Abstract:
Advocates a holistic approach to employee training programs
that makes the object of attention the complete activity rather
than an isolated piece. The core assumption underlying this
approach is that competent performance requires the involvement
of the whole person in the whole task. Conventional instruction
teaches pieces of a task but may fail to integrate those pieces
into an overall pattern. With the holistic approach the student
works with patterns of activity that take him/her closer to
the activity being trained. Applications of this approach
to the training of operators, salesmen, and technicians are
considered, and a revolutionary system of psychophysical education
developed by M. Feldenkrais (1972, 1982) is described that
posits that all human actions involve the entire brain-body
system and depend on an internal mental model of self-image.
Poor performance results from an incomplete or incorrect self-image.
Holistic methods of training encourage greater attention to
the process of performing an activity than to the end goal.
Paradoxically, as the process is performed more efficiently
the goal is achieved more easily--even as it receives less
conscious attention.
