New Perspectives in Science Education
The Whole Human Being Paradigm and Holistic Curriculum Approach
Faysal Özdaş, Dr. Mardin Artuklu University, Mardin (Turkey)
Burhan Akpınar, Fırat University Dept. of Education, Elazığ (Turkey)
Veli Batdı, Dr.,Fırat University Faculty of Education, Elazığ, Turkey. (Turkey)
Osman Karahan, Mustafa Hakkari University, Hakkari (Turkey)
Bilal Yıldırım, Mustafa Kemal University, Hatay (Turkey)
Abstract
There are two main theoretic bases in curriculum development. One of them is human, other is knowledge. In designing curriculum, human and knowledge assumptions are main guides. Curriculum is a written document whose aim is to educate the person who has deficiencies according to some purposes. Main supplement of curriculum which has a claim of educating person is knowledge. In other words it can be said that curriculum is a tool to educate people by informing them.
The educating mission of curriculum by informing them during teaching period may vary according to assumption of human and knowledge. Different definitions of curriculum are because of different interpretation of human and knowledge paradigm.
In this study, ‘’holistic’’ curriculum development based on ‘’whole human’’ is examined. In the study whole human means the total of the improvable dimensions of a person. This total is a combination of mind, body, senses and spirit. It is expected that assumption of educating people of curriculum should give references these four dimensions or at least pay attention to them. Holistic curriculum whose purpose is to educate human with his all aspect does not mean the total of the four dimensions of a human. Holistic curriculum also refers to the searching for the balance among the different views of knowledge. The concept of ‘educating’ in holistic curriculum means doing necessary things to reveal the potential of the child. Therefore, holistic curriculum can be defined as total of the dimensions of human and knowledge used as main supplement to educate human. ‘’Total’’ can be thought as ‘’common point’’ of view of human knowledge concepts. These common points for human can be defined as references to mind, body, senses and spirit during curriculum development period. In epistemological aspect, this common point is defined as middle point between the view of subjective and objective knowledge.
In brief, during curriculum development process, by paying attention all ideas about human and knowledge it can be proposed that holistic curriculum may educate human more balanced.
Key Words: Holistic curriculum, Whole human, Curriculum development, Interdisciplinary curriculum, Epistemology.
