Review # 3

The Banking Method VS the Problem Prosing Method, which teaching method is more beneficial to students?

This review will analyze the Banking Method and the Problem Prosing Method and determine which teaching method is more valuable to a students learning.

The banking method is a common, more traditional teaching strategy where the “teacher is the expert and the student is the empty vessel. The teacher deposits information into students accounts (minds) and the students often accept the information passively”. This method is usually done through lectures or power points. There is not much interaction between the students and the professor, but rather the students listen and interpret what they hear to be true. “The teachers cover or deposit as much as they can from the central bank.” However, this central bank/curriculum ignores social inequalities. Teachers who use the banking method are teaching and expecting everyone to learn in the same way.  Realistically, people don’t all learn the in the same way.  Some students learn through lectures and power points while others are hands and learn by doing.  Others learn by exploring by asking questions or working in groups. The Banking method doesn’t cater to the needs of people with different learning styles.

What does the banking method teach or promote?  It “prepares students to accept external validity”. They believe what they hear to be true. Through the banking method, students learn self- discipline according to what they have learned to be acceptable or unacceptable in society. Overall the banking method is teaching students to be robots, to follow the social norms, to not ask questions and not think for themselves. This method also grades students using an A - F grading system, where A is exemplary and F is failure. “Students demonstrate their knowledge by achieving high test scores”.  The disadvantage here is that students will memorize material that they need to know for a short period of time to achieve a desired test score but are less likely to retain information for a lifetime.

The problem prosing method is a more modernistic type of teaching. This method “creates spaces (for students) to question different form of oppression and inequality”.  It caters more to the different learning facets of the student, such as visual, cognitive, oral, aural and social. This type of teaching doesn’t use the traditional A-F grading system but rather expects the students to achieve an A or B. Students taught under the problem prosing method aren’t graded on specific exams or test but rather base on a “synthesis of many forms of evaluation”.  Teachers who use this method don’t rush students, but rather let them learn at their own pace or “proceeds as rapidly as the students learning allows”. Students are also forced to indentify and work towards long term goals, thus allowing them to see the bigger picture when learning. If you know where you want to go it is easier to get there.

After looking at these two teaching methods, I think that it is obvious that there needs to be a change in the schooling system away from the traditional banking methods towards the problem prosing method. I think that the problem prosing method caters to the student. This method is designed for all students not just a select category. Problem prosing helps students think for themselves, ultimately giving them a better, broader education.