| dc.description.abstract | The humanistic educators in the USA encountered the problem of a satisfactory integration of the affective and cognitive modes of being in education for several decades. This study reviews and analyses the main contours of that struggle up to about 1985. The research problem relates to an evaluation of the humanistic performance on this universal problem. The anthropological question of affective-cognitive integration is both transposed and contextualized in the societal structure of the school which also turns it into an epistemological problem. Several models of school-structural support of the cognitive-affective integration in self-actualization have been reviewed in this study. The hypothesis of this study is that no satisfactory theoretical
integration has yet been achieved in the literature of the educational humanists as a result of an overemphasis of both the affective mode of being and the potential of the school structure. The methods which have been applied in this study are mainly literary and discursive. The literary methods include the librarian strategies of systematically working through encyclopedias, catalogues and computer searches to locate relevant materials. The discursive methods include the application of phenomenological analysis,
structural-empirical and problem-historical methods, inter-subjective control, transcendental, exheretical, and transcendent critiques. The overall scientific paradigm is constructed according to the non-ecclesiastic and non-fundamentalist reformed tradition. Chapter one states the problem and establishes the context. Chapter two considers the historical parallels and antecedents to the research problem. This chapter also contains the historical background to the fundamental scientific and ideological positions accepted by humanist educators. An important distinction is also made between secular humanism in US education and humanistic education. In chapter three a critical exposition of key element. in the humanistic theory relating to the research problem is conducted. Several humanistic models that are said to enhance the integration of the cognitive with the affective, as well as an overall school structure that would support selfactualization, are reviewed. In chapter four a fundamental-pedagogical evaluation of the humanist contribution towards reaching an integration of the affective with the cognitive is conducted. Chapter five firstly attempts to establish a basis for communication between the humanist and reformed traditions on the basis of mutual recognition of the integrative question encountered by the humanist educators. Secondly, an estimation is made of areas in which the reformed tradition still needs growth in order to engage the research problem properly. Thirdly, a contribution is made towards solving the research problem from a reformed perspective. Lastly a fresh analysis of the school structure from a reformed perspective is given emphasizing its so-called "human-friendly" characteristics. In chapter six a summary of several findings of this study are presented along with some conclusions and recommendations. A significant finding refers to the unwarranted equation of the meaning of life as a whole with the distinctive character of the school. Another finding refers to the characterising of humanistic education in apparantly contradictory terms as being both naturalistically founded and orientated to a personalistic freedom ideology. A finding which bears directly on the research problem, states that the attempted integration of affect with cognition, was unsuccessful on the epistomenological level which was the main focus of this thesis. The main conclusion from the findings, thus is that the hypothesis is maintained for the reasons predicted above. However, it was also concluded that the humanistic integration did succeed on another level, namely in the societal-didactic foundations of the school structure which relates to task-motivation. | en_US |
