Holistic Thinking: Tools for Assessing and Teaching
Holistic thinking is the ability to apply unifying principles within and across disciplines to synthesize ideas, integrate divergent perspectives, and understand what one has learned in light of one’s own consciousness. It is the skill of connecting a part of knowledge to a broader framework of ideas that is personally meaningful because the framework is also connected to personal experiences during the practice of Transcendental Meditation, including ultimately the experience of wholeness. Holistic thinking develops as finer and finer parts are connected to larger and larger wholes, finding ultimate expression in the experience that all ideas and experiences are expressions of my Self, which is wholeness. It is a broad intellectual skill, closely connected to critical thinking and many of the other Essential Learning Outcomes. Students learn this skill by understanding what is means, practicing it, and by experiencing the dynamics of consciousness in their Transcendental Meditation program.
Below are some tools for assessing the Essential Learning Outcome called Holistic Thinking, also related to big picture thinking, interdisciplinary thinking, systems thinking, or “connecting the part to the whole and the whole to the Self” in the context of the Consciousness-Based Education.
- Holistic ELO Rubric (holistic). This rubric has three lines, each associated with one of our Essential Learning Outcomes. Specifically the first line can be used to rate a product’s Holistic Thinking; the second line can be used to assess Critical Thinking; and the third line can be used to assess “Writing.” You can use these “holistic rubrics” separately or in conjunction with each other in any course where you are focusing instruction on one or more of these outcomes.
- Holistic Thinking Rubric (analytic). This rubric provides more detail and is particularly valuable in courses where you want to focus more deeply on the skill of Holistic Thinking. It defines all of the terms relative to this skill and sets forth all of the subskills or “performance indicators” of the skills.
- Classroom Activities to Practice Holistic Thinking. These are simple exercises to help students learn to connect disciplinary content to the Science and Technology of Consciousness and to their inner experience.