ISSN: 2449-061X Vol. 3 (2), pp.

170-174, June 2015

Copyright ©2015 Global Journal of Educational Foundation
Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.
http://www.globalscienceresearchjournals.org/

Review

The relationship between humanistic teachers’

characteristics practices and students’ learning
Nasiema Mustafa Sadeq Al-Khalidi

Faculty of Home Economics- King Abdul-Aziz University, Jeddah- Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Accepted 23 June, 2015

The purpose of this paper was to reflect on the implications of humanistic philosophy which is based
on the idea that close personal relationships give meaning to the whole process of teaching and
l e a r n i n g . Also, this paper fo cu ses on the influence of h u m a n n e e d s o n l e a r n i n g . It also
suggests some areas of competencies humanistic teachers usually acquire to succeed in their
career and become real leaders and change agents, these competences can be arranged as follows
:teaching and learning , high skills in assessment and evaluation, personal characteristics, having
ethics of profession, certain personal characteristics, and deep relations with parents and
community. Moreover, it highlights the practices of humanistic teachers who are usually aware
of the importance of personal freedom, choice, and self –determination. It is e n d e d by some
recommendations which may enhance in coaching teachers to be humanistic teachers.

Key words: Humanistic teachers‘ characteristics, students‘ learning, teachers' practices

INTRODUCTION

This paper tackles issues which are discussed
recently among educators in different parts of the world
especially in Jordan( General Framework: Curriculum And
Assessment ,2003) , the first part deals with the human
needs and learning , while the second investigates the
relationship between teachers‘ characteristics and
students' learning. The t h i r d concentrates on some of
the competencies humanistic teachers sho uld have .The
fourth part is sig nif icant as it is a kind of reflection on
the practices of humanistic teachers. This paper is ended
by some recommendations on how to invest
philosophy to develop educational systems to achieve
the ultimate goal of making teaching as well as
learning a humanistic meaningful process.
Some Motivation theorists such as Abraham Maslow
believed that human needs can be "identified
as:physiological which are related to physiological
survival, safety which is related to be secure in their
environment ,love and belonging which is related to be
accepted as part of a group, esteem, the need to feel
good about oneself and finally, self –actualization: which
is related to the need to reach one's full potential". They
see that people have a hierarchy of human needs which
are necessary for their being (Ormrod, 2011)
Humanistic theory
The theory of teaching is rooted from the basis of the
this
theory of human nature. They believed that the
humanism being is natural reality but not social reality.
Human nature is rooted from the nature, and it is the
characteristic of human being. All the organisms have
internal tendency that is to develop their own potential
using the method which can help to maintain and
strengthen the organism themselves. They emphasize

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Glob. J. Educ. Found. 171
that human being‘s basic need is decided by their
potential energy. But they also believe that the natural
human nature is different from animal‘s natural belonging.
The human being has the instinctoid-need that is different
from animal‘s instinct, and the instinctoid-need including
psychological needs, safety needs, belonging needs and
self-actualization needs, these elements are the basic
needs of inherence. Based on this, psychologists believe
that the instinctoid-need is human nature, and it is good
and natural. The noisome is not native, it is resulted from
the failure of basic needs or resulted from the bad cultural
environment. (Jingna, 2012)
Premises Underlying Humanistic Education
■ a principal purpose of education is to provide learning
and an environment that facilitate the achievement of the
full potential of students.
■ Personal growth as well as cognitive growth is a
responsibility of the school. Therefore education should
deal with both dimensions of humans—the cognitive or
intellectual and the affective or emotional.
■ for learning to be significant, feelings must be
recognized and put to use.
■ significant learning is discovered for oneself.
■ Human beings want to actualize their potential.
■ having healthy relationships with other classmates is
more conducive to learning.
■ learning about oneself is a motivating factor in learning.
■ increasing one‟s self-esteem is a motivating factor in
learning. (Mishra, 2000)
Nowadays, many educators believe that there is a
relationship between the quality of learning and
teachers' characteristics, skills and competences. Thus
,humanistic teachers usually adopt metacognitive
strategies which may help learners to be aware of
"how to learn and how to take deliberate actions to learn
better" (Chavarriga,1999)They achieve this because they
are patient and they respect the human being inside
every student. The relationship between the humanistic
approach and effective learning can be clarified by
reflecting on the following quotation from the Jordanian
General Framework of Curriculum And Assessment
(2003 ) :"A knowledge Economy is a society which
prospers because it uses the creativity and lifelong
capacity of its people . Citizens in a knowledge Economy
work with one another to support development of
new ideas , new services and new products."
This study provides a list of competences which are
viewed as the abilities skillful humanistic teachers should
acquire. These abilities can be divided into six
different areas :cognitive ,psychological ,physiological
,social ,spiritual and professional(Alkhalidi,2002) These
areas are not completely separate , but there is an
integrative complementary relationship among them .
Olubusayo (2015) stated that if teachers aim at life –long
learning they" need to make use of dynamic and
effective strategies and techniques " One of the
important facts humanistic teachers usually keep in mind
is that learning is not an easy process , so they use their
skills and competences to empathize with the learners ,
so as to understand their circumstances and respond
to their human needs .
The Influence of Human Needs on Learning
Teaching takes place when we have teachers who are
deeply aware of the impact of human needs on humans‘
growth. So, we need to reflect on the essence of the
humanistic approach which helps us understand the role
of needs in learning. Woolfolk defines human needs
(Woolfolk, 1987), she suggested that a need is "any
type of deficiency in the human organism or the absence
of any thing he /she requires or he thinks he requires
for his overall being". Thus peopl e are motivated by
their needs or by the effect the needs create. It is
suggested that human needs work as a hierarchy. Lower
level needs for survival and safety are basic and
important because we all need food, and shelter, we all
seeks freedom from danger. These needs determine our
behavior until they are satisfied. But once we are
physically comfortable, we are stimulated to fulfill needs
on the next levels such as love and needs for self-
esteem. And when these needs are met ―we turn to
another level of needs for intellectual achievement, and
finally self– actualization which means the realization of
personal potential ―(ibid). One can conclude that if
teachers want to be impressive humanistic teachers,
they must keep in their minds Maslow‗s hierarchy
whenever they deal with their students, and t r y to reflect
on possible ways to make learning an interesting
meaningful process.
Furthermore, teaching from a humanistic perspective
concentrates upon the development of the child‘s self–
concept, if the child feels good about him or she then
that is a positive start. To many educators, learning is not
an end in itself; it is the means to progress towards Self –
actualization. To conclude, humanistic learning c a n be
described a s a continuous process of s e l f –direction
towards educative experiences t hrough which students
want and know how to learn in non-threatening
environments where self –evaluation is implemented.
The Rel ati on sh i p b etw een T each ers’
Ch aracteristi cs an d Stu d en ts’
Learning
Most educators in the twenty first century believe that
they h a v e to respond to global changes which aim at
making schools m ore interesting and safer places to
spend time in. Nearly three decades ago Brophy (1979)
argued that teachers who believe that their students are
capable of learning new skills or subject matters are more
likely to be successful in increasing students‘ learning as
students usually respond positively to teachers who
believe that their students can learn. Teacher effectiveness

research demonstrated that students prosper under two
teacher characteristics: teachers challenging students
and teachers caring for students. Connell (2006) aimed
to explore a new view of professionalism, in his study
"Good teachers on dangerous ground: towards a new
view of teacher quality and professionalism* he tried to
answer the old question what makes a good teacher
which is essential in educational reform, he made
suggestions for a new understanding of good teachers
built on understanding the dynamics of teaching, . Also,
Shearin (1982) demonstrated that consistency or
agreement on humanistic or inviting acts among teachers
within a school is important. Teachers‘ ratings on control
ideology for four junior high schools were analyzed in
relation to student alienation .These data showed that
more humanistic schools had less student alienation.
Furthermore, Kottkamp and Mulhem (1987) studied the
problem of motivation among teachers themselves. They
found that humanistic ideology and open climate were
positively related to motivation among teachers.
It is believed now that the ultimate goal of education in
general should be to foster students‘ desire to learn and
to help them acquire the skills of h o w to learn, and the
result will be students who are self-motivated a n d a b l e
to learn effectively on their own.
The Areas of Competencies of Humanistic Teachers
Educators nowadays argue that "one of the urgent needs
st
of the educational systems in the 21 century is to have
highly qualified, competent teachers who acquire certain
competencies." (Alkhalidi, 2002). Typically, the term
competencies refers to‖ general descriptions of the
abilities needed to perform a role in an organization‖
(McNamara, 1999). Thus, humanistic teachers usually
acquire competencies in five areas: teaching and
learning, assessment and evaluation, personal
characteristics, professional ethics and relationship with
parents and community.
Teaching and Learning
The two key words in this area are flexibility and
patience .Without flexibility and patience, a teacher
cannot teach humanistically, because students will
never learn in an impressive way i f teachers ignore
thier abilities to develop themselves and produce and
share new ideas. So, humanistic t eachers m u s t
acquire the skill of observation to be able to observe
their students very carefully so that they know when
to introduce certain tasks, according to the progress
students are making. They know that, some students
will be lost forever and lose confidence both in the
teacher and their own ability to learn if the teacher goes
on giving long and boring lectures. Therefore this area
consists of the skills teachers should acquire to
enable them to be impressive teachers who can
achieve lifelong learning for themselves and their
Al-Khalidi 172
students, these teachers can: deal positively with
individuals and groups, discover the creative abilities
and talents of students, develop c r e a t i v e
t h i n k i n g a m o n g s t u d e n t s , design safe,
creative classroom environment, exchange
experience with peer
Assessment and Evaluation
What deserves mentioning here is the fact that the process
of evaluating the learners is a continuous process which is
interrelated with teaching, so humanistic teachers must use
proper evaluative strategies to measure the performance of
students, report information about students‘ progress to
students and their parents, diagnose the difficulties faced by
students and try to find meaningful solutions, use self-
evaluation and help students to evaluate themselves
meaningfully, use evaluation to encourage students to learn
more effectively .
Personal Characteristics
This area deals with a number of personal characteristics
that are required for humanistic teachers of English to
enable them to perform their professional duties. These
characteristics are demonstrated in being able to: reflect
positively on his/her position as a teacher and on
his/her colleagues, be reflective in judging, avoid pre-
supposed judgment, adapt positively to changing
environments, support lifelong learning and continuous
development , manage conflict positively and effectively,
acquire the skills of active listening and dialogue ,be a
model in humanistic behavior, be life-long learner
who seeks to motivate students to generate innovative
ideas, improve his/her life and the local and international
communities.
Ethics of the Profession
This area deals with the ethics of the humanistic teachers
of English both inside and outside school, so humanistic
teachers: demonstrate integrity and trustworthiness, take
responsibility, are fair and give students a chance to
express themselves, respect and appreciate the values of
equity and equality, show respect for the limits of freedom
and the responsibility of it ,demonstrate a commitment to
the ethics of the teaching profession.
The humanistic teacher should be able to communicate
effectively with different individuals in different
environments. Since parents are the first teachers of
the child, teachers must show respect for parents in all
dealings, work with parents to help students make
continuous progress in their learning, deal appropriately
with all the individuals of their community
The Practices of Humanistic Teachers
As we all know, the needs of one person differ from the
needs of another, a teacher applying humanistic philosophy
Glob. J. Educ. Found. 173
naturally treats students individually. To define
humanistic teachers ' attitude and practices ,we need
to open our hearts and minds to reflect deeply on the
following self – revealing extract of David Hardisy:
―The corner stone of my teaching is respect – I try and
look for the human being in each student and address
myself to that person.‖ (David Hardisty, 2003)
All teachers should do everything in their power to
develop students‘ interest in the act of learning, they
must use different ways such as, demonstrating the
real-world, application of class material whenever
possible, making classroom activities as engaging as
possible, providing students with choices among
learning tasks, , fostering group interaction among
students, developing closer teacher – student
relations, helping each student set learning objectives
that are challenging but can be achieved .But,
humanistic teachers often :
- plan collaboratively with their
students and engage them in meaningful
classroom learning activities and assignments making
use of the learners‘ knowledge of the world.
- maintain proper expectation, although
not necessarily corresponding, for every student.
- make sure that their students are
able to understand the gist of a spoken interaction,
and t h a t they are mentally prepared for it.
- develop awareness of everything that is
going on in the classroom, at all times, monitoring
students for signs of restlessness, frustration , anxiety,
and off- task behaviors.
- reassign individual learners to different activities
as the classroom situation does not attract students‘
attention .
- involve students in understanding and
in making important decisions about their own
learning, so that they feel ownership of that learning
create the right conditions for understanding the
text, s o they arouse interest by asking certain
questions to raise curiosity among students.
- take into consideration the
individual students‘ developmental readiness
which determines when and how to teach each
student something.
- offer their students problems to solve as
this goes with how people learn things according to
their type of intelligence and their purposes from learning.
- know what motivates their students. Some
will probably want to learn English because they have to
work, while others want to learn English simply for the
sake of it.
- keep in mind that the learner must take
the responsibility of his /her learning.
- design a learning environment which allows
error- making and has no risk of humiliation in any type
and allow them to speak only when they are ready and
when they are intrinsically motivated to do so.
CONCLUSION
This study addressed some of the major implications of
the humanistic approach. One can conclude that the
task of teachers in the twenty first century is not the
same as before it .So teachers should be equipped with
certain skills and competences so as to treat students
individually and to be capable of helping young people
become innovative thinkers who can build their
community and participate in the development of the
international community.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Some recommendations which may be implemented to
develop teaching / learning process:
-There is an urgent need for local research and reflection
which tackle essential questions about the current and
the future needs of our students for learning different
topics .This must be a continuous process which takes
into consideration various alternatives which may affect
different educational systems.
-The present and future in-service training programs of
professional development and teacher education for
teachers must be built on the results of the local
research in these areas to help teachers play their roles
as real humanistic teachers.
-There should be closer coordination between the
Faculties of Education in universities and Ministries of
education to satisfy the needs of preparing competent
humanistic teachers.
-The i m p l e m e n t a t i o n of educational
r e f o r m i n i t i a t i v e s s h o u l d p r e s e n t different
opportunities to address some of the urgent training
needs
- -Planners of Curricula and Textbooks should
take into consideration the criterion that the material
should contain something of ―intrinsic interest for the
affective learner ― (Stevick, 1980 ) . This is mainly
important f o r c e r t a i n topics such as teaching
l a n g u a g e s and social sciences.
- Finally, and from a humanistic point of view,
educators have to emphasize the importance of giving
the teachers the chance to participate in defining the
standards and competencies necessary for their
professional development because when they plan for
their future hand in hand with the decision makers they
will be real humanistic leaders who will be able to create
the desired future.
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 Al-Khalidi 174

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