Abstract
Alfred North Whitehead's theory of learning is best understood in the overall context of his process philosophy. The “rhythmic cycles of growth” forming the basis of human learning (romance, precision, and generalisation) are organically connected to the “characteristics of life” typifying all entities in the universe (self-enjoyment, creative activity, and aim).
The kind of balanced education which best enhances growth and connectedness is one in which art and aesthetic appreciation in the broadest sense are dominant. By experiencing the beauty of the sunset, for example, children and adults have access to feelings that flow through them from the world and connect them to distant events taking place in space and time. These bodily feelings at the base of all experience provide concrete ways in which human beings can appreciate the intrinsic value of the world around them.
By way of contrast, the methods of 17th century science replace our concrete experience of the sunset with abstract categories that are used to measure the phenomena in question and deny the importance of that experience in understanding the world. Schools' and universities' emphasis upon this methodology produces an imbalanced education with “minds in a groove.”
A renewal of balance in education helps us to understand the false dichotomy between child-centered and and curriculum-centered education. Education for Whitehead must pay attention to both. Moreover, he understands that the academic freedom enjoyed by “bands of imaginative scholars” in universities “is not an article of commerce” to be sold to the highest corporate bidder but something to be valued for its intrinsic worth.
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Woodhouse, H. Towards a process theory of learning: Feeling the beauty of the world. Interchange 26, 347–364 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01434741
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01434741
Keywords
- process philosophy of education
- rhythmic cycles of growth (romance, precision, generalisation)
- characteristics of life (self-enjoyment, creative activity, aim)
- balanced education (art, aesthetic appreciation, feelings, concrete experience, beauty, unity of subject)
- 17th century science (abstract knowledge in isolation from experience and feelings)
- dilemma (between childcentered and curriculum-centered education)
- university education (imagination and academic freedom)