Rogers is best known as an American psychologist and the founder of 'client-centered' or 'non-directed' psychotherapy, a widely influential, humanistic approach.  Rogers also made significant contributions to the field of adult education, with his experiential theory of learning.

Rogers maintained that all human beings have a natural desire to learn.  He defined two categories of learning: meaningless, or cognitive learning (e.g., memorizing multiplication tables); and significant, or experiential (applied knowledge which addresses the needs and wants of the learner, eg., performing first aid on one's child).

According to Rogers, the role of the teacher is to facilitate experiential learning by:

1. setting a positive climate for learning;
2. clarifying the purposes of the learner(s);
3. organizing and making available learning resources;
4. balancing intellectual and emotional components of learning; and
5. sharing feelings and thoughts with learners but not dominating.

As for the personal growth and development of the student, Rogers suggests that:

1. Significant learning takes place when the subject matter is relevant to the personal interests of the student;
2. Learning which is threatening to the self (e.g., new attitudes or perspectives) are more easily assimilated when external threats are at a minimum;
3. Learning proceeds faster when the threat to the self is low;
4. Self-initiated learning is the most lasting and pervasive.

Professional Resume:

1963 - 1968, founder/resident fellow, Center for Studies of the Person, La Jolla, CA
1957 - 1963, University of Wisconsin, Madion
1945 - 1957, professor, University of Chicago
1940 - 1945, professor, Ohio State University
1935 - 1940, professor, University of Rochester
1931, M.A., Columbia University Teachers College
1928, M.A., Columbia University Teachers College

Selected Publications:

The Carl Rogers Reader:  Selections from the Lifetime Work of Carl Rogers, 1989
Freedom to Learn for the 80's:  A Thorough Revision of Freedom to Learn, 1983
A Way of Being, 1980
Freedom to Learn, 1969
On Becoming A Person, 1961
Client-Centered Therapy, 1951

 Quote:

Experience is, for me, the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience. No other person's ideas, and none of my own ideas, are as authoritative as my experience. It is to experience that I must return again and again, to discover a closer approximation to truth as it is in the process of becoming in me.  - Carl Rogers in On Becoming a Person