What is the Most Effective Educational Situation?

I'm reading The Adult Learner by Knowles, Holton and Swanson for my Masters degree class, and I came across psychologist Carl R. Rogers' five "basic hypotheses" of learning.

Number 5 is the one that resonated with me today:

"The educational situation which most effectively promotes significant learning is one in which threat to the self of the learner is reduced to a minimum, and differentiated perception of the field is facilitated."

Hmmm...
If "threat to the self of the learner is reduced" equals creating a safe environment and "differentiated perception of the field is facilitated" equals enabling a shift, then Carl R. Rogers suggested that coaching would be the most effective educational situation.

As much as I love classrooms, I agree that they are not optimal for creating a safe environment. Many people will not open up in a group setting, no matter what you do.
And it's hard to 'create the shift' in a room full of people, as well.

I'll be honest - I enjoy teaching and facilitating groups a lot more than I enjoy coaching. 
Coaching is fun, but I learn more in group settings. I also feel that I make a bigger impact in groups.

I'll have to think about this quote and observe the dynamics in both settings before I decide whether I agree or not... 

What do you think?

Oh yeah... that's why I hate discussion forums...

In my online class, everyone (except me) is involved with public education, so the discussions tend in that area.

Today, I replied to a post by pointing that out.
I (nicely, I thought) suggested that we might be focusing too much on the public sector. There's a lot of adult learning going on that isn't about schools and universities.
One person replied, "Good point".

The poster that I originally responded to, however, took offense, responding with the dreaded, "If you actually read my post.... blah, blah, blah...".
No, the poster didn't counter my point at all, and didn't need to. I wasn't arguing. I was merely suggesting that there's a bigger world out there.

I haven't seen this type of knee-jerk response outside of fanboy discussions on aintitcool or sonsofsamhorn. 

But, I guess we haven't had forums and email long enough to be good at them yet. I'm not sure there is such a thing as 'long enough' however.

Typed asynchronous responses will never substitute for face-to-face conversations.

Can we agree though, to retire the "If you actually read my email/post/proposal/presentation..." crap? Let's agree that we're adults, and that just because we have a different opinion, it doesn't mean we didn't read yours?

You'd think that, in a room full of educators, Unconditional Positive Regard would be a given.
That might be assuming too much, though...