PEDAGOGY OF THE HEART (V)

PARADIGM SHIFT: PROBLEM-POSING PEDAGOGY

Every shy and small step of a student, however, may lead this young innocent heart to his freedom (in eschatological sense) when the teachers today make a paradigm shift in the art of teaching - from banking to problem-posing pedagogy. This archetypal pedagogical shift not only nurtures the mind but also touches the heart. This is the kind of teacher stewardship that respects and nurtures the giftedness in the student to promote the growth of his person and the community where he belongs. The student becomes a co-equal in the pursuit of knowledge. He has the freedom to control the assimilation of facts and to engage in creating knowledge out of observed realities; hence, it deepens the student's inherent curiousity into a tool of inquiry. The teacher creates possibilities and paves the way for the production of knowledge. He does not force learning but manufactures knowledge through active dialogue with the student. This requires critical consciousness from the student for him to construct knowledge through consciously relating with the real world and what is happening around him. He develops awareness of societal realities and sees the world as a reality in the process of transformation leading him to help the world transform so in new directions. When the teacher touches the heart of his student, it carries out that human vocation of transforming reality rather than adapting to it.