What is the Best Way to Learn?
Uploaded by basmith on Jun 16, 2002
During my past learning experiences, I have found myself in many different learning environments. Many of my past learning experiences I can compare to the concepts in Paulo Friere’s “The Banking Concept of Education”. In many of the classroom experiences there is either a “banking” concept where you learn, memorize and repeat or on the other hand a “problem-posing” concept which tends to be more hands on. Personally I prefer a problem-posing environment, because of my strength to be involved and work with many different types of people. I feel when I am working in a “hands-on” environment I tend to learn more. Many agree such as Paulo Friere, author of “The Banking Concept of Education”, who does believes in “Problem-posing” and completely disagrees with the “banking” concept. Many beg to differ such as teachers and parents who prefer the banking concept because of the simple fact that it has always been the traditional way of learning. Whereas “Problem-Posing” is not the traditional way of learning, but establishes an environment for a student to learn efficiently.
My decision to endorse the “Problem-Posing” concept over the “Banking” concept class is due to a past experience that I had in school in a problem-posing classroom. In the 9th grade I was enrolled in a Health Class that was not an ordinary classroom. In this class the decisions were all yours. The class was not simply based on the “learn, memorize, and repeat” concept which tends to be a characteristic of a “banking” style classroom. The class consisted of many projects and presentations of research where you were expected to present in front of a class for a test or quiz grade. Surprisingly you were graded by your peers . I feel that in these situations I encountered less stress and was given the opportunity to be very creative and become self-expressive. Honestly, how creative can you be with a paper and pen, then stressing over if you have the right answers or not, and then leaving the class stressing for weeks over the “F” you may receive? This is a characteristic of a “banking” style class. I honestly feel that when you are in a “banking” style class you can not express your creativity and will suffer in the long run because you will not be able to express yourself in new environments. Freire feels that oppression in our society prevents students...