Month: September 2019

John Camperson 

Freire believes that there is a need for re-shaping the spaces of education, in order to get more out of it for the students. Through his concept of learning this will allow for an improvement of education. Re-shaping the spaces at WCU could go in all different directions, with a main focal point on helping the health science majors. Most students at WCU live on North Campus, which is where most of the classes are. Students that live on north campus that are health science majors are impacted negatively due to the health science center being located at south campus. Some of the ways that this issue could be fixed include buying out the land in between north and south campus, building more dorms for underclassman that are between north and south campus, as well as more academic buildings. 

There is a substantially large area of land in between north and south campus that could be bought out. It would not be that much money, since it is all mostly homeowners. If the university took over the land, there would not be a huge gap in between north and south campus. This overtime would make a great impact on health science majors. There could be new construction for the university in this space that they could acquire. The construction could be dedicated to making life on campus easier for the health science majors, who are now seen as somewhat of second-class citizens. Freire mentions how the students “adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them” (Freire 2). This is very true because the students that must get to south campus for classes have learned to adapt to the ways of transportation to get down there. Students would be much better adapted to a new campus with new space.  

With the new land that WCU can acquire, they can build dorms for underclassman in between north and south campus. Students that are health science majors could live in the new dorms, so that it can be easier for them to get from one side of the campus to the other. Right now, most of the students are living on north campus, so it is sometimes hard to make it over to south campus in time for a class. Building new living spaces for students will make their lives a lot easier, so they do not have to stress as much. Arriving late to class because of something as simple as missing a shuttle should not be a huge deal. Through Freire’s concept of banking education, there are practices including “the teacher chooses and enforces his choice, and the students comply” (Freire 1). This connects with how the students must take the shuttle down to south campus to get to certain classes. It is not their choice to have a class or two across campus. The schedule is chosen for them.  

In addition to building more living space in the new acquired area, WCU could also build more academic buildings for students and staff. This could also be dedicated more for the health science majors, so that they are not scrambling around campus trying to get from class to class. Overtime, this could allow for the campus to become more whole. With a change of space, the students that are impacted will be re-shaped in a positive way. This will also impact the faculty and make the campus less split in half.  

The problem of the separation between north and south campus can be improved if WCU buys out the land, builds more dorms, and builds more academic buildings for the students and staff. The underclassman health science majors will greatly benefit from this change of space. The students will be re-shaped positively and will not be as stressed out about their classes. The location would be perfect, and it would be a change of scenery around campus.  

Donny Lessing, TJ Fitzpatrick, Nick Gamba

Professor Randall Cream

WRT 120 

29 September 2019

Regaining student power 

In “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education” by Paulo Freire, Freire points out the disconnect that we commonly see in today’s learning systems between the teachers and the students. Education is a complex system that is in a general form when most students need a more hands on and helpful approach. We will be discussing how students will take their own education into their hands, by forms of organization and a sense of togetherness needed for change. Students should use the power they have to form an education system by the students for the students.

Friere often talks about how education is not in the hands of the students. The education system has a set plan on what is taught, and the students have no say. Students are no longer learning. They listen and memorize. “Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiqués and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat,” (Freire 1). Here, at West Chester I often hear other freshman students talk about how they feel they are not learning in there classes. They aren’t interested in most of the general education classes that we are forced to take and pass. They go to class, take detailed notes and when it comes time to take exams, they reread their notes and memorize the content for the exam. The second the students hand in that exam, 90% of that knowledge is forgotten. This is ultimately useless. In college, we are here to learn about what we want our career to be. Is it necessary to take a class that does not interest us, thus making us cram just before the exam in order to pass that exam? It is necessary to have some guidelines when it comes to taking classes, but if you are majoring in math or literature, taking a science gen ed should not be necessary. As students we can stand up for what we believe in and force the board to rewrite the rules. We are here at West Chester for ourselves, not anybody else, so shouldn’t what we learn but our decision? 

West Chester University has a variety of classes that are available for students to take in a semester.  The First Year Experience class has become a required class for all incoming freshman starting this academic year.  Many of the students taking the class do not like the way the professors are teaching and the assignments that are given.  “The capability of banking education to minimize or annul the students’ creative power and to stimulate their credulity serves the interests of the oppressors, who care neither to have the world revealed nor to see it transformed,” (Freire 2).  The content that is covered during the lengthy class can be seen as pointless to the students. The assignments that are due at the end of the week, that a majority of the time do not relate to the class, might also be considered useless. Having the professors deposit useless knowledge to the students does not contribute to their ability to learn.  To combat this problem, students can organize a day in which a majority of the students agree to not show up to the lecture. If this “boycott” is executed the way it is intended, questions will be raised from both the professors teaching and the department in charge of the First Year Experience class. As a result, the faculty would want to hear from the students about what they think about the class and what the problems with it are.  This would give students more power in deciding what they are learning about and taking education into their own hands. Freire would want the students to act on what they see as unjust education because they should be able to decide what they are learning about.

Students can also use their power in more specific ways opposed to targeting a whole class. An example of this is staging student walkouts and boycotts of certain assignments that they find to be unfairly given or graded. If the student representation in the class find the test, quiz, or assignment to be unjust or unfair they should come together and simply not complete it. If just one student were to not complete the assignment then they would simply receive a zero but if the whole class were to participate in the boycott then the teacher has no choice but to listen to what the students desire. If the teacher continues to grade the assignments and gives the students poor grades they then run the risk of alerting the suppieriors and their job becomes at risk. The whole goal for the students is to create change and that can only be done by awareness. Whether the goal is to alert the University board or if it is just to let the teacher know that their assignments or assessments are unfair, awareness must be raised. 

In conclusion, students attend West Chester university for themselves and their own education, nobody else’s. So why should we have to sit in class and be taught about content that we are not interested in? Students need to use the little power we have to gain more power. Strikes, boycotts, intentional failure, etc. These are all ways that will make our voices heard. If we want something done, we have the power to do it, but the most important thing to remember is that we have to do it together. We can reshape the education system and make it the way we want, for the students by the students. 

Writing Project Topic 2

Throughout history, classrooms and teachers have been thought of as the ideal setting for learning and success. Many individuals, believe, to achieve academic success, you must choose this route. During my years in school thus far, I have always learned with the help of a teacher or educator. As I grow and become more mature, though, I realize that this is not the only way I can achieve academic excellence. In regards to Freire, his beliefs are that the standards for education are very simple. Teachers should be there to guide and help but the ultimate outcome should be left up to the student. The student must take responsibility for their success and what they need to do to achieve this. In order to do this students need to take the initiative to communicate with others, learning from them, gaining from hands on experiences, and lastly with the help from parents and past life lessons.

In the typical classroom, the teacher is the person that goes over the information with the hopes that the students’ are retaining it. In actuality, most students are not understanding it or retaining it due to their attention span, as well as boredom. In my past experiences in school and in the classroom, I have found that I learn best when I am communicating with others and learning as a group. Therefore students enjoy talking to each other and teaching one another as opposed to having a professor go over the material and the student possibly not retaining the information. This works well because the students understand each other, which in turn, can help boost moral. Students generally feel at ease when they are with their peers because they do not feel as intimidated which could inhibit their learning capabilities. When students talk to each and go over work, it helps them to retain the information and create a deeper bond with their peers. 

Hands on learning is a very common form of learning especially in past decades. Many of our parents and grandparents learned trades and skills by actually performing them and did not learn them in a classroom. As stated by Paulo Freire  in “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education”, “ The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world”(Freire page 2). What he is stating here, is even though students are taking “deposits” (information) in, the less likely they are to be able to form conscious decisions regarding the world around them. At West Chester as well as many other schools, we have majors like nursing and many others which take the students into the workplace and gives them hands on experiences, such as clinical in a hospital setting, which will help them grow and learn more productively. With real scenarios, students learn life lessons as well as from each other and their mistakes. As these students work with each other, they are learning how to interact with each other socially, problem solve, and work efficiently.

Lastly, learning from accounts in history and past experiences, can help prepare students for life experiences and in the classroom. When we talk and listen with our parents, peers, and relatives we do not only gain information but we also learn from their past mistakes. Speaking with them and listening to their stories about life experiences, can prepare us for the future. We can only hope that we will not only learn from their mistakes but also gain the knowledge on how to become more successful. In reference to Paulo Freire, he makes a quote about how “Hence, it affirms women and men as beings who transcend themselves, who move forward and look ahead, for whom immobility represents a fatal threat, for whom looking at the past must only be a means of understanding more clearly what and who they are so that they can more wisely build the future” (Freire page 6). Therefore, similar to this quote, the more we can learn from our past, the better prepared we will be for the future. 

In conclusion, students do not only learn in the classroom which has been done for decades but can learn successfully in many other ways. Students must be the one to empower and liberate themselves of the professor and the old ways of teaching ways. They can learn quicker,  more efficiently from one another and to help retain the information better. Another form of learning something is to actually do it, this is why hands on educating is an effective way of teaching. When you physically doing something, you are learning it without even realizing. Lastly we can get insight from each other about their past and learn from their mistakes. In reference to Freire, the role of the student is up to them and they have the freedom to change the learning process, they can form new ways of learning to emancipate themselves from the oppressor.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zqXANRzxRQf0ew_CXIOAndis8y1NYgxw6PJmzjlwzb8/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sTQBg2IgwIG1u6HWha1FO6P3xX_T2YpCaHDo1ftQ34Y/edit

Throughout the world, the education system faces a contradiction between the student-teacher relationship. In “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education”, Freire discusses his view on this relationship saying, “the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing” and “the teacher chooses and enforces his choice; and the students comply”. At West Chester University, we face some of the problems that Friere mentions and the only way to fix the problem is to start making changes.

In order to bridge the gap that separates students and teachers West chester University needs to start taking steps in order to better their education system. First year students at West Chester are required to take First Year Experience, where they learn about college and what they will need to succeed. Each week the class meets as a big group and then on Fridays we meet in smaller groups called breakout sessions. I found that this one of the few benefits that this class has. These breakout sessions are helpful in getting to know your professor on a closer level rather than just listening to them talk to a class of 150 students. This could be beneficial for each class students take. Once a week students could have breakout classes with their professor and 5-6 other students. By doing this, students would be able to get to know their teacher on a closer level. Also, students that are more introverted would be able to ask their questions in a smaller environment without feeling the judgement and stares of a whole class. Through these small group classes students and teachers will get to know each other on a more personal level.

Another step that can be taken to resolve the gap between teachers and their students is the general education courses. Friere says, “the teacher chooses the program content, and the students (who were not considered) adapt to it.” This quote relates to general education classes because students aren’t allowed to decide. They just have to take these courses even if they don’t apply to their major. This could really hinder the students success in that class because they might not be interested in a class they are being forced to take. Overall, that same mindset could affect the students relationship with their professor. If a student doesn’t want to be in a certain class or is not interested in the subject of the class, how are they going to be able to form a relationship with that teacher. In order to avoid this teacher-student contradiction, I think the requirements of general education classes should be removed or at least lessened. This will help solve the problem because students will be able to take more classes that they actually have an interest in; and thus might be more willing to form a relationship with their professor.

By taking these small steps, it could lead to a bigger change and knock down the barrier between students and teachers. Then they would be able to see each other as equals rather than their boss just talking at them.

In Paulo Freire’s “The Banking Concept of Education”, he writes about the flawed practices of education. One of the flaws that Freire mentions is the banking concept of learning, which is a way of teaching that students absorb information rather than comprehending. Freire explains this problem saying, “The prevalence of the banking concept within most educational systems prevents students from developing skills that makes themselves fair-minded critical thinkers and continues to promote long-standing biases within society” (Freire). This way of teaching has been taught for decades. Here at West Chester University, it is practiced the same way. The classroom is designed a specific way for the student to come in, sit down in the exact same spot everyday, and absorb information that will never be comprehended.

However, creating a different way of learning needs change not just from the teacher but from the atmosphere of the classroom. The layout of all classrooms are almost exactly the same. Changing the layout within classrooms will help students during active discussions. Taking advantage of the areas we have (such as classrooms in dorms that are not used) and allowing students to use these resources can create a new way of learning. 

Figure 1: One learns from discussing a topic related to a teacher’s lesson by discussing  it with other students. These specific figures allow students to talk to each other. When desks are set up in rows facing the teacher it limits the ability for students to interact with each other and discuss the topic. This gives full control to the teacher and not the students. If we were to set up the desks in a curve or circles, kinda like a casino, it would allow students to discuss and have a better understanding of the lesson. That makes the teacher the mentor and give the students control. Problem posing education is when we discuss a topic relating to the world to another student. 

Figure 2: A lecture room is very hard to have teacher to student or student to student discussions. Students would just listen to “The teacher talks about reality as if it were motionless, static, compartmentalized, and predictable. Or else he expounds on a topic completely alien to the existential experience of the students. His task is to “fill” the students with the contents of his narration—contents which are detached from reality, disconnected from the totality that engendered them and could give them significance” (Freire 1) in figure 2, we made it more compact and arranged the chairs in a half circle for discussion. This will allow conversation and interaction among students and the teacher which does not happen in a regular lecture. In a normal lecture hall the teacher is typically just feeding the students information and the students miss a lot of information. Reshaping the lecture room allows students to feel more comfortable in a setting and allows them to take more of their world and allow discussions and conversations with others. 

Figure 3: Changing the atmosphere of a classroom would  make students feel more comfortable and create creative opportunity because this is not a typical classroom. “Based on a mechanistic, static, naturalistic, spatialized view of consciousness, it transforms students into receiving objects. It attempts to control thinking and action, leads women and men to adjust to the world, and inhibits their creative power” (Freire 3) Using the classrooms in our dorm buildings will make students more comfortable and allow students to adjust to real world atmospheres. This opens doors for more creativity within the classroom and discussion between peers.

Julia DiGiorgio

29 September, 2019

WRT120

                                                Topic #4 Course Based Learning 

The course-based learning atmosphere at West Chester University is “learning” by the student’s choice, initiative, and action. In Freire’s essay, “The Banking Concept of Education”, he addresses the issue of student learning and the freedom within it. Bio100 taught at West Chester is a course-based class that needs to be changed in order to educate the students at WCU. This course contains 150 people per class and strictly note taking the whole time. On the other hand, the syllabus is lying to the school and the students taking the class. 

Freire’s essay he states that “Words are emptied of their concreteness and become a hollow, alienated, and alienating verbosity.” (page one paragraph 2). The PowerPoint presentations become exactly what Freire wrote, words become so meaningless and boring it loses the attention and ability to learn and process the information. Bio100 is a grade of an exam and the lab grade. There is no attendance grade not showing that people are even going to these long lectures which seem pointless to students when they cannot even process and learn the information in class.  In the class syllabus the very first learning outcome states that “General Education Goal #1: Communicate effectively. “When in reality the information is not being addressed in an effective way to students. Freire wrote “Teachers limit creativity of students” (paragraph 5 page 1) I completely agree with Freire because there is actually no creativity being produced. 

The syllabus has several points that the class should contain in which it is not completing. There are several student learning objectives in which so far, the class has failed to accomplish. This course claims to “SLO: Employ quantitative methods to examine a problem in the natural or physical world.”In this course we have not done anything that we can apply to a problem in the real world. The labs we finish are completed on a computer and there is no hands-on completion to completely know what is going on and learn effectively from it. Another goal is that “General Education Goal #2: Think critically and analytically” In this course there is no time or things to do that involve thinking critically and analytically. The whole 50 minutes is copying the PowerPoint and not doing anything to actually challenge ourselves. The only way to study is by memorization and little challenging and actually process the information.

West Chester University needs to address the reality that course-based learning is not an effective way to learn considering it is memorization that is used for the course and never used again. There are several ideas I have to change Bio100 for the better. The interaction with groups or group projects will not only help process the information to students but it also encourages social interaction and relationships. The labs should be modified to understand the concept of what we are learning and apply it to real life situations and not a multiple choice lab. The class needs to be modified in an effective way for the students and not so much of a convient way for the teacher. 

Bella and Noah

As students in a STEM First Year experience course, we have realized that our class has been more centralized on reprogramming the ways in which we think about our academic decisions instead of it’s “intended” purpose. When discussing liberal arts, we were taught that this tradition intends to open people’s minds to the world around them and in return, create “well rounded, whole people”. However, this liberal arts tradition is making students feel invalidated in their choice to focus their lives around a STEM career. We believe there is a solution to this problem. Removing certain goals from the FYE syllabus will help narrow the focus on the important learning outcomes that will be beneficial to a student’s future in a stem career. As Friere says in The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education, “The solution is not to ‘integrate’ them into the structure of oppression, but to transform that structure so that they can become “beings for themselves” (p. 2, par. 8). We believe our system will do just that. Higher education is pushing to homogenize students’ ideologies of their major personal decisions. In Freire’s essay, The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education, he states, “…no one teaches another, nor is anyone self taught. People teach each other.” Both the educators and students are responsible for this growing epidemic. Some would say the teachers are not the primary determinant for student’s success. However, since they are designing the syllabus, they are setting us up for failure. In order to solve this growing problem, the syllabus must be revised to include only the most vital student student learning outcomes. If we remove redundant course content, the FYE will be adjusted to better fit the students’ needs and expectations of what the course should offer. The current syllabus is cluttered with tasks that students are expected to complete/ participate in that deem to be unimportant. However, the course does include essential goals for students. Dedicating an entire unit to the Liberal Arts is a waste of time for STEM students to be engulfed in, even if this tradition can teach beneficial skills. A brief overview of the Liberal Arts tradition does appear to be appropriate for students, but the elimination of the continued lessons/ tasks will create more time for the course to focus on lessons that will lead to professional success. For example,the ideologies of learning strategies and identifying poor learning habits is important for students to know and fully understand in their entire college experience. If this leaning goal is skimmed over or poorly addressed, the majority of students will struggle with this. Students can also take advantage of this FYE by creating connections with the teachers outside of their majors. Freire states, “From the outset, her efforts must coincide with those of the students to engage in critical thinking and the quest for mutual humanization. His efforts must be imbued with a profound trust in people and their creative power. To achieve this, they must be partners of the students in their relations with them” (p 2, par 7). Networking will open the doors to new, unexpected opportunists. To benefit from this course, there needs to be alterations to the syllabus and the step forward to create relationships with teachers.

Implementation for self involvement

we will have change, when the students are involved we will rise up to dismantle the oppressive establishment education that keeps us all ill. At W.C..U we pay thousand of dollars to attend these lush classes and their awesome facilities to someday learn, so if must then be our responsibilities, to ensure our own futures. We will do this by making an app that matches W.C.U students to other students and assign partners based on needs, he computer science department needs to get on this. this will be one user friendly and exclusive to W.C.U we’ll have bulletin boards(I’m pretty sure they already do this). So then we got the student group teaching day, so once a week students get to teach the class.Once a week and in every class then we measure student teaching capabilities and you know what people say ” If you can teach it to someone else you probably know it already.” So that should be useful hopefully. Beginning through grassroots organization is the way. Education where people teach each other .

Through media usage we shall connect the students and the movement will catch on. Now funds are important for any revolution, so since it’s by broke college kids we will rely on donations at first then maybe a fair monthly charge. We gonna need students, to get behind and become transformers of their education. So in Political science and sociology we learned about how revolutions require fire and dedication to keep them motivated, so the S.G.A will lead and administer. That’s the end of my ideas for now..

Working on tittle

Paulo ideas difference the banking concept of education and the problem posing. The banking concept of education describes how students relied on the way of teaching of a docent, were students only store the information that was taught. The problem posing education makes students to take initiative by themselves in order to develop their own learning. Basically what Freire concludes with  is that problem posing education is better than the banking education concept. In West Chester University students are supposed to take mandatory courses in order to complete their major. Most of those courses had been already taken in high school and most of the students did not have any interest in them, but to pass in order to graduate. Now in West Chester University one of the mandatory courses for my major is HIS 100, (Contemporary Global History). My purpose in this essay is to analyze and implement some strategies that applies to Freire’s ideas model of learning on this course.

Students must have an interest and reflect initiative to practice those concepts they have learned in order to truly learn. For most business major,  HIS 100 is a mandatory courses students have to take in order to complete their requirements. The idea of HIS 100 is to have an understanding of major events and themes of the 20th Century and how they shaped the contemporary world. In my opinion, I don’t really have an interest to learn something that is not related to my career and also if the teacher does not make intuitive for students in order for them to show some interest. Students who take HIS 100, have to buy a book that is required for class. Also this class is scheduled for two days a week, and one hour thirty minutes long. The teacher starts his class by talking about multiple and chronological events while students are only taking notes and listening until class ends, where students are only storing the given information from the teacher and don’t have interactions with others to develop what they are learning in class. 

One of Freire’s main ideas is that teachers must have the ability to engage students in class and make it more interesting for them. It’s not only teachers job to make students succeed in their learning, but students also will put in practice what they learned in class if they have already congruent ideas from their lessons in order to develop them outside of class. As Freire said, “The role of the problem posing is to create, together with the students,” (Freire Pg. 4) in order to improve the learning for students in HIS 100. Since the class is one hour and thirty minutes long, the teacher should break this time in half, while students must be focus during 45 min, they can discuss what the teacher just taught  and compare them with relevant events from the actual world. 

Also those students who are involved in HIS 100 class do not have enough help from the teacher in case they need help outside of class. Courses at West Chester University have most of their content in D2L and notes from the class if clarification is needed. In HIS 100 class, students don’t have extra activities in order to practice or analyze concepts that had been taught. What it would be helpful for students is this extras activities that I just mentioned and could be incorporated into class.

At West Chester University, the campus is divided into two major sections, academic and residential. This style of campus can be very effective as to how students and professors interact and learn from one another. If West Chester was redesigned, adding multipurpose buildings and mandating on campus living for both students and professors would make the overall experience more beneficial.
A coffee shop is defined as a cafe serving coffee and light refreshments. This kind of environment is a relaxing place that people of all ages can visit in order to unwind and destress. This kind of place is great for building connections between people because it is a relaxed and casual setting. If West Chester University were to redesigned their campus to center around a coffee shop, this could be beneficial for both students and professors. Having a coffee shop accessible to both students and their professors would help for them to see one another in a different settings other than the classroom. This shop would show professors what their students are like outside of class and they would see students with all of their sports equipment, instruments, tired eyes, and exhausted minds. On the other hand, students would see their professors with their graded papers, spouses, children, or with a friend. These two groups of people would have to understand that the opposite has many other challenges and priorities on their plate, besides in that one given class that they spend an hour and a half together three times a week. This coffee shop would work to mold together a better university. It is important that students and professors share a different interaction in a public environment because it creates better relationships.
After creating this coffee shop, it would need a constant influx of customers. These customers would be the students and professors that are mandated to live on campus. During their entire duration at West Chester, all students and professors will be mandated to live on campus. The main point is to create deeper interaction between students and professors. By creating this housing rule, professors could change their office hours. It should be taken into consideration that professors have lives too, but if they have longer or more flexible office hours, they will be available to students more often. Perhaps, during the week before finals or major exams, students may want to ask questions at odd times and will need to access their professors. Some students any have night classes and are unable to meet with their professors at given times. However, if the professors lived closer to campus they would have more flexible hours to meet with students.
Along with professors, students living on campus while they attend the university will also help to create stronger relationships. It is common to see freshmen and sophomores living on campus, but after that most students move off campus. This means they are a bit further from common places like Lawerence, the Rec Center, and on campus eateries. Although, if it were a requirement for all students to remain on campus, it would create a new dynamic and possibly bring students and professors closer. By having all students live on campus, those who originally lived off campus would spend more time around campus and could help newer students get used to the community. This would help to mix on and off campus living and create stronger bonds. This would also help off campus students to be around campus more often where they would spend more time at places like the library, Lawrence, and dorm rooms.
Currently, West Chester University is divided into two major sections, academic and residential. If it were to be redesigned, adding multipurpose buildings and requiring on campus living for both students and professors would help to create a better environment. These few changes would help to bring West Chester’s community together, especially for students and their professors.

https://wcupa-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/ef923865_wcupa_edu/EeYUO-Hn9WBLshFbFP2YQ08BUfSvvCRQI32JXZdCfcX5-w?e=pwVHQK

Jason Riberio & David Heffron

Interaction with Students in Class

Students and Professors all are in common agreement that class should have more interaction. It should not just have to be a lab in order for the professors to interact with their students. Some students learn with just lecture but also some students learn by the interaction. For example, the name game is a good way to be interactive without classwork being involved. It allows for students to get to know each other just by going around the room saying your name and what you like or dislike. Not only West Chester, but Universities in general should take a look at how they are teaching their paying students and the education that we are truly receiving. Freire states that students are like containers which is also considered the “banking concept” which just fills us with information from PowerPoint lectures and trains us to just memorize until we are tested on it. After the exam is over the information that we “learned” is quickly forgotten. The class that is being brought into light is Management 200. 

In Management 200, we learn how to be better managers, the importance of public speech, as well as better overall leaders. But the purpose of management is to test how it works. You can talk about how to be a leader and how to do this and that but without practice it would never work. How are we supposed to practice if we are sitting through 3-hour lectures with just straight PowerPoint slides?  The answer is, you don’t. We need to have interactive groups. The idea that the Professor is the “leader” is cliché. We are all adults and equals. We should have interactive circles where we each talk about different topics but on an equal level. The PowerPoint slides do not teach as much. They are more of an easy way to teach. Also, actual practice in class like debates or leading a discussion group each week could work in ways where one person is the manager and gives specific tasks in order to reach a common goal. That is what management is and that is how it should be taught. We believe that by doing different events like these it could stimulate the students and have a more interactive and fun time in class. It makes students want to learn. The purpose of management is to allow us to become better leaders and what better way to be a leader than to lead a group each week. We also believe that by doing this it allows for On-the-Job practice if you will. By doing this at West Chester we could get a head start on other Universities by already having experience in the management fields. You aren’t just thrown into the fire once you are employed. You would already have that experience which could be a major asset. 

With Management being a required course for any Business major the class should offer more. Most classes are just staring at the board while the professor speaks, and no one talks. That achieves nothing but pure memorization just like the banking concept. This course should have students engaged and excited for their futures. This class just feels as though it’s a GenEd course. We believe that all classes should engage more and be more interactive for sake of the students. 

Nick Nolan, Abbey Johnson, Isabella DeSario

Up to this point, students at West Chester have experienced a multitude of classes on their schedule. Each class is different in the way they are taught and how information is presented. However, students believe they are not in control of how or what they learn in each of their courses. They feel as though their education can only go so far outside of the classroom without being suffocated by the professors limitations that venture beyond the lecture. In Paulo Friere’s, “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education”, he develops the idea in the mind of the reader that they may be able to use their own power in order to provide themselves a better education. Students know very little about what they can do outside of the classroom to make sure they are in control of their own education. Many are under the impression that they have very little control over what they can learn or how they do so. Although it is generally thought of that it is a teacher’s responsibility to control a student’s learning, a students at WCU must take their own initiative in order to not waste this time of growth in their education.

The first impression from a class can make a world of a difference for  Many. However, they feel like they are just sitting and are expected to retain the information. Students on campus feel as though their learning is chained to the classroom and do not feel like they have the freedom to prosper outside of it. This is shown in the beginning of Friere’s, “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education”, when he says, “The teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with his or her own professional authority, which she and he sets in opposition to the freedom of the students” (Freire 1).  This quote from his writing demonstrates and relates to West Chester University’s Professors and how their ways do not differ. Courses and students themselves could both benefit from allowing more freedom in the classes.

Many have discussed how students could take initiative, but there are not a variety of ways they could do so without having to get approval from the school or professors.  An option could be to use their own abilities to create a student led blog page. This page could offer the students to have their own freedom without a professor breathing down their necks.  This blog page can have offers for tutoring, explanation of a class lesson, or just a group discussion about how the class is going. This idea would not require the approval of anyone, and would greatly benefit those who participate the most.  This is only for students and is not only for one class. The idea gives everyone an equal opportunity to progress in their education if they want to be included on the page. This also benefits the school as a whole because the courses can be clarified by students and have a positive impact on grades for all.  A program similar to this can prove how students can take their education into their own hands and push themselves further than they would have in a classroom alone.

I am showcasing the distinctions of student teacher relationships from Freire’s Banking Concept of Education and relationships here at WCU.

I am making four art pieces one showcasing the problem, which is Hierarchy, and three other painting that showcase the solutions.

I am still in the process of finalizing all the pieces but I have two that are in the rough stages.

Makayla Medycki, Maura Kelly, Gwen Jordan

Professor Cream

WRT 120

September 29, 2019

Freire’s Banking Concept: Lack of Education in the Classroom

Paulo Freire “The Banking Concept of Learning” is about the mechanical flaw in modern education, and ways to fix the corrupt system. Friere believes that there is a flawed conception of teachers depositing information onto the students, which he calls the banking concept of learning. He believes that this is wrong, and students won’t be able to learn because teachers are just using repetition to teach, rather than actually having the students learn the information. At West Chester University there are many classes that do what Freire advises people not to do. The biggest example and focus of this essay is the class called First- Year experience, or FYE for short. First- Year Experience is a class for freshmen that help students get to know campus better, and help students smoothly transition to college life. First Year Experience takes place in a large lecture-based class. The class is held three times a week for an hour and fifteen minute period. Freire’s “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Learning” relates to West Chester University because of the lack of education that occurs in the First Year Experience class.

First- Year Experience is supposed to help students to adapt to college life and learn how to deal with the problems that they encounter along throughout their four years or more here at West Chester. The class, however, is taught by four professors from the university. These four professors are from different areas of study and are a wide variety of ages and personality. Some of these professors have not been first year students recently and may not exactly know what first year students wish they had access to or the knowledge to accomplish certain tasks. These professors also may not have ever been students at West Chester University. Due to these two reasons, the professors may not know what is needed by first year students, specifically the ones here at West Chester University. Therefore, having more experienced students, such as seniors at the university, teach the class since they have recently been students. They have acquired endless depths of knowledge that these new students could find immensely beneficial. This could be much more helpful for the first year students. It could also be easier for seniors who know exactly what the first year students need rather than professors trying to imagine what is needed. The seniors know how the first year students are feeling in this time of transition in their lives since they just went through it recently. 

The professors are currently making lesson plans based on what they personally believe that first year students need to be successful. However, once again the problem emerges that these professors have not been first year students in some time and may have never even been students at West Chester University. Therefore, the problem will be restated that the professors are unsure of what is truly needed by these students at the time. A helpful solution could be that a survey is taken by the current or previous students, asking what they recommend be taught in this course. 

Sean Redding

WRT120

Student Power

            As Freire suggests in his analysis of education, progress results from a student’s own power, not from a professor changing their actions. It is the individual student’s responsibility for their own success, and at WCU, resources for student independence and individuality are plentiful. College as a whole is not just shaping pathways for student education, but also allows students to grow independent by living apart from parents on campus, independence in the classroom, and joining the countless campus activities that WCU has to offer. In doing these things, students are able to gain a whole new aspect on life.

            Different students learn in different ways. A key to performing successfully as a student is to identify your own learning style. At WCU, professors are expected to teach thousands of different students per week, and each student has a different way of learning. This means that the professor cannot be expected to teach in a way fit for each student’s mind. In instances like this, it is up to the student to study on their own terms in ways that are compatible with their own learning styles. “Problem- posing education, as a humanist and liberating praxis, posits as fundamental that the people subjected to domination must fight for their emancipation. To that end, it enables teachers and students to become subjects of the educational process by overcoming authoritarianism and alienating intellectualism” (Freire, pg 6-8). Students at WCU are offered many supports in their independence in education and in life, as WCU offers learning amenities such as success coaching, and tutoring. Students who use all of these given resources will definitely be able to improve and work independently in their educational process.

            Another way in which a student may achieve emancipation is by taking advantage of the numerous clubs and sports that WCU has to offer. In high school, students had the same friend groups for years and are now being thrown into college alone. While this may be stressful for some, it is also extremely beneficial to the emancipation process. Making new friends and joining clubs allows a student to find their own individuality and allows people to find other students who can relate to them. As stated by Freire, “The truth is, however, that the oppressed are not ‘marginals’, are not people living ‘outside’ society. They have always been ‘inside’- inside the structure which made them ‘beings for others.’ The solution is not to ‘integrate’ them into the structure of oppression, but to transform that structure so that they can become ‘beings for themselves’” (Freire, p. 2-4). I believe this quote clearly supports the reason that through finding individuality comes emancipation and independence.

            In conclusion, students have many opportunities to gain emancipation at WCU. Through understanding Freire’s ideas and analysis of education, I propose that students may be able to find their needed independence at West Chester University through the plethora of student clubs and organizations, as well as through learning and obtaining their own individual learning styles.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z9BZvPxMnsfOZEWDM0ViHO7SUMxQS1HtIYNAKyWfDhY/edit?usp=sharing