Banking Concept of Education

1.)  Paulo Freire’s concept of “narration sickness” is when a teacher continues to talk on and on about a subject and does not allow one to take anything away from it. They are just having the student memorize formulas and facts essentially turning them into a filing cabinet.

2.)  Narration sickness mimics the No Child Left Behind Act because the teachers just give the students information for the answers on the test rather than having them actually learn. By doing so, they feel that it makes them look better as a teacher because the students will do well on the tests. The students do not benefit in any way from this style of teaching because they do not understand the concept on why they are using the information.

3.)   Mr. Snobl is a great example of an educator who used the banking concept practices. Mr. Snobl was my freshman history teacher. The way Mr. Snobl taught was through documentaries. He expected all of the students to listen to the movies and memorize what the movie was talking about in order to prepare for the test.

I personally feel that this type of educator is very disadvantageous. The reason I feel this way is because the students do not get any in depth thought or reasoning about what they are learning. I can honestly say that I remember nothing from that class because of the way he taught.

4.)  Mrs. Kalloff is a perfect example of an excellent teacher. Mrs. Kalloff taught my junior chemistry class. She genuinely loved teaching and was passionate about making sure every student in the class understood the concept of what she was teaching. There was a lot of dialogue going on in the classroom. She made sure to teach and ask questions at the same time. 

Mrs. Kalloff was very knowledgeable about the subject she taught. I felt that any question I asked, she had the answer. Also, when I was confused about something, she would work one on one with me to make sure I understood. Mrs. Kalloff’s passion for teaching made learning enjoyable. (and I don’t say that very often ;)

5.)   The Athiens is the culture that embrace the concept of liberated or problem- posing education that Freire spoke of in his “Banking Concept of Education.” One of the classes that I practice problem-posing and/or dialogue in is LAR.  In this class we do a lot of communicating as a class along with the teacher. A course that could benefit from more practice of dialogue is chemistry. The teacher just stands at the front and only teaches in a way that makes sense to him. He doesn’t care if we understand and I feel as if he has no passion for teaching.