Author: Muhammad Rabi

Sean R, tim D, Jake D, Jake H, Rabi, 

Topic: experience with the previous discussion group

The location for the discussion groups were not always convenient. People talk because sometimes people do not talk in the classrooms. It makes it more comfortable for people talk. Sometimes topics were lame but if they were interesting people would actually relate to them. These discussion groups really helped with writing the projects. It was a different environment than the class so it was more interesting. The discussion groups were not just like the other classes so it was interesting. Students were able to talk to each other even the students who are shy to talk in the classrooms talked during the discussion groups. The reflection for the discussion groups were also beneficial because writing about the discussion groups later made it more sense. These discussion groups also helped with the writing projects. They gave more ideas and people shared their ideas with each other. Students could work on the writing projects during the class time on friday.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11sBdo_QzfQM9VgWHr-jmvyREzZgKpPcRz7X0WUVPavI/edit

Positive: Very well written thesis. You have four strong main points and I believe all of these would help in learning

Negative: Maybe add a quote in this paragraph other than that great job

Percy: Great job on choosing the quotes. They relate to your thesis statement.

Positive: Very well written. I like how you explained that outside of the classroom experience is important in learning

Negative: Not really anything negative to say besides this should be MLA or APA

Percy: You did a good job explaining the quotes. Makes it easy to understand

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AqgNX2tj3Vq1grmu4mW1LcEnIIx61Aa2XSjulb7dWXY/edit

Positive: Great use of vocabulary. You explained the problem well in your introduction

Constructive: Maybe come up with more ideas. I think we need four for this project. I saw that you have 2 ideas but other than that great project

Percy: This quote from Percy supports your main idea very well

Positive: Great talking about the discussion groups. I think they really help the learning process

Constructive: Maybe talk about one specific course and apply all these ideas to it and how it helps you with learning. I think that will make your essay stronger

Percy: The quote from Percy supports your main point and it also identify the problems Percy is trying to describe

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1INSZncHJ3NHToRCNEvvZSYryQpnFBSt02PUMCIf9IpE/edit

Praise: I like your thesis and I agree that sometimes students can teach themselves better than the teachers

Constructive: Although, for some of the classes like some science classes it’s hard for a student to teach so it might not work always for a students to lead

Percy: I like your quote and it supports your thesis

Praise: Great thesis and I agree with you that taking other classes brings new opportunities

Constructive: I agree that two of your topics are kinda similar but I still like them. Maybe change them a little bit and your project will be great

Percy: All the quotes support the thesis and the ideas of Percy

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14aTCLA9WoX-TJ2iz7KiQRK_lFu-OWn388nefPmjfFtA/edit

Group members: Kyle Owens, Bella B, Jake D, Kenzie Neiderer, Jason Gabby, Shawn, Jenna, Sabrina, Cristian Galilea, David Heffron, Joshua Rogers, Muhammad Rabi, Jake Heikkinen, Sean Redding, Tyler E, Nick,Timothy Domanowski, Sam Livorno

In this discussion group, we talked about although taking the shortcut seems like the easiest way but there are many disadvantages of taking the shortcuts. We said that people always take shortcuts and then expect the best results for example in the class some students copy answers from other kids and then in the exam then do not get good scores. The reason for that is because they do not put enough effort into it. We also said that professors use same powerpoints over and over again which is easier for them, but is not effective for the students. When someone take shortcuts it doesn’t allow for creativity, and change is a creative process. There is nothing unique left because everyone does the same repeated thing which leaves for no creativeness. People take shortcuts just so they could ignore other people but interacting with others teach you life lessons and makes you a better person.

In, ‘The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education’, the author said that it is the student’s choice how they would want to learn and what they want to learn, not the teacher’s. In WCU, Bio-110 or General Biology is a subject that most of the science majors have to take. Although, in high school, most of the students take general biology and Bio-110 is basically repetition of high school biology which is a waste of time for many students. Bio-110 should not be a requirement, especially for students who have taken a Biology class in the past and there should be an assessment test before students schedule for classes. The labs for Bio-110 should be less than three hours because the workload in the lab does not take that long. If they do better on the assessment test, then they should be able to take a higher biology class. Students even lose interest throughout the course because they are learning the same stuff and if a student already knows something why would they want to learn about it again.

Students are the one who are learning then why do they not have the choice what they want to learn. A class like Bio-110 is imposed on the students and they do not have any option than taking it because WCU has made it a requirement for the major. Even Freire said, ‘The teacher cannot think for her students, nor can she impose her thought on them’ (Freire 3). It is the students who are going to be using the stuff they learned in the future and if the education they are getting is useless, then what is the purpose of going to WCU. This is not what is going to make them successful. It is just a waste of their time and instead they should be taking classes which will actually help them in their career. 

Students who take Bio-110 also have to take a three hour lab. In the lab, they learn about how to use a microscope and how to identify the basic structure of a living cell. Many Biology major students already know how to use a microscope or they know what a cell is because they have taken a Biology class in their high school. Most of the time, students finish the lab work in an hour and they leave early. When they could actually schedule for a different class during that time which could be easier for many students when they are making a schedule. Now they have the change their whole schedule because of the three hour that has been reserved for Bio-110 lab. If the lab work is not that long, then why does it have to be three hour long, why not an hour and thirty minute. It is only possible when the professors communicate with the students just how Freire said, ‘The role of the problem-posing educator is to create, together with the students’ (Freire 4). 

There are tutoring at WCU for extra help so if someone has a problem when they take a higher biology course like Botany or Zoology instead of General Biology, they could just go to a tutor for help. Why take a course for three months if a student already knows most of it. Most of the students in the class do not study for tests and exams because they eventually lose interest after learning the old information again and end up not doing great for the tests. It is because they are not putting effort anymore. Even Freire said, ‘Their response to the challenge evokes new challenges, followed by new understandings; and gradually the students come to regard themselves as committed.’ (Freire 4) If the students are not learning new things how is Freire’s idea of being committed even possible.

Topic#4

Course-based learning. Freire’s essay advocates for a model of learning that is 100% based on student initiative, student choice, and student action. Yet some classes at WCU seem to project a passivity onto students as a model of success. Using one WCU course as a model, analyze the model of learning that this course presently relies upon in order to propose concrete, implementable alternative practices that could achieve Freire’s model of learning at WCU

Thesis:  Bio-110 is a repetition of high school biology which is a waste of time for many students. Bio-110 should not be a requirement, especially for students who have taken a Biology class in the past. There should be an assessment test before students schedule for classes or they should learn new information than the course material being taught right now in Bio-110. The labs for Bio-110 should be less than three hours because the workload in the lab does not take that long.

Quotes:

The teacher cannot think for her students, nor can she impose her thought on them’ (Freire 3)

‘The role of the problem-posing educator is to create, together with the students’ (Freire 4).

‘Their response to the challenge evokes new challenges, followed by new understandings; and gradually the students come to regard themselves as committed.’ (Freire 4)

Topic # 1 

The space of education at WCU. Freire’s challenge for us to reimagine the ways in which we learn doesn’t just ask us to re-shape ourselves intellectually; Freire’s ideas also suggest a need to re-shape the spaces of education. Use your understanding of Freire’s ideas to analyze the space of education at WCU, identifying and proposing the means by which WCU’s space can be deployed to achieve the ends of Freire’s concept of learning.

Team member: Rabi

Working Thesis: According to Friere, the spaces of education bound the ability of a student to think and learn. I will talk about how students should no longer be dependent to come to a certain place to study and teachers should be facilitators to support students in developing their way of thinking and learning to change the education space at WCU.

Quotes:

 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.” pg 2

They are treated as individual cases, as marginal persons who deviate from the general configuration of a “good, organized, and just” society. The oppressed are regarded as the pathology of the healthy society, which must therefore adjust these “incompetent and lazy” folk to its own patterns by changing their mentality. pg 2

Jason R, Liya S, Juliana B, Timothy D, Riley B, Maddie B, Ruthie L, Jake H, Sean R, Nick P, Christian J, Michael R, Jake D, Gabby L

In our discussion group, we talked about the difference between banking education and problem-posing education and their strengths and weaknesses. We said that in order to learn something one has to take ownership and has the want to learn. We all agreed that in college there is no need of lot of classes such as the Gen eds. Those classes are just unnecessary, waste of time, and money. There should be no gen eds because that would save a lot of time and give students less stress and then they could focus on the subjects that they need for their major. Another weakness that we talked about is that in college students are being taught so they could fill in the jobs and not actually think and use that knowledge to do something productive. If people would actually think and use that knowledge than the purpose of the education would be actually fulfilled and this world would be a better place.

Noah Heslop, Riley Baughnin, Nick Passis, Bella Dibasquale, Kyle Owens, Donny Lessing, Haley Myers, Sean Redding 

In our discussion group we talked about how spacing in traditional classes, lectures, and online classes affect people. We said that lecture rooms and very big classes make student and teacher connection weaker. There is less interaction between a teacher and a student in a lecture hall. The teachers do not know the students name so they grade everyone on the same scale and the students do not get the fair credit for their work. Although, in a small class professors know the student’s names and they know that the students should be appreciated for the participation. Students also pay more attention in a smaller class because they know that their professor could ask them questions. There are more opportunities to know your peers and engage in the classroom. Another thing we talked about the class setting for example, students who sit in the front interact more with the professor. We said that online classes are a total opposite because there is no connection half of the time students do not pay attention when they do the online work and there are less chances to learn.

Sarah V, Kyle O, Gabby L, Sabrina, Timothy D, Christian G

The topic for our discussion group was that the teachers and students are the opposites of each other. We said that according to Freire, teachers think that they are superior to the students and that they do not let students show their creativeness. It is also hard for students to be their own person because of the teachers. We also discussed and we all agreed that most of the time students can teach teacher things too but the students do not get the recognition for it. Although we disagreed by some of the things that Freire said in his reading because now-a-days most of the teachers do appreciate students for their hard work and encourage them to participate and show their talent. We found out that Freire wrote this in 1970 which explained why the education system was like how he described because now it has been very improved. The younger teachers who are coming in the teaching field know how to interact with students and how to make the environment more creative. I agree with the fact that there are some old teachers that may come out as rude if you correct them because of my personal experience with an old teacher but most of the time teachers are appreciative and cooperative.