Impactful Learning Environments: A Humanistic Approach to Fostering Adolescents’ Postindustrial Social Skills

Abstract

“Humanistic education” and “postindustrial skills” movements are concerned with promoting social development; thus, it is apropos to question if a humanistic learning environment is effective in fostering adolescent development of social skills. This qualitative study is a 3-year longitudinal, ethnographic case study examining the role of humanistic learning environments on fostering adolescent postindustrial social skills. The sample consisted of observations of 281 students and interviews from 17 parents, 5 teachers, and 37 students in a mastery-oriented public-charter school with an approximate 350 student population. Four humanistic learning environment characteristics (relationships, community, respect, and consciousness) were found to foster five developmental postindustrial social skills (socioemotional development, communication, collaboration, sociability, character, and social responsibility) using inductive data analysis.

Keywords

humanistic learning environment qualitative adolescents

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