Greetings World
Wide Web!
As I was
pondering over my first educational post, I came across this cartoon. As the cartoon illustrates, option A (the Banking model), places emphasis on memorization, wherein the teacher acts as a omniscient authority figure. In the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Friere argues that such emphasis on memorization and mechanical narration turns students into passive "receptacles," and education becomes "an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor" (as cited in Darder, 2009, p., 52).
This is known as the Banking Model of Education, which clearly does not accommodate the wide variety of learner that make up a classroom. As a future teacher, I am against this Banking Model and find that option B (a Constructivist classroom) is a more effective way of assessing students and helping them flourish as growing learners.
The following illustrates ways in which teachers can restructure their classrooms and curriculum's to veer from the Banking Model and work towards Constructivism. In a constructivist classroom, all students are given the opportunity to engage in a dialogue of learning. Learning becomes interactive and inclusive, wherein the teacher works as a mediator rather than an omniscient and omnipresent figure. Further, Constructivist classrooms allow for various forms of assessment rather than simply testing students on memorized knowledge.
TRADITIONAL CLASSROOM VS. CONSTRUCTIVIST CLASSROOM
Curriculum begins with the parts of the whole.
Emphasizes basic skills.
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Curriculum emphasizes big concepts, beginning
with the whole and expanding to include the parts.
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Strict adherence to fixed curriculum is highly
valued.
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Pursuit of student questions and interests is
valued.
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Materials are primarily textbooks and workbooks.
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Materials include primary sources of material and
manipulative materials.
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Learning is based on repetition.
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Learning is interactive, building on what the
student already knows.
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Teachers disseminate information to students;
students are recipients of knowledge.
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Teachers have a dialogue with students, helping
students construct their own knowledge.
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Teacher's role is directive, rooted in authority.
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Teacher's role is interactive, rooted in
negotiation.
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Assessment is through testing, correct answers.
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Assessment includes student works, observations,
and points of view, as well as tests. Process is as important as product.
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Knowledge is seen as inert.
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Knowledge is seen as dynamic, ever changing with
our experiences.
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Students work primarily alone.
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Students work primarily in groups.
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As a prospective teacher, it is important to note that one often falls back on their experience as
a student, teaching in the way they themselves were taught. Thus, future teachers have
to be conscious of this and work to reconceptualize their teaching beliefs/practices based on their teacher education.
I hope some of this info and these links are helpful to ya'll!
With every good wish,
Miss Roberts
Work Cited
Darder, A., Baltodano, M.P.,
& Torres, R.D. (2009). The Critical
Pedagogy Reader. New York: Routledge.
