"When students have the opportunity to learn by
their
brain's natural learning process, they become the motivated, eager,
successful
learners they are born to be. When we know how the brain
naturally
learns, we can teach according to this natural learning process.
Thus, the essential, critical question is how
to do
that--how to translate what we know about the brain's natural,
physiological
learning process into curriculum and pedagogy."
From
Brain Based Pedagogy
Here in The Evergreen State College, specially in the Native American
Studies Program, Mary Hillaire, David Whitener, Rainer Hasenstab
started, many years ago, a Twenty
Year Vision plan to offer programs
using a Native American approach to education which used natural
learning processes. In recent years, starting in 1996, Yvonne Peterson,
David Rutledge, Gary Peterson, Phil Smith and Raul Nakasone inherited
this vision and applied
sound educational theories to continue offering these programs. The
Heritage program is part of the vision. The
Heritage program is entirely
based in
Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. We practice Freire's
pedagogy
and read his works and works of authors like Howard Gardner and Howard
Zinn and theories like brain-based
learning to have a deeper understanding of what we are
trying
to accomplish. As educators, our major efforts are directed to
respond to Peter Elbow's summary.
Peter Elbow, in his book "Embracing Contraries" gives a summary of
Paulo Freire's liberatory education. Elbow makes
the point well that while it is relatively
easy to claim a
Freireian approach to teaching, it is much harder to actually do it. He summarizes the main points as:
- The teacher must
become a collaborator and ally
of the students, not a supervisor.
- The subject
(whatever the name of the course) must be the lives of the students,
reflected back to the student as a problem or source of contradiction.
- The goal must be not
just to change the student but to work with the student to change the
world.
- The process must be
rational and cognitive, rather than affective, involving critical
thinking, problem-posing, looking for contradictions, and using
metacognition.
"I taught for many years before I realized that unless we do the things
listed above, all our education, all our experience, all our
ability, is of little value. While Mr. Tell
has not, to my
recollection, mentioned the work of Paulo Freire, it seems to me that
Mr. Tell's insistence that we as
educators must work to change society
resonates with the teachings of Freire. I guess, at my age,
however, I plan to leave it to the young Turks
like Mr. Tell to change
society, if they can. I can only throw one starfish at a time."
Elliot
Richmond PhD candidate in
science education
"First they ignore you, then
they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
-Gandhi