INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE REVISED EDITION
SOCRATIC DIALECTICS AND THE BANKING CONCEPT OF
EDUCATION: A COMPARATIVE PARADIGM

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE REVISED EDITION
SOCRATIC DIALECTICS AND THE BANKING CONCEPT OF
EDUCATION: A COMPARATIVE PARADIGM

DR. FRANCIS EKANEM

DR. THERESA F. EKANEM

MR. EMMANUEL I. ARCHIBONG

In the domain of teacher-student interaction, via educational process, the ideal pedagogical praxis has
been in dispute. For instance, while Socrates regarded his role as a mid-wife, who helps others bring to
birth their innermost ideas, thus making education an extracting affair, its polar counterpart is the banking
model where knowledge is deposited on the students akin to a doctor-patient relationship. The implication
of these two contrasting views is that education becomes active on one hand, and passive on the other,
and either overtly, or covertly, this system has formed a sublime practice, in most countries, educational
objectives. This paper examines the two systems of education with a view to comparatively exposing its
tenets, thus opening us further to re-assessing our hitherto held method whether it has really captured the
essence of education, thereby envisaging a paradigm-shift.

Zimbabwe International Journal of Open & Distance Learning

2011