Many people assume that our educational experiences doesn’t shape who we are or who we will become. You would think that were true but it’s not. Now you may be asking yourself after that how does our educational experiences shape who we are, how we see ourselves, and how others see us. Well Carol Dweck’s article “Brainology” explains how praising affects our idea of how we see ourselves, Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” shows us how we reflect on our own work and how that process works, and finally Paulo Freire’s “The Banking Concept of Education” Freire explains how the current education system often referred to a banking scenario reflects to oppression to the student’s. These are the beginning steps in answering how our educational experiences shapes our identities.
Carol Dweck Professor of Psychology at Stanford University with a Ph.D. from Yale University explains in the article “Brainology” that our educational mindset and work ethic on how we deal with problem solving in education or in real life is molded at a very young age typically by our parents. Dweck explains, “In the 1990s, parents and schools decided that the most important thing for kids to have was self-esteem. If children felt good about themselves, people believed, they would be set for life.” (Brainology pg3.) So because of that our parents praised us. Depending on the type of praise we received as children it helped mold what type of mindset we have today. Parent’s that praised us for our hard work and dedication according to Dweck gave us a growth mindset where we believe with hard work and dedication anything was obtainable and achievable. Although the counter to that is that if a parent praised us for our intelligence instead for our hard work/dedication...
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...o Freire suggests a problem posing type of educational system in which the roles of student and teacher intertwine in which causes the students to be able to communicate and share their ideas and not be oppressed by the system. It is often said that students who are able to express themselves and their ideas become better problem solvers. All in all problem solving education teaches communication and dialogue and helps students express themselves and learn better than those who are repressed by the current educational standard system.
Who we are, who we will become, and how we will see ourselves, how others will see us as is all shaped by our educational experiences. Dweck, Lamott, and Freire helps us understand and see just how our educational experiences help mold who we become. These are just only three examples on how our educational experience shape who we are.
Meaning that when children grow up with praise such as “oh you must have been so smart to get an A on that test”, instead of “you must have worked really hard on that lesson”, children could take the praise to their intelligence the wrong way and think that since they are “smart” instead of their effort on a task which will cause them problems in the future and they might want to give up and quit. I have seen this first hand and this has actually happened to me before, so I know from experience that this could have a negative effect impact on a student not just students in elementary school but also adults who are going to college or young adults who are looking for a job. In contrast, some students love to get that kind of compliment but they would always end up expecting that so when I work with children I will be complimenting them on the effort they put into everything that they do. From now on, I will be praising children on their effort and not on their
Also, in Carol Dweck’s research article “Brainology”, she states the subtitle “Transforming Students’ Motivation to Learn”. She dishes mindsets and achievement, how do students learn these mindsets, and so on… … Dweck suggests, “Many students believe that intelligence is fixed, that each person has a certain amount, and that’s that. We call this a fixed mindset, and, as you will see, students with this mindset worry about how much of this fixed in intelligence they possess”. Many students believe that the challenge encountered in learning is a threat to their growth path. She put forward two different minds of the ideological study contrast, the finds showed that students studied with a growth mindset were more interested in learning and
In this method of education, according to Freire, students never think critically or develop ideas. The second type of education is labeled “problem-posing”. Freire makes it very clear that he is an advocate of the “problem-posing” method of education. He believes in encourages communication and better comprehension of what the students are learning. “Yet only through communication can human life hold meaning…the teacher cannot think for his students, nor can he impose his thought on them” (Freire 216). Freire argues that the only real form of educatio...
Freire suggests a "problem-posing education" solution to this education epidemic where the relationship between the students and the teachers are evened and each can take on the others roles. Through dialogue one can become more liberated to think and question. Creating thinkers can create world changers, transformers, and more educated
Results of students who received praise for intelligence: The students in this category had negative results after receiving praising. When asked afterwards if they wanted to do the same level of problems or try more challenging ones, they chose the task that would allow them to look smart and do well on. Consequently, while telling a child how smart he or she is, we are sending a message to not take risks and just look the part. Afterwards, these children were given a hard task, which they performed poorly on, and they know longer liked the problems and did not want to practice them at home. Children also felt “dumb” and when given the initial task (in which they did well), they performed significantly worse. Lastly, their opinions of intelligence reflected that it was an innate capacity as though you cannot improve.
One teacher may adopt the banking concept while the other may utilize the problem-posing concept. However, while problem-posing education generates creativity by giving students the ability to communicate, banking education does not. Freire asserts that in the “banking” concept of education, “the teacher chooses the program content, and the students (who were not consulted) adapt to it” (217). Freire indicates that students, who are victims of banking education, have no control over how an instructor chooses to teach. Therefore, creativity is destroyed by the fact that it was not even permitted in the first place. Students are not able to express their opinions or solve problems using their own methods because in order to pass the class, students not only need to adapt to the teaching style of their professors but think like them too. Freire’s quote relates to experiences I have had with “banking” teachers throughout my twelve years of formal education. Those teachers only taught using textbooks, therefore, they insisted that the textbook was always right. If I were to solve a math problem using a technique different from the book, then I would not get points for the problem even though my answer was right. And if I were to interpret an open-ended essay different from how my teacher would then my interpretations would be wrong. By doing this, my teachers destroyed my creativity. I was prohibited from my own thoughts and penalized if I expressed them. The only alternative for me was to become a “robot” that followed the orders of authorities, but being a “robot” was not something I was ashamed of. In fact, my role as a “robot” led me to better understand the “drama of Education” in which teachers attempt to “regulate the way the world ‘enters into’ the students”. I was able to figure out that my own teachers had tried to handle the way the world “entered into me” by
They praised the children in one group by their intelligence by telling them “Wow, that’s a really good score. You must be smart at this.” Then they praised the children in the other group for their effort saying, “Wow, that’s a really good score. You must have worked really hard.” The children that were praised for their intellectual capacity didn’t want to learn and when they were offered a challenging task they would benefit from; the majority chose an easier one to avoid making mistakes. Meanwhile, the children who were praised for their efforts wanted that task they could learn from. I find this very true because I work with children from 3rd grade and lower. I used to praise the children about how smart they were and when I didn’t they would look for me to continue to praise them. After reading Dweck’s Brainology piece, I started praising them for how hard they worked and the results were astonishing. They actually wanted to learn more and study
In The article “Brainology” “Carol S Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, differentiates between having a fixed and growth mindset in addition how these mindsets have a deep effect on a student’s desire to learn. Individuals who have a fixed mindset believe they are smart without putting in effort and are afraid of obstacles, lack motivation, and their focus is to appear smart.. In contrast, students with a growth mindset learn by facing obstacles and are motivated to learn. Dwecks argues that students should develop a growth mindset.
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored man by James Weldon Johnson is a story about a bi-racial man’s life growing up in the post-Civil War era in the United States. The story is told from a male narrator that remains unnamed throughout the story. Johnson takes the reader on a journey with this character of whom deals with many internal struggles when trying to find his place in American society. The narrator’s struggles are not the typical struggles of an African American man during that time period nor the struggles that were faced by white men. Although racial differences in art, culture, and social classes were very real in the narrator’s life, the primary struggle he faced with his own identity is what plagued him the most and continued to plaque him throughout his lifetime.
He compared the way that students are being taught is more like how we use a bank. The students are given the given the information, but only to file and store away for later use (Pedagogy of the Oppressed, P. 1). Students do not actively participate in their learning and are not able to relate what they learned to real life situations. This is one connection that I have with Freire. In my philosophy of education, I stated that I want to challenge my students and give them the tools to be successful. Freire labeled the education that is needed is called problem-posing education. Problem-posing education is more or less the teacher and the student teaching, learning, and working together towards the success of each
The problem-posing style of education is used on a day to day basis by teachers who enjoy projecting their ideas to students. For example, when the whole classroom has achieved a grade of an A- or higher, one may infer the answers were obtained willingly rather than forcibly. The student must show a want of the knowledge to receive information in a way that sticks with them, without force. This style of education shows how the teacher and student relationship is both positive and beneficial. This could be where the teacher rejoices from good grades while the student is confident because of the good grades that they have earned. The problem-posing concept may even be associated with an authentic relationship between the student and the teacher.
Throughout world society, racism in others has caused them to become “blind” or ignorant. Racism has been around since anyone can remember. In racism in America, the struggle of African Americans seems to stand out the most. In Ralph Ellison’s, The Invisible Man, the narrator struggles to find his own identity despite of what he accomplishes throughout the book because he’s a black man living in a racist American society.
A parent would easily prefer that their children not develop a fixed mindset about their capabilities because that would prevent them from responding well to obstacles. By focusing on a child’s effort, parents can encourage the development of a growth mindset. Children would benefit from understanding that their hard work can pay off when life starts getting difficult. If a child is thriving, however, it is imperative not to provide them with too much admiration for their efforts otherwise they may consider themselves having low ability. This can be equated to a soccer player who is congratulated for having the best effort on the team rather than being the team’s most valuable player. In order to foster growth mindsets, parents must convey to their children that what they accomplished was done through hard work and perseverance. Looking back at the Sally Forth comic example, it was not the best idea for Sally to tell her daughter what she did. As discussed before, it would have been better for Sally to inform her daughter that her abilities are malleable and will grow with hard work, instead of suggesting that her abilities were fixed and she had them even if she “were a full-blown idiot” (Marciuliano & Keefe,
In the article, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire disagrees with the way education is being conducted because students are not given the opportunity to think for themselves. Teachers do all the thinking, and students are expected to store all the information. Freire describes the education system as the banking system, an act of depositing. Freire says the banking system is the wrong method because it hinders intellectual growth. He then proposes a new method of “problem posing” education which he believes is more effective and fair. With this method, students are responsible for understanding the materials they are being taught instead of adapting the teacher’s style.
Zora Neal Hurston’s book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, reveals one of life’s most relevant purposes that stretches across cultures and relates to every aspect of enlightenment. The novel examines the life of the strong-willed Janie Crawford, as she goes down the path of self-discovery by way of her past relationships. Ideas regarding the path of liberation date all the way back to the teachings of Siddhartha. Yet, its concept is still recycled in the twenty-first century, as it inspires all humanity to look beyond the “horizon,” as Janie explains. Self-identification, or self-fulfillment, is a theme that persists throughout the book, remaining a quest for Janie Crawford to discover, from the time she begins to tell the story to her best friend, Pheoby Watson. Hurston makes a point at the beginning of the novel to separate the male and female identities from one another. This is important for the reader to note. The theme for identity, as it relates to Janie, carefully unfolds as the story goes on to expand the depths of the female interior.