Category: 9:30 AM Class

Pedagogy and Power

Fiere talks about the “banking” method of learning.  Every relationship has two parties and in this relationship one party is a narrating Subject (the teacher) and the other is a patient listening object (the student).  This is a one way relationship, the students put nothing towards it.  It turns the student into a box or container waiting to be filled.  The more completely the teacher fills the “container”, the better a teachers he/she is. The more meekly the students allow themselves to be filled, the better students they are.

I don’t agree with this concept of teaching. It is implying that students don’t know anything and can’t input into the lesson and that teachers know all the knowledge and have the correct pieces of informations.  I believe, at different ages, students have differents ideas that they can share, and smarts that teachers can learn.  When I was younger, my mom (who is a teacher) always said, “Teaching is learning.”  She would come home from work and tell me stories of things her students did, and what she learned from them.

I thing to get the utmost knowledge into students is to teach them using a more ‘friendly’ method of teaching.

Blog 3 – Pedagogy and Power

To Friere, the “banking model” is a form of teaching in which the teacher or educator, feeds knowledge to the student, and the student only receives knowledge. It is a one way relationship that empowers the teacher, disempowers the student, and prevents critical and creative thinking. Despite giving the educator the upper hand, this banking model is detrimental to both the student and the teacher. The student suffers because they are simply taking in information that will be useful for them on their exam, and aren’t necessarily retaining that information for the future. The educator suffers because they are simply talking and ensuring everyone comprehends, which leads them to dislike their jobs. Friere argues that there needs to a balance between the teacher teaching the students, and the students interacting with the teacher. I have had many experiences in grade school and in college with the banking model. Specifically in my first semester of college, I had a professor that would speak for an hour and fifteen minutes, ask questions to see if we understood, and continue speaking. This experience supports Friere’s “banking model” theory because since there was no interaction and all lecture, I learned very little in the class and it was obvious the professor wasn’t enjoying the experience too well either

Blog Post #3: Pedagogy and Power

The banking model to Friere is a term he used for the traditional educational approach. He stated that students were like containers that teacher put knowledge in. A main criticism was that this technique often was a form of oppression towards the student. In other words while the teacher was active, the students were in fact passive. A simpler way to explain this approach is that often in this tradition teachers educate with monologues completely ignoring the student’s needs.  The banking model empowers the teacher at the expense of the student, because the student regardless of prior knowledge in the subject is completely ignored. The assumption is made that all students are the same, therefore the individual person is non-existent in this model. Often this system involves the sole use of memorization and no other processes.

I think it would be safe to say that almost everybody has seen this approach used to teach. The banking model was especially popular during my elementary school years. I had many teachers that to gain authority rarely allowed student interaction. This was especially popular with the old school military style teacher. In college this is rarely seen, the few times I did encounter this style it was used in lecture halls with over 100 students (but I think that is expected).

Pedagogy and Power

According to Paulo Freire, the banking model of education can be thought of as students being empty vessels or containers in which teachers/educators must put new knowledge into those “containers” or students. Essentially, the teachers are expected to unload information into student’s brains, and it is then assumed that those said students will intake that information, memorize it, and then be able to regurgitate it. This is how Paulo Freire metaphorizes the education system. This model can be seen to empower the educators or teachers because in this sense, they have the ability to give forth any information that will fill the student’s mind or their empty container. Thus this model can be seen to disempower the student’s since they are not in control of the information that they are being filled with and expected to memorize.

I believe that throughout my academic career, I have experienced this model multiple times in which it had its positives and negatives. For me, one experience of the banking model that I encountered was when I first began to learn Spanish in middle school. In the beginning, for every class the teacher would give us new words to learn the meaning behind and then the different endings. For example, I would be taught that “descansar” meant to rest, and then be given a list of the different conjugations. During this time I was expected to have this information “deposited”, memorize it, and the recite it. I believe that for this kind of course, this model was an advantage because it is important to be able to memorize a word’s meaning as well as its conjugations, and repeat this information…just as one would with a word in English. Although, I think a negative of this learning was that I was never encouraged to memorize proper use or using it in a sentence. There was no critical thinking to the basics of this course, and therefore I personally had a difficult time learning the material. From this personal difficulty, my Mom would have to speak to me in Spanish and use the word in order for me to fully understand the word, and then I would have to create my own sentences; I was not always able to just memorize it and regurgitate it. 

Pedagogy and Power: What is the Banking Model to Friere? (And Me!)

In Paulo Friere’s novel Pedagogy and Power, he ridicules and dismisses the education system by creating a metaphor called the banking model of education. Friere constructs the banking model of education to appropriately describe the relationship between student and teacher as an oppressive one. Through Friere’s eyes, the teacher is seen as an all knowing being and the student an empty vessel. Their relationship consists of the teacher simply depositing all of their knowledge into the students like containers, establishing an inequality and reinforcing that there is only one right way to learn. It takes away any possibility that the teacher might not have all the right answers and takes away the possibility that the teacher could possibly benefit from a student’s knowledge (the student’s knowledge outside of the education system is ignored). Creativity is stripped away as well, when teaching methods remain rigid and authoritative. The students simply receive and memorize the knowledge bestowed upon them and spit it back out when taking standardized testing. This is not beneficial to either the donor or the recipient, however Friere is obviously assigning empowerment to the educator and disempowerment to

Before I went to college and read thought provoking and controversial pieces like Pedagogy and Power, I preached the banking model of education to anyone who would listen to me without even knowing they were Friere’s words. My entire 12 years of mandatory schooling within the education system is just flash images of me sitting in an uncomfortable desk listening to my teacher drone on and participating with answers and questions I knew they only wanted to hear. To question my teacher’s position as the proprietor was not only deemed as disrespectful but foolish as well. I don’t think I can narrow down my experience of the banking concept of education down to one moment in one class when I truly believe that my entire education from elementary school through to high school conformed to what Friere argued about. High School more so than perhaps middle school and elementary school, made me feel small and insignificant. The only class that made me feel as if what I had to say was important had to have been my English classes, but even then there was a right way to analyze a certain piece of literature that I might not have always got right. Having to deal with standardized testing (ELA’s, NY regents, etc) made me feel as though learning was a chore and pressured me into an anxiety ridden state of mind for not being able to digest and memorize all of the information thrown at me adequately. The only positives that I can think of concerning this way of learning as the student, is being open to the idea and prospect that we all still have plenty of learning to do and grow from.

 

 

My Art Story

Art is often perceived as something that is too subjective to be real.  People who pursue art careers are seen by the majority of society as unrealistic and immature.  Art is something that is able to reach into the deepest parts of the human soul and express, with or without words, something that is hard to express.  Growing up, I was always someone who was interested in the art of storytelling, no matter the medium.  Whether stories are told through movies, music, tv shows, books, or video games, I’ve always been passionate about them.  Physical art like painting and sculptures never captivated my interest as much as other art mediums, but does share a lot in common with them and therefore has my appreciation.  What is simple to one person may be deep and introspective to another.  Art represents the human soul in a way nothing else does.  It represents differences, similarities, beliefs, passions, thoughts, and perceptions.  I have written short stories in the past and now am focusing more on music and film.  Art, although often thought not to be, is very important to the growth of a society and is something that I’ve always wanted to pursue.

My Art Story

          For a very long time, art to me has always been paintings and drawings. I am terrible at drawing. I grew up being told that if you didn’t know how to draw, you were defined as bad in art. This was not until I took an art class in the 12th grade where my teacher taught me that art is what you want it to be. Art is completely subjective. I see art as a form of expression through whatever aspect is may be. Some may express their art through their paintings and drawings and some may express art through simply their style and clothing. Art has no boundaries. What may seem important and deep to one person may seem ordinary and plain to another. Art is a matter of perspective and how different people view various art forms. I eventually learned that drawing doesn’t define art. Through different perspectives, art is inspiring in its own way and until one discovers the skill of seeing art through different perspectives, they will never truly appreciate the beauty of art. I took Art history because I want to learn more about how artists use different techniques to create depth in their pieces.

How to Post

Step 1) Go to the website

Easy Steps on How to Post on Your Blog!

Step 2) On the top of the page you will see a plus sign (+) followed by “New”. Hover your mouse over this tab.

Step 3) There will be a drop link that has options for “Post”, “Media”, and “Document”. Click on “Post”.

Step 4) Enter a Title for your post.

Step 5) Once you are done with your post, on the right hand side of your screen, make sure you categorize your post by selecting the class you are in under “Categories”.

Step 6)  Select a tag under the “Tags” section on the right hand side.

Step 7) Select a featured image under the “Featured Image” section on the right hand side by clicking “Set featured image”.

Step 8) Finally, Click Publish on the upper right hand corner.

Pedagogy and Power

The banking model to Friere is a concept of education. This concept of education defines students as empty vessels that are filled with information by their teachers. The ones who are empowered by this concept are the teachers and educators who deposit information into the empty vessels, the students. On the other hand, the ones that are disempowered by this concept are the students since they essentially know nothing because they are “empty”. The students are the ones who are at loss when it comes to this concept since the students don’t understand what they are taught, instead the take the information they are given, memorize it, and use it to get receive good grades on test but they never truly gain any knowledge.

An experience that I have had with this form of teaching occurred in my honors physics class during my junior year of high school. My teacher would always just have slides full of information and instead of explaining them he would just read what was on the board. However, when he did explain them the majority was still unable to understand the information that we were given. As a result the majority of the class had poor grades, reflecting their lack of knowledge in the subject. Although my experience with the banking model was mostly negative it was also positive in the sense that it taught me and my fellow classmates how to study on our own so that we we would able to understand the information we were given during class.

My Art Story

I have never really pondered on the question “What is Art?” To me it’s just a way to express yourself and there are MANY different ways to express yourself.  You can express yourself through drawing, painting, acting, writing etc. The list doesn’t stop. Making crochet sweaters is art, putting together an outfit is art, the way a person likes to take pictures is art, appreciating nature is art. Art has no limit. It’s filled with imagination, expression, it’s complexed to where one may have indefinite answers to what they . Such as a passing cloud can look like a bunny to one person and a smiley face to someone else. When we talk about Art the possibilities are endless!

“Aesthetically Pleasing” is the way I fit art into my life. I find pleasure in things that look “nice” but what does this even mean? Objects and locations that have/ contain soft textures, pastel colors, floral prints and coordination.  I try to incorporate these things into my daily life. Such as I will try to take all my pictures outdoors because I like the way it looks. How nature can spruce up a picture. I especially like taking pictures in front of flowers to make everything look softer. I hope to learn about how overtime art evolves. How culture plays a role into the type of art that was produced over time.