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Session 2 - Foundations of Invitational Education

Site: Wintec Learning
Course: Invitational Education (eLearning Example)
Book: Session 2 - Foundations of Invitational Education
Printed by: Guest user
Date: Wednesday, 10 June 2026, 8:48 AM

Description

This session covers the cornerstone assumptions that Invitational Education was borne from.

Table of contents

2.0 The Foundations of Invitational Education

These activities cover the two foundations:

and

Activity 2.1.1 - What is it?

After reading the following quotes about the Perceptual Tradition, complete the activity by answering the questions in your blog.

Human behavior is always a product of how people see themselves and the situations in which they are involved. Although this fact seems obvious, the failure of people everywhere to comprehend it is responsible for much of human misunderstanding, maladjustment, conflict and loneliness. Our perceptions of ourselves and the world are so real to us that we seldom pause to doubt them.

Combs, Avila & Purkey, 1978. p. 15

Invitational education has its roots in the perceptual approach to understanding human behavior. Rather than viewing people as objects to be shaped, reinforced and conditioned, or as captives of unconscious urges or unfulfilled desires, the perceptual tradition views people as they typically see themselves, others and the world... He or she experiences, interprets, constructs, decides, acts, and is ultimately responsible for his or actions.

Purkey & Novak, 1992. p 19-20

What is the Perceptual Tradition?

  • Summarise what you think the perceptual tradition is in one sentence using your own words.
  • What is your opinion of this idea?
  • What professions might benefit from this approach?
  • How might an emphasis on this help you as a teacher?

Activity 2.1.2 - Experiences

Read the quote in the box below and complete the first step of this activity.

Several years ago [a person] was trying to learn to hang glide. He had soloed an airplane and knew the basic rule of aerodynamics: "Thou shalt always maintain thy airspeed or thou shalt smite the ground." However, when he was taking his first "easy" flight in a hang glider that was not designed to take him more than five feet off the ground, he got caught by an updraft and was suddenly thirty-five feet high. At that moment, rather than levelling off as he had been taught, he closed his eyes and pushed the frame of the kite away from his body and promptly climbed to sixty feet! Somehow, through a series of fortunate events, he returned to earth without being killed.

*Why did he close his eyes and push the frame forward when he knew the consequences of such an action?

Purkey & Novak, 1992. p. 21-22

Think about and answer the quoted question (indicated by the *) in your blog.

Then continue to read the explanations below:

There are various explanations for his behaviour, each with its defenders.

- A behaviorist might conclude that he had been insufficiently reinforced in the standard way of levelling the frame and thus had not been properly conditioned to emit the correct response.

- A Freudian might hypothesize that perhaps he had an unconscious death wish and that his behavior was a manifestation of this basic impulse.

- A perceptualist, by comparison, would try to "read behavior backwards", to discover what the world looked like to the student pilot at the moment he closed is eyes and pushed the frame forward.

In looking back at the incident, the novice was totally surprised to be up so high so soon. At that moment he could think of nothing else but to do the safest thing he could - to close his eyes and get the frame as far away from himself as possible. His reasoning then was, "If I can't see the ground, it can't hurt me." Later, such thinking seemed absurd. At the instant of behaving, however, closing his eyes and pushing away the frame made the most sense. Threat narrows perception and reduces differentiations.

Purkey & Novak, 1992. p. 22

This example describes how the learner's perceptual field - his ability to differentiate (between correct & incorrect, safe & unsafe, rational & absurd), is reduced in times of threat - real or imagined.

"The perceptual tradition holds that to understand human behaviour you must make sense of how things appear from the vantage point of the individual perceiver at the moment of behaving."

(Purkey & Novak, 1992. p. 22)

Now answer the following questions by recording them in your blog.

  1. Briefly describe something similar to the hang-gliding example that you have experienced in your life.
    It may have been a very brief misconception about a person or situation, but for that moment the reality was as you perceived it.

  2. Think about your experience - Why do you think the misconception occurred?

  3. What might someone who was watching you have thought about your decisions and actions?

  4. How would you have felt if they had voiced their thoughts at the time?

Activity 2.1.3 - Importance of Understanding Perceptions

Purkey & Novak (1996) state that perceptions act as a filter for the myriad of stimuli around us and that they serve as a reference point for behaviour.

"Invitational Education is based on an understanding of, and respect for, people's perceptual worlds. These perceptual worlds are not to be taken lightly, for they provide the basis for meaning and behavior. How sensitive educators are to how people perceive themselves, others and the world effects the messages they choose to extend and accept."

(Purkey & Novak, 1996. p. 23-24)

Click the speech bubble icon to offer your thoughts about the importance of educators understanding how perceptions influence behaviour.

2.2 Self-Concept Theory

"At the core of each person's perceptual world are the perceptions about oneself. Self-concept is is the picture people construct of who they are and how they fit in their perceived world...

We all strive to maintain, protect and enhance our perceived self. This assumption is a tremendously valuable "given" for educators, for it means that the self is predisposed toward realizing its relatively boundless potential in all areas of human activity."

(Invitational theory and practice: A framework for positive school climate. Retrieved from: http://www.invitationaleducation.net/pdfs/itpsummary.pdf)

The following activities will help you think about how this is so important for Invitational Education to work.

Activity 2.2.1 - Overview

Click the book icon to read a little more about 'Self-Concept Theory' from SimplePsycology.org.

Think about how Self-Concept Theory fits with what you've covered on perceptions and how it might relate to teachers wanting to 'invite' students to succeed.

Record your responses to the following task in your blog.

For each of the following quotes (from Purkey & Novak 1996), think about how they might apply to people you know, yourself or your students:

  1. "Of all the perceptions people learn, none seems to affect one's search for personal significance and identity more than self-perception - a person's view of who one is and how one fits into the world" (p. 25).

  2. "Researchers consistently agree that there is a relationship between students' evaluation of themselves and their level of academic achievement" (p. 25).

  3. "Understanding self-concept and its relation to invitational education is advantageous for educators who wish to function in a professionally inviting manner" (p. 25)

Activity 2.2.2 - Characteristics

If you have access to the Purkey & Novak text book ("Inviting School Success" - copies in the Library), read pages 26-37 about Self-Concept Theory.

Click this icon (<--) to complete an activity to help familiarise yourself with the important characteristics of Self-Concept Theory that relate to Invitational Education.

Activity 2.2.3 - You and Self-Concept

Complete the following activity by recording your thoughts in your blog.

Think about how the ideas of self-concept relate to your own experiences as a student and as a teacher.

  • If you have access to the Purkey & Novak text book, read pages 26-37 to get more background to the concepts described in the previous activity.
  • If you don't have access to the text book, do some internet searching about "Self-Concept Theory" to find out a bit more background to help you think about the concepts mentioned in the last activity.

Choose two ideas that you feel speak most strongly to you. What do you like about these ideas?

Activity 2.2.4 - Disruptive Students

"Self-concept is a complex, continuously active system of subjective beliefs about personal existence. It guides behaviour and enables each individual to assume particular roles in life."

Purkey & Novak (1996). p.31.

Read the following example from Purkey & Novak about failure, not trying and reinforcing feelings of inadequacies

While you're reading, think about...

  • The behaviours of disruptive students, and how self-concept serves as a reference point for behaviour.
  • How perception influences behaviour
  • Some of the differences and similarities between adults and children

Zimmerman and Allebrand (1965)... demonstrated that poor readers lack a sense of personal worth and adequacy to the point where they actively avoid achievement. For poor readers, to study hard and still fail provides unbearable proof of their inadequacy. To avoid such proof and thus suffer less pain, many students deliberately choose not to try. Their defence against failure is secretly to accept themselves as failures! It is better, from the students' viewpoint, not to try than to try and be embarrassed or humiliated.

A person with a negative self-concept defends himself or herself against further loss.

To understand why this is so, it is important to recognize that from the student's perceptual vantage point any amount of anxiety, no matter how great appears preferable to other available avenues of behavior.

Purkey & Novak (1996). p.31. Emphasis added

Click the icon to share with us experiences that you've had with disruptive students who may have had negative self-concepts.

Now think about these questions and write your answers/thoughts in your blog.

  1. If self-concept and academic ability are related, what does this say about how your students may behave and achieve in your classes?

  2. How is self-concept development important in an invitational adult learning environment?

  3. What might adult students need in their learning environment for it to be invitational? Give some specific example(s).

Please share your answer to Question #3 with the class (Reply to your experience post in the forum above).

This is the end of Session 2. Click to go to Session 3.