Appraisal

last updated:October 2008

Robustness
Freedom to learn, by Carl Rogers, is generally recognised to be a seminal text in the area of learning and teaching. It was part of the revolution that moved education towards a more student-centred approach. Rogers (1902–1987) is known as the founder of 'client-centred' or 'non-directive' therapy. His approach was borne out of experience he gained from counselling – that the client usually knows better how to proceed than the therapist.

Rogers felt that all human beings have a natural propensity to learn; the role of the teacher is therefore to facilitate such learning. This includes:

• setting a positive climate for learning
• clarifying the purposes of the learner(s)
• making learning resources available
• balancing intellectual and emotional components of learning
• sharing feelings and thoughts with learners, but not dominating or directing.

According to Rogers, learning is facilitated when:

• the student participates completely in the learning process and has some control over its nature and direction
• it is primarily based upon practical, social, personal or research problems
• self-evaluation is the principal method of assessing progress or success.

Rogers’ humanistic theory is corroborated by classroom research. The third edition of Freedom to learn gives examples of school studies where empathic understanding, genuineness, warm respect, and nondirective activities facilitated the quality of the pupils' intellectual contributions during the lesson, their spontaneity, their independence and initiative, their positive feelings during the lesson, and their positive perception of the teacher. Furthermore, studies indicated that low ratings on understanding, genuineness, respect, and nondirective facilitation and high rating on directive teaching accompanied lower levels of pupil intellectual performance and significantly negative emotional experiences.

Relevance
Rogers’ theories seem especially pertinent now that England is in the throes of revising the strictly prescribed content-based national curriculum to encourage more flexible and cross curricula learning. His beliefs underpin and inform a great many teaching and learning strategies which contemporary research shows are effective, such as enquiry-based learning (which involves solving problems and discussing solutions), collaborative group work, whole class interactive teaching, and assessment for learning practices – details of which are provided in several Research for Teachers summaries. The goal of such ‘student-centred’ approaches is to enable students to learn how to learn for themselves making the teacher’s role that of facilitator and co-learner rather than fount of all knowledge. On top of this, Rogers’ work emphasises the importance of creating a warm, emotionally supportive classroom environment, as well as how to go about achieving it.

Applicability
Rogers’ ideas are applicable to all subject areas and at all phases. The book provides a focus for reflection and action for schools and teachers on ways of facilitating student-centred classrooms, how such classrooms provide opportunities for co-learning, as well as ways of enhancing teacher-pupil relationships and the benefits of doing so.

Writing
Freedom to learn is very readable. In keeping with his beliefs and practice as a counsellor, Rogers gradually unfolds his ideas about teaching using a warm, informal, narrative writing style that includes a great many anecdotes about teachers’ and students’ experiences of school. Teachers will find that these anecdotes together with the questions he poses along the way, such as ‘Why do kids love school?’ and ‘As a teacher, can I be myself?’ will help them see how they can relate his ideas and beliefs to their own classroom practice and experience.