Participatory Approach

Participatory Approach

Participatory theory, vision or framework is a conceptual framework which attempts to bridge the subject-object distinction. According to Jorge Ferrer, "the kernel of this participatory vision is a turn from intra-subjective experiences to participatory events in our understanding of transpersonal and spiritual phenomena.

A participatory epistemology is a theory of knowledge which holds that meaning is enacted through the participation of the human mind with the world. Originally proposed by Goethe, it has been discussed extensively by cultural historian Richard Tarnas.

In a participatory epistemology, meaning is neither solely objective nor solely subjective. That is to say that meaning is not, per modern or positivist views, found solely outside of the human mind, in the objective world, waiting to be discovered. Nor, per postmodern or constructivist views, is meaning simply constructed or projected onto an inherently meaningless world by the subjective human mind. Rather, Tarnas argues that meaning is enacted through the dialectical participation of the human mind with the larger meaning of the cosmos. Thus meaning exists in potential in the cosmos, but must be articulated by human consciousness before it exists in actuality.

Participatory approach started in secondary schools in 2005, but it began before that time in the name of communicative language teaching (CLT). This CLT is actually participatory approach in which students have the opportunity to participate in different activities such as pair work, group work, peer work, role play, picture interpretation, expert jigsaw, audio-lingual, extensive reading, and aural-oral activities, skimming, scanning and so on. As a result, they can get a chance to display their creative power that helps to make them more confident, and they can remove their learning related fear.

Knowledge is socially constructed and, in fact, all of our learning is reconstructed on our past experiences. When we learn anything the new knowledge is amassed in our memory store. Development of knowledge depends on the quantity and quality of social interactions where surroundings and socio-economic status of the interacting partners influence the construction and reconstructions of knowledge.

From the above discussion it is clear that participatory approach is an effective method in education. However, the effectiveness of any method depends mainly on the classroom performances of the teachers. It does appear that whenever the techniques of the participatory approach are intelligently applied in the classroom, positive result is obvious. By using this method the students' understanding of a topic becomes direct and long lasting. Students can use the knowledge thus gathered to solve the problems they face in their personal and social life.