Modern Psychoanalysis of Learning in the Classroom

The teacher striving toward cooperative classroom learning would do well to emulate a parent with a well functioning family as a model. During a child's growing years parents provide the emotional ingredients necessary to meet unfolding maturational needs as well as the intellectual stimulation important for acquiring skills and basic knowledge of the world around him. Both of these tasks are accomplished in a social milieu called the family, where cooperative functioning of parents and children complements and makes possible the meeting of the child's emotional and intellectual needs. Likewise, the classroom student must be provided with the appropriate learning experience in an atmosphere conducive to optimal intellectual and emotional functioning.

The communication of cognitive material in the classroom remains a primary goal of the teacher, since it is not desirable to produce emotionally mature but intellectually deficient students. Accordingly, the teacher must become clearly attuned to the varying ways in which students learn. For each individual the road to significant learning may follow a different path. No single educational philosophy can adequately be used to unlock all doors to learning. As a teacher one