Conventional and Evolutionary Education - Essay Example

Friere suggests that the current method of teaching is one where a teacher poses the authority and "narrates" the learning material to the children, who are passive, and whose only necessary function is to memorize the material they're being taught. There's no involvement of any critical thinking on their part, they don't truly understand what they are learning or comprehend its meaning. The "Banking" concept of education, as he dubs is, represents the idea that the students are being "filled" with knowledge, they are like a vessel or container that gain in substance.

Teachers are, in a way," depositing" information to the account, and the students receive this deposit. However, this fails to achieve the goal, as without any thinking about the material and its implications and meanings, what occurs isn't really teaching and certainly not imparting wisdom, insights or critical methods of thinking- it is simply memorizing data, reaching a certain quota of material, nothing more. Friere says that this misses the point entirely, because there isn't really any learning when students are being taught like that. . The teacher is to be perceived as the one who can give all the answers, the one that knows everything, and does not need to (nor will he ever) learn from his students.

This hierarchy and relationship between teachers and students are highly detrimental to students, as they lack motivation, interest or a coherent sense of self as able to learn on their own and being autonomous and competent, not necessarily needing the assistance of the teacher. Contrary to this approach, there is another one called "Problem-posing" education or method. It comprises first of all of being aware or conscious to the consciousness of things, and specifically in the field of education- how education occurs, by what means, in which system and how the information is taught.

It proposes a different way which involves more communication, the breaking down of the hierarchy between teachers and students, bringing them closer together. This way also allows teachers to learn from the dialog with their students, rather than it being only the students who learn from the teachers. Through this dialog, the teacher evokes students' imagination, reflection and critical thinking, making them very active partners in their learning. Both the teacher and his students are investigating together the material being discussed (learned).

The educator along with the students creates conditions that allow the knowledge to be passed on in the highest form and in the best way possible, considering what they students think and then re-considering what he had previously thought. Problem-posing education entails the development of the ability to perceive how we exist in the world in which and with which we live. It regards the world as a reality that is always changing and transforming, rather