The Education system aims to impart the education to the students towards its scheduled curriculum. However, the different dimensions of the education have their limitations in training or imparting the educational concepts to the high level of satisfaction and efficacy. Researchers and educational experts have derived conclusions of different educational practices and have attempted in developing better and effective pedagogies. This has led to the development of holistic learning which aims to enhance the efficacy of the education process.

Importance of Holistic Education Programs for Student Development

Because it fosters the growth of students’ intellectual, emotional, social, physical, and spiritual potential, holistic education is crucial. In addition to preparing children for success in a complicated environment and lifelong learning, it can help them become more well-rounded.

The goal of the educational movement known as holistic education is to involve the learner’s mind, body, and soul. Its philosophy, also known as holistic learning theory, is predicated on the idea that every individual discovers their identity, meaning, and purpose in life by their relationships with the natural world, their local society, and humanitarian ideals like compassion and peace.

Holistic education emphasizes experiential learning, emphasizes “relationships and primary human values within the learning environment,” and seeks to evoke in people a deep love of learning and an innate respect for life. In contrast to standard educational research and evidence-based education, the term “holistic education” is frequently used to describe a form of alternative education.

The concept of instruction first appeared in ancient Greece and other indigenous societies, which is where holistic learning got its start. This included the approach that concentrated on the full person rather than just a few or a few aspects of a person’s experience. It was a component of the idea that learning is inextricably linked to all of human experience and that the world is a single whole.

The South African military leader, statesman, scholar, and philosopher Field Marshal General Jan Christiaan Smuts (1870–1950), who is renowned for his contributions to the establishment of the League of Nations and the United Nations, an international peace organization, is credited with coining the phrase “holistic education.” He proposed a contemporary philosophy of holistic learning by drawing inspiration from the ancient Greek conception of holistic education.

The term “Holism,” which Smuts is credited with creating, is derived from the Greek word oλος, meaning “whole.” Smuts defines “holism” as nature’s propensity to create wholes through creative development that are more than the sum of its parts in his 1926 book Holistic and development. These days, systems thinking, complexity theory, neural networks, semantic holism, holistic education, and general systems theory in ecology are all acknowledged to have their roots in this study. Emil Durkheim’s idea of the “holistic society” and Alfred Adler’s psychological theory, which sees the individual as a “integrated whole,” were both influenced by Smuts’ “holism.”

Additionally, some authors attribute the development of the contemporary holistic education model to Maria Montessori, John Dewey, and Rudolph Steiner. In particular, Steiner created a framework for comprehensive education based on the writings of H.P. Blavatsky and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It presented the idea of “imaginative teaching” and how it contributes to the self-actualization of the student.

The goal of holistic learning is to help pupils reach their full potential.”Self-actualization” is what Abraham Maslow called this. The development of each person’s intellectual, emotional, social, physical, artistic, creative, and spiritual potential is the focus of education from a holistic viewpoint. It fosters both individual and group accountability while attempting to involve students in the teaching and learning process.

The concept of “ultimacy” and Basil Bernstein’s concept of sagacious competence are the two categories into which Robin Ann Martin and Scott Forbes (2004) separated their discussion of the basic philosophy of holistic education.

Transformational learning is the term used to describe the application of holistic learning to a curriculum in which the lesson acknowledges the learner’s totality and views him and the curriculum as interconnected rather than distinct. John Miller claims that the viewpoint is comparable to the Quaker conviction that “that of God in every one” exists.

Various attempts to articulate the central themes of a holistic education, seeking to educate the whole person, have been made:

• Relationships, responsibility, and respect for all life are considered to be the three fundamental R’s of holistic education.
• Children must first learn about themselves. This entails developing self-esteem and self-respect. Second, relationships are something that kids need to learn. Emotional “literacy” (one’s own self in connection to others) and social “literacy” (learning to see social influence) are emphasized in learning about their relationships with others. Third, resilience is something that kids need to develop. This means overcoming obstacles, confronting problems, and figuring out how to guarantee long-term success. Fourth, teaching youngsters about aesthetics helps them to appreciate the beauty of their surroundings and cultivate awe for life.
• The curriculum is developed by the teacher by listening to each student and assisting them in discovering their inner potential.

Holistic learning encourages a number of approaches to the problem of how to teach and how people learn in order to educate the whole child. First, a transformative approach to education is promoted by the concept of holism. Transformative and holistic learning entails a shift in a person’s frames of reference rather than viewing education as a process of transmission and transaction. This shift could involve world views, mental habits, and points of view.
According to holism, knowledge is shaped by the environment in which an individual lives. Thus, it is crucial to encourage pupils to critically think about how we learn or comprehend information.
Second, rather than the fragmentation that is frequently observed in mainstream education, the concept of links is emphasized. The division of pupils into grades and the division of individual subjects are examples of this fragmentation.