5 pages writing - in the next 4 hours please - its a revision

Genz 6

English 106

9 April 2017

Changes in Higher Education System

Introduction

This paper explains the changes that have occurred in the higher education system in the modern times. The ideas of Pablo Freire and Mark Edmondson are compared and contrasted regarding this topic. Higher education is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completion of secondary education. It is accessible at universities, colleges, and other large institutes of technology. It is also offered through certain college-level institutions, including vocational schools, trade schools, and other certified colleges that award academic degrees or professional certifications (Hurley 5). Higher education at non-degree level is sometimes referred to as further education or continuing studies as it has no difference from higher education.

In recent researches, they show how education has been capitalized by the students as shown in Mark Edmondson’s idea and he focuses on how institutions of higher education have permitted the private enterprise consumers to attend the classes. He discussed how things have changed over time as compared to when he was a student. For example, when he was in college, the lecturers encouraged the students through teaching and not entertaining them while in class. He discusses how the modern system has also given students more power over their teachers. He shows dislike for the new system which allows the student to choose teachers of their own preference where the majority try to avoid teachers who are stricter.

Recently, as a college teacher, Mark entertains the students to ensure they are attentive in class and to avoid offending them. He uses training methods as those of Paulo Freire which goes against the banking concept of education. This concept views knowledge as a gift passed down from knowledgeable intellectuals (teachers) to those that know nothing(students). The raison d'etre of libertarian education concept focuses on viewing teachers and student as equals. Thus, it involves solving problems that are caused by negotiations and persuasive misunderstandings between students and teachers.

Both Pablo and Mark assumed that this type of teaching is suitable for students as it allows more critical and creative thinking. They consider the banking system of education to be oppressive to the learners; Moreover, they believe that system forces the students to conform to the ideals of their teachers other than thinking and having ideas of their own. It thus threatens the student’s critical consciousness. Mark believes in open forum lessons which are taught because they require more profound knowledge of the subject offered. He emphasizes on the use of group projects among the students and creating a conducive environment for the exchange of ideas. However, he is more open to the old-fashioned exchange between teachers and students in the classroom. This, He believes allows the teachers to correct the mistakes of the student and casts a new perspective on their ideas; Moreover, it improves the students’ vocabulary on the topic in hand. The teachers are helpful in showing the students the way to harness their ideas.

Freire believes that keeping all lectures close- minded and independent is a false sense of reality because it does not need a lot more than memorization. Hence, it permits the students and their teachers to become subjects of the learning process. He encourages that the teacher relationship should be symbiotic so as both parties acquire knowledge. This enables other people to overcome the false insight of reality.

By overcoming this false insight, people will have a deeper consciousness of their environment. It will lead the people to ask questions about various subjects that affect their society. These may include leadership. Specifically, leadership that is oppressive to its citizen. It also encourages the learners to come up with new ideas as to how to approach an obstacle in day-to-day activities.

On the other hand, Edmundson believes in the same method although he discusses how to use this method in class. He believes that teachers should be allowed to be more superior to the student in some aspects. He seems nauseated by how confronting students has become “offensive” in the higher levels of education and how teachers who confront students generate trouble for themselves. He notes that there is an air of caution everywhere. He believes in the productive confrontation with the students. Confrontation from his perspective builds character which he noticed lacked in his students.

Mark, however, moves away from class work and learning in order to ensure his students participate in their activities. Edmundson explains his purpose of teaching and describes his reasons of amusing the student that he does that as a professor and not to be their favorite teacher. At some point, when young people are beginning their college careers they approach Edmundson ideas and ask what they ought to search for when they get to campus. This helps them know how to discover who their great instructors are. It does not make a difference because they are supposed to find a genuine instructor, who will help them to change and discover what to become in future. This can be the considerable endowment of a liberal instruction.

For example, Mr. Edmundson loved to teach, yet he despised the conditions under which much teaching happens today, even at a world class college like Virginia. These conditions make a genuine instructor an endangered group in the academic environment. In this exact situation, Mr. Edmundson helps us to keep in mind the power firm educators needed to formulate students’ thinking about their identity and who they may become as they progress in future. This is what really matters to a genuine instructor.

For example, the Professors in the humanities and social sciences are anticipated to apply the most popular analyses to their disciplines. But mythical or cultural criticism can disrupt a student’s chances to find out the author being analyzed, he writes, where she would learn “that there are other ways of looking at the world and other ways of being in the globe than the ones she inherited from her family and culture.”

Conclusion

Since the 1950s to the present, more people have gone on to pursue degrees and other certificates of higher education. However, in recent discussions, they indicate that a degree nowadays is not worthy as it used to be there before to the employers (Kohn 32). This has been caused be the relaxation and interactions of students to lecturers. For instance, Mark and Freire describe how professors entertain students to avoid annoying them and capture their attention other than dealing with the fundamentals of education. Mark welcomes the changes; however, he feels the students should be more open to criticism from their teachers without feeling offended as is goes for their advantage.

References

Hurley, J. Casey. "What Does It Mean to Be Educated?" Mid-Western Educational

Researcher 24.4 (2011): 2-4. http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.pegleg.park.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=e23cf4ff-32fb-4a16-b807-ee57bfdc1cfc%40sessionmgr120&vid=4&hid=120

Kohn, Alfie. What does it mean to be well educated? And more essays on standards, grading,

and other follies. Beacon Press, 2004. Pg 24-56

"“On The Uses Of A Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment For Bored College Students” By Mark Edmundson". Critical Thinker, 2017, http://herculodge.typepad.com/critical_thinker/2015/10/on-the-uses-of-a-liberal-education-as-lite-entertainment-for-bored-college-students-by-mark-edmundson.html

Freire, P. (1993). The Banking Concept of Education (M. Bergman Ramos, Trans.). Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Chap 2). New York: Continuum.

Greene, S., & Lidinsky, A. (2015). From inquiry to academic writing: a text and reader (Third ed.). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.

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