We explain what is holistic and how this study method arises. Also, how holistics is developed in education.
What is holistics?
To study the systems That make up the world can be accomplished in several ways. The methodological and epistemological position called holistic postulates that the way to do it should be by taking the whole as the object of study of a system and not only from its constituent parts.
The word holism comes from a Greek word (I the) What does it mean whole, whole, whole. According to this method The study should take physical, biological, economic, mental, linguistic, social systems, etc., as wholes and analyze the whole together with the characteristics of the system and not only refer to the parts.
Holistics considers each system as a whole in which its parts are integrated. The study of each of the parts of a whole cannot explain how the system works in a global way. A system is much more than the simple sum of the parts, that is why this study method considers the synergism of the parts as important and not their individuality.
As opposed to holistic (or philosophy holist) is reductionism, which holds that a system can be explained and studied from the parts that compose it. From the point of view of social Sciences, is also opposed to the holistic the individualism methodological that privileges the subjective interpretation (of each individual) of social facts, while the holistic one emphasizes the behavior of the individual starting from the social matrix in which they live.
How does the holistic arise?
From the beginning of the history human, ancient man knew about the relationship that had everything around him. He learned about the link between the nature all, the man himself and the community.
It was Aristotle who summarized the general principle of holistic philosophy by writing about metaphysics (which goes beyond physics). Summed up that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. With the weather the fragmentary study of things became predominant.
Holism was conceived in 1926 by Jean Christian Smuts, for whom holism is the tendency in nature and through creative evolution, to build systems (wholes) that in many ways are superior and more complex than the sum of their parts. East neologism explains the parts of a system from the whole.
The biologist of the early twentieth century, Ludwing Von Bertalanffy, defines what a system is, in his General Theory of Systems, as the set of elements that related in an orderly way, contribute to a certain object. Everything that surrounds us is linked in some way with other objects.
Holistics in education
The change in the way of seeing the world had its influence on the education formal in schools, which used to have a view fragmentary transmission of content to their students. The way of thinking about the world as a whole generated a change in the way in which education is considered. We all learn about everything at all times is one of the new postulates of this way of seeing the world. This is generated from the knowledge relationships that we carry out throughout our life.
The knowledge Previous ones are connected with new knowledge generating a system. The knowledge we acquire is not linear or a chain of data. The truth is that the thought it forms a complex network of unlimited combinations that forms a system. On the other hand, holistics considers the experience of each student and does not seek an accumulation of knowledge without connection with the student's own world, on the contrary, it seeks to integrate life, knowledge and self-knowledge.
The learning It is a group and solidarity activity between students and teachers. All members of a class learn from each other. The student is not a mere spectator but also an actor within his own learning. Education is essential for the advancement of society and of the humanity. Education must be considered as a whole and not as a mere sum of parts, in which the student passively receives isolated knowledge. Knowledge makes up a whole.
In the same way, education cannot be isolated from the world of each student, leaving aside the subject and their experiences since each one has their different way of learning. The purpose of education should be for the student to achieve this network of knowledge based on what he already knows.