Inspiring the Massage Classroom
Inquiry Based Education is Body Centered Therapy
An old adage states: “Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand.”
The last part of this statement is the essence of inquiry-based learning!
In general, the traditional approach to learning is focused on mastery of content, with less emphasis on the development of skills and the nurturing of inquiring attitudes. The current system of education is teacher centered, with the teacher focused on giving out information about “what is known.” Students are the receivers of information, and the teacher is the dispenser. Much of the assessment of the learner is focused on the importance of “one right answer.” Traditional education is more concerned with preparation for the next grade level and in-school success than with helping a student learn to learn throughout life, or as we like to say at ASIS Massage Education – developing a love of learning.
The inquiry approach is more focused on using and learning content as a means to develop information-processing and problem-solving skills. The system is more student centered, with the teacher as a facilitator of learning. There is more emphasis on “how we come to know” and less on “what we know.” Students are more involved in the construction of knowledge through active involvement. The more interested and engaged students are by a subject or project, the easier it will be for them to construct in-depth knowledge of it. Learning becomes almost effortless when something fascinates students and reflects their interests and goals.
Inquiry classrooms are open systems where students are encouraged to search and make use of resources beyond the classroom and the school.
ASIS Massage Education - teaching students to embody the work
Education is not preparing students for a world that is static and fixed. Rather, education must prepare learners to cope with changes that will increase in complexity throughout their lives and many of which cannot be foreseen at this time. Most learners will probably deal with several job changes, move to several different locations, be involved in complex social changes, and other such issues. Education cannot give learners all the information that they need to know, but rather it must provide the tools for continuing to learn.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited.
Imagination encircles the world."
Albert Einstein
In a society in which education has focused on transmitting “what we know,” it is a challenge to develop a widespread view that “how we come to know” is very important in modern society. Teachers at ASIS Massage Education are encouraged to” light a fire”, to inspire students to love the human form.
All learning begins with the learner. What massage students know and what they want to learn are not just constraints on what can be taught; they are the very foundation for learning, growth and self discovery. Dewey’s description of the four primary interests of the student are still appropriate starting points:
- the student’s instinctive desire to find things out
- in conversation, the propensity student’s have to communicate
- in construction, the student’s delight in making and designing things
- in their excitement to learn, the student’s gifts of artistic expression.
We may say that these are the natural resources, the uninvested capital, “upon the exercise of which depends the active growth of the students.”
Our Belief at ASIS Massage Education:
Equanimity is the attitude to be adopted in the face of the vicissitudes of life. There are eight natural ways of the world that we have to face in life. They are gain and loss, fame and lack of fame, praise and blame, happiness and sorrow. If one trains oneself to maintain an equanimous temperament without being either elated or dejected in the face of these vicissitudes, one can avoid much stress and lead a simple life with peace and contentment. We cannot change the world so that it will give us happiness. But we can change our attitude towards the world so as to remain unaffected by the stresses exerted by events around us.
Good Poetry begins with the lightest touch, a breeze arriving from nowhere
a whispered healing arrival, a word in your ear,
a settling into things.
Then like a hand in the dark,
it arrests the whole body, steeling you for revelation.
David Whyte
ASIS Massage Education – Promoting Peace, One Body at a Time
