Critical Thinking in Education Essay Example

📌Category: Education
📌Words: 881
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 07 August 2022

One of the most important purposes of public education is to teach students to critically think for themselves and prepare them for what lies ahead after high school. Because critical thinking is so important, it becomes progressively more emphasized in the education system as children transition into adolescence. To instill critical thinking into adolescent students, we can look to the problem-posing model. In problem-posing education, students are fed information and then are forced to act on that information and draw conclusions based on it. On the other hand, some models of education do not emphasize critical thinking. One of these models is known as banking education, where students are simply containers in which teachers must input knowledge. In this model, students are not really “thinking”; rather, they are simply regurgitating information. These two models may seem contradictory, but they are two sides of the same coin. With proper use of both philosophies, problem-posing education and banking education can work together to make students the very best they can be. 

Banking education can be utilized to students’ benefit when used in early education. This is because in early childhood, the mind is not developed enough to think logically or critically. Because of this, young students attempting to critically think will simply draw erroneous conclusions. And, worse than that, they can begin to believe in these conclusions, and reject any opposition to their argument because most children are usually not mature enough to listen to an opposing opinion. In addition to that, there are fundamental things that should be instilled in all kids. Such include a desire to do goodwill, and a motivation to adhere to some kind of morality. However, there’s a dangerous component to this. Banking education puts a massive amount of control in the hands of the instructor, which is only magnified in the presence of a classroom of impressionable children. Therefore, there must be both official and public oversight over the curriculum. Nonetheless, banking education has its rightful place in the education system.

When banking education is administered in higher education, it impedes autonomy and students’ self-actualization. However, banking education is usually used by the instructors by mistake. Even in adolescence, teenagers are still susceptible to erroneous and incomplete lines of thinking. This makes it difficult for instructors to take them seriously, and many do not. While not taking students seriously as an instructor is a reasonable thing to do, it also leads to the presence of the banking model in secondary education. Banking education impedes the independent, critical thinking of its students. This is bad for students' development because their analytical capabilities are not nurtured, which will repress their abilities to think independently. When I was in high school, and problem-posing education was introduced in many of my subjects, many classmates would ask for the teacher’s reassurance concerning even the simplest of instructions. This was because they were not confident in their own thinking to try thinking on their own. In fact, some of them found their comfort zone to be in a classroom where they didn’t have to think. And this is quite the issue. When you become more open to the idea of not thinking or deciding for yourself, you open the door for other people to decide for you. And if that pattern continues into adulthood, it will lead to indecisiveness that directly impedes one’s success in life.

The problem-posing model facilitates the development of crucial life skills when used in higher education. Problem-posing education is a hands-on education method that fosters critical thinking skills in students. It also puts the instructor on the same page and level as the students. Freire states the same, saying “The students - now no longer docile listeners - are now critical co-investigators in dialogue with their teacher.”(81). Discussions on topics and issues will transpire in an open forum with the students as the participants, the classroom as the stage, and the instructor as the moderator. This will allow them to develop critical thinking skills and achieve a greater understanding of the material being taught. And when students critically think in the classroom, they also can apply that thinking to their daily lives as well. This facilitates the growth of the students as people and as individuals, and it pushes them to discover who they really are. As their abilities to critically think expand, they will gain confidence in themselves and the conclusions they are able to draw. This is explained well by Freire, who states “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.”(84) . And this growth is quite important to prepare them for their debut into adulthood after high school. Which college to attend, which job to pick, whether to move out or stay with parents; these are major decisions that these students will have to make in a matter of years, and there is a certain skill set that is required to make these decisions rationally. To succeed in life, students must become independent, strong-minded individuals. And this is the purpose of problem-posing education.

Students should, indeed, think then. It is fundamental to their growth and prosperity later on and life, as well as their development as a scholar. Like many things in life, two things that appear as opposites, that of banking education and problem-posing education, are really two sides of the same coin. And while banking education is usually not implemented with the well-being of the students in mind, this does not diminish its ability to be used for good. Thus, both banking and problem-posing education have their roles in preparing students for their journey to adulthood and beyond, making them the very best they can be.

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