Facilitation in Education: Historical and Pedagogical Dimension

Abstract

The article deals with the origins of facilitation as a way of organizing the joint activities of participants in the educational process, outlines the direction of its transformation in the historical dynamics. It is shown that the beginnings of the facilitative approach can be traced in the dialogical method of teaching used by Socrates. The basis for the application of the ideas of facilitation in education were also the principle of naturalness of education and Ya. A. Komenskyi’s classroom system, J. Locke’s empirical-sensualist theory of knowledge, J.-J. Rousseau’s concept of free education, J. H Pestalozzi’s theory of elementary education. The significance of foreign reformist pedagogy of the end of the XIX – beginning of the XX century, which offered new systems and methods of teaching, including group education of children, is revealed. This required from the teacher new qualities, the ability to organize effective interaction with students, i.e. the presence of certain facilitative skills. The contribution of the famous psychologist K. Rogers, an ardent supporter of human-centered learning in substantiating the idea of facilitation in education, is considered. The scientist proceeded from the fact that the disadvantage of the traditional system of education is the overestimation of the role of teaching and teachers and the underestimation of the role of conscious learning and student. He insisted on the need to shift the emphasis from teaching to learning and advised teaching not as a translation of information, but as a facilitation of the processes of conscious learning.