THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL IMPLICATION OF THE BANKING MODEL OF EDUCATION AND THE NEED FOR PROBLEM-BASED MODEL OF LEARNING IN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

Abstract

For a long time now, education in Nigeria has been seen as an exercise in making sure that students absorbed necessary information, specific facts, data, theories, methods, formulae to write and pass examinations with good grades and secure white-collar jobs upon graduation. Examinations were like many other obstacles that must be overcome on the way to a decent job and a nice salary. Education was conceived as the transmission of knowledge from those who know (Lecturers) to those who did not, and students were supposed to acquire this knowledge by stocking their minds with this information; a model of education Paul Freire called “the banking model of education. For a while, this worked. Then, employer started complaining that many school graduates are not critical thinkers and problem solvers in spite of the many A's that they make in their results. They hardly think for themselves and appeared to lack initiative. With the fast-changing world where white collar jobs are hardly available, the only model of learning where both students and lecturers are seen as the co-creators of active learning in our institutions of learning is sacrosanct in order to shift away from the traditional notion where students are seen as consumers of knowledge to a student-centered model of learning. The aim of this paper is to show that this Student-Centered and Problem Based Learning is the most effective model of Education in our rapidly changing new world. This work employed the qualitative design where the materials used were sourced from books, journals and periodicals. The study adopted expository and evaluative method. The expository method was used in analyzing the traditional banking model of education and its epistemic implication. The evaluative approach was used as the vehicle for philosophical analysis to expose the constraint of the banking model of education and the need for problem-based model of learning in our educational system.