Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

So I think what this article is saying is that instead of spewing information at our students we need to find a way as teachers to help our students retain information we teach them in a meaningful way. As a Social Studies major, I have noticed that many teachers think that lecture is the most beneficial way to teach but in reality, most of their students don’t care or they don’t remember anything the teacher says. They just throw information out and it goes in one ear and out the other. There is too much being presented at one time that is being spilled too quickly. History is especially hard to discuss if your students haven’t done the reading and just really do not care. But if the teacher is just expelling information to a bunch of kids that don’t care, they ae probably not going to care even more because information is being presented too quickly for them to understand. 

But one problem. What other way is there to teach history? It’s one of those subjects that is hard to discuss in a classroom. There has to be some interaction between students and teacher. You can’t just give them worksheets to learn it on their own because they may not understand or they may find information from an incorrect source. I have thought about it a lot. I hate standing up in front of people and talking the whole time. Discussion is a much more meaningful tactic for me. But history is mostly fact. People can’t really share their opinion about it. 

One of my goals in the near future is to find a way to teach history in a way that is not only lecture. English is solid. I love discussion so finding ways to discuss in a fun way should be relatively easy. That darn History though. It’s a beast.