When I first started using Google Classroom, I quickly realized that this single platform could reflect very different ways of teaching depending on how I used it. At times, it felt very didactic because I uploaded lecture slides, posted assignments, and gave quizzes, and my students simply read, answered, and submitted. This was straightforward and efficient, but I also noticed it sometimes made them passive, echoing what Paulo Freire (1970) called the “banking model” of education. But when I tried something new like asking my math students to work together online to design a simple budget plan for a sari-sari store it became more authentic. Suddenly, they weren’t just solving abstract algebra problems; they were connecting equations to something familiar in their community, just as John Dewey (1938) emphasized that learning should be rooted in real experience. The most surprising part, though, was how the platform could also encourage transformative learning. When I asked students to reflect online about how math skills could prevent financial exploitation or help their families manage money better, they started sharing personal stories and giving each other thoughtful feedback. That made me see LMS not just as a tool for content delivery, but as a space where students could grow in awareness, confidence, and agency very much in line with Jack Mezirow’s (1997) idea of transformative learning. In the end, I realized it’s not really the technology itself that defines the pedagogy, but how we, as teachers, choose to use it.

References

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and Education. Macmillan.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Continuum.
Mezirow, J. (1997). Transformative learning: Theory to practice. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 74, 5–12.