The facilitative approach from the point of view of cognitive psychology

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THE FACILITATIVE APPROACH FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Nataliia O. Hupavtseva,

PhD in Psychology, Professor s assistant of the Department of General Psychology and Psychological diagnostics, Rivne State University of the Humanities

Therefore, the facilitative approach emphasizes that a person contains remarkable resources for self-knowledge, change of one 's self-concept, purposeful behavior, and complete mastery of these resources becomes possible only if a positive microclimate is created in a social group, that the phases will foster the formation of psychological settings.

The using of the word of foreign origin “facilitation” is explained, first of all, by the fact that it has been included into the psychological and pedagogical conceptual paradigm since the second half of the 20th century, and we understand it as providing assistance to the person, to the client.

In Cognitive Psychology the following attributes of the person are: his/her consciousness and activity; attributes of the person 's psyche - subjectivity, activity, adaptability; attributes of the consciousness - experience, knowledge and attitudes; activity attributes - activity, awareness, commitment, motivation and so on.

Consequently, the concept of “facilitation” reflects conscious and purposeful activity as a phenomenon peculiar to the teacher at the first place. Thus, it is possible to distinguish the attributes of facilitation: 1) the activity; 2) the subject of the activity; 3) the functions of the subject; 4) functions of the activity; 5) motives of the activity; 6) the purpose of the activity; 7) ways of performing the activity; 8) the subject of the activity; 9) methods of realization of the activity; 10) means which are relevant to the implementation of the activity; 11) the result of the activity.

Thus, the components of facilitation were identified. The first component of facilitation is authenticity, “naturalness”, sincerity of the person. The more the teacher is “personal” or “subjective” in relationships with the students, the less he/ she will try to “fend off” from the pupils, the more degree is that the students will strive for constructive personal change. Authenticity (or “naturalness”) means that the teacher is openly “living” the feelings and attitudes that take place in the moment of cognitive activity and interpersonal interaction.

Key words: the facilitative approach, Cognitive Psychology, self-knowledge, functions of the activity, motives of the activity, the purpose of the activity, ways of performing the activity, the subject of the activity.

Хупавцева Наталія Олександрівна,

кандидат психологічних наук, доцент, доцент кафедри загальної психології та психодіагностики Рівненського державного гуманітарного університету

ФАСИЛІТАТИВНИЙ ПІДХІД З ПОГЛЯДУ КОГНІТИВНОЇ ПСИХОЛОГІЇ

У статті зазначено, що фасилітативний підхід наголошує, що людина містить неабиякі ресурси для самопізнання, зміни концепції своєї особистості, цілеспрямованої поведінки тощо. Для повного оволодіння цими ресурсами в середніх освітніх закладах треба створити позитивний мікроклімат у соціальній групі, який сприятиме формуванню психологічних настановлень школярів.

Зазначено, що реформа освітньої системи має базуватися на перебудові особистих уподобань учителя, експлуатованих у процесах його міжособистісної взаємодії з учнями. Виокремлюємо три основні аспекти вчителя-фасилітатора. Перший - «правда» та «відкритість»; другий аспект експлікується в термінах «прийняття» та «довіра»; і, нарешті, третій аспект позитивно співвідноситься з «емпатійним розумінням».

Визначено, що фасилітативний підхід наголошує, що людина вміщує неабиякі ресурси для самопізнання, зміни власної Я-концепції, цілеспрямованої поведінки, а цілковите опанування цими ресурсами постає можливим лише в тому випадку, якщо в суспільній групі створено позитивний мікроклімат, що фасилітуватиме становлення психологічних настановлень. Отже, поняття «фасилітація» відображує усвідомлену і цілеспрямовану діяльність як явище, властиве передовсім викладачеві. Отже, можна виокремити атрибути фасилітації: 1) діяльність; 2) суб'єкт діяльності; 3) функції суб'єкта; 4) функції діяльності; 5) мотиви діяльності; 6) мета діяльності; 7) способи виконання діяльності; 8) предмет діяльності; 9) метод реалізації діяльності; 10) засоби, актуальні для реалізації діяльності; 11) результат діяльності.

Іншим компонентом фасилітації є емпатійне розуміння. Останнє має на увазі, що педагог досить точно сприймає почуття, особистісні смисли, пережиті учнем, і розпочинає комунікацію з ним із погляду цілковитого розуміння клієнта. В ідеальному випадку педагог так глибоко проникає до внутрішнього світу іншого, що може не лише усвідоміти смисли іншої особистості, а й опанувати ними, крім того, може опанувати смислами, фіксованими поза межою. Отже, фасилітативна взаємодія - це досить специфічний, активний різновид переходу поведінкових патернів у стійкі сенсові структури, що забезпечують зміну особистості як школяра, так і самого педагога.

Ключові слова: фасилітативний підхід, когнітивна психологія, самопізнання, функції діяльності, мотиви діяльності, мета діяльності, способи виконання діяльності, предмет діяльності.

The background of the problem

The using of the word of foreign origin “facilitation” is explained, first of all, by the fact that it has been included into the psychological and pedagogical conceptual paradigm since the second half of the 20^th century, and we understand it as providing assistance to the person, to the client.

Therefore, the facilitative approach emphasizes that a person contains remarkable resources for self-knowledge, change of one's self-concept, purposeful behavior, and complete mastery of these resources becomes possible only if a positive microclimate is created in a social group, that the phases will foster the formation of psychological settings. But the facilitative approach was not considered in the paradigm of Cognitive Psychology, so it is the subject of our research.

A brief description of the latest researches and publications on the topic. In the paradigm of Cognitive Psychology as C. Rogers thinks, the reform of the educational system should be based on the restructuring of the constant personal preferences of a teacher, which are exploited in the processes of his/her interpersonal interaction with pupils. The scientist identifies three basic directions of the teacher-facilitator. The first is “truth” and “openness”; the second instruction is described in terms of “acceptance” and “trust”; and, finally, the third attitude correlates positively with “empathic understanding” [9; 10].

So, D.H. Day points out that, if the teacher adheres to these guidelines (or accepts them as personally significant), we will have to deal with a special interpersonal (group) process that will lead to significant personal changes in the process of communication of participants [4].

As B.A. Fisher came to understand what content in a great degree facilitates the psychotherapist's personal preferences, he/she increasingly became aware of what exactly facilitates the personal precepts (teacher is regarding the use of the methods of teaching and training of the pupil). B.A. Fisher was increasingly interested not in the methods and forms of the activity in the classroom, nor in the content of education at all, which would form the basis of becoming a meaningful, productive and fairly independent pupils' learning. Just as the successful implementation of these guidelines in psychotherapy leads to the understanding of the principles and features of the organization of interpersonal communication of the therapist and the client, so does the facilitative plan becomes relevant in pedagogical relationships between the teacher and the pupils [5].

Facilitation can be understood in the psychological literature as a specific activity of a subject to the laws of the attributive analysis proposed by J.A. Fodor, M. Garrett & T.G. Bever [6, p. 37]. Such analysis creates a certain algorithm of actions of subjects of interpersonal interaction, in view of which each concept reflects the phenomenon, and the concept model, at the same time, reflects the concept itself. The activity of concepts of this model and the model of the phenomenon of facilitation are not the same definitions. The concept should reflect the attributes, components, functions and the structure of the phenomenon. The concept model may reflect, for example, only the attributes of a phenomenon and their structure, noted by R.W. Gardner, D.N. Jackson & S. Messick [7].

Thus, it is possible to distinguish certain components of the facilitation that create such a microclimate in the stuff that will provide personal growth and development. The first and the foremost there will be a facilitative interaction between a therapist and a client, a parent and a child, a leader and a group, a teacher and a student, a manager and a subordinate one. In fact, these conditions are also relevant in any situation, the purpose of which is the development of the person.

According to the actuality of this article, the purpose of it is:

1. To determine the components of facilitation, to describe and to analyze it.

2. To distinguish the attributes of facilitation.

3. To show how to provide facilitative interaction at the lessons of the English lessons we'll propose some exercises for pupils which describe the activity with the text.

Materials and methods. The following theoretical methods of the research were used to solve the tasks: categorical, structural and functional methods, the methods of analysis, systematization, modeling, generalization.

Presenting the main material of the research

The components of facilitation were identified. The first component of facilitation is authenticity, “naturalness”, sincerity of the person. The more the teacher is “personal” or “subjective” in relationships with the students, the less he/she will try to “fend off” from the pupils, the more degree is that the students will strive for constructive personal change. Authenticity (or “naturalness”) means that the teacher is openly “living” the feelings and attitudes that take place in the moment of cognitive activity and interpersonal interaction [1].

Another component of facilitation is congruence. If in a case of empathy we are talking about empathy with another person's emotional state, then in the case of congruence it is about experiencing his/her own feelings, about people's openness to themselves and to other individuals. Congruence is understood as authenticity, openness, honesty; we consider this quality as necessary and sufficient condition for effective interpersonal contact and mutual relations (also with empathy and unconditional positive acceptance) [2].

The term “congruence” was explained by C. Rogers to describe the dynamic state of the psychotherapist, which intersected the various elements of his/her internal experience (emotions, feelings, aspirations, wishes, etc.) that were sufficiently adequate, undisturbed and free to “live”, were aware of and expressed directly in the process of the activity with a client. In the case of congruence (and in contrast to empathy) it is about the psychotherapist's experience of his/her own feelings, about his/her openness to himself/herself and to others. Congruence is a process of invaluable acceptance and awareness by a person, of his/her own real and actual feelings, experiences and problems with their further speech explication and reproduction in new behavioral patterns that positively influence other people interaction (or, in other words, they are explication of a subject to human principles and characteristics). Congruence, however, is a rather dynamic state in which a person feels himself/herself the most free and authentic about himself/herself and other people, without a feeling to need the use of psychological protections. Congruence takes place when our inner feelings and experiences are quite accurately reflected in our consciousness and reproduced in our behavior, when we can be perceived and seen by who we really are [9].

It was noted that another important component of facilitative interaction is the acceptance of his/her own personality and the personality of another person, to take care of another person, and, even in the case of acknowledging the shortcomings of another one, to show positive acceptance of that person. When the teacher feels positive, not superficial attitude towards a pupil, despite even some of the negative points that may occur in the educational process, a positive facilitative interaction in this case can take a place [3].

Facilitation involves allowing the pupil to delve into any of his/her immediate experiences - even sad, abusive, feelings of indignation, fear, anger, courage, love or pride. In this case, facilitative interaction takes the form of unhelpful care. When the teacher recognizes the pupil as holistic one and is not in the light of certain prerequisites, facilitative interaction becomes quite plausible.

Another component of facilitation is empathic understanding. The latter implies that the teacher quite accurately perceives the feelings, personal meanings experienced by the student, and begins to communicate with him/her in terms of a complete understanding. Ideally, the teacher penetrates so deeply into the inner world of the other that he/she can not only grasp the meanings of another person, but also capture them, and in addition, can capture the meanings that are fixed inside the context. Consequently, facilitative interaction is a rather specific, active kind of transition of behavioral patterns into stable sense structures that provide a change in the personality of both the student and the teacher [8].

Consequently, the concept of “facilitation” reflects conscious and purposeful activity as a phenomenon peculiar to the teacher at the first place. Thus, it is possible to distinguish the attributes of facilitation: 1) the activity; 2) the subject of the activity; 3) the functions of the subject; 4) functions of the activity; 5) motives of the activity; 6) the purpose of the activity; 7) ways of performing the activity; 8) the subject of the activity; 9) methods of realization of the activity; 10) means which are relevant to the implementation of the activity; 11) the result of the activity (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. The structure of cognitive activity of pupils at secondary schools

So, to show how to provide facilitative interaction at the lessons of the English lessons we'll propose some exercises for pupils which describe the activity with the text.

Fragment 1.

Stage 1. Post-text exercises to check the basic text information. Aim: To check the understanding of the main content of the text.

Method 1: Use cross-selection text.

Teacher: So, you have read the essay “Life at College”. Now we'll check your comprehension. Here is the matching test. You are to match the beginning of a sentence with its ending (5 minutes for the test).

1. Universities in Great Britain choose their students...