Holistic Education vs. Holistic Learning vs. Holistic Learning Experiences

tsharvey (who also happens to be my brother-in-law) asked this question and I thought it was worth responding to in a post rather than just a comment.

tsharvey said:

I don't think I've ever encountered the term 'holistic learning experiences' —of course, I'm not in the instructional design field. While I can speculate what you might mean by holistic learning experiences (and how it might differ from ideas such as integrated learning environments), can you clarify or provide examples of such approaches?

My answer: There is a Holistic Education movement that is more expansive than I am referring to that you can read about here or at wikipedia. If you are interested, a colleague of mine recommends this book:
Holistic Education: An Analysis of Its Ideas and Nature (The Foundations of Holistic Education Series, V. 8)*
(*Amazon link -- I am an Amazon associate -- but you can also buy it here and I won't get a dime.)

There is also something called "holistic learning" by Patrick G. Love and Anne Goodsell Love. They define this as

the integration of intellectual, social, and emotional aspects of undergraduate student learning. (reference)

That is closer, since I am interested in all three aspects of learning. So what exactly do I mean by "holistic learning experiences"? What I am getting at is that, in the field of instructional design, most models require an analysis of the content that breaks it down into ever smaller pieces until you have all these little parts of knowledge. Then, many models say, you teach this piece this way and that piece that way and when you are done teaching all of the pieces, the learner will know what they need to know. This can become a fragmented, decontextualized kind of experience. Our university system is an analogy, where individual disciplines can get so focused on themselves they lose sight of the big picture and fail to collaborate with each other to research cross-disciplinary issues.

When I say holistic learning experience, I mean designing the experience with the whole as well as the parts in mind. What will the overall structure be? How will we make sure the parts are related to each other meaningfully? When is it better for the learner to experience the material in larger chunks (and, at times, with more ambiguity)? This is one of the reasons I am interested in narrative, because I believe that narrative design has to pay attention to both the whole and the parts at the same time to be successful, and I think my field can learn from that.

"Holistic learning experiences" is a term I made up. I am open to suggestions if a better one comes to mind.

Joseph

Learning as a Human Experience

I was trained as an instructional designer and have worked as one now for over a decade. As Brenda Bannan-Ritland said to me recently, "I honor that tradition." But I feel drawn to other disciplines that can inform it, unconventional design approaches that can improve it, and a new emphasis on learners as human beings, whose hearts are inseparably connected to their heads. When we learn, we feel, and not enough designers of learning experiences care enough about that. And it is worth caring about. It is worth designing for. It can make all the difference.

In this blog, I explore the many, many places outside the field (and a few inside) where designers have chosen to account for the human experience in a holistic way. I explore what it feels like to be a learner and how design can impact that experience. I explore how we can make learning rewarding to the human mind and enriching to the human spirit.

Please join me.

Joseph