West Chester University is divided between academic buildings
and the dorms in which students live in. Freire wants students to recognize
that with education, the divide between academic buildings and student’s home’s
separates living and learning into two individual concepts that aren’t
cohesively intertwined in the world. Due to this, teachers and students
interact differently and absorb information in a variety of different ways.
West Chester University can link these two concepts together by moving academic
classrooms into residence halls. This can create a more unified bond between
the students and the teacher by helping both recipients of the matter retain
information for further use. In doing so, West Chester can also create more
flexible seating in classrooms so that students feel more comfortable and
relaxed in their environment, as they do in the homes of their dorms or houses.
Lastly, the school should implement more online classes where students can
learn in the privacy of their own home. This concept can help bridge the gap
between school and home lifestyles. Online schooling can offer a more private
and enhanced way of learning for students since they can communicate with their
teacher, one on one, without worrying about the intimidation that face to face
contact brings.
Moving educational classrooms into
residence halls will help fix Freire’s idea that in society, education has its
constraints. By adding these classrooms, the line between the academic
buildings and the residential halls will fade away with all the negativity that
the line provoked in education. This new change will provide different
intellectual experiences in the residential halls for both teachers and students.
Freire advocates that a common stereotype of education persists to be where
“the teacher teaches, and the students are taught.” The addition of the
classrooms will make that statement contradictory in that teachers will be able
to learn from the students’ by observing their study habits in the residential
halls in order to prepare them for future exams. Students will also have better
chances of connected with their professors due to the decrease
in class size. Dorms are a quiet place where one can study, and the
library offers the same exact use; however, one is meant for living and
relaxing, and the other is meant for studying and being productive. In the
convenience of one’s own home, students often get distracted and aren’t focused
as much in their studies. We must re-shape the space
we learn in to access our intellectuality. For health science majors, they constantly
travel to south campus for classes and meet the potential conflict of arriving
late due to the bus transportation. With health science courses taught in the residential
halls, students have no reason to be late to class. This enhancement will
improve student’s productivity in their own living spaces by allowing students
to sleep in longer with more time to prepare for class. This
relocation of academic facilities will offer students opportunities in finding
other students in their residential buildings to study with. Overall, the new
rearrangement on campus we’ll increase the involvement of students since more
undergraduates meet others in their own residential halls.
Freire implements the idea that learning
happens in conversation and both recipients of the matter must be present for
learning to occur. Professors at West Chester University expect students to ask
a friend what they missed in class to recover the information they need for
future tests. Students cannot learn class concepts as well because it’s just as
easy as copying the notes from a friend. When students are sick, running late
to class, or cannot make the class due to personal matters, they shouldn’t be
denied access to what they missed. Freire advocates that students must “adapt
to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them”
(Freire 2). Freire makes a well-intentioned point highlighting that students adjust
to their environment based on the reality that in life, no one is perfect. With
West Chester University’s installment of the teleconference software, students
can responsibly dial into class or lectures while still attaining the knowledge
they would have missed if the software had not existed. This allows students to
still be able to communicate in a virtual manner, even if they are not
physically in the classroom. In a virtual society, not all needed resources are
in the same room. Adding a conferencing software will allow for remote
connection. Students will be able to dial in from the convenience of their own
homes and most likely with no distractions to follow along with the class
material.
In college, students frequently change their majors to pursue different careers; however, not all students are given the same opportunities to transfer into their desired major. Specifically speaking, nursing is a widely competitive major at West Chester University and the department limits how many students can take part of that major. As for dropping and enrolling in classes, the university implements a similar limitation but on classes for when they fill up. The university should look to expand certain courses year after year by examining at how many students request to enroll in those specific courses. In the long run, if these courses offered larger size classrooms to hold more students, undergraduates would be able to take their desired courses and they will graduate on time. In general, the university should look to expand the different fields of study offered. As for switching majors, the university should apply this same concept by expanding the nursing department. Currently, West Chester University requires that students who look to internally transfer into the nursing program must complete a list of prerequisites to be considered for the program. The department of nursing should offer these students the same opportunities to easily transfer into their desired major instead of applying to college for the second time. The more students given this same opportunity will eventually decreases the number of students who are undeclared in their major of study. West Chester University’s department of nursing is limiting the seats they offer, making it more complicated for students transferring into the major. Students that are passionate about the practice are being limited in their desired course of study. Universities have students do clinicals in hospitals to obtain hours of operation before they enter the working force. In essence, students are already working in the work force with no pay. Freire states that, “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” (Freire 2). Reducing limitations on courses and major transfers, students will be able to live outside West Chester’s controlled society and be given more freedom with more space in classes. Students should be offered the same opportunities as those in or transferring to other majors to better their success in the outside world. If West Chester associated themselves with a larger hospital to provide more clinical opportunities for students, then the nursing department would be re-shaped, without a distinct limit on students enrolling in the major. By increasing room sizes for popular courses year to year, the space for hospital clinicals, and the amount of seats in nursing courses, those students who look to transfer into nursing are offered equal opportunities to transfer into that major. This would make it more liberating for students to be able to freely change their course of study without any restrictions preventing them to further their learning.
