Holistic+teaching+and+learning

Holistic teaching and learning - __Whole Systems__ Commonly, this approach is associated with Indigenous students to incorporate land, relationships and communities into a learning environment and topic and avoiding the pulling apart of a subject matter to increase the understanding of a topic. However, I believe that this teaching approach can be, if used properly, appropriate for every student in a classroom regardless of their background and culture. It can be difficult for many adults to grasp as it has been conditioned in us to pull apart relationships of a topic to find the whole. The concept of Whole systems, is to put the whole of subject matter into a larger context and thus make sense of it along with all its relationships.
 * What is it?**

A teacher may want to teach her students aobut reading a clock and understanding the concept of time. They could ask the students what they did in their day so far, and try to explain how much they could fit in between when they woke up and the current time, and how long each of these things took. Then the teacher could relate this to the clock, by moving the Minutes hand and the Hours hand as a student describes their day. The student could then proceed to move the clock hands themselves as they try to remember how long things took, and what the time must have been when they finished that task.
 * An example of a teacher using Whole systems in their classroom:**

There are a number of useful websites that outline how to use the holistic teaching, and in particular, Whole systems approaches in every day classroom environments. It is a great tool for students who find pulling things apart and trusting that the teacher will lead the bits and pieces to a whole later in the term. Students are given a greater understanding of a topic and then can pull it apart from the whole as they require.

Queensland Government, (2011). Holistic Planning & Teaching Framework. Accessed on 26/07/2011 from http://www.learningplace.com.au/deliver/content.asp?pid=44292 Holistic Education Network Tasmania, (2011). Holistic teaching and learning. Accessed on 26/07/2011 from http://www.hent.org/intro3.htm
 * References:**