Summary Statement of the ANISA Model
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Daniel C. Jordan, Summary Statement of the ANISA Model, bahai-library.com.
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A SUMMARY STATEMENT ON THE ANISA MODEL
Dan Jordan

The Anisa Model represents a comprehensive educational system functionally defined by
specifications which insure its replicability, evaluation, and refinement. The specifications set forth
educational objectives pertaining to the actualization of human potential and explanations of how to
achieve them. These objectives and explanations are derived from a coherent body of theory that has
been deductively generated from a philosophical base and inductively validated to whatever extent
possible by findings from empirical research.
The Philosophy Underlying the Model:
Defines man as a spiritual as well as a material being;
Explains his reality in terms of the process of his becoming (actualization of potentiality) and
recognizes that the concept of process presupposes both creativity and potentiality;
Proposes that, because of man's ability to create further potential (a form of transcendence)
through the cumulative effects of learning and culture (a reflection of immanence), his
potentiality be regarded as infinite;
Derives the explanation of the process of becoming from a general ontological principle of
relativity (i.e., man’s relatedness to all other entities in the universe and the impossibility of
understanding any being apart from the circumstances in which it becomes);
Accepts the principle of hierarchical structuring as primary expression of order and beauty
in the universe;
Defines the basic order of the universe in terms of different hierarchically arranged
ontological levels and places man at the apex of all living creatures;
Conceives of order as dynamic in nature (i.e., novelty perpetually emerges from new
integration of prior entities) and upholds the thesis that man escapes the limitations of mere
materiality by virtue of his ability to direct the process of his own becoming — patterning the
use of energy available to him. — by consciously entertaining the infinite range of
possibilities (potentialities) open to him;
Identifies the process of becoming with an intrinsic pressure to know and to love which
impels conscious speculation about, and attraction to, unknowns and ultimate unknowables
(in themselves forms of potentialities) and man's relationship to them;
Defines man's spirituality as the conscious capacity (1) to formulate and/or respond to non-
actual realities (ideals, aims, purposes, theories) as a consequence of such speculation and
attraction, (2) to accept them (ideals or theories) as substitutes for or manifestations of the
unknowns/unknowables, and (3) to give them symbolic expression which helps to guide or
give direction to the translation of potentiality into actuality, thereby facilitating their
functioning as final cause;
Accepts the realization of beauty as the teleology of the universe and equates the self-
actualization of potentiality in service of beauty (knowing and loving the ultimate unknowns
underlying the ordering of the universe) as the highest expression of that teleology.
The body of theory derived from the philosophy includes theories of development,
curriculum, pedagogy, administration, and evaluation, each of which is briefly outlined
below.
The Theory of Development:
Defines development as the translation of potentiality into actuality and equates that
translation with creativity;
Describes the nature of human potential and recognizes the impossibility of establishing its
finitude;
Establishes two broad categories of potentialities — biological and psychological;
Identifies proper nutrition as the essential element in the development of biological
potentialities and learning as the key factor in the release of psychological potentialities;
Affirms the importance of early experience in shaping subsequent developmental
phenomena and enunciates the hueristic value of the concepts of critical or sensitive
periods, stages and sequences;
Stresses the importance of learning how to learn (learning competence) as the ultimate
source of independence and confidence;
Defines learning competence as the conscious ability to differentiate aspects of experience,
integrate them into novel patterns, and generalize them to other situations and sets forth the
proposition that differentiation, integration and generalization constitute a trio of interrelated
processes that defines a developmental unit of change — a stage, (sequences of stages
being the primary means by which increasing complexity of function and structure is built up
and integrated through hierarchical organization);
Establishes five categories of psychological potentialities—psycho-motor, perceptual,
cognitive, affective, and volitional;
Confirms interaction with the environment as the means by which development is sustained;
Accounts for the importance of the perpetual introduction of some novelty into the
environment as a primary means of creating disequilibrium (or disparity) between
developmental level and experience thereby compelling new patterns of interaction which in
turn facilitates the actualization of psychological potentialities;
Categorizes interactions in terms of their power to facilitate the development of learning
competence and the maintenance of biological integrity;
Fixes three basic categories of environment (physical, human, and the unknown) consistent
with the ontological levels outlined in the philosophy and establishes the Self (personal
identity) as the micro-cosmic reflection of the three environments and the most constant part
of the environment it experiences;
Explains the emergence of personal identify (character development) in terms of value
formation and defines values as the relatively enduring structurings of actualized
potentialities (patterned uses of energy available to the organism);
Explains how information about the environments, held as beliefs, affects the structuring;
Identifies developmental universals which provide a framework for the planning and
implementation of educational programs cross culturally;
Identifies three value sub-systems (material, social, and religious/aesthetic) each of which is
associated with a category of the three basic environments;
Explains three analogous higher-order competencies (technological, moral and
spiritual/philosophical) which rest on the value sub-subsystems;
Defines the structural and functional reality of personal identity—the Self—as the three
value systems combined into an integrated totality on which depends the personal
effectance of the self—'self-competence', analogously defined as the combination of the
higher-order competencies;
Explicates the relationship between culture and personality formation, particularly as it is
transmitted by parents and the family;
Provides a general scheme for understanding the nature of pathology and its etiology (both
biological and psychological), sets forth the conditions for the prevention of mental illness,
character disorders, delinquency, and criminality, and is generative of testable propositions
concerning therapy and rehabilitation.
The Theory of Curriculum:
Defines curriculum in terms of educational goals and what children do (with or without the
assistance of teachers) to achieve them;
Fixes the overarching goal of education as the actualization of human potentialities and their
structuring into identity around those ideals which guarantee survival and perpetually
improve its quality;
Differentiates the main goal into process goals and content goals;
Identifies two categories of process goals: (1) development of biological potentialities
(facilitation of normal maturational processes) and (2) actualization of psychological
potentialities (psycho-motor, perceptual, cognitive, affective and volitional);
Specifies two categories of content goals analogous to the process goals: (1) requisites for
physical health (proper nutrition, pure water, clean air, sunlight, optimum temperature, etc.)
and (2) information about the world in which we live organized around the categories of the
three basic environments (e.g., physical/botanical/zoological/anthropological, and
theological/philosophical, facts and/or beliefs and their applied counterparts, e.g., electronic
engineering, agriculture, medicine, etc.) and information about the Self as an integrated
microcosmic reflection of the other three environments;
Emphasizes the need for and means whereby process may be used to reduce error in the
information (content) assimilated and how accumulated content may be applied to render
process more efficient;
Accounts for the kinds of interactions a child must have with the different environments in
order to achieve the process and content goals which results in an integrated Self
characterized by values (patterned uses of energy-actualized potential) and related
competencies that not only guarantee the continual release of potentialities but also improve
the quality of survival;
Identifies three basic symbol systems which help to mediate or facilitate interaction with the
three different basic environments and give direction to the structuring of actualizing
potentiality: mathematics and symbolic logic, language (speech, reading, writing), the arts;
Indicates the role of evaluation in relating the degree of goal achievement to particular
interactions prescribed, encouraged or permitted.
The Theory of Pedagogy:
Defines teaching as arranging environments and guiding the child's interaction with them for
the purpose of achieving the educational objectives specified by the curriculum;
Views educational facilities as a particular case of arranging an environment and
establishes the process by which specifications for facilities are derived from the total body
of Anisa Theory;
Affirms the necessity of individualizing instruction and provides the means for doing so by
(1) establishing diagnostic and speculative methods for ascertaining the child's
developmental status and (2) setting forth related prescriptive and experimental approaches
to arranging environments and guiding interaction so that the experience provided
"matches" the developmental status of the child on any given dimension pertinent to any
particular educational objective specified by the curriculum;
Defines the "match" as optimal disparity (appropriate novelty) between internal schemata
(structures whose functioning reflects developmental status and the activity or learning
experience to be engaged in;
Explains the improvisational nature of teaching (arranging environments and guiding the
child's interactions with them) in terms of the ability to apply theory in any situation at any
time for the purpose of achieving curriculum goals;
Designates the planned introduction of appropriate novelty at an optimal rate for each child
as an essential obligation of sound pedagogy;
Identifies curiosity as the primary manifestation of the tension inherent in optimal disparity
and regards it as one important source of intrinsic motivation to be fostered by teachers;
Acknowledges that much of the behavior of the human organism is modified in directions
related to the consequences or anticipated consequences of its actions evaluated in terms
of its subjective aim (thereby accounting for the phenomenon of "conditioning" within the
broader context of organismic (philosophy);
Exploits the pedagogical advantages to be gained by treating those consequences as cases
of arranging environments and/or guiding interaction;
Stresses the importance of providing evaluative feedback of an explanatory nature on
performance at the time of performance;
Suggests a grading and record-keeping system consistent with the achievement of
curriculum objectives;
Recognizes the powerful influence of the teacher as model, a proposition from which criteria
for the selection of teachers, for determining the effectiveness of their preparation, and for
their certification are derived;
Makes provision: (1) for the coordination of staffing patterns and teaching activities
(including parental involvement) so that children have several adults who know them well to
assist them at any one time, (2) for continuity of experience with several adult teachers over
a three or four-year period of time, and (3) for more experienced children to teach less
experienced children throughout the system, thereby exploiting the axiom that teaching
consolidates learning.
The Theory of Administration:
Defines administration in. terms of service qualified by the purposes and goals of the group
or educational institution as specified in the theory of curriculum—a service that explicitly
calls for administrators to have extensive knowledge about the goals and how they are to be
achieved so that they can be both helpful and credible (and therefore not an embarrassment
as models);
Identifies two basic functions of administration which must remain in dynamic equilibrium:
leadership and management—the former arising from dealing with the present in terms of
future possibilities (an expression of transcendence) and the latter having roots in
negotiating the present by organising and coordinating the resources represented by past
achievements, accumulated knowledge, and expertise (immanence as the heritage of the
past);
Explicates the necessity for leadership and management to collaborate in the establishment
of priorities, assessing needs, identifying resources, determining feasibility, and allocating
resources to achieve objectives as efficiently as possible;
Provides the rationale for defining tasks to be achieved by the educational institution so that
personnel may be recruited on a rational basis and the staff can be differentiated (matching
talents, interests, abilities and skills with institutional needs) and integrated around purpose;
Explains how differentiation and integration of the staff around purpose functions as the
primary means of releasing the institution's potentialities as a social organism;
Recognizes the unifying advantages of hierarchical administrative structures while guarding
against their potential rigidities by establishing consultation as an indispensable procedure
through which arbitrariness is removed from decision-making power by distributing it
throughout the system at loci of authority legitimatized by expertise and knowledge;
Stresses the importance of information dissemination both horizontally and vertically and
relates the rate of information flow to efficiency and morale;
Affirms the necessity for direct feedback on performance and endorses a circumscribed
counseling function as an important element in performance evaluation;
Emphasizes the rational basis for institutional self-renewal by making the results of research
and evaluation mandatory input to the decision-making process at any given level;
Affirms the importance of morale and defines it as: a pervasive willingness to comply with
reasonable policy, to work cooperatively and make sacrifices when the system is under
stress; a wide-spread conviction that everyone's energy is constructively utilized in the
achievement of the shared purposes and ideals of the system—purposes and ideals which
themselves relate to the perpetual release of the potentialities of the group as a social
organism and which generate a climate of hope and opportunity for growth; satisfaction with
the compensation received for efforts made; a sense of security that derives from trust that
confidences will not be broken or injustices committed; and, a sense of unity and belonging
that derives from the acknowledgement and appreciation of contributions made;
Reflects the ontological principle of relativity in its emphasis on the participation of
community and home so that the children are rescued from the fragmenting discontinuities
and conflicting loyalties that impair the release of their potentialities;
The Theory of Evaluation:
Defines evaluation in terms of the purpose of the activity or program being evaluated;
Seeks to relate means to ends, distinguishing efficient from final causes;
Conceptualizes evaluation as an on-going process which examines every aspect of
program operation (including process and product or impact) and provides immediate
feedback for its timely modification, including modification of the evaluation scheme itself;
Recognizes that data collected rarely speak for themselves, but require interpretation which
takes into account (1) the probable accuracy and weight or significance of data as
determined by the type of data, their source and the time and means of collection, and (2)
the purpose for which the data and their interpretation is to be used (i.e., question of
relevance);
Stresses the value of longitudinal studies and cautions against the ready acceptance of
short-term effects as proof of significant impact;
Designates comparative analysis of children's interactions with particular environments and
their developmental consequences as the focal point of inquiry;
Affirms the indispensability of recognizing internal states of the organism (such as subjective
aim, intentions, or memory) as causal influences on behavior;
Admits the ineffability of many vital aspects of human experience (thereby avoiding possible
inadvertent biases preceding from an unrecognized assumption that whatever is not
measurable is not important);
Allies the purpose of evaluation with the heuristic, explanatory, and predictive functions of
research and science;
Employs evaluation results as an important stimulus to the re-examination and refinement of
the philosophy underlying the model and the body of theory on which its operationalization
depends.

Citation: Jordan, D. (1974). A summary statement of the ANISA model. Cambridge, MA: ANISA.
-- Summary Statement of the ANISA Model (Used by permission of the curator)