At West Chester University classes are mainly lecture based. Lecture based learning is proven ineffective by both Percy and Friere. Both similarly state that people cannot learn by being given the information, they have to make the information has meaning to them in order to learn. Both Percy and Freire acknowledge the role of a teacher in education. They caution the fault in lecture based learning. They prove this to be Both believe that this role needs to be improved in order for the learner to learn. West Chester University can accomplish this goal by embracing formative assessment, inquiry-based learning, project based projects, and discussion group based learning into its curriculum.
One way to improve learning at West Chester University is to implement formative assessment into the classroom. In the formative assessment form, teachers monitor students by providing ongoing feedback. The goal of formative assessment is to help students understand their strengths and weaknesses. One way to use formative assessment is to provide students with tests that they can take multiple times to show them what they need to study or not. By allowing students to be able to take tests multiple times allows the student to decide the pace they go. This allows students that need more help with topics more time to work on the topic without moving ahead when they are not ready. This also allows students that have already learned the information, to pass through it quickly so they do not have to relearn information they already know. This disconnect between students and the pace of a class is something that formative assessment in a classroom can stop. In this form, the assessment goes beyond grading by examining patterns through quizzes and using those patterns to improve their education. Percy proves this would be an effective way of learning by saying, “A student who has the desire to get a dogfish or a Shakespeare sonnet may have the greatest difficulty in salvaging the creature itself from the educational package in which is presented” (Percy 4). This shows that a student can not learn from a direct presentation. It allows the student to follow their own path or the least beaten path by taking assessments to learn what they need to. Friere also proves this would be an effective way of learning by saying, “It is not surprising that the banking concept of education regards men as adaptable, manageable beings. 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, 2). This shows if a student does not ignore the direct presentation they would not learn. By avoiding the direct presentation of the object, allows the student to gain sovereignty and to take the beaten path to further their education.
One form of “teaching” that can better improve learning for West Chester students is inquiry-based learning. This is where the student drives the class and takes over. This is done by the student who is given a problem or scenario, and the student completes this task by asking questions and figuring the problem out for themselves with no previous lecture from the teacher. This type of learning would eliminate lecture-based classes which are proven ineffective. This form of teaching eliminates students having to memorize topics that mean nothing to them. Instead, students learn by doing hands-on projects and build knowledge through exploration and experience. Students can only learn by making connections to the object that they are trying to learn about. This form of education is proven effective by both Friere and Percy. Friere proves this to be an effective form of learning by saying “Problem-posing education affirms men and women as beings in the process of becoming—as unfinished, uncompleted beings in and with a likewise unfinished reality” (Freire, 6). This shows that in the beginning, people do not know the answer to the question. So they must find the answer for themselves in order to actually learn. Percy also finds inquiry-based learning to be true. He stated that “The educator whose business it is to teach students biology or poetry is unaware of a whole ensemble of relations which exist between the student and the dogfish and between the student and the Shakespeare sonnet”(Percy, 4). This demonstrates the need for the student to learn without the professor. Since the professor can not see the connection between the individual student and the topic they are learning, the student must learn the information for themselves. The student also needs to find their connection to the topic in order to understand the true answer to the problem.
Another way to better learning at West Chester University is to invoke project-based learning into the education system. When a student uses project-based learning they are given a task to complete without getting any information on the subject beforehand. The student must continue to do the project with no instruction on how to do it. The student continues doing the project and has multiple trials and errors before they come to the answer they were looking for. When the student fails they must learn from this failure in order to complete the task. By the student continuing on working on the project they are learning more about the object then they would in a lecture-based classroom. The students have to apply their current knowledge in order to apply it to a new task. Both Percy and Friere support this idea of learning in their writings. In Percy he supports this idea by stating “In truth, the biography of scientists and poets is usually the story of the discovery of the indirect approach, the circumvention of the educator’s presentation-the young man who was sent to the Technikum and on his way fell into the habit of loitering in the book stores and reading poetry; or the young man dutifully attending law school who on the way became curious about the comings and goings of ants” (Percy, 5). Percy is saying that the young man who fell into learning the subjects learned more than the students who are majoring in the topics. By saying that Percy is supporting the idea that students learn by trial and error just as project-based learning recommends. Friere also supports the idea for the need of project-based learning by stating “In problem-posing education, people develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves; they come to see the world not as a static reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation.” (Freire, 5). By saying this Freire is saying students can only learn when the information comes to their own reality. Project-based learning supports this idea because students must keep doing the project for themselves without any previous knowledge of the topic. The student must relate the project to themselves in order to actually learn.
Another way to better implement teaching at West Chester University is to use discussion groups. In this method, everybody participates in the discussion, therefore thinking and expressing their own thoughts. The role of the teacher is this method is non existent, the students have full control on how the discussion will go. The teacher would present a topic with no direction and the students would have to discuss it between fellow students. In this, students will present the topic and express their own thoughts then other students will chime in and express their own opinions. The students start learning by talking to other students and bouncing ideas back and forth. Friere proves this would be an effective way of learning by saying, “In problem-posing education, people develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves; they come to see the world not as a static reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation.” (Freire, 5). By allowing students to create their own opinions about the topic is allowing them to connect it to their world. Which in the mind of Freire is how learning takes place. Percy also proves this to be an effective way of learning by saying, “Poetry students should find dogfishes on their desks and biology students should find Shakespearean sonnets on their direction boards.” (Percy, 4). This would allow students to be able to discuss with each other to learn about another topic. Allowing students to discuss their opinions resulting in students learning from communicating.
