Monday, February 6, 2017

“Philosophy of Education-Pedagogy of the Oppressed”
     My response to this piece is AMEN!!!!! (Yes, that statement requires multiple exclamation points for dramatic effect.)  Even though this piece is very deep and required me to buckle up, bring a dictionary and read closely, it fired me up. Why did it fire me up? Because, as a student, I have endured too many college professors who prescribe to the “banking concept of education,” leaving me frustrated, stagnant, irritated and oppressed. I am not an empty “container” waiting to be “filled” with knowledge and I resent being treated as such!  This book should be required reading for EVERY teacher, including college professors, but that is a rant for another day………..
     Obviously this piece resonated with my student side, and I believe that will be most beneficial for me as a teacher because I do not want my students to endure this type of “learning” experience.  I believe that students need to be engaged learners and the best way to encourage them is by using the “problem posing” method of teaching.  The critical aspect of this method requires dialogue between the teacher and students.  Teachers that act as “co-investigators in dialogue” model the process of engaged learning which also demonstrates that teachers are still learning and growing themselves. I am a lifelong learner and I hope my students have that desire as well.  I am not omniscient, I make mistakes and that is how I learn.  I must model that process for my students.
     Some of the language in this piece was difficult, but some of it reminded me of the language found in the CCSS. The parts that sounded like CCSS were the parts describing the problem posing method.  It is easy to see why the problem posing method is superior to the banking model just by comparing how they are described.
Banking education (for obvious reasons) attempts, by mythicizing reality, to conceal certain facts which explain the way human beings exist in the world; problem-posing education sets itself the task of demythologizing. Banking education resists dialogue; problem-posing education regards dialogue as indispensable to the act of cognition which unveils reality. Banking education treats students as objects of assistance; problem-posing education makes them critical thinkers. Banking education inhibits creativity and domesticates (although it cannot completely destroy) the intentionality of consciousness by isolating consciousness from the world, thereby denying people their ontological and historical vocation of becoming more fully human. Problem-posing education bases itself on creativity and stimulates true reflection and action upon reality, thereby responding to the vocation of persons as beings only when engaged in inquiry and creative transformation.

I don’t know about you, but I want to be in the classroom with a teacher that requires me to engage in dialogue, think critically, provide activities that stimulate my creativity and encourages me to be self-reflective throughout the process. Banking education is boring, so I will prescribe to the problem posing methodology because and I would rather engage my students then put them to sleep!

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