Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

 

What do you understand by a 'self-actualizing person'?

In my view, I would say a self-actualizing person is a person who is content in life. It is a person who is fully motivated and his words and actions motivates others. A self actualized person is a well educated person who has grown up in perfect conditions allowing all needs; physical, emotional and psychological, to be met. This person would be wise and had life experience. They will have high self esteem and be very successful.

‘educators should respond to the potential an individual has for growing into a self-actualizing person (Simons et al., 1987)’

I totally agree with this statement. Education has a very big influence on the sort of person one might become. Therefore educaters should respond to pupil needs ad provide an environment that allows individuals to flurish into the sort of person they could become. Although I would say that this is not only the responsibility of educators; parents, society and the individual should all work collectively.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in my Classroom

Maslow's five levels of need are met in my own classroom, our school is a very caring school that caters to the individual needs to students, although there are hindrances to achieving the higher levels of this hierarchy as the class sizes are very small and there is not much competition therefore the students settle for mediocre standards this could be overcome by arranging visits to other schools so students are able to see the other standards of work and achievement. Another problem is that we allow pupils who speak little English into the school, they are hindered because all lessons are taught in English, they often feel unmotivated as they don’t understand their lessons. A way to deal with this would be to have intensive English courses when non English speaking students enter the school, they should also have an ESL support teacher who will shadow them and explain things in more detail.

How useful do you find his analysis?

Maslow’s analysis is helpful, he has documented the main categories in which a person needs to become a contented adult. It helps identify which needs are most important and those which are less important. He gives 10 useful points that help educators enable students to fulfill these needs and become well rounded individuals, although they simple state what educators 'should do' not 'how', so his 10 points can be open to interpretation as to how an educator fulfills each need. I can identify theses needs in myself and others and understand how to fulfill these needs in others. On the other hand the analysis does not take into account other factors, other than society, which could stop a person becoming self actualized. It is very black and white. In an ideal world this analysis would be very effective but every person is different and has different needs, therefore I believe this analysis is useful as a base theory but needs rendering when dealing with different students of different ages, from different backgrounds and cultures.