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Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, Issue 60, 2015, 89-
Self-Awareness and Personal Growth: Theory and
Application of Bloom’s Taxonomy
Hasan UGUR Petru-Madalin CONSTANTINESCU* Michael J. STEVENS*****
Suggested Citation :
Ugur, H., Constantinescu, P.M., & Stevens, M.J. (2015). Self-awareness and personal growth: Theory and application of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research , 60, 89- Doi: 10.14689/ejer.2015.60.
Abstract
Problem Statement : In this article, we summarize a group-based, self- development curriculum based on humanistic principles, framed by contemporary self-determination theory (SDT), and designed in accordance with Bloom’s Taxonomy. The processes of awareness and integration are common to SDT and Bloom’s Taxonomy, and to our knowledge, have not been applied together with the practical goal of promoting the student self-development in an educational setting. Purpose of the Study : The underlying assumptions of our curriculum hold that (1) the self functions as the psychological agent responsible for regulating personal behavior, and that (2) personal growth is an outcome of the motivation to fulfill intrinsic goals coupled with the integration of learning through an awareness of personal limitations and potentialities. We describe the design and implementation of a school-based curriculum that integrates core elements of SDT with the sequential levels of cognitive and affective learning articulated by Bloom’s Taxonomy and that is intended to facilitate the student self-development. Method : Three distinct theoretical and empirical ingredients of SDT form the basis of our curriculum: goals and values, organismic integration, and mindful action. These core components of SDT are rooted in the humanistic tradition but can be transformed into a sequence of practical learning goals and activities when viewed through the lens of Bloom’s
- (^) Corresponding author: Dr. Hasan Ugur, Fatih University, hugur@fatih.edu.tr ** (^) Lucian Blaga University, petru@psiho-helpline.ro ***Prof. Dr. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, michaelstevens@thechicagoschool.edu
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Taxonomy. We demonstrate how Bloom’s Taxonomy provides the architecture needed to implement the elements of SDT in such a way that students are able to engage in a programmatic process of self- development. In other words, the levels of Bloom Taxonomy are used to structure the application of the broad SDT/humanistic principles on which personal growth is founded. Findings : Combined with the anecdotal reactions of group members and facilitators, our impressions suggest that the consistent expression of personally selected values and characteristics requires that these aspects first become internalized as meaningful guides for living, second, motivate behavior that is consistent with the chosen values and characteristics, and third, contribute to a sense of well-being and personal growth. Conclusion and Recommendations : The process of self-development can be facilitated by the internalization of cognitive learning and is supported by affective processes that, together, yield favorable developmental outcomes for students. Although we did not subject our group-based curriculum to rigorous empirical evaluation, we encourage efforts to establish its effectiveness through qualitative and quantitative research. Keywords : Self-awareness, motivation, personal growth, Bloom’s Taxonomy
Introduction
Self-awareness is not only a gift, but it is a responsibility. Mufti James Hannush Many years have passed since existential-humanistic ideas were developed and empirically tested by research on Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom, 1956; Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, & Krathwohl, 1956), an important contribution to the development of school curricula, has also been widely used for some time. However, these seemingly different theoretical and empirical traditions have seldom been linked, despite the fact that their conceptual frameworks are complementary. In this article, we summarize an innovative curricular program based on SDT principles, which in our view is a modern relaunching of the existential-humanistic paradigm, and Bloom’s Taxonomy, which has an applied focus on improving curriculum design and learning outcomes. There are no research studies that have examined our synthesis and application of SDT and Bloom’s Taxonomy. However, from the theoretical and empirical literature (e.g., Bloom, 1956; Bloom et al., 1956; Krathwohl, 2002; Ryan, Huta, & Deci, 2008; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), it is possible to find indirect support for our applied synthesis. For example, one important bridge between the different conceptual and research traditions of SDT and Bloom’s Taxonomy is that the more values and knowledge become integrated into the self, the more likely that academic motivation is enhanced and learning outcomes improve. Our innovative curriculum program has both scientific and applied value in that it allows researchers and practitioners
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personal growth (Jahoda, 1953; Maslow, 1950) has been contradicted by more recent research. According to these studies, positive illusions represent healthy defense mechanisms (e.g., Taylor & Brown, 1988), whereas depressive realism (e.g., Alloy & Abramson, 1979) can prove detrimental if left unchallenged (Robins & Beer, 2001).
Positive psychology, while a modern extension of humanistic psychology with a strong empirical foundation, has tended not to focus on issues of positive illusion versus realistic experience and actual accomplishment (Schneider, 2011). As stated above, personal growth has been central to the perspectives set forth by Maslow and Rogers (Maslow, 1968; Rogers, 1961) and, in a way, has been discovered anew with similarly conceptualized SDT as ‘normal’ striving by the individual toward well- being, joy, creativity, and accomplishment. SDT is considered part of the broader positive psychology movement and has led to significant advances by demonstrating that intrinsic motivation, well-being, and adaptive functioning are enhanced by the pursuit and eventual attainment of available and personally meaningful life goals, or aspirations (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Part of this assertion reflects common ground between SDT and social cognitive theory. Social cognitive theories (e.g., Bandura, 1997; Shoda, Wilson, Whitsett, Lee-Dussud, & Zayas, 2015) contend that what is required for well-being to occur is a process whereby individuals aspire to well- being, in other words experiencing oneself as capable of attaining personal aspirations and then attaining them, at least in part. The point of departure between social cognitive theory and SDT is that SDT maintains that self-efficacy and partial goal attainment is not enough to experience well-being; rather the content of aspired- to goals is critical (i.e., intrinsic vs. extrinsic) (see Deci & Ryan, 2000 for a full discussion). A key life goal is the aspiration for personal growth, the pursuit and attainment of which has been shown in numerous studies across many cultures to contribute to well-being and adaptive functioning.
Research on personal aspirations within SDT began in 1993 when Tim Kasser and Richard Ryan (1993) published their controversial article, “A Dark Side of the American Dream: Correlates of Financial Success as a Central Life Aspiration.” Since then, other studies have replicated entirely or in part the claims that the pursuit of reasonably attainable intrinsic goals and/or the achievement of at least some of these goals (i.e., personal growth) enhances the experience of well-being. The relationship between intrinsic motivation and well-being has been demonstrated cross-nationally in research conducted in the United States, Russia, Romania, and Germany (Frost & Frost, 2000; Ryan, Chirkov, Little, Sheldon, Timoshina, & Deci, 1999; Schmuck, Kasser, & Ryan, 2000). Stevens, Constantinescu, and Butucescu (2011) found that personal growth is related to well-being in both US and Romanian students, citizens of two countries with very different cultures and histories.
Personal Growth and Subjective Well-being in Educational Settings There are many examples from theory and research concerning the importance of students’ goals for their academic achievement, well-being, and personal growth (Kiaci & Reico, 2014; Vansteenkiste, Lens, & Deci, 2006; White & Murray, 2015; Wolbert et al., 2015). The theoretical and empirical literature underscores the long- term benefits of striving for and achieving personal growth in tangible ways. Other
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studies conducted in school settings have also shown that aspiring to personal growth leads to a variety of desirable outcomes. For example, Bauer and McAdams (2004) and Bauer, Park, Montoya, and Wayment (2015) found that university students with personal, growth-oriented goals displayed higher levels of social and emotional well-being, as well as social and cognitive maturity. Tuominen-Soini, Salmela-Aro, and Niemivirta (2008) found that university students who were oriented toward personal growth (i.e., reflective and experimental growth motivation) scored high on measures of maturity and well-being. These findings have important implications for the design of curricular programs geared toward student psychological development.
Bloom’s Taxonomy was developed out of a need to standardize different aspects of education, such as learning objectives, the curriculum, and evaluative measures (Bloom, 1956; Bloom et al., 1956). Although the taxonomy went unnoticed at first, its popularity grew, and it has since been translated into many different languages (Krathwohl, 2002). The taxonomy has a central cognitive domain that specifies a framework in which distinctive cognitive learning activities are identified for each of the six sequential stages through which the acquisition of knowledge and skills takes place. The six stages of learning that comprise the cognitive domain of the taxonomy are: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. Although these stages were further subdivided in the original taxonomy (Bloom et al., 1956), their description goes beyond the scope of our article. The revision undertaken by Kratwohl (2002) relabeled several of the stages and transformed the taxonomy into a bi-dimensional structure that accommodates both knowledge and cognitive processes. Notwithstanding revisions to the original taxonomy (Krathwohl, 2002), its fundamental ideas have for the most part been preserved, and it continues to be used by teachers in the design of course content and learning activities.
In addition, a distinctive affective domain was integrated into the original taxonomy. This affective domain has five levels: Receiving, Responding, Valuing, Organizing, and Characterization. Profound learning takes place when the student is able to assign a specific value to the content of what is being learned and then integrate that learning into his or her personal system of experience and values (Allen & Friedman, 2010). The affective domain of Bloom’s Taxonomy resonates with the tenets of humanistic psychology as well as with the propositions that undergird SDT; that is, intrapersonal congruence in values is seen as indispensible to the motivation to pursue meaningful activity and to the experience of well-being and personal growth (e.g., Deci & Ryan, 2000; Rogers, 1964). As already stipulated, intrinsic motivation and well-being are necessary for quality of life (i.e., “living well”). Extrapolating to educational settings, information imparted by instructors should ideally be integrated into the personal worldview of students, which consists of experiential knowledge and values needed to achieve a rewarding learning experience and a psychological transformation in perspective. Transformative learning occurs when certain conditions in educational settings are met such that the worldview of the student is expanded and deepened through the process of learning that intentionally seeks to integrate new information into the student’s experiential history and value system (for a detailed discussion of learning and values, see Deci &
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Ryan et al., 2008). As stated at the outset, one of our main propositions is that, as long as the individual aspires to personal growth and pursues this aspiration vis-à- vis tangible, real-world outcomes, this expression of intrinsic motivation, along with purposive and meaningful forms of extrinsic motivation (Stevens et al., 2011; Stevens, Constantinescu, Ugur, & Constantinescu, 2015), are likely to contribute both to momentary and to enduring adaptive functioning and well-being (White & Murray, 2015; Wolbert et al., 2015), provided that conditions permit the fulfillment of basic needs. At Fatih University in Istanbul, Turkey, we developed a group-based curriculum to facilitate the personal growth of students. The curriculum adopts Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom, 1956; Bloom et al., 1956; Krathwohl, 2002) as a model for enhancing learning, self-awareness, and well-being.
Instead of using Bloom’s Taxonomy in the traditional way to assist the curriculum designer and classroom instructor (Krathwohl & Anderson, 2010), we drew on the taxonomy to develop a group-based program intended to promote individualized pathways to self-development. We believe that Bloom’s Taxonomy can facilitate personal growth by activating students’ intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motives that serve higher-order needs, increasing awareness of their real potentialities, and focusing attention on their behavioral choices. We further believe that by being connected psychologically to their personal qualities, students will seek opportunities for personal growth both in the classroom and in non-educational settings (Newman, 2000). In short, Bloom’s Taxonomy, with its developmental levels and applications to learning, provides an ideal framework with which to implement the goal of positive psychology to build strengths in students (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Wolbert et al., 2015).
Method
Participants
Seventy counseling psychology undergraduates who had basic coursework in group counseling, along with seminars on cognitive and emotional development, positive psychology, social comparison theory, and peer relations were invited to participate voluntarily in pilot groups led by master’s-degree facilitators. Participants applied online to participate in a group study. There was a rule for inclusion as a member of the group study. The participants were required to see graphs with the results of self and classmates’ evaluations on some chosen personal characteristics. The students then clicked on a characteristic that determined what group they would be enrolled in. Students, who didn’t see their own graphs, were not accepted. To be considered, the graph had to have the evaluations of at least ten classmates. Each group had 8-12 students. Group facilitators were graduated master’s students in the counseling or psychology departments, so they had group study experience (during undergraduate and master’s levels). They all volunteered to be supervisors, and they received an online certificate from Akademik Pencere by the end of the program. Additionally, before starting applications, the first author offered them seminars in positive psychology and social comparison theory and
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granted them the right to use the online group studies. The supervisors also had experience in leading seminars on positive psychology and social comparison theory and their applications.
Procedure and Results
Our group-based curriculum was first launched as a part of a master’s-level course but evolved into noncredit volunteer opportunities for master’s-degree students and undergraduates. The number of students in any group was restricted to between 8 and 12 in order to ensure adequate individualized attention. Each group met weekly for 10 weeks, with each session requiring 45-50 minutes of class time, and built upon the learning activities and outcomes of the previous session. Some of the particularly important levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (e.g., knowledge, analysis, and synthesis) required at least two sessions to complete, depending on the group facilitator and level of student participation.
Roles and Responsibilities of the Group Facilitator
Each group facilitator had either a postgraduate certificate in group counseling or master’s-level coursework and training in group counseling through the Department of Counseling at Fatih University. The yearlong training of group facilitators was carried out by the first author, who developed the group-based curriculum over the course of 15 years of academic and practical work in school counseling. Prior to leading the groups, 31 master’s-degree students received academic preparation in the basic principles of cognitive and emotional development, positive psychology, social comparison theory, and peer relations, all of which were presented and extensively discussed in their group counseling course in the school psychology program. As for their orientation and understanding of Bloom’s Taxonomy, all group facilitators received (1) an explanation of how the group-based curriculum was derived from and reflected the cognitive and affective domains of the taxonomy; (2) an opportunity to discuss the learning goals associated with each level of the taxonomy, as well as how they could use their knowledge of cognitive and emotional development, positive psychology, social comparison theory, and peer relations in generating learning activities to facilitate learning goals; (3) instruction on how to identify and apply specific learning activities that are matched to the parameters of specific learning goals at each level of the taxonomy; (4) supervised role-plays that permitted guided practice in facilitating different learning goals through the application of relevant learning activities; and (5) feedback from the trainer and other group facilitators on how the content and format of the curriculum, as demonstrated in the role-plays, realized the cognitive and affective domains of Bloom’s Taxonomy. After one year of didactic and supervised experiential training, the first author determined that the group facilitators were adequately prepared to carry out the curriculum. Students who comprised the actual groups were recruited from schools in which the master’s-degree facilitators were interning. Once the actual groups were formed and before the learning activities began, the group facilitator introduced students to each other with some “ice-breaker” exercises and informed the group about the ethical guidelines and practical procedures to which they were asked to give consent. The group facilitator strove to engage students respectfully and with
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elements from the cognitive affective domains of Bloom’s Taxonomy. The curriculum evolved into having a significantly idiographic process component because of the need to tailor learning activities to the distinctive composition and affective dynamics of each group. Thus, our curriculum blended the nomothetic perspective favored by SDT and cognitive psychology with idiographic methods preferred by traditional humanistic psychology.
Knowledge
Learning goal: The goal of the knowledge level is to motivate students to reflect on the values/characteristics they selected by having them generate questions about their chosen value/characteristic. We believe that students at this level can learn to reflect on a specific value/characteristic, examine it from different perspectives, and develop specific personalized knowledge that they can then apply to their self- development.
Learning activity : The knowledge level is critical to the activation of intrinsic motivation. Students are usually given two weeks to complete this learning activity, which is sufficient time to reflect on their chosen value/characteristic and interact with other group members. The group facilitator explains the goal of the knowledge level and begins the learning activity by asking why students selected the values/characteristics that they did. After giving students time to respond, they are asked to write on a sheet of paper as many questions as they can about their chosen value/characteristic. The group facilitator informs them that a “famous master” will answer their questions at the next group session. One week later, the group facilitator tells students that each of them is in fact a famous master capable of answering the questions themselves, either individually or collectively.
In one group session, for example, students selected five different values/characteristics: being patient, successful, hardworking, helpful, and curious. Students prepared as many questions as possible for the following session. When the group next met, three students who selected the same value/characteristic - hardworking - read their prepared questions: “What does hardworking mean?, ” “Why do people call others lazy?,” and “Is doing homework enough to be a hard worker?” All of the students discovered that there were many more questions that they could generate for the value/characteristic of hardworking. As a result, other group members added questions (e.g., “Who are the hardest workers in the world?,” “Is Bill Gates a hard worker?,” “How can a musician be a hard worker?”). Prepared and new questions were met with applause, which appeared not only to motivate students who prepared questions, but also those who spontaneously contributed their own questions.
Comprehension
Learning goal: There are two goals associated with the comprehension level. The first is to gather information about the selected values/characteristics and motivate students to examine them by noting the questions and answers that group members offered in the previous session (i.e., knowledge level). The second is to demonstrate that others can construct and experience alternative personal realities, leading
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students to examine more critically their own and other values/characteristics. The overarching aim of this level is to facilitate a perspectival understanding and appreciation of the values/characteristics, that is, to promote metacognitive awareness and cognitive-affective development (Kiaci & Reico, 2014; Williams & Blythe, 2002) as well as internalization of that awareness (Schunk, 1999).
Learning activity: At this level, students who have been identified as “famous masters” of particular values/characteristics attempt to answer questions about these aspects posed by other group members. The group facilitator asks students to attend closely to each question and answer, encouraging them to respond to any value/characteristic they wish in order to enrich the conversation. For some group members, this process can promote beneficial secondary outcomes, such as comfort and confidence in participating in groups, which is tied to well-being (Berndt, 1999; Wentzel & Wigfield, 2007). If there are important perspectives that have not been identified by students, the group facilitator can prompt additional contributions by using reflective communication skills. Such interventions not only increase the activity level in the group but also serve to summarize and review the output of the knowledge level just completed. Obviously, generating interest and engagement in students is critical given the powerful influence of peers on cognitive and emotional development. Students who select a particular value/characteristic also have the opportunity to learn about some they did not choose, perhaps ones that they will reflect upon in terms of their personal strengths and limitations. Such indirect learning can raise self-awareness and stimulate personal growth. Taking advantage of peer culture as it emerges in group sessions is integral to the learning that takes place at all levels of our taxonomy-based curriculum. In this sense, the process of peer learning provides a means by which to socialize students' motivation, engagement, and attainment (Ryan & Deci, 2000; White, & Murray, 2015).
Application
Learning goal. The goal of the application level is to focus the attention of students on past actions that reflect their chosen value/characteristic and on what they believe they need to do to behave on a daily basis in ways that are more congruent with salient values/characteristics.
Learning activity: After developing a variety of perspectives on values/characteristics through the learning activities conducted in the knowledge and comprehension levels, students are invited to turn their attention to their own behavior, specifically what they did last week. The group facilitator briefly discusses the importance of how each group member puts their selected value/characteristic into daily practice. As a learning activity, students shut their eyes for 2-3 minutes and reflect on what they did during the past week that exhibits their chosen value/characteristic. Students are instructed to reflect on the positive and/or negative events that followed from their actions or inaction. Students are then asked to share their remembered experiences. The purpose of sharing this information is to raise awareness of and motivate appraisal of the degree to which behavior is congruent with previously identified values/characteristics. Students do not appraise their actions while disclosing them, but, as a consequence of making explicit
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discussion that follows, the group facilitator refers back to the knowledge and comprehension levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, in which students pose and answer questions. The group facilitator reminds students to monitor how closely their actions match their selected value/characteristic in preparation for the next session. The following week, students share their experiences of what they did between sessions. Typically, some students report that they remembered the learning activities of earlier sessions as they encountered new situations and, as a result, strove for greater self-awareness and congruence. If students communicate an aspiration to behave in ways that are more consistent with their chosen value/characteristic, it is not unreasonable to infer that intrinsic motivation is aroused. Realistically, we do not expect students to achieve substantial personal growth in a few weeks; however, we do expect that this learning process will sustain increased self-awareness and personal growth over time. We also believe that it is important not only to support students but also to serve as role models so that they become more inclined to realize salient values/characteristics. We wish to emphasize that students exert personal agency in their decision to apply or not apply what they have learned based on their subjective evaluation of how well this learning fits with their experience and how they want to live their lives.
Analysis
Learning goal: The goal of the analysis level is to induce students to examine the motives for enacting the chosen values/characteristics, why they were enacted or not enacted, and how the values/characteristics might be expressed in more consistent and meaningful ways. Each student’s expression of a chosen value/characteristic is processed in the group from the perspective of positive psychology; that is, we wanted students to become more aware of personally meaningful action and, thus, more consciously self-regulated, as has been advocated by research on mindfulness within an SDT framework (see Brown et al., 2007).
Learning activity: Each student selects one or two behaviors related to their chosen value/characteristic, share his or her thoughts and feelings about the circumstances and motivations for the behaviors, appraises the degree to which a chosen value/characteristic was performed, and generates suggestions to realize greater consistency in the expression of meaningful action. By engaging their distinctive cognitive and affective perspectives, students are assisted in understanding and appreciating how their personal growth is an outcome of personal agency (Fox & Riconscente, 2008). The significance of personal agency is highlighted via the lived experiences shared by students and by the group facilitator, who processes this material and moderates a discussion of the role of personal agency in managing action that contributes to well-being (Fox & Riconscente, 2008; Kiaci & Reico, 2014). Using the “line exercise” first introduced in the application level, students indicate where at this moment they would position themselves based upon the actual (vs. desired) expression of their chosen value/characteristic. The line exercise is intended to raise awareness of any change in the consistent expression of values/characteristics as well as the influence of personal agency on intrinsic motivation and well-being. Although it is not essential for students to carry out
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personally desired behavior, the enactment of the chosen values/characteristics is likely to bolster intrinsic motivation for self-awareness and personal growth while the group meets and to sustain intrinsic motivation after the group has ended (Pintrich & de Groot, 1990; Schunk, 1999; Wolters, 2003).
The group facilitator attempts to motivate students who are less inclined to enact their chosen values/characteristics by encouraging them to consider how they might narrow the gap between their performance goals and actions. If properly reframed, students are able to experience disappointments or setbacks as motivational opportunities for greater self-awareness and personal growth. Thus, students are asked to describe how they would act if they were to encounter the same situation in the future. They imagine alternative responses to those situations and how they would appraise the consistency of their actions with their chosen values/characteristics. This learning activity has promise to motivate students not only to become more aware of their actions but also to move them to acquire or improve the competencies needed for self-regulation. Peer support for this exercise is invaluable in freeing students to take risks with minimal concern about losing self- esteem.
Synthesis
Learning goal: The goal for the synthesis level is to motivate students to draw upon other behavior that they already perform consistently in order to increase the consistency with which they enact a chosen value/characteristic.
Learning activity: Students first identify behavior that they believe they perform consistently and offer an explanation for why this is so. Then, students attempt to transfer their awareness of what makes them consistent at enacting the given behavior to the consistent expression of the chosen values/characteristics. Finally, students apply their experiential knowledge and motivation toward improving the enactment of their chosen values/characteristics during the week.
The group facilitator begins by asking students why they believe they are or are not consistent at performing some behavior in general and in certain situations. Students are encouraged to brainstorm strategies for expressing behavior more consistently, including how to compensate for any personal limitations or environmental barriers to consistent performance. Because intrinsic motivation is more likely to increase when opportunities exist to generate and apply authentic solutions to challenges (Burton, Lydon, D’Alessandro, & Koestner, 2006; Levesque & Brown 2007; Levesque, Copeland, & Sutcliffe, 2008), the group facilitator refrains from introducing feedback on the strategies that students generate. This learning activity proceeds under the assumption that, if given the chance, human beings have the capacity and desire to assume responsibility for their personal growth (Burton et al., 2006; Fox & Riconscente, 2008; Pintrich & de Groot, 1990; Wolbert et al., 2015). From an evolutionary psychology perspective, well-being is the result of being able to seek or create conditions that improve the quality of life, and it reflects the adaptive neurocognitive capacities of human beings (Buss, 2000). Oddly enough, the evolutionary perspective comports with humanistic psychology and SDT on the role
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reflect on how helpful their experiences were in raising self-awareness and in facilitating well-being and personal growth.
Learning activity: At the last group session, each student personally reviews the curriculum. Students recall the learning goals and activities of each level as well as the nature of their participation, the emotions they experienced, and the degree to which they believe the curriculum served to increase the consistent expression of the chosen values/characteristics in the context of their everyday lives. The group facilitators in our study observed that, as students progressed through the six levels, they focused more on their strengths than on their weaknesses. Students reported that they believed they could overcome their limitations by maintaining awareness and motivation to enact their chosen values/characteristics. One student summed it up thusly: “I do not need to be shy about expressing my weaknesses and strengths. The important thing is to develop my strengths and compensate for my weaknesses. I have already started to do this.” Another student stated, “There were good activities. I told my parents every week. They also motivated me to improve. I believe I will be better at home and in class.” This comment further suggests that parental support can enhance the motivation of students to pursue their chosen values/characteristics via consistent action (Inzlicht, Bartholow, & Hirsh, 2015; Régner, Loose, & Dumas, 2009).
Finally, most students also praised the supportive and encouraging atmosphere of the group. They expressed an interest in enrolling in another group in order to “work on” a second chosen value/characteristic.
Conclusion
We began this article with a description of the theoretical propositions drawn from humanistic psychology, positive psychology, self-determination mini-theories (particularly organismic integration theory and goal contents theory), and mindfulness, all theories that undergird a group-based curriculum developed at Fatih University in Istanbul and intended to enhance self-awareness, intrinsic motivation, eudaimonic well-being, and personal growth. We then presented the curriculum, which is structured according to the learning goals and activities of the six levels in the cognitive domain of Bloom’s Taxonomy, with an infusion of elements from the taxonomy’s affective domain. We believe that the learning goals and activities of the curriculum have promise for yielding psychological benefits for students. Students are guided through a sequence of cognitive and affective self- development learning activities, with each activity building upon the outcomes of the preceding ones, and are accompanied by the support and encouragement of peers and group facilitators. Combined with the anecdotal reactions of group members and facilitators, our impressions suggest that the consistent expression of personally selected values and characteristics requires that these aspects first become internalized as meaningful guides for living then motivate behavior (Shoda et al.,
- that is consistent with the chosen values and characteristics, and ultimately contribute to a sense of well-being and personal growth. This progression is in line
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with the emphasis of Bloom’s Taxonomy on cognitive and affective integration, the notion from SDT of values being integrated into the self (Bloom, 1956; Bloom et al., 1956; Krathwohl, 2002; Ryan et al., 2008), goal-content theory (e.g. Stevens et al., 2011; Stevens et al., 2015), mindfulness (Brown et al., 2007), and positive education (i.e., teaching, building, and embedding social and emotional learning throughout a student's experience; White & Murray, 2015), all of which have beneficial effects on motivation, well-being, and educational performance. Although we have not subjected our group-based curriculum to rigorous empirical evaluation, we encourage efforts to establish its efficacy and effectiveness through qualitative and quantitative research (see White & Murray, 2015). Our application procedure is outlined in detail and has solid theoretical and empirical foundations, so we suggest that future research could easily draw empirical assumptions from them and test them in a rigorous scientific way. For example, the efficacy of the application could be easily tested by conducting the procedure together with a placebo group and having pre and post measurements of both educational and psychological outcomes (e.g., well-being). Qualitative interviews and action research could also be used to investigate qualitatively and in depth the complexity of the proposed students’ improvement, both educationally and psychologically
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