Critical education is a form of
pedagogy which emerges from the joint languages of critique and possibility and involves
critical reflection and action. Critical education is fundamental to the development of
human dignity and courage or 'humanisation'. Full humanisation of the individual and of
the society is the end result of a pedagogy of liberation or 'freedom'. Education for freedom
is 'liberatory pedagogy'. The goal is self-actualization or 'humanisation'.
Liberatory pedagogies developed throughout the world have used education as a means for
oppressed peoples to define for themselves their situations and to define action that will be
liberating. Thus liberation pedagogy calls on even more action from students or participants
than constructivism.
Critical pedagogy may be defined as an approach to education which encourages students,
first, to become conscious of the social oppressions or dominations around them (racism,
sexism, etc.) and, second, to reflect on the actions which may be required to become free
(emancipated) from those oppressions or dominations. Critical pedagogy is a philosophy of
education and social movement that combines education with critical theory.
First described by Paulo Freire, since developed by Henry Giroux, Michael Apple, bell hooks,
Joe L. Kincheloe, Peter McLaren, and Patti Lather.
http://www.markfoster.net/struc/criticalpedagogy.html

Transformative Learning Theory

Transformative learning is the expansion of consciousness through the transformation of
basic worldview and specific capacities of the self; transformative learning is facilitated
through consciously directed processes such as appreciatively accessing and receiving the
symbolic contents of the unconscious and critically analyzing underlying premises.

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The process of "perspective transformation" has three dimensions: psychological (changes

in understanding of the self), convictional (revision of belief systems), and behavioral
(changes in lifestyle). [Jack Mezirow]
Transformative Learning Theory is an adult education based theory that suggests ways in
which adults make meaning of their lives. It looks at deep learning, not just content or
process learning, as critical as those both are for many kinds of learning, and examines what
it takes for adults to move from a limited knowledge of knowing what they know without
questioning. It looks at what mechanisms are required for adults to identify, assess and
evaluate alternative sources of information, so as to reframe their world-view through new
knowledge.
http://transformativelearningtheory.com/

Transformation is a "fundamental change in one's personality involving [together] the

resolution of a personal dilemma and the expansion of consciousness resulting in greater
personality integration. [Robert Boyd]
Engaged Pedagogy
Challenges racist, sexist and class notions build on dominance and oppression as it ask us to
engage in the reality of life and ask probing questions about the status of things. Engaged
pedagogy is deeply concerned about education as freedom. It is a practical theory and
approach to holistic learning formulated by social critic and educator bell hooks. hooks use
components of critical theory and feminist theory to formulate her ideas.
Engaged pedagogy sees education as liberation force and not a measure of memorization. It
challenges standard pedagogical practice. Engaged pedagogy is important because it
requires teachers and students to interact as human beings and to know each other as
flawed intellectuals.
Educational institutions, like the society in which they exist, may operate with racial,
gender, and class biases that marginalize students whose cultural traits and characteristics
differ from mainstream norms and practices. However, as bell hooks urges, education can
provide the means to transgress conventional limitations and biases.
http://engagedpedagogy.wikidot.com/how-to-edit-pages

Radical Pedagogy
Implies an analysis of the deeply politicized aspects of educational institutions, policies and
practicesand, further, that education can and must be oriented towards radical social
change (Freire, 1970, 1997; Giroux, 1997; McLaren, 1998; Shor, 1992). For others, radical
pedagogy refers to cutting edge developments in the field of education: the latest theories,
methods and practices that promise to reinvent fundamentally the processes of teaching
and learning. Radical pedagogy is all about knowledge and education, and how they can (or
should) change to best serve the purposes of both educators and the educated.
http://ezrawinton.com/2008/04/08/what-is-radical-pedagogy/

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Reflective Pedagogy
A process where teachers think over their teaching practices, analyzing how something was
taught and how the practice might be improved or changed for better learning outcomes.
Some points of consideration in the reflection process might be what is currently being
done, why it's being done and how well students are learning.
Reflective teaching means looking at what you do in the classroom, thinking about why you
do it, and thinking about if it works - a process of self-observation and self-evaluation. By
collecting information about what goes on in our classroom, and by analysing and
evaluating this information, we identify and explore our own practices and underlying
beliefs. This may then lead to changes and improvements in our teaching. Reflective
teaching is therefore a means of professional development which begins in our classroom.
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/reflective-teaching-exploring-our-own-classroom-practice

Reflexive Pedagogy
Self-reflexivity can help students and educators identify the what and the why of
student learning. Reflection is a wonderful tool for after the fact. We reflect at the end of
an assignment or at the end of a course. We identify what we learned and how we can
possibly do differently next time.
Reflexivity, on the other hand, is to engage in the moment, to understand the thoughts and
feelings of an experience while experiencing that experience. You evaluate as you are in the
act. Educators ask hard questions at the end of each lesson to help understand what they
were doing and why. Similarly, when we encourage students to be self-reflexive, we are
asking them to understand what they are learning as they are learning. Additionally, selfreflexivity not only allows students to understand what they learned but why they learned
it.
This dual understanding becomes key if we want students to retain what they have
learned. If students can identify and claim information they have learned in a course then
own that information. However, students often need to know how to own their
educations. Self-reflexivity can help them do that. Students can use the self-knowledge
gained through this way of teaching/learning as a method to connect their education to
their current and future lives.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/reflexive-pedagogy/22939

Active Learning
We might think of active learning as an approach to instruction in which students engage
the material they study through reading, writing, talking, listening, and reflecting. Active
learning stands in contrast to "standard" modes of instruction in which teachers do most of
the talking and students are passive.
Students and their learning needs are at the center of active learning. There are any number
of teaching strategies that can be employed to actively engage students in the learning
process, including group discussions, problem solving, case studies, role plays, journal
writing, and structured learning groups. The benefits to using such activities are many. They

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include improved critical thinking skills, increased retention and transfer of new
information, increased motivation, and improved interpersonal skills.
Using active learning does not mean abandoning the lecture format, but it does take class
time. Lecturers who use active learning pause frequently during the periodonce every
fifteen minutes or soto give students a few minutes to work with the information they're
providing. They may ask students to respond to a question, to summarize important
concepts in writing, or compare notes with a partner.
Categories of Active Learning Strategies
There are four broad categories of learning strategies for use in an active learning
classroom:
- individual activities
- paired activities
- informal small groups
- cooperative student projects
http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/active/what/

Active Learning is, in short, anything that students do in a classroom other than merely
passively listening to an instructor's lecture. This includes everything from listening
practices which help the students to absorb what they hear, to short writing exercises in
which students react to lecture material, to complex group exercises in which students
apply course material to "real life" situations and/or to new problems. The term
"cooperative learning" covers the subset of active learning activities which students do as
groups of three or more, rather than alone or in pairs; generally, cooperative learning
techniques employ more formally structured groups of students assigned complex tasks,
such as multiple-step exercises, research projects, or presentations.
http://web.calstatela.edu/dept/chem/chem2/Active/

Experiential Learning
In the experiential model, Kolb described two different ways of grasping experience:
Concrete Experience and Abstract Conceptualization. He also identified two ways of
transforming experience: Reflective Observation and Active Experimentation. These four
modes of learning are often portrayed as a cycle.
According to Kolb, concrete experience provides the information that serves as a basis for
reflection. From these reflections, we assimilate the information and form abstract
concepts. We then use these concepts to develop new theories about the world, which we
then actively test. Through the testing of our ideas, we once again gather information
through experience, cycling back to the beginning of the process. The process does not
necessarily begin with experience, however. Instead, each person must choose which
learning mode will work best based upon the specific situation.

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