Blog Post 6/ Banking Concept of Education

Question I will be exploring: Do my professors utilize the banking concept of education or problem posing-education? How do I respond to each method? How is my level of knowledge affected by the method of teaching being used?

     During my reading of the Freire article, many of my notes related to the current courses I am taking and how these courses either reinforce or oppose the banking concept of education. I found that a majority of my courses use problem-posing education. A defining characteristic of problem-posing education is that the students act not as "docile listeners", but rather as active critical thinkers and co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher (page 111). This definition immediately reminded me of my consumer politics course. My consumer politics course is  based on class discussions with the teacher over selected readings. The students, not the teachers, lead the discussion. Students bring in critical thinking questions that they generated from the reading. The teachers do, however, pose certain questions to the class and prompt us to consider solutions to various problems. Furthermore, the teachers truly do act as our "co-investigators." They explore their ideas of solutions to pressing consumer issues, such as rising debt and e-waste and we all explore the pros and cons to such possible solutions.
      I realized that I look forward to this class, and any other class that uses the problem-posing method because they are more engaging. Furthermore, I also have a fuller understanding of the material presented in these problem-posing courses than the courses using the banking method.
      Unfortunately, my Spanish classes uses the banking concept of education. My teacher reads to us directly from the book and expects us to memorize specific rules that she writes on the board. I dread going to this class on a daily basis. Furthermore, my true knowledge of Spanish is very poor. I can ace her written test because I read the book and memorized her rules. I cannot, however, actually speak Spanish nor do I have any knowledge about Spanish culture that would be helpful while taking to a native speaker. 
     Overall, through personal experience, I have confirmed that problem posing education is the best method. Students become more engaged with the material and develop true knowledge when this method is used. If I become a teacher, I will definitely avoid the banking concept. By reflecting on my current and former classes, I have discovered some methods I can use to avoid teaching through the banking concept. These methods include the following:

• Class discussions
• Hands on activities such as labs and internet investigations
• Student presentations- Students can form groups, research their topic, and teach the class about what they learned. Students can use videos, class activities, and discussion questions to engage the rest of the class.
• Allowing students to control the content of the course to some extent. For example, students can pick discussion questions. They can also pick a  poem or an article to share in class that relates to the current lesson.

Feel free to comment if you want to share more strategies!