"Yet only through communication can human life hold meaning.The teacher's thinking is authenticated only by the authenticity of the student's thinking.  The teacher cannot think for his students, nor can he impose his thought on them.  Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication."

From Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire

So the 19th was the anniversary of Freire's birth.  I think it called for revisiting some of his writing.  In the part that is reproduced in the book Studies in Socialist Pedagogy, Freire discusses the differences between "banking" education and "problem-posing" education.  Banking education is becoming more and more the norm in all classrooms when the reliance is on testing as the only proof of learning.  It sure makes for a nice looking class:  obedient students, seated at their desks in neat rows, writing copious notes for memorization and regurgitation in the form of bubble tests.

On the other hand, a problem-posing classroom looks like a hot mess:  students having discussions, teacher and students questioning each other and finding the answers together, students moving around from person to person, constant search for new sources of information and answers.  It's interesting that I read Freire after I started teaching, but found I teach in a very Freire way.

Something that dawned on my regarding the Freire ideas is the conflict between the demands of the teacher as a result of mandated testing versus the demands to be met in the imposed evaluation systems.  the corporate produced tests call for a certain type of teaching - banking methods.   Yet, if you look at the different forms of evaluation systems that the state had presented as choices for the districts, the only teachers that can do well are those following the problem-posing methods.  I was on the committee that examined and selected the evaluation system for our school.  While they varied wildly in many respects, one thing was clear: the traditional lecturing teacher who sticks to the text book and it's provided materials will not do well regardless of which system is chosen - McRel, Danielson, Strong, or Marzano.

Teachers are expected to show a variety of methods of delivery of information.  We must all be well versed in Differentiated Instruction/Multiple Intelligences.  We meed to show various methods of inquiry are available to the students.  We must be active members in our school communities.  We must prepare the students for life and education beyond high school.  If you learned anything from Freire, you are doing these things already.  You will do well on your evaluation because you are a wonderful teacher who can get your students to actually learn.  They will also learn how to take what they have learned with you into many other areas of their lives.

Take all that and then look at the teaching style necessary for producing good test scores.  On the surface, the kinds of inquiry the questions seem to be asking for are pretty good, well developed, and make the students really think.  But let's look at the format they are presented in.  A timed test, with correct answers with no extended defense of answer choice.  The follow up question gives the student four more multiple choices as the justification for the previous answer.  Sure, there are written essay components, but from what I have seen in the samples, there is most certainly a right and a wrong answer.  If we give this type of evaluation in the classroom, good teaching practice says that there will be a follow up discussion with the students regarding the answers given.  The teacher can come to new insights regarding the students' thought processes in the defenses of conclusions.  Adjustments can be made in how the material is presented.

There is no opportunity for this kind of dialogue or interaction with a standardized test.  And they are now being promoted at the final word in how well prepared our students are for moving on, the final word in how much they have learned, and a direct reflection of the quality of the education they have received.  The tests reinforce the idea that information is to be fed, banked, and then recalled for proof of learning.  That is not learning.  The myriad of ways we assess our students falls more in line with a problem-posing classroom.