Freire and The Banking Concept of Education

My blog today is about Paulo Freire's short story in our IS 101 book.

Freire is essentially talking about two different learning techniques: the banking concept of education and the problem-posing method of education. What I get out of that is that the banking method is kind of like storing knowledge in our brains like we would money in a bank. We don't learn hands on, the information is fed to us by our professor/teacher. Freire even goes as far as to say that the banking education method is "oppressing". The problem-posing method "liberates" the student and teacher from learning but not understanding. Problem-posing education, through dialogue, creates students and teachers alike who both learn and teach each other. The student is always cognitive and uses that cognitivity as a reflection to learn off of. Through problem-posing study, students are brought back to reality and can perceive why they exist and see the world as a transformation, not just static.

It seems to me that problem-posing is the way to go. Our discussion in class today was very enlightening. I learned that many people in the class had a banking background in education, and yet there were still many that had the problem-posing education. I had a mix of both. My science and math classes were very banking taught, while my humanities and history classes were very problem-posing classes. I hear that is not always the case. I think that it really depends on the teacher and what style they use to transfer the knowledge unto the students. Here at Wartburg I think that right now, being in the intro classes and lower level classes, I see more of a banking system approach. I believe that will change over into the problem-posing education in the years ahead.