Page 79 - Crossing Cultural Boundaries - Cees den Teuling

mental structures, and beliefs that are used to interpret objects and events. What a person knows is grounded in perception and based on physical and social experiences which are comprehended by the mind” (Jonassen, 1991 p. 59). Constructivism has two main directions: Realistic and Radical. Realistic constructivism-cognition is the process by which learners eventually construct mental structures that correspond to or match external structures located in the environment. Radical constructivism-cognition serves to organise the learner’s experimental world rather than to discover ontological reality (Cobb & Yackel, 1996).
The fourth paradigm that tries to explain Learning is “Humanism” (Maslow, 1964; Rogers, Dorfman, Gordon & Carmichael, 1951). Humanistic psychologists like Maslow, argues that every person has a strong desire to realize his or her full potential, to reach a level of “self-actualisation”. The main point of the movement, that reached his peak in the 1960’s, was to emphasise the positive potential of human beings (Schacter, 1968). Maslow based his theory partially on his own assumptions about human potential and partially on his case studies of historical figures that he believed to be self-actualised, including Albert Einstein and Henry David Thoreau (Carlson, 1999). As a consequence, Maslow argued that the manner in which fulfilment of essential needs is taking place is as important as the needs themselves. The person establishes meaningful relations with other people and finds cooperative involvement as being an essential component of self-actualisation. In contrast, when vital needs find selfish and competitive involvement, a person acquires hostile attitudes and behaviour, and by that, limited external connections. As a result, his/her awareness remains internal and limited.
Rogers (1964, 2012) was a humanistic psychologist, who supported the assumptions of Maslow but added some elements “to grow” an environment that provided a person with genuine openness, self-disclosure and acceptance (being seen with unconditional positive empathy, being listened to and understood). The author believed that every person could achieve his/her goals, wishes and desires in life. When, or rather if they did so, self-actualisation took place. For a person to reach their potential, a number of factors must be satisfied. According to McLeod (2014) that concept was Rogers’ most important contributions into psychology. An exceptional contribution to field of psychology is delivered by Kahneman (2011) with the developed system of “System 1” Intuitive automatic operation and “System 2” slow thinking and the monitoring of “System 1” Kahneman’s contribution exposed the latest contribution to economics and behavioural psychology with a focus on the conditions
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