Mazlow's Heirarchy of Needs

Mazlow’s hierarchy of needs, created by Abraham Mazlow in the 1970’s suggested that there was a hierarchy of needs that needed to be met before effective learning could occur. He represented this in terms of the pyramid below. He concluded that lower level needs needed to be satisfied before the upper levels can be achieved and effective learning could take place (1).



It is the responsibility of learning institutions to provide these basic provisions to students. This includes basic physiological, safety and belonging needs. Once these needs are met it is assumed that students will be equipped to go on to achieve high order needs such as esteem and self-actualisation which are mostly mediated by the individual.

In learning environments, this means schools must be prepared to provide the essentials necessary for effective learning to take place such as school canteens, complimentary breakfasts, water troughs, safe equipment and disciplinary control systems, as well as collaborative and caring learning environments. In terms of the need to belong, I beleive ICT's can and should be used to create more effective teacher/student and student/student relationships by enhancing the communication processes between these groups.

References
1)Mazlow's Hierarchy of Needs, online http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=18262


REFLECTIONS
What e-learning tools would you use to enhance the relationships between teachers and students in the classroom and do you think that these would be effective in establishing a sense of belonging among students?