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.
Miss. Roberts,
ReplyDeleteGenerally, your blog is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. The variance in photo placements creates an intelligent division of the information you’re presentment. This is something I didn’t consider for my own blog, and will definitely try to apply in my next post. I appreciate the two tables differentiating between a traditional and constructivist classroom. I recall a majority of my educational experiences being in a traditional model, and as a student year by year I focussed on memorizing the material just to get high grades. Your scholarly references are great in solidifying The Banking Model of Education’s validity, but I would suggest taking this one step further and exemplify how you would personally implement this ideology in a 21st century classroom.
I challenge you to consider the following question: Are a constructivist classroom and classroom based upon individualization pedagogically identical? If not what differences would you identify?
Great Work.
Ms. Rodrigues
Miss Roberts,
ReplyDeleteYou have a talent for grasping the reader through visual engagement. Your text is broken up with various corresponding images that allow the eye to wander and allows for the visual learner, such as me, to better understand your blog. I am also pro-constructivism! I can envision the classroom I assisted in during my second year placement, a Grade 2 class. The same girl everyday, would arrive late, and have trouble following the teacher's direct instruction. She would have consequences for her actions, but I wanted to help her. I felt like the teacher had no sympathy for her. In a situation where a constructivist approach was used, perhaps she would have had more chance for success. Do you agree that this student's impression of schooling and education is now imprinted negatively forever, or can her impression be changed? Overall, thank you for intriguing me and allowing me to explore my opinion further on constructivism. My only constructive feedback I would give you is to make sure you properly attribute your photos and tables used within your blog, just to make sure you avoid plagiarism!
Looking forward to your next post!
Miss Robinson
Ms. Roberts,
ReplyDeleteYour blog is very aesthetically pleasing and well organized. I love the different placements of photographs throughout your blog, as it broke up the text, furthering the positive physicality's that your page brings. Further, I absolutely agree with your position regarding the banking method of education, it is surely outdated, and numerous studies have shown that it simply does not work. A constructivist approach to education ensures that the student and teacher are working together, towards the common goal of education! I'm sure that this is something that we all, as prospective teachers, strive to do in our own future classrooms, and with our own future students.