Joseph Backus II

Professor Jackie Justice- Brown

English 111

18 November 2016

Learning But Not Being Taught How to Apply Knowledge

Students sit in their seats in Math 124 on Monday morning waiting to be taught how to use the

quadratic formula and apply it in their future lives and careers. They take notes, hoping to understand

how to correctly use the formula. The class period goes by and still no explanation of how to realistically

use the quadratic formula for anything at all. All of the students know how to use this formula in an

exam, but none of them can apply it to a real life situation. Students' learning is being compromised by

teaching styles that focus on memorizing facts to pass a test, and not showing any practical usage of the

material. This style of learning is causing many of them to give up on certain subjects that they dislike,

because they think that they will be inapplicable to them in the future.

American schools have used the banking system, a system of depositing and regurgitating

information, since education programs were first started. Often times this is happening by teachers who

are teaching to the test instead of teaching to the student. Their goal appears to focus on getting all of

their students through the curriculum with a passing grade instead of actually teaching them about the

subject of interest. Often times the teachers do this by adding in their own views which they think will

help the students to remember the information long enough to take the test, but then once the test is

done, they forget about it. Paulo Freire, author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, writes in the chapter

The Banking System of Education about how every person has their own view on the subjects they

follow or, in this case, teach upon. Teachers often integrate their own views into the subjects that they
are teaching, which demonstrates this idea. He states His task is to fill the students with the contents of

his narration - contents which are detached from reality, disconnected from the totality that engendered

them and could give them significance (244). This quote is saying that the teachers only goal is to fill

the students minds with the raw information that they have to teach, quite often adding in their own

views into what they are teaching. In doing this they are distorting the information and disconnecting it

from reality in some ways. To add onto this idea Robert Leamnson brings in another interesting thought

showing how the supposed task for teachers, stated by Freire, often takes place. Leamnson states A

college instructor, trying to shock his class into listening, is mouthing absolutely outrageous absurdities

and blatantly contradictory assertions. He watches in despair as the students copy it all carefully into

their notes (77). This quote is showing how students often take their teachers narration of a subject as

fact. They do not even think logically about whether or not it could be right, they just copy it down and

believe it. This is shown in reality by a previous quote from Leamnson which states ...in some

classrooms information moves from the teachers notes into the students notes without passing through

the heads of either (71). With teachers using the banking system and teaching to the test rather than

to the student, the only thing that will get accomplished successfully will be the test. When teaching to

the students, they will learn the subject, get a feel for it, be able to use it in the future successfully, and

passing the test will in most cases come along with it. Teaching by use of the banking system does not

give students the same depth of knowledge as teaching to the student by giving them real life examples

to further their knowledge.

The problem with being taught with the banking method is that it often gives students a false

sense of full knowledge. Upon completion of a calculus class, a student would think that they could

program a lathe to bore the block for a Chevy 350. The issue is that they have never been taught how
to program or even operate a lathe. They have been taught all of the math to get the numbers needed,

but they do not know where to plug them in or how they apply. Robert Leamnson, the author of

Thinking About Teaching and Learning writes in The Biological Basis of Learning and Todays First

Year Students about how experience along with learning will strengthen the neural bonds made from

learning, so that what has been learned will stick better. Leamnson states It is experience and sensory

interaction with the environment that promotes and stabilizes neural connections (67). Experiences, like

shop classes, are what could be used to help students to fully understand the subjects that they are

learning. If a student is taking high level math classes to become an engineer or an architect, they could

enroll in a shop class which would help to show them what the math they are learning and all of the

ridiculous equations that they have memorized applies to. If a student is taking higher level English

classes to become an english professor or literature teacher, they could go watch a play on broadway,

or audition for a play at their school, or even mentor another english class so they could have some

sensory interaction to strengthen the neural bonds they have made in their brains. Students need their

core classes to teach them the base subject, but they also need some supplementary classes and

experiences to strengthen the neural bonds they have made and to help them to truly learn their subject

and how it is used.

To learn their subjects with more depth, students need some sort of problem posing education.

For example, in calculus classes there could be story problems about boring blocks for engines, then a

problem of mis-boring one cylinder or lifter seat, and having to figure out how to compensate for

mis-boring the one hole to still make the block useable. Paulo Freire writes on this concept of problem

posing education in his piece Education that Liberates. He writes about how students need a problem

posing education instead of one reliant upon the banking system to help them learn. Freire states They
must abandon the educational goal of deposit-making and replace it with the posing of the problems of

[people] in their relations with the world. Problem posing education, responding to the essence of

consciousnessintentionalityrejects communiqus and embodies communication. It epitomizes the

special characteristic of consciousness: being conscious of, not only as intent on objects but as turned in

upon itself as consciousness of consciousness (248). ( Freire is showing here how problem posing

education is necessary for students to fully learn a subject and how it applies to real life situations. He

shows that problem posing responds to the essence of consciousness, meaning that it keeps the

learner mentally awake and focused on the subject at hand (248).Robert Leamnson continues on this

in his piece The Biological Basis of Learning and Todays First Year Students. He writes And while

they do come with considerable knowledge, that knowledge can be distressingly shallow (75).

Leamnson is showing here how students coming into college, generally after being taught for thirteen

years through banking system methods, are very unprepared for college level learning, and while they do

have knowledge, most have almost no depth to their knowledge. Without problem posing education,

many students will gain a lot of knowledge, but they will not have any depth to their knowledge.

However, the useage of problem posing education would help greatly in showing how subjects are

applicable to certain things and would also greatly increase depth of knowledge. For example, students

need to understand how to be able to get through a subject in a perfect world at first, so they can get a

grasp on how to do it, but then they also need to have the depth of knowledge to know how to be able

to get through their task when a problem or many problems arise. Often times this can be done by

applying different strategies that one has learned, to solve a problem.

With problem posing education, students could learn how to apply knowledge to skills. When a

problem is put into a scenario that a student has learned how to solve in a perfect world, they would
then have the chance to apply other techniques that they have been taught to solve the same problem.

For example, if the AC method will not work to factorize a problem to solve it for zero, they could then

use the quadratic formula and still be able to solve for zero. In A Problem Posing Approach, an

excerpt from "Teaching Critically as an Act of Praxis and Resistance" by Mary E. Boyce, she writes

about how Freire disagrees with the banking system of education but offers the idea of problem posing

education to get students to more deeply learn their subjects. She states In contrast with a banking

education, Freire proposed a problem posing education. Problem posing offers all subject matter as

historical products to be questioned rather than as central bank wisdom to be accepted (Boyce). This

shows how problem posing education actually works to get students to learn more effectively. Having

information put out to be questioned rather than accepted, students can get a deeper knowledge of each

question or scenario described. Boyce continues in stating that The responsibility of the

problem-posing teacher is to diversify subject matter and to use student's thought and speech as the

base for developing critical understanding of personal experience, unequal conditions in society, and

existing knowledge (Boyce). This shows that the teacher has the responsibility to make the information

they are teaching diverse (problem posing) and able to stimulate students thoughts so that they will get

into the subject being taught and create some strong neural connections in their brains, making the

information that they have learned stick like glue.

In making information stick more, there could be some transformative learning included to help

solidify the information learned. Students are learning through several frames of reference, but if they

could change or twist some of these frames of reference to get a different perspective on the subject, it

may help them to remember what they are learning more fully and understand how it applies to real life.

Jack Mezirow, American sociologist and Emeritus Professor of Adult and Continuing Education at
Teachers College, Columbia University, writes in his piece Transformative Learning: Theory to

Practice about how everyone learns through certain frames of reference and how these frames of

reference will often cause students to push away certain ideas, some of which could be beneficial to

their learning. Mezirow states Frames of reference are the structures of assumptions through which we

understand our experiences. They selectively shape and delimit expectations, perceptions, cognition,

and feelings. They set our line of action. (87). This shows how people are often set to see things one

way, which in learning could cause a student to push away valuable information that would help them to

more fully understand a subject which they are learning. Coming from one frame of reference, or way of

seeing things, students could be limiting themselves by having established one expectation, perception,

and so on. If students could open up and twist or change their frames of reference, or even open up to

completely different ones, that could help them to get a much more full understanding of the subjects that

they are learning about. This could even help them to know how to apply their knowledge to the real

world.

Back into Math 124 on Wednesday, the students continue learning about the quadratic formula.

They start to get into some word problems, asking to balance sixteen different equations to zero and

then find what x has to equal to rationally balance a crankshaft. With all of the sixteen equations looking

like AX^2+BX+C, the students start to balance them all to zero. They plug in the numbers to the

equation -B plus or minus the square root of B squared minus 4(A)(C) over 2(A) and finish to find that

X must equal 2.375 to rationally and properly balance all eight pistons, all four lobes, all of the oil

galleys inside of the crankshaft and all four counterweights on the crankshaft. Now that the students

have been given a real life situation and have been shown and guided through how to solve the problem,

they have gained a much greater understanding on what they have been learning about. They also now
know what the quadratic formula can apply to in real life, this making most of them much more

interested in the subject which will cause them to want to learn even more.

The same students who sat in their seats in Math 124 on Monday morning and waited to be

taught how to use the quadratic formula and apply it in their future lives and careers, have now been

shown how to apply their knowledge to real life. In the past and present, the American education

system is often compromising students learning by teaching styles that focus on memorizing facts to

pass a test, and not showing any practical usage of the material. The fact that students are being taught

several subjects by just memorizing the facts and key points long enough to write them down on the test,

is keeping many of them from actually learning. Not to mention it is also causing many of them to give up

on certain subjects that they dislike, because they think that they will be inapplicable to them in the

future. But kinesthetic learning, or tactile learning, will bring in a much more full understanding of a

subject that is being taught and will show how it can apply in the future. As shown by the Math 124

students, being shown how to apply knowledge which has been learned gives a much more full

understanding of a subject.
 Works Cited

Boyce, Mary E. A Problem Posing Approach." A Problem Posing Approach, 06 Sept. 2016.

http://www.angelfire.com/or/sociologyshop/appa.html. Acessed on 04 Nov. 2016.

Freire, Paulo. The Banking Concept of Education Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1970. pitt.edu, pp.

242-254, http://www.pitt.edu/~writecen/BankingConcept.pdf. Accessed on 27 Oct. 2016.

Leamnson Robert. The Biological Basis of Learning and Todays First Year Students. Exploring

Connections: Learning in the 21st Century. 2nd ed., Pearson, 2016, pp. 65-85.

Mezirow, Jack. Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice. Exploring Connections: Learning in

the 21st Century. 2nd ed., Pearson, 2016, pp. 86-93.