Preire’s philosophy, like Dewey and Montessori’s, promotes an education that encouraged active participation of the students in the learning activities. But while Dewey and Montessori favored the children learning their interests/perceived needs with the teacher in the background as a structural guide, Freire promoted a more horizontal relationship with active participation of both the teacher and the learners in a mutual knowledge sharing dialogue.
Freire’s philosophy will be more applicable to a class of advanced learners with whom the teacher will be able to effectively use dialogical method to ensure learning takes place. This will be through a process of engaging the learners in joint conceptual enquiry into themselves and the society in the context of the discipline under enquiry.
By engaging students in such a process of conceptual enquiry, situated within their cultures and environment, the learners will certainly be able to connect with the learning process as part of their true life reality.
While Dewey and Montessori’s philosophies deal directly with practical teaching methods in the class, Freire’s is more relevant to the process of transforming the orientation of the teacher to be able to see the learning process as one from which he also must be an active learner together with his students to ensure success.
Through a process of active observation and reflection of the students and the society, the teacher will be more prepared to guide the students to see learning process not as a static process of transferring information but as opportunities for critical examination of reality with the aim of achieving a realization of its dynamic transformational nature.
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