Inquiry-based learning: personalisation or the rehabilitation of human value

Abstract

In this article I argue that the concept of personalisation is simply rhetorical unless it facilitates theory and practice which takes seriously and engages with the value of the human person. The idea of human value is a fundamental theme in social and cultural life and the motor behind many psychological and social processes. Traditionally, knowledge presented as abstract and top down, and education systems which are driven by targets and economic imperatives, can unwittingly contribute to human devaluation by marginalising the personal, the idiosyncratic and the particular. The model of inquiry-based learning discussed here offers pedagogical strategies which attend to the self who is learning, as well as facilitating learners in engaging with the moral questions of human value embedded in processes of knowledge construction.

Keywords:

• human value
• devaluation
• inquiry-based learning
• personalisation
• denigration
• de-personalisation
• desecration
• dehumanisation
• demonization

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chris Steed

Chris Steed is the author of The Peace Weaver, a book that weaves narrative and social commentary on these ideas, published in October.