Holistic Learning

We can think of learning as taking place in four different ways that fit together and support each other.

• Practical learning: This is learning how to do something and it includes developing skills.
• Conceptual learning: This is learning about some subject or learning that something is the case. It can be expressed in statements and ideas, or concepts.
• Imaginal learning: This is learning that means we can imagine things, patterns of shapes and actions. It involves a sense of a whole, as shapes or sequences. It can be expressed in symbols such as line, shape, colour, proportion, succession, sound, rhythm or movement.
• Affective learning: This learning comes out in how we feel about things, the sensations, emotions or impulses that things set up in us. In other words, how we are affected by them.

These four forms of learning are distinct yet they support each other. The ones higher in this list being supported by those that are lower, as shown below.

Another way of putting this is:

If it does not feel right, we cannot imagine it.

If we cannot imagine it, we cannot make sense of it.

If we cannot make sense of it, we cannot do it.

Derived from: Heron, J. (1999) The complete facilitator's handbook London, UK Sterling, VA, USA: Kogan Page, Ch3