Blog Post #5: Philosophy of Education

"Pedagogy of the Oppressed" was an interesting read that kept reminding of of the stale and intellectually stagnant planet of Camazots from A Wrinkle in Time. In these classroom environments, it seems that students do not actually learn, but instead memorize and repeat back in words and writing exactly what information was presented to them. Students know exactly what to "cram" to pass classes, but short-term memory only gets them so far and nearly all will be forgotten if they don't apply what they've learned. Learning is less about bouncing back the same information and is more about negotiating meaning of concepts between instructor and student for everyone to come to a greater understanding.We should not have classrooms that are always top-down, instructor focused lessons. Instead, we should be focusing on the students and their individual needs. This is really all about them, so effective teaching needs to involve students in their own education.

Banking is a real issue. As a student, I was guilty of employing it countless times. The worst thing was that it worked and it kept working, so for a very long time (up until college!) I was able to pass with flying colors without learning nearly as much as I should have. I simply learned what the teacher wanted to hear, what was going to be tested, and I shoved it all into my short-term memory bank and passed exams. A week later, only about 10% of the information would still be there. Students need to be given opportunities to convey their understanding of subjects to the instructor and to teach other. These methods help develop active leaerning in all participating parties and allow students to have more of an audience than only their instructors. Discussions, I'm finding, are a bit of a challenge to integrate into 'typical' high-school curriciulum, but I'm making sure to do my best to incorporate them as I believe the greatest purpose of English education is to better the communication of humanity. By getting students to engage in difficult topics and share their ideas, I can ensure they are practicing the information needed for their units as well as developing communication skills that will help themselves and others in the greater world.

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