Nurturing High Expectations: Living a Well-Lived Curriculum on a Humanistic Perspective

Abstract

This study reports an empirical investigation of the use of personal approach to integrating educational values in an English pre-service teacher education program. Using a Moodle-based Learning Management System called Exelsa, which has beeen in use in the past four years, each individual student received personal written responses from the instructor. Learning is perceived more as a journey to develop self-knowledge that is not merely driven by instrumental orientations such as grade-seeking mentality, rote memorization, and formalist-driven contents. A set of anedoctal evidence suggested that highly personal notes addressed to each individual student brough significant change in the way each of them viewed himself or herself in positive ways. When students felt highly appreciated as significant human beings in the class, they were more likely to undergo learning more in a holistic manner. A humanistic philosophy of education necessitates such an approach to maintaining a relational trust among all class members. An instructor is supposedly skillful at navigating the flows of class interactions, at times with unprecedented challenges. A restropective study, this seeks to develop a better understanding as to whether such an approach leaves a durable significance in their perspectives on learning.   DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.2015.180105