Teaching Style In Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix

Every teacher has their own unique teaching style. The film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix presents three separate examples of teachers. There is Professor Umbridge’s approach of reading and copying from the books, Professor Snape’s learn fast or die trying technique, and Harry Potter’s method of hands on real world experience. Each of the teachers generate different results in terms of student capabilities and confidence. Although there are many teaching styles, those similar to Harry’s produce the best results and yet are not used as often as they should. The first teaching style presented in great detail in the film is that of Professor Umbridge. Umbridge works for the Ministry of Magic and is sent to Hogwarts School of …show more content…
When taught by Professor Umbridge, the students are solely there to pass the test and get a good grade but are not taught to survive in the real world. Harry Potter’s classes teach the students to believe in themselves and to hone their talents in order to become the best wizards and witches they can be in order to survive the real world. Paulo Freire, the author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed proposes a problem solving based teaching strategy that is very similar to Harry’s approach to teaching his fellow students. Professor Umbridge utilizes the banking concept Freire mentions in his book at the other end of Freire’s spectrum of teaching methods. Professor Snape’s method has the worst results because Harry never succeeds in blocking Snape or even the connection between himself and Lord Voldemort. While Harry’s style and Umbridge’s style fit into Freire’s spectrum of teaching styles, Professor Snape’s does not. It seems the best solution in the end is Harry Potter’s method of problem solving, group activities, and encouragement. If Harry Potter’s method, the proper method proposed by Freire, is proven to be more successful, then why are not more teachers accepting and conforming to that