Introduction to Holistic Pedagogy
Defines teaching as arranging environments and guiding the child's interaction with them for the purpose of achieving the educational objectives specified by the curriculum;
Views educational facilities as a particular case of arranging an environment and establishes the process by which specifications for facilities are derived from the total body of Anisa Theory;
Affirms the necessity of individualizing instruction and provides the means for doing so by (1) establishing diagnostic and speculative methods for ascertaining the child's developmental status and (2) setting forth related prescriptive and experimental approaches to arranging environments and guiding interaction so that the experience provided "matches" the developmental status of the child on any given dimension pertinent to any particular educational objective specified by the curriculum;
Defines the "match" as optimal disparity (appropriate novelty) between internal schemata (structures whose functioning reflects developmental status and the activity or learning experience to be engaged in;
Explains the improvisational nature of teaching (arranging environments and guiding the child's interactions with them) in terms of the ability to apply theory in any situation at any time for the purpose of achieving curriculum goals;
Designates the planned introduction of appropriate novelty at an optimal rate for each child as an essential obligation of sound pedagogy;
Identifies curiosity as the primary manifestation of the tension inherent in optimal disparity and regards it as one important source of intrinsic motivation to be fostered by teachers;
Acknowledges that much of the behavior of the human organism is modified in directions related to the consequences or anticipated consequences of its actions evaluated in terms of its subjective aim (thereby accounting for the phenomenon of "conditioning" within the broader context of organismic (philosophy);
Exploits the pedagogical advantages to be gained by treating those consequences as cases of arranging environments and/or guiding interaction;
Stresses the importance of providing evaluative feedback of an explanatory nature on performance at the time of performance;
Suggests a grading and record-keeping system consistent with the achievement of curriculum objectives;
Recognizes the powerful influence of the teacher as model, a proposition from which criteria for the selection of teachers, for determining the effectiveness of their preparation, and for their certification are derived;
Makes provision: (1) for the coordination of staffing patterns and teaching activities (including parental involvement) so that children have several adults who know them well to assist them at any one time, (2) for continuity of experience with several adult teachers over a three or four-year period of time, and (3) for more experienced children to teach less experienced children throughout the system, thereby exploiting the axiom that teaching consolidates learning.