Education Rekindle: A Call to Reform!

The COVID-19 Pandemic has changed many things upside down. Life for many is never the same. All the areas of personal and social life have changed in its operations. One of those is our Educational System. Conventional methods of teaching-learning are no longer applicable due to various lockdown regulations and school and college administrations are busy finding alternatives to continue education during this time of crisis. One of the highly favoured alternatives is Online Education. Many Schools and Colleges are preparing their teaching faculty and students for this new mode of learning. So far everything seems good. As Educators, we managed to continue educating in an emergency. Believe it or not, this COVID-19 is really a blessing in disguise. It has pulled us out of our busy life and of the pressure of keeping up with the pace and gave us the opportunity to reflect back, to introspect our age-old system of education. It really offered us the time we needed to pause and ask ourselves the questions which otherwise we would have not asked, “Why we do what we do? And are we doing it right?”

One of those areas of focus today is our contemporary approaches to education. As Rob Creasy rightly points out, there is a need for students to develop critical thinking skills, be flexible and have the capacity of originality. (Creasy) However, education has increasingly come to be seen as a process with qualifications as the output. Unfortunately, in the quest to remove uncertainty from education, creativity and originality are often overlooked. As a result, education becomes impoverished. Over the period of time, in the process of privatization, many educational services are becoming educational business hubs that are doing more harm than benefiting individuals and society at large. Unfortunately, it has also fallen into the game of control which suppresses creativity and originality. In this modern education system, education has come to be more organized and structured but at the cost of the joy and freedom of many learners.

When the Government had decided to shut all the schools and colleges due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the opportunity was created to rekindle the education and educational system. However, many educational institutes missed that and straightaway went to the option of Online Education without knowing what it is. There were many other options that many of us have ignored. Now the unlocking phase has begun and gradually we are getting some relaxation on certain things. However, the uncertainty on the opening of educational institutions is still there. And rightly so as we are more concerned about the safety of students.

There is more than one alternative in continuing education during this emergency and we just need creativity and originality to see it. Let’s come back to the main line of thought I want to engage you with, which is approaches to education.

Here are some of the key thoughts to discuss:

1. Pedagogical teacher-centric learning to andragogical learner-centric learning
2. Compartmental approach to integrative approach to learning
3. Strictly structured programmes to truly open programmes

Pedagogical Teacher-centric Learning to Andragogical Learner-centric Learning

We all are stuck in Pedagogical teacher-centric learning for a long time. It is highly driven by the fact that students are the empty vessels (tabula rasa) and somehow teacher has to fill them. The teacher knows it all. This presumption gives rise to the highly directed instructional curriculum. This may be useful for children up to certain age but surely not till the undergraduate level. Again, there is no single uniform size fit for all, even though we are doing it exactly the same by putting a group into the same grade and forcing them to follow the same learning path. In my opinion, as a child grows, our focus as an educator should not be what we should teach but rather what the child wants to learn. That is where we see the first shift from pedagogical teacher-centric learning to andragogical learner-centric learning.

Now let’s look at the new normal - online education and what it is offering to help us make this move. In the traditional way of teaching-learning, it was always a teacher who was the source of knowledge and hence was always in control. Whereas, with this online educational mode, and the advancement of the internet era, knowledge is no longer the teachers’ domain. There are plenty of resources and a wide variety of content available to the students free of cost. What does it mean here? In simple terms, it means that the power and control are transferred to the students now. Students don’t necessarily have to depend on teachers for the content. Hence, this predicament forces us as educators to design our courses with andragogical learner-centric approach. Remember, students need a teacher not just as a teacher per se but more like a facilitator, who will guide them through the content available on the open space and curate them according to what they need and want to learn.

Compartmental approach to integrative approach to learning

“Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.” (Freire)

The common complaint that we keep hearing from the parents and the employers is that our students are not able to integrate their studies with the field of work and life at large. Ever wondered why is it so? Well, let’s look at the Asian/Indian traditions of learning. It has a lot to say about the integrative approach to learning. Gurukul is the most common age-old tradition we had in India. Here in the Gurukul system, Shishya stays with his/her Guru in his Ashram and learns vidya along with other Shishyas. Every Shishya was given enough opportunities to learn something of his/her interest with the useful common life skills where they could put everything that they have learnt in their day-to-day life. (Ancient Indian Education System (From the Beginning to 10th C. A.D.) | Ithihas) There was a sweet blend and seamless flow between their spiritual life, personal life and professional life. Hence, helping Shishya to learn various subjects in their own integrity yet giving seamless opportunities to integrate that understanding with the other areas of their life.

Like the Eastern world, the West also had their education integrated with the spiritual life and there was no compartmentalization in various fields of study. Pupils used to gather in the seminaries/church and they used to study various subjects of their interest. Hence, achieving a high level of integration between their spiritual life, personal life and professional life deeply rooted in Theology. Unfortunately, in course of time, during the enlightenment era, people have moved away from this integrative approach to the compartmentalized approach. Universities were formed with the various departments giving very little or no room for integration and pushing the department of Theology out of it. So, the inability to integrate various fields of studies in our life is actually the result of the compartmental approach to learning passed on to us by the enlightenment era.

Nevertheless, effort has been made to form the bridge between the various streams of study, commonly known as the interdisciplinary approach. However, the success of the interdisciplinary programmes depend entirely on the philosophy of the University and the skills of the faculty members teaching those programmes. The possibility of not doing justice to the fields of study remains, thus failing in preparing students for life. Remember whether we want it or not, everything is connected in this universe and our learners deserve to learn how to integrate everything they can to develop themselves as complete individuals, hence achieving their holistic growth.

Strictly structured programmes to truly open programmes

So, if we are going to make those necessary changes from Pedagogical teacher-centric learning to Andragogical learner-centric learning and from the Compartmental approach to the integrative approach of learning, we cannot go ahead with the strictly structured programmes that we have now. As mentioned earlier, there is no one formula ‘fit-for-all’ which we have been doing thus far. At present what we have is one strict curriculum for all the learners irrespective of their specific interests, their learning style and their temperament. In my own experience of teaching in the past 12 years, I have seen many bright students not surviving this fit-for-all curriculum without part of them dying in the process. With technological advancement, the burden of holding knowledge and giving answers to every single question in the field of expertise has lifted off from the teachers’ shoulders. We as educators, don’t need to take that burden anymore. There are plenty of Open Educational Resources (OER) available at our disposal now. As these resources are equally accessible to all the learners, they no longer expect us to know everything and to answer for everything. Thus, creating an opportunity to design truly open programmes for our learners. Here, the learners can choose what they want to know in the field of their interest and can work with their teachers, as facilitators, help them achieve the competency that they need.

Remember, every individual is unique and so are their learning needs. Therefore, every learner deserves open access to education.

In the book, "Deeper Learning", Monica and Dennis bring seven aspects that can help us achieve this educational reform we are talking about. (Martinez and McGrath)

1. Connect: Create a Community of Learners
2. Empower: Activate Students to Lead Their Own Learning
3. Contextualize: Tie Subjects to Each Other and Keep It Real
4. Reach: Network Beyond School Walls
5. Inspire: Customize Learning to Motivate Each Student
6. Wire: Make Technology the Servant, Not the Master
7. Invest: Designate Deeper Learning as the New Normal

The educational system has come a long way and has got evolved with time. Like any other good things, with time Educational System needs to get better, more accessible and enjoyable. With the technological advancement in the 21st century, the pool of knowledge is available for all. So, there is no point in equating knowledge with education. As an Educator, one must focus on developing competencies among the learners and design our curricula based on the outcome competencies one wants to see in his/her learners. Thus, demanding more andragogical learner-centric learning methods with an integrative approach in an open programme. This is a call to reform our Educational System, because our present and future depend on it.

References

Ancient Indian Education System (From the Beginning to 10th C. A.D.) | Ithihas. 28 Aug 2013. 02 May 2020. <https://ithihas.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/ancient-indian-education-system-from-the-beginning-to-10th-c-a-d/>.

Creasy, Rob. The Taming of Education: Evaluating Contemporary Approaches to Learning and Teaching. Gewerbestrasse: SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PU, 2018.

Martinez, Monica R. and Dennis McGrath. DEEPER LEARNING: how eight innovative public schools are transforming education in the ... twenty-first century. New York: The NEW Press, 2014.