Abstract:

A study was conducted to examine students’ perception of the presence of humanistic learning principles, namely reflective, dialogical, democratic, and autonomous learning in the online learning environments. The premise of humanistic principles in education values the emotional aspects of learning and the classroom is seen as a safe and conducive space for students. Using the snowball technique, 136 undergraduates voluntarily participated in the online questionnaire. The results show that firstly, of the four humanistic learning principles, autonomous learning is more evidently present, followed by reflective, and dialogical, democratic. Secondly, a significant difference was found in the presence of these learning principles between the social science and non-social science courses. Thirdly, although in comparison to the female students, the male students perceived the presence of the humanistic learning principles to be more apparent in their online courses, the difference in the perceptions of these two groups was significant for only the democratic and autonomous learning. However, they concur that they were in a supportive and non-threatening learning environment, their online learning environment facilitates independent learning, they are taught not only to learn something but also how to learn, they are allowed to use their own learning styles, they are cared for as individuals and that their teachers are facilitator rather than instructors. This paper highlights some implications and recommendations for future studies.

Keywords:

Humanistic Learning Principles, Reflective Learning, Dialogical Learning, Democratic Learning, Autonomous Learning.