[MUSIC] You're most welcome to lecture four, which this time focuses on Abraham Maslow. With me to dialogue of this man, is John MacBeath, you're most welcome. >> Thanks, thanks George. This is the last of the four key thinkers that we've selected. We could have had a really broad field here, but I think we've selected four key people that have had something really important to say about education, and about children's engagement in the classroom. So, why Maslow? >> Maslow was a psychologist. And as a psychologist his interest was to help us understand human motivation and how motivation influences individual's responses or reactions to the given task. Based on this, he came out with his five key levels of motivation, and reminds us that we need to satisfy basic needs before thinking about higher order needs. That is basically what is communicated, and his ideas are very relevant to the classroom situation. >> So, you've talked about this triangle, this hierarchy, George, and I think it's pretty clear now what the whole message is about, but we maybe need to just take a little time to say something about each of these five in turn. So, briefly, something about the importance of the physiological or the biological needs. >> Thank you. As I said, at the base of the hierarchy is the biological or physiological needs and as one commentator put it, this is the survival needs. Needs that are critical for anybody to live, water, food, drink, shelter, sleep, and if we talking about adults, sex - these are basic needs. And these are the things that Maslow thinks must be satisfied before we think about the next hierarchy. Now, in the school situation, if these things are not met, the child may be compelled by circumstance to be in the classroom, but within him or her, what is priority is how to feed themself. And here let me quickly give you a a case from Ghana where the government has now introduced a school -- well, a free feeding policy, where children in the schools are fed because studies have come to say that children weren't fed okay. There were cases where teachers were busily facilitating learning in the classroom, and in the process, food supplies came in, and without permission from the teacher the children rushed out of the classroom. Which meant that that biological, basic need hadn't been satisfied and so they were not prepared for the next stage. >> Do you mean to say that the food was more important than what they were learning from their teacher? >> At that moment, as far as their survival was concerned, food was more of a priority. >> One of the things you said, George, that immediately rang a bell with me very, very significantly, is sleep. You said sleep and you kind of passed over it, but I think that is one of the things that we know, absolutely - how can your brain be active in the classroom if you haven't had a good sleep? And I remember being in Japanese classrooms, where children would put their head down and have a sleep and sleep through the whole period because they had been up very late at night going to the jukus or doing their homework or whatever, and these teachers recognised -- they didn't wake them up -- they recognised that sleep was kind of an important priority. Okay. So, moving up the hierarchy then, we meet safety needs. >> Yeah, the second level of the hierarchy is safety needs, and this simply tells us that the child, the learner needs a safe environment. When a learner is not assured of security, of a safe environment, he or she studies under fear. And within a context of fear, learning can be threatened. And that's basically the teacher's responsibility to ensure that the environment is safe. >> And that relates pretty closely, doesn't it? To the need to feel that you are a part of the classroom, and that you belong here. So, that moves up the hierarchy to the next level, belongingness. >> Belongingness, yeah, that's the third hierarchy. Every normal human being likes to belong. So, if a child get's to the school environment, does he or she feel he's accepted? So, creating a sense of belongingness among children also adds to the safety of them because if he's loved he doesn't feel threatened or discriminated against so that is the next level. >> And relates very much to our previous conversations, of course, about bullying and as long as there is bullying then you can't meet those other needs, or at least makes it extremely difficult. >> Yeah. >> And so moving up again to the next level, we talk about esteem needs. >> Yeah, this, basically, is that feeling of self-acceptance and recognising that you are also somebody within the context of the relationship. And this is also very important that the teacher helps the child to develop a sense of high self-esteem, which will make them more confident in the classroom to contribute to discussions. If there's low self-esteem, the child will not be courageous enough to contribute. >> And the whole question of self-esteem refers, doesn't it, to this top tier, top level of the hierarchy, which is about self-actualisation, which is kind of a pretty cumbersome word, but tries to capture all those other things that you've been talking about. >> Yeah, Maslow places self-actualisation at the apex and talks about the desire to accomplish a task. Now you have all these things, so your desire is to accomplish a task, to realise your personal potential. So, in a classroom, one interpretation could be where the child now thinks, "No, I can become this or that." and that serves as a motivation for him to concentrate his learning on, let's say mathematics if he knows that mathematics is what will make him achieve what he wants to become. That's the desire to accomplish a task. >> So, that kind of rests on having some kind of goal or some kind of notion of what you want to be. >> Hm! >> Because you can't actualise yourself unless you have that kind of vision. Keep me as I am, you know, me as I would like to be, one of the instruments that we've used in previous courses - think of it as here's me and here's what my vision is for myself and what I would like to be, so he talks then, doesn't he, about the qualities, what is it that makes a self-actualised person? >> Maslow outlines some features of a self-actualised person. One of the things he talks about is selflessness, that once a person reaches that apex of self-actualisation then the element of thinking about the self is reduced. He now thinks about what can be done, what sacrifices can be done to help others to come along. He also talks about goodness, a person thinking about truthfullness and thinking about how to help others and be kind to others. The person gets this. And he also talked about wholeness, which basically involves unity. Working with others in unity, getting yourself integrated in things. And the relevance of this in the classroom situation is that when a child has been helped to go through the various levels, then he gets to this stage where the child will be thinking, "How can I help this colleague of mine who doesn't understand this concept of mathematics? How do I help?" >> That's a wonderful kind of vision, isn't it, George? It seems sometimes just so far out, in a way, theoretically it actually works, doesn't it? Maslow's theory works. And you think in an ideal situation, wouldn't that be lovely that we move children on to that highest level, where they stop thinking about themselves, and they start thinking about other people. And of course, that idea's at the basis of many religions, that you put other people-- >>First. >> Yeah, you put other people first. So, the notion of service or servant leadership for other people. So, the principles, four key principles? >> Yeah, he talks about four key principles. The first principle is that each of us is motivated by needs. No matter how simple, there are certain needs we would want to satisfy, so, that is the first principle. So, it is important that a teacher is made aware of these things. The second one is that, we must satisfy each need in turn, starting with the first of the basic needs. So, from the hierarchy, as we were talking about, that we must first think about the survival needs before we start thinking about the others. And then this leads to the third one which says satisfy lower needs first before you move on to the other ones. Then he also talks about the fact that if the things that satisfy our lower needs are not met, then we can not reach the higher needs. >> Or, at least, I think it makes it very difficult to meet those other needs. >> Mm. >> I mean we're talking in a sense here sometimes very theoretically and in a way we can't always just move nicely and neatly through those five layers, but it does help teachers to think, "I can't ask children to be doing this, if they haven't been doing this." So, it's proved to be a very important and influential theory. It didn't stop there, did it, because he just added two more. >> Yeah, the thing is the hierarchy of needs were modified later by some people in 1970s, there was a modification and two other needs were added. And these are the cognitive needs, which basically talked about the need to know knowledge and then the need to attach meaning to what is known. And then also, talks about the second one which is aesthetic needs, appreciation of nature, adoring nature. And these two having added to that. And perhaps these will be maybe the reason for introducing certain learning activities in schools where children are offered the opportunity to interact with the environment, to appreciate the environment. >> Mm-hm. I think very often it is very much overlooked some of the aesthetic needs that children have. Needs that need to be fulfilled. And obviously intellectual needs as well. So, that is a very nice kind of encapsulation in just a few minutes, of what Maslow has been talking about. So, where do we go from there, George? >> We've come to the end of this lecture on looking at Maslow. Think about the issues emerging from Maslow and share your views with your colleagues. This is the last lecture I'm having with you. Throughout we've been looking at the learner and how he or she learns. We've also looked at how teachers can create the conditions for learning to take place. And we've looked at some ideas from key thinkers in education about how learning can be managed in a classroom. Think about these and continue reading about them. Thank you. [MUSIC]
