The Learning Designer’s Awareness of Self-Actualization

12 11. Assessment The above self-actualization principles require that the teacher use different types of evaluation. Classroom-based assessment using portfolios, journals, self-assessment and peer-assessment is used. Traditional testing in which learners show their ability to reproduce knowledge is discouraged. Testing that emphasizes studying result or product only is discouraged because learning process is considered as important as learning outcome.

C. The Learning Designer’s Awareness of Self-Actualization

Principles As stated before in the introduction, the major aim of these guidelines is that ELESP students as instructional learning designers are able to design learning material and activities using the principles of self- actualization education. The products that they produce are expected to reflect and conform to principles of self-actualization education, which are basically post-modern and in line with constructivist education. To achieve the aim these guidelines offer NO SINGLE STRATEGY, APPROACH OR METHOD to ELESP students as the offer is contradictory to the post- modern educational views. The post-modern educational views become the major educational viewpoint in these guidelines, but they should not be viewed as absolute truth. They are viewed as an alternative that may inspire ELESP students to produce a better learning design. What is offered here is not entirely new. If a teacherlearning designer is already familiar with constructivist education, Contextual Language Learning, Communicative Language Teaching and many other modern language teaching methods and approaches, hopefully the guidelines can give himher a new viewpoint that unites all the familiar principles and tools that heshe has been using. In fact, a lot of learning principles, activities, techniques, assessment types, and media that are currently being used can be integrated into the design model of self-actualization learning. The guidelines function as a reminder for the teacherlearning 13 designer to reflect over what heshe has and has not achieved and to improve the teaching-learning process using self-actualization learning as another perspective perhaps to some a new one. The teacher’s and designer’s awareness of the self-actualization educational viewpoint may then be of great importance. In a conversation class, the teacherlearning designer, for example, can use a familiar learning principle that says the learner’s intrinsic motives should be exploited by making the learning process interesting, useful, and challenging intrinsic motivation Brown, 2001, p. 55, see also Appendix B of the guidelines. After determining the appropriate basic competence and modifying learning indicators to conform to self-actualization principles, the teacherlearning designer then uses activities and material that are expected to meet the requirements of being interesting, useful, and challenging in order to arouse the students’ intrinsic motives e.g., Students listen to a pop song, discuss the content of the lyrics with the teacher, watch a video, discuss the material in groups, do a role-play and do a jigsaw activity, etc.. The teacherlearning designer should then be aware that all of these learning activities and the learning indicators and also the learning principle above are closely connected to the following major self-actualization major principles: diversity, learner-centeredness, locality, and emotional development. The principles are potentially reflected in those interesting, useful, and challenging activities and their indicators. It is assumed that the language learning process described in these guidelines is foreign or second not first language learning based on communicative language teaching principles, the majority of which are in line with self-actualization principles. In another speaking class, for example, the teacherlearning designer uses communicative materials and activities in order to attain learning indicators that have been formulated. Students are given opportunities to communicate and their efforts to speak are appreciated, and no punishment is given. Students are encouraged to produce and speak the target language. They are asked to tolerate a classmate having a problem 14 with fluency, grammar, or pronunciation. They are expected to be accustomed to hearing different dialects accents, pronunciations, styles, and even mistakes. In other words, they are encouraged to respect one another. This can be related to another learning principle identified by Brown: Learners should be encouraged to initiate communication and their risky attempts to communicate should be positively responded Brown, 2001, p. 56; see also Appendix B. The teacher should also be aware that the teaching-learning process and the learning indicators are in line with self-actualization major principles, such as equity, creativity, tolerance, learner-centeredness, and freedom of expression. Of course, the teacherlearning designer can also directly refer to one or several major self-actualization principles, such as learner-centeredness, equity, and freedom of expression, and then designs the objectives and process. The most important point, however, is that heshe can still use familiar communicative or perhaps traditional techniques and activities, but, while planning, heshe is AWARE of the major self-actualization principles outlined in section B above and tries to apply them either directly or indirectly.

D. Application of Self-Actualization Principles to Language Education