Teaching Through The Arts

While perusing the Critical Pedagogy on the web site, I came across this discussion of Constructivism and its ties with critical pedagogy. It's worth taking a few moments to read. The red highlighting is done by me. Constructivism "A philosophy that views learning as an active process in which learners construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world through action and reflection. Constructivists argue that individuals generate rules and mental models as the result of their experiences with both other human subjects and their environments and in turn use these rules and models to make sense of new experiences. Three important concepts emerge from this definition: ...

Paulo Freire's Banking Theory of Education positions students as empty vessels to be filled by the teacher. According to Paulo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed , education is traditionally framed as "an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor" ( Pedagogy of the Oppressed 58). In this framework, the teacher lectures , and the students "receive, memorize, and repeat" (58). Freire explains that banking education is generally characterized by the following oppressive attitudes and practices: the teacher teaches and the students are taught; the ...