I cannot talk about learning and teaching as two different processes, I think they are involved in the same framework. I mean to talk about learning and teaching is to talk about a process where the constant reflection and the self evaluation should be present every day in the practice in order to improve, in order to learn how to be better. This practice should recognize student social context and culture as the most important aspect to keep in mind. For me the idea of a successful learning or teaching is to be able to say what you think, it is to be ready to give your opinion and to be aware about the social reality of your own context in order to be an active constructor of it.
As teacher or student, I believe you should be active, you should be reflective and critic, those aspects must be the principal goal to reach, I mean you have to be a thinker, a person ready to propose, ready to build and transform reality. I have the strong believe that if you learn something it should help you to improve to be better as person, as student, as teacher as citizen it does not matter if you have the teacher’s role or the student’s one, you have the responsibility to propose something and to be critic about what there is. But if I have to say what is the most important role I will say the teacher’s one, because as teacher you have to be a model, a guide for the students; if you are not a critic and reflective person you will never help your students to think by themselves. But, what is a critic person? What is a reflective person? It is a matter of thinking, it is a matter of to be able to express inconformity but to propose something, it is a matter to be able to chose the right theories at the same time you criticize them, you are able to talk about anything but always showing what is your personal point of view at the same time you negotiate, in a real democratic way, meaning in order to build knowledge.
To talk about the educational process is to talk about interaction between the people involved in the process and this interaction have to be based on real values where dominant practices are not present, but self respect and respect for the others are the bases of the classroom society to develop social conscious which means to recognize the other as someone who exist, deserve respect and have rights.
Finally, but not like a real finally; on the contrary like a beginning, I would like to quote, two times, Paulo Freire(1):
Mi visión de la alfabetización va más allá del ba, be, bi, bo, bu. Porque
implica una comprensión crítica de la realidad social, política y económica en la que está el alfabetizado.
El estudio no se mide por el número de páginas leídas en una noche, ni por la cantidad de libros leídos en un semestre. Estudiar no es un acto de consumir ideas, sino de crearlas y recrearlas
1. Freire, P. (1992). Pedagogia da Esperança: um reencontro com a pedagogia do
oprimido. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra.
1 comentario:
You've made a point there when you say that learning something new makes you a better person, a better learner, a better teacher and a better member of a community. Instilling critical thinking in our students is one of the teacher's ultimate goals.The more opportunities you design for students to develop critical thinking the better you are preparing them for today's society.
Publicar un comentario