Banking education is a term used by Paulo Freire

Paulo Freire

Paulo Reglus Neves Freire was a Brazilian educator and influential theorist of critical pedagogy.-Biography:...

 to describe and critique the traditional education system. The name refers to the metaphor of students as empty containers which educators must deposit knowledge into. This reinforces a lack of critical thinking

Critical thinking

Critical thinking is the process or method of thinking that questions assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false, or sometimes true and sometimes false, or partly true and partly false. The origins of critical thinking can be traced in Western thought to the Socratic...

 and knowledge ownership in students, which in turn reinforces oppression

Oppression

Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, and...

.

Definition

The term banking education was first used by Paulo Freire

Freire

Freire is a word used in the Portuguese and Galician languages to define the occupational name for a friar, or a nickname for a pious person or someone employed at a monastery...

 in his highly influential book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Pedagogy of the Oppressed is the most widely known of educator Paulo Freire's works. It proposes a pedagogy with a new relationship between teacher, student, and society...

. Freire describes this form of education as "fundamentally narrative (in) character" with the teacher as the Subject (that is, the active participant) and the students as passive objects.

Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat. This is the "banking" concept of education, in which the scope of action allowed to students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits.

Education is thus seen as a process of depositing knowledge into passive students. Teachers are the epistemological authority in this system; students' pre-existing knowledge is ignored, aside from what was expected to be 'deposited' into them earlier. Freire also refers to a banking paradigm as regarding students to be "adaptable, manageable beings. ... The more completely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more than tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them."

In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgable upon those whom they consider to know nothing. ... The teacher presents himself to his students as their necessary opposite; by considering their ignorance absolute, he justifies his own existence.

Transmission Model

Banking education follows the transmission model of education. This model views education as a specific body of knowledge that is transmitted from the teacher to the student. It emphasizes teacher-centric learning where students are passive absorbers of information and that the purpose of learning is memorization of facts. Unfortunately this model does not emphasize understanding, students can simply memorize facts without truly comprehending what they are learning.

This model is most often used in university settings as lectures. When there is a class of over 100 students the easiest method of education is through lecture

Lecture

thumb|A lecture on [[linear algebra]] at the [[Helsinki University of Technology]]A lecture is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history,...

 where the teacher stands and the front of the class and dictates to the students.

Possible Alternative

There needs to be more to education than the empty vessel, banking concept. If teachers continue to treat students as empty receptors, the education system in place will not change, and the goal of critically minded students will not be achieved. The approach to teaching should change to getting the students to think and tackle problems presented to them on their own. One possible alternative is the Problem-posing education

Problem-posing education

Problem-posing education is a term coined by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire in his 1970 book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Problem-posing refers to a method of teaching that emphasizes critical thinking for the purpose of liberation...

model.

Instead of treating students as empty that a teacher must fill with knowledge, students should be viewed as people with prior knowledge that have potential to be unlocked. Realizing potential in people is much more powerful than assuming they know nothing.