According to Rogers (1983), the person-centeredapproach is in direct contrast to the traditional, conventionalphilosophies, methods, and politics of education. The person-centered approachstates that one precondition must exist before the other features may beexperienced or implemented into any educational system, from kindergartenthrough graduate school.
The Precondition is: A leader or an individual who is viewed as anauthority figure in the current setting must be sufficiently secure within himor herself and in his or her relationships with his or her colleagues and allothers whom he or she may encounter. Only if this is true, will he or sheexperience the necessary trust in the capacity of others to not only think butalso to learn for him/herself.
Thus, once this precondition is met, then person-centered approach followersbelieve that the following eight aspects will become possible and incorporated.
1. The facilitative teacher shares with others - students, parents and/orcommunity members - the responsibility for learning.
2. The facilitator provides learning resources, from within him or herself andhis or her own experience, from literature and/or community experiences.
3. The student develops his or her own program of learning, in cooperation withothers.
4. A facilitative learning atmosphere is provided.
5. The focus of all activities within the school system revolves around theprocess of learning.
6. The discipline needed to attain the students' goals is aself-discipline. That is, because the sole purpose in the school is to fosterlearning, students take responsibility for their own learning process byexercising self-discipline.
7. The evaluation of the extent and significance of the student's learningis made primarily by the learner.
8. In this learner-oriented, growth-promoting setting, the student tends toexcel and proceed in all aspects of whole-person learning at a faster rate, andis more pervasive in the life and behavior of the student than would be achievedin the conventional classroom.
For further information pertaining to this subject, read "The politics ofeducation" chapter in Carl Rogers book, Freedom to Learn(1983).