I am infinitely grateful for the opportunity to address you today. After 63 intakes with the Universidad Latinoamericana, my life would no longer be the same without having the opportunity to talk with my students at least a couple of days a week from 9:00 to 11:00 at night. For this reason I am extremely grateful to all of you who have had the patience to listen to me during all these years and to exercise what has become a habit for me and my wife: while I am in class, she knits next to me or enjoys Pinterest.
Today I come to talk to you about Human Development and Student-Centered Education at a Distance.
I will begin by mentioning some important concepts raised by Carl Rogers in his book “Freedom and Creativity in Education”.
Briefly, I tell you that Carl Rogers is the one who, together with Abraham Maslow and other thinkers of existential philosophy and European phenomenology, created what has been known as humanistic psychology or the third force of psychology in addition to psychoanalysis and behaviorism. This “third psychology” emerged in the 1960s at a time that was especially sensitive to a change in political and social attitudes in what John XXIII called “the sign of the times.”
In his book “Freedom and Creativity in Education”, Rogers mentions:
“Student-centered education (SCE) is aimed at stimulating the person to channel and perfect the orientation of their own life.” The most significant thing about this education is “in converting the work of learning and learning into an element of personal training through the acceptance of responsibility and the choice of work by the student .”
Therefore, it is very important to emphasize that this educational style requires the student to assume a leading role in their own education.
But let’s take a closer look at the following: 1.- What does it mean for the student to assume a leading role in their education? 2.- What happens to the role of the teacher? and even more, 3.- What happens with the lack of personal contact in a distance scheme?
1.- The student assumes a leading role in his or her education. Rogers mainly identifies two types of learning: what he calls intellectual learning and other authors call technical learning and meaningful learning that some call tacit learning. A good example of this tacit learning is what my 9 and 6 year old granddaughters are acquiring, who have been living in Calgary for eight months. Although they had learned some grammar and vocabulary in English here at school, it did not allow them to speak English or obtain the accent that they use today due to their permanent coexistence at school with children their age. That is, anyone can learn “technically” and will forget a large proportion over time. While those of us who learn through experience will have more lasting and significant learning.
In addition to the above, one of the elements on which Rogers develops his approach to Student-Centered Education is the “Actualizing Tendency” of the individual. Humberto Maturana, Chilean biologist and philosopher, mentions that all organisms have a vital tendency or basic process aimed at the maintenance, construction, restitution and reproduction of their own system. The same thing in human beings is what Rogers mentions as their tendency towards totality, towards the actualization of their potentialities. In other words, it can be said that human nature is basically constructive, positive, forward-moving, realistic and trustworthy.
2.- The teacher has a role that constitutes another of the pillars that Rogers mentions for Student-Centered Education to work: the creation of a special climate of bonding between the teacher and the student. Only a teacher who trusts the student will be able to support the development of this “updating trend” that we have talked about.
This belief in the tendency to update or permanent growth is the basis of all active and participatory education centered on the student.
3.- When we move on to the third question that we had asked ourselves about the lack of personal contact in a distance scheme, this is where an extremely important element for the process intervenes: the platform around which we all revolve: students, teachers, educational entities and all of us who participate in the educational process.
The platform is designed with the student in mind at all times. Each subject contains a series of activities designed empathically for the person seeking to learn about the topic in question. A series of recommended readings and additional readings are provided that are perfectly identified in the virtual library in terms of the title of the book, author, pages and all the necessary details so that the student makes the best use of their time. The student includes: videos, interactive exercises, questionnaires, reflections, discussion forums and other activities designed to provide an individualized learning opportunity. We are aware that the “working adult,” as the segment to which you belong is called, does not have time to search for readings or invest in things that do not optimize their learning.
And how is meaningful learning achieved?
Applying what the student learns in each subject in what we call “Professional Projects” is precisely the opportunity to put into practice and “learn by doing” what is reviewed week by week. The student applies what has been studied in his or her company, environment or representative group. It is the way to incorporate technical learning and convert it into tacit or meaningful learning.
When students are asked within the subject of Organizational Leadership, to identify a leader in their organization so that they can evaluate their leadership styles, identify their areas of opportunity and carry out a strategy to recommend a motivating vision and changes in the style that will make that person a better leader, they are putting into practice what they have learned “intellectually” to be able to incorporate it as meaningful learning.
The teacher accompanies his students remotely, communicating with them for two hours a week in the “Web Session” and maintaining permanent communication with them through the Communication Forum and email. Students can clarify their doubts during the live session or asynchronously with the additional possibility of telephone communication.
When in the matter of Strategic Planning I prepare the stage for our web sessions as if we were in the board room of one of my clients and I invite them to sit there with me to develop step by step the Strategic Planning of a company, reflecting on the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats or about the different models that we study there, you learn from experience and incorporate what you have read on your own.
It is ensured that the teacher’s accompaniment is not to talk about the same thing that the student is reading on his own, but rather focuses the conversation on sharing his experiences and his “war scars”, thus transferring what the student often you do not get with the rest of the activities that the platform presents.
The authenticity of the teacher is extremely important. The student must feel that warmth and congruence that we have talked about to create the learning conditions that Rogers mentions.
Today technology allows people to eliminate geographical and time barriers. There is no doubt that the world has changed and the human person must rely on all means at their disposal to continue and enhance their development.
You, dear graduates, already carry this concept of Student-Centered Learning at a Distance. They have learned it in their minds and in their hearts. They have developed a capacity for self-study and learning that will take them very far. Beyond the subjects studied and the learning obtained during your Master’s Degree, you are living proof that Student-Centered Distance Education (ECAD) works. Each one has learned to learn. This will make them better women and men for their families, their organizations and their country. Don’t stop studying. Now that you have tasted what meaningful learning is, take advantage of the fact that you have already created the reading-reflection-learning routine that allows you to experiment with your environment in a different way than you had done before studying with this Focused Education approach. in the Distance Student.
You have experienced how believing in the person, believing in his tendency to be better and in his ability to learn significantly, has made you grow. We can support people’s actualizing tendency to facilitate their growth and development, or we can repress, distort and destroy this tendency by avoiding believing in the person.
At the Latin American University we have verified that Human Development in Education Centered on our Distance Students is something current, that it works and that it is, without a doubt, the way to educate us adults of today and tomorrow. Thank you very much.
