https://docs.google.com/document/d/17eDXSViJqy-IvysGGLNvkM_Zmcvm6SrVQyvCBr1qwI0/edit
Amanda Jiang & Leah Schreffler
Dr. Randall Cream
Writing 120
3 November 2019
Teaching without teaching
Good quality teaching involves interaction and socialization between students. A good professor takes time to connect with the student’s background and needs. The teacher builds a relationship with the student. At West Chester University, the education system does not do this. In Walker Percy’s “The Loss of the Creature” and Paulo Freire’s “The Banking Concept of Education”, they address the current issue that is affecting the education system. Freire explains the problem of the banking concept of education. This means that teachers feed information to students and they absorb it like robots. This way of education does not teach students. West Chester University is a victim of this way of teaching. Every class teaches this way and it only hurts the students more than it helps. Walker Percy has similar views as Friere. He talks about educational content as a “package” and explains how students do not gain or learn anything by this way of teaching. This is a massive problem in the education system that has been around for decades, but both authors believe there are ways to change. Both authors talk about how students do not learn from the teacher, they learn from each other. Creating a learning environment where students are not taught by the teacher allows for a different way of learning. One class that West Chester offers is HEA 110 Transcultural health, a class where teachers teach students as passive objects. Students are fed information and are expected to memorize everything instead of comprehending it. This class is a prime example of how a class should not be taught according to Percy’s and Freire’s ideas. We believe good teaching can happen at West Chester through trial and error, observation, students teaching students, and mock trials.
In Freire’s “Banking Concept of Education”, Friere talks about how teachers teach in a way where students are fed information like robots. This way of teaching is completely wrong. “Nor do the students practice any act of cognition, since the object towards which that act should be directed is the property of the teacher rather than a medium evoking the critical reflection of both teacher and students. Hence in the name of the “preservation of culture and knowledge,” we have a system which achieves neither true knowledge nor true culture” (Friere 4). Learning should be a way where students create knowledge and culture. West Chester University is teaching students the way Friere and Percy say it does not work. Most are familiar with the saying you learn from your mistakes. Mistakes are inevitable but you will eventually learn from your mistakes, leading to the solution. This method of learning is trial and error. Trial means the practice of different strategies to find a solution. If the trial is fawlty and does not create a solution, a new method is to be tested until a solution is reached. Trial and error is used in problem solving. Problem-solving can be used in HEA 110 as a new way of teaching. This creates a change of teaching. The teachers create different scenarios where the students have to act out the scenarios and try to find the best solution of the problem. The teacher will create scenarios where the students have to discover how to treat a patient who has barriers of communication and beliefs. The students in the classroom will act out the scenarios and have other students watching, leading to student feedback. This feedback will critique the way the student treated the patient, eventually leading to the correct way. Having students give feedback to other students will help them learn the right and wrongs of how they performed and approach their scenarios. Learning the correct way to treat minority groups in the health care system will benefit the students in a new way of learning.
One way to implement good teaching at West Chester University would be for teachers to ask students to teach themselves through observation. Activities, where students observe information outside of the classroom, allows for comprehension and an advanced way of learning instead of being fed information. By doing observation activities, students are open to new creativity and opportunities that are provided. A quote from Percy states, “…that they have in common the stratagem of avoiding the educator’s direct presentation of the object as a lesson to be learned and restoring access to sonnet and dogfish as beings to be known, reasserting the sovereignty of knower over known” (Percy 5). Percy explains that the only way a student can learn is by avoiding the teacher’s way of teaching. When students are assigned readings or video assignments, they do not learn as much compared to going somewhere and observing. Students only focused on watching videos and answering given questions rather than understanding the true concepts. Learning outside the four walls of the classroom can significantly improve a student’s academic and developing environmental awareness. By assigning observation assignments beyond the classroom allows students to think outside of the box. This allows students to take the chance to explore and expand their critical thinking. Observation gives students an understanding of the outside world. In HEA 110, students will have assignments to visit specific companies or areas where people with different cultures visit for health care. Observing a real-life interaction gives the student experience and understanding of the world. Observing something like this teaches the student so much more than a lecture ever would. In conclusion, Students can not learn from the teacher and have to discover other ways of learning.
A new way of changing the way students learn is by having the teacher creates activities that will make students teach students the information. College is all about training students to be future leaders and for this to happen, students have to recognize that they have a voice and an opinion. Speaking for yourself is a hard thing to do and learn. Having interaction in the classroom and in the criteria of the course will allow students to learn to become involved in the class. Students take information from other students and begin to understand different views of things. Seeing the bigger picture of the outside world creates an opportunity for students to seek the moment, creating a new way of learning. “No, but it means that the student should know what a fight he has on his hands to rescue the specimen from the educational package. The educator is only partly to blame. For there is nothing the educator can do to provide for this need of the student. Everything the educator does only succeeds in becoming, for the student, part of the educational package” (Percy 5). Percy is saying that the students have to create their own ways of learning because the teacher is not there to provide the students what they need. The problem with traditional teaching was that teachers feeding students the information and they absorb it. Students teaching students is not the traditional way of learning. Having students teach other students allows for a better connection because there is no higher authority over the students. They are all equal to each other and because of this equality, they will listen to each other. Having this change helps students to focus and begin to learn a different way.
The final way good teaching can happen at West Chester University is through the way of mock trial. Having a teacher read about the content is not the same as having the content shown to you. A mock trial is an imitation trial and problem-solving skill. Problem-solving is another way students create self-learning. In HEA 110 at West Chester University, having mock trials in the classroom creates a real-world scenario that the students can observe and learn from. This mock trial can be created by the teacher. Students will watch and comprehend what is happening. This idea is generated through the computer. The students will observe the scenario and comprehend the material that is provided. Teaching this way changes the atmosphere of the classroom. Teachers do not teach the students directly, they teach indirect. Teachers teach students without teaching. This way of teaching allows students to obtain knowledge instead of memorization. Overall, professors feed information to students and expect them to memorize information instead of comprehending the material. A teacher has to let students discover and create their own critical thinking. By setting an environment where students use their own knowledge to observe and process further thinking leads to independent and social work skills. Learning from their experiences rather than given to them opens up their capability of becoming a better thinker. Having students explore not only outside of a classroom but different methods in the academic course can develop complete understanding. By having trial and error, observation, students teaching students, and mock trials at West Chester University only improve student’s learning skills.
