Paulo Freire Case

Education system is a prime determinant of the extent to which the student will acknowledge and acquire new ideas. Effective learning in deeply embedded on the relationship between the teacher and students. It is through education that learners are impacted with the necessary information deemed imperative for effective and harmonious socialization. Functionality and the structure of the education system in many countries fall under criticism and analytical opinions of Paulo Freire, an educationist. His argument on the education system assumes two faces; “Banking Concept” and “Problem Posing” (Freire, 2010) that can be simply coined as a problem and a solution respectively.

In understanding his concepts, this paper presents an idealistic personal encounter disclosure of a scenario case of a mathematics teacher at Grade 9 class. The teaching strategy of the teacher is evaluated from Freire’s perspective of the education system. According to Freire, “Banking Concept of education” abhors the students from active participation during the learning process; thus likening the students with “receptacle” whose purpose is to receive what is offered (Freire, 2010). In such a case, students have limited right for contributing to opinions and ideas being communicated. They are reduced to empty ignorant and individuals who know nothing only waiting to be filled with teacher’s “narration”.

Ms. Dorcas, my Math Teacher, was not of this kind. She believed in interaction during the teaching process and would evoke thinking through throwing tough question to students after an introduction to a topic. Just like Freire who believed in the power of “problem posing” in accelerating learning through evoking creativity, my teacher also was of the opinion that giving students information and expecting regurgitation of the same as answer for the problems was not enough. She used teasing methods and tactics to potentiate a fruitful contradictory dialogue that left the students with factual based answers rather than verbatim vomitus of her “fills”. According to Freire, “the teacher teaches while the students are taught” (Freire, 2010). This was also on the contrary to the pedagogy style of Ms. Dorcas, who always held remarkable respect to those students who challenged her ideologies and came up with new tactics in class. She always believed in the proverb that the end justifies the means rather that dogmatic approach in a Mathematic class. Using valid reputable methods to arrive at an answer was a principle she wholly embraced. This diversity and accommodative approach gained credit among the learners who became creative. This proved that, in her class, students were not to be served with ideals as though they were “hollow” tanks waiting to be filled. The students were made to acknowledge themselves as resourceful people seeking to top-up their ideas. In so doing, personally I was challenged to refrain to copying others