Compare And Contrast John Dewey And Banking Education

John Dewey is considered to have been a pedagogical progressivist, meaning he focused on education reform by first reforming the way that the teaching was actually done. In the past education focused on teaching children facts, mostly by learning with repetition. This was a problem because it taught children information but not how to use that mindfulness with critical thinking in real-world situations. These problems led John Dewey to write a series of articles that described his views on teaching and how it should be improved upon, this is called “My Pedagogic Creed”. Dewey wanted to equally incorporate a psychological, the abilities and interest of the student, and sociological, the needs and commitments of the society, aspect into teaching. He believed that children were born with blank slates and throughout their lives they would receive guidance “unconsciously” and be molded into adults (Dewey, 1). So the introduction of these aspects would help the molded children into better citizens and that would help drive the social economy into prosperity and overall a better democratic society.

At the beginning of this paper, I stated that freedom was a key concept in the

Being regarded as father of progressive education, John Dewey’s most valuable contribution lied in the promotion of practical approach to education. His progressive education method underlined the importance of experience in learning, which was contradictory to the earlier days’ traditional authoritarian and rote learning educational approach. John Dewey believed in democracy in education, suggesting a learn process by participating and doing. His educational approach also put an emphasis on the development of relevant and practical life skills for students.

From the earlier times in our lives till now, we humans have been struggling hard to be free and independent of the things that limit our right to be free. And even though some people say that having security in life can regulate our lives and messy societies, I believe that too much security or limitation causes more dilemmas. Also, by being independent and free, one can learn new things rather than just by sticking to some widely held beliefs. We can see many examples related to this assumption everywhere in our lives, movies, books, and history.

John Dewey’s Progressive Learning Theory is defined as any various reformist educational philosophies and methodologies since the late 1800s, applied especially to elementary schools, that reject the rote recitation and strict discipline of traditional, single classroom teaching, favoring instead more stimulation of the individual pupil as well as group discussion, more informality in the classroom, a broader curriculum, and use of laboratories, gymnasiums, etc. in the school. It is essentially an umbrella theory for many theories that have contributed to what is known as, Progressive Education.

For many years education in the United States has been taught the same way over and over again. It has put children through many years of boring lectures to learn something and eventually will be forgotten. In the Banking concept Freire gives his opinion on the traditional way students have learned for many years. He Calls it the Banking Concept of Education, it is when a student knows nothing and the teacher has to educate them with boring long lectures that will eventually be forgotten by the school year is over. This form of teaching has not really helped students succeed especially when they get to the college level. It has not let students think about what they are learning and think critically about everything they are learning. The banking concept way of teaching has only let students learn a ton of materials but not so much in depth because of a lack of time and too many topics to cover. Students today have been struggling to succeed in their future because of the banking concept, and some countries have already passed the education in the United States.

John Dewey’s beliefs are often questioned because how can one brilliant man cause so much damage for education in America? Based on his philosophies, we should question whether his intentions were to help the

Dewey believes that in today’s education system, “the teacher’s business is to hold the pupils up to requirements and to punish the inevitable deviations which occur,” (Democracy and Education). Thoreau sought to reform the educational system through outdoor observations.

Methods of teaching: There’s a real difference in our educational system compared to when i was last in school, two decades ago. One of the changes that have been accomplished in today’s society is to memorizing instead of using technology or using multiple choice. We are more likely hands on then doing things like the 21 century. Now we have been using save word document and many other things within using technology. We have choices to

Freedom is the ultimate goal—this intrinsic desire has been manifested within human civilization since the beginning of time. Although, humans crave the idea of complete freedom, they do not understand what complete freedom entails. I believe freedom is a social construct that is conceptualized. The definition of freedom almost always varies from person to person; my interpretation of freedom is being given the ability to act, reason and believe with the condition of minimal constraint. Moreover, the terms freedom and free-will must be differentiated between, they cannot be defined within the same realm. Free-will is a psychological capacity, directing ones behavior in a way responsive to reason, while freedom is constrained by rules that govern us through social order. Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor proclaims that it is not freedom that brings man happiness, but security. On the contrary, Socrates a famous Greek philosopher, places much emphasis on freedom that he accepts death over living a slave.

Supposedly, a time- and effort-saving device for teachers because then the materials and guidelines for teaching practice is readily available. But what about student’s learning potentials? If the teachers are teaching only for the test, there is an apparent neglect for the student’s creativity and opportunity for higher order of critical thinking. There will only be rote memorization making their learning experiences rather boring.

The banking concept is a term used by Paulo Freire to describe the “traditional” educational system. With this concept, students seem to learn all they need to know by narration of the teachers. “Narration leads the students to memorize mechanically the narrated account”(Freire, page 1). Because of this method, students are being referred to as depositors since teachers’ deposit information into their brains and the students receive, memorize and repeat. This concept has shown that people lack creativity, knowledge and individuals cannot be truly human. Students tend to lack critical consciousness and the more they accept the role of the teachers, the more they adapt to the world as it is. As Paulo Freire discusses, “ The Banking Concept of Education” he also proposes a way to improve education by introducing us to the “Problem-Posing Approach”. By doing such, he informs us that this approach is an alternative learning method that is efficient and an effective solution to the banking approach. I personally believe that all students should be taught with the Problem-Posing Approach since the Banking Approach is not a sufficient way of learning.

Freire has made valid points as to why the banking concept of education can be poor at times. Freire expresses the attitudes and practices of society within the banking concept of education and lists that the teachers know everything and the students know nothing (319). When my teacher messed up halfway through solving the equation and I caught the mistake should I have not said anything because teachers know everything, right? In reality people make mistakes as do teachers.

Academic freedom allowed teachers and students free to choose what they wanted to teach and learn.

John Dewey is known as leader of the progressive movement in the history of the American education system and his book, Democracy and Education: an introduction to the philosophy of education, could be used as a textbook to teach the foundations of the movement. Discrediting all previous educational and philosophic approaches as intellectually incomplete or inaccurate, Dewey first presents a new perspective on the nature of knowledge, education, society and philosophy. One fundamental theme of Dewey’s progressive movement is that education is growth and that growth is, in and of itself, the objective. Rejecting any notion of innate knowledge or of an ideal goal to strive for, the progressive