Rahul Deodhar

Rethinking Education

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Foreword  Education as we know it is changing and that it needs to change is something everyone agrees to. What is not clear is what should new education look like.

 We know that some parts of our current education systems are valuable while others are redundant. The redundancy is result of different causes. Some have been made redundant because of advent of aiding mechanisms (e.g. calculators) while others are redundant because we no longer need them.

 Conversely, there are other skills that are becoming ever more central to our jobs and work. The ability to interact with computers and with humans through computers is an example.

 We typically ask what should we teach children, thereby focusing on K-12 or high school education. It is a wrong question to start out with. The most apt question is what does any ordinary person need to learn. When we know this, we will know what do we need to teach children.

 So this slide-doc is going to take the first principles approach to education. It is the first attempt to breach the education dilemma and thus, not complete. Please email me or tweet about it so that we can invite comments.

 Rahul Deodhar  @rahuldeodhar | rahuldeodhar@gmail.com

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Goals of Education

Economic, social and personal goals are critical goals of education and emphasis must be laid on each for betterment of society.

Contents of Education

What is taught fits two spheres – skill based and information based. The segregation is needed so as to develop appropriate methodology for them.

Schools Versus Colleges

The next debate is where should the education be imparted. There are critical differences between Schools and Colleges and their approach to education.

The Role of Teacher

The role of teacher is for future education depends upon the nature of content and goals of education which it is addresses.

Continuous Learning

We expect to keep learning while working – either directly on the job or alongside the job. Peer-to-peer learning is the last bit of education issue.

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Content of Education

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Starting from Content  There is an important reason why we need to start with content before going to the goals of education.

 Most of the educated folks believe that their education has held them in good stead and if it weren’t for their education, not only would they be less well off, but also their lives would have been empty. Naturally they leans against any change in the nature of education.

 The reason for relevance of education to many is because of unique composition of content we were fed. This content was all mashed up and intermingled that we don’t know what to fix and what to keep.

 For precisely this reason, we need to separate the content into two aspects.

 First would be skill-based content which relates to basic skills. Basic math, grammar, navigation, group interactions, working in teams etc. are basic skills.

 Second is information-based content which tells you what happened and how things came to be. This we find in history, geography etc.

 However, not each subject mentioned above sits neatly in either category. So history has lessons about basic skills rather than simply information.

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Why Classify Content  The method of instruction depends upon the nature of content. Thus for skill based content the emphasis is on technique, repetition, practice. Skill-based content lends more easily to old-British headmaster type schools. Now languages sit in this category but exposition of classics augment our lessons in grammar allowing us to deploy our language skill with dexterity.

 For information-based content, it is development of the narrative rather than dumping of information to the students. Thus history is better told as collection of stories. Here the way we link between various stories is more important.

 Further, a topical history – American revolution, Chinese revolution, colonization, or renaissance without the sociological context does not add as much value as exposition of the same stories over and over emphasizing different textures. And what textures need emphasizing depends upon the audience, where it is in life rather than the history itself.

 From this point of view we realize how incredibly difficult it is for a teacher to deliver information based content. It is easy to shift to “teach to the test” mentality. Still, we need to invest in this area a lot more.

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Modern Content  One of my pet peeves with Skill-based content is that we do not cover the essential.

 Modern skill-based education needs to cover basic math, at least two languages including English at basic level, Basic science, maps and navigation, cleanliness and hygiene, civic sense, physical sports etc.

 To this we must add skills related to computers and protecting your digital self, abilities to communicate across cultures and time zones.

 Even skills like driving, running (jogging so as to not hurt yourself), dietary basic etc. are essential in modern world.

 On top of this basic skill requirements we need to add skill requirements tailored to individual needs. Thus, those who love engineering will need advanced math skills, while sportsmen amongst us will need advanced sport training.

 The Information-based content needs to be modified as per the requirement of individual. The variety within the content and its textures is quite vast and the limits are imposed only based on time and interest of the individual.

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Skill & Information, compulsory & customized

 It is essential to have a mix of skill and information. The there has to be almost equal split between skill and information based content over the years at grade school. If we emphasize too much on skills we will impair the ability to grasp information-based content later.

 It is also necessary to have some compulsory exposure to different skill and information type content at each year till say tenth grade or so. However, the amount of compulsory and uniform exposure to all reduces over time – so in first grade almost all content will be uniform and in tenth grade you will see say 20% content being uniform.

 The idea is to expose the entire brain to various stimuli and ensure that the real passion gets exposed.

 The requirement of having to customize the information-based content to individual specifications is important and how to do that will form part of our other sections.

 I would note specifically that these two are different types of classification and education experts may be able to suggest other such classifications that need to be met based on brain and physical development.

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Goals of Education

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Different Goals  Education was a solution to demand of the industrial age for workers who would be tools of production. That has since changed considerably. Nevertheless, we know for sure that we need education and that it does help us. But in what ways?

 I believe the education is essential for our economic, social and personal development and thus, these should be the goals of our education system.

 Economic development goals implies that we are learning the skills that are necessary for the jobs and nature of work we are likely to do.

 Social development implies that we become able citizens of the society and this world. We need to be aware of the norms (like driving, not littering, hygiene etc.). These help forge a cohesive society.

 Personal development helps us be self-aware, of what our strengths and weaknesses are and how to become a better person. This will be able to unleash the potential of the person to the advantage of the society as well.

 Education has following goals: I.  Economic Development II.  Social Development III.  Personal Development

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Economic Goals  The main aim of education is to create a population that can be productively deployed for economic growth. Arguably, the goal of education in the olden times was to promote the better organization of the empire or to create population to work in factories depending on who you ask. Nevertheless, the economic advantage of education cannot be denied.

 However, the nature of economic activity has undergone a considerable change. We are in, what Alwin Toffler calls, the information age. However, our education continues to be moored to the industrial economy.

 The content of education needs to adapt to changing economic realities.

 The present economic realities do not require mass manufacturing based on regimented workforce. Rather, today’s economy thrives on diversity of thought and cross-pollination of ideas.

 This part of the education must look ahead in partnership with economic leaders and try to build a core competence at early stage.

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Social Goals  Another important goal of education is to build a cohesive strong society. By society and social goals I refer to person’s interactions with people who are not related to him or her.

 Thus education must build competency to interact with various people in various situations. Education must improve the awareness of rights and duties of the individuals and how to present them in society.

 This aspect of social goals is missing from the older conformism creating education system.

 Another aspect of social goals is to build respect for law and order. It should help build capability to assess right and wrong as well as to abide by / side with the right.

 To my mind the essential part of these goals is to help students learn to interact with people they identify with and with other with whom they do not identify while still working together thus building empathy for everyone.

 These can be developed through physical community work, online group activities drawing upon Internet based Computer games, team sports, etc.

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Personal Goals  A friend once remarked to me how alumni of certain well respected institutes are being found to be morally corrupt. I believe that these exceptionally talented people were unable to develop their personal sides.

 The school curriculum does not do adequate justice to personal development. And personal development is not merely knowing your hobbies, having extra-curricular activities, scouts and guides etc.

 It also encompasses our ability to self-examine, to reorient ourselves according to our wishes etc. the factors which cause emptiness in our lives otherwise.

 Personal goals also include developing sensitivity towards our own families and knowing and augmenting our support systems.

 I believe mentorship is a critical aspect of this development. Who can be a mentor? Can teachers be mentors to all their students? Is it right to limit the choice of mentors to teachers?

 I guess no. “It takes a village to raise a child” so goes a saying. In modern context, we need to involve the community into developing the students – mostly as mentors but also as specialist teachers too. And thanks to technology mentors need not be physically present all the time.

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Schools vs. Colleges

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The School vs. College Question

 To many this seems a queer question but here is my explanation for it. Schools are designed around communities (or vice versa) while Colleges are designed around content or courses. Yes even the content delivered at the school cannot be customized but a lot of other things at schools can be customized to the community.

 When I look at it this way, it seems to open my mind to distortions caused by these. When we select a college we are pretty much narrowing our subjects and what flexibility we have pertains to the depth. But what if there is no course as yet that is designed for me.

 This is a situation most of the graduates feel themselves in today. Most managers today come from humanities, engineering, quite a few finance professionals come from physics and engineering etc.

 Today we have expanded the role of colleges who try to be cutting edge experts at many subjects. What we need is schools which builds functional skills that are relevant for that community. The role of colleges will restrict to develop cutting-edge expertise at subjects they want to pursue thereby attracting scholars for their subjects.

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Community Customization

 In the next phase of education, we need individual customization as well as customization to a community.

 The institute of learning thus becomes a physical social network hub connected to the other hubs globally through internet. To my mind the teacher can be virtual but students must be physically connected. A pure virtual hub may also be able to achieve this, but in my experience it happens in fewer cases. To unleash the developmental power of this learning, it is essential to involve a community.

 Silicon valley is an example of a new area of expertise at colleges advancing to economic viability. It represents the success of ability of colleges to push the technology into economic viability.

 However, there are other kinds of innovations that are not simply about pushing the technical boundaries but in rewiring the existing knowledge to achieve new goals. E.g. The customized auto-modification shops that sprung up around Detroit and later in different cities. Schools and communities can facilitate this type of innovation.

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Role of Schools  Schools, I think, should take up community based learning responsibilities. School will be open to the entire community in which it is placed including the young, middle aged and even the old.

 Schools will be guiding the groups about what to learn. Here the school enables research and dialogue with various experts rather than drill their course down the throats of this community.

 Once the content is chosen, Schools will use their expertise at researching the relevant content, getting experts or tutors to interact with the group.

  The group along with their teachers then can set up goals of their programs and Schools and ensure that maximum group benefit is derived. The idea is not to let the group choose their goals but arrive at goals from first principles.

 Schools will also be monitoring progress through administering the tests or projects etc. so as to allow flexibility to the tutor and student.

 This is the role that will formalize the learning, and grant it recognition (required by the society / employers) and it is absent in individual learning over the internet.

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Role of Teacher

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Teachers at Schools  Teachers, as we traditionally know them, at school and grade level have two distinct type of roles depending on the content.

 For skill-based content, the older more familiar role will be used. The critical aspect of this part is to differentiate between what is skill-based and what is not. Misapplication of the older technique has resulted in many a disillusioned student.

 To initiate skill-based content, it will be essential to give a larger picture of why such skill is necessary. Thus, you may be skilled in teaching the students about logarithms but unless the students know why they are learning logarithms the exercise seems pointless.

 The initial aspect is more information driven rather than skill-driven. Good teachers are good at this aspect which tickles the curiosity of the minds of the students to all the complexity that logarithms involve.

 This will require continuous training on part of teachers themselves in light of their increased responsibilities.

 Naturally, these teachers need to be paid more and equipped additionally to meet these challenges.

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Teachers for community

 This group of teachers is transient in nature. They are activated based on need of the community. It will be the required of schools to maintain a network of such individuals or explore creation of such network based on demand by the community.

 There needs to be a general mechanism to compensate these expert teachers based on a well recognized formula.

 The role of school teachers in this context is to get the experts required by the community on board with the schools. Or it may simply be to connect the group to appropriate sources on the web.

 Aside from this initial handholding, teachers will be more concept librarians than active teachers as required by grade school.

 Teachers will also be required to administer the content by way of test or projects etc.

 Thus teachers in this context are a bridge between the expert tutor and the group. The teachers input allows formalization of learning the expert’s knowledge by the student group. Thus, teacher’s role changes to that of “regulator” of the process.

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Community Mentors  To further the goals of personal development, one needs to have mentors. These Mentors help individuals connect with their own self.

 Traditionally, the local parish would have discharged this responsibility. However, in the new context, I believe Schools are better placed.

 Mentors, however, are not school sponsored agents but rather independent community members who are requested to help out. The mentors are much more aligned with real life work in area of your interest than your career counselors at schools.

 School makes its infrastructure available to use by mentors and mentees for education and individual development.

 In return school becomes the anchor for almost all the discussions around education and development in the community. You may even get an advice to go to college at school.

 With mentors, the relevance of the school expands throughout our lives.

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Continuous Learning

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Types of continuous learning

 In our current scenario, we encounter the term continuous learning to mean on-the-job learning or concurrent-to-job learning.

 I always dreaded the employer sponsored “continuous learning” programs. Most of them were a waste of time. Learning in an environment induced by the employer need not always be relevant for the employee.

 Learning needs a potential difference between a curiosity on part of the person and opportunity on part of the employer. When these two meet

 Rather we need to create avenues for the person to maximize his potential, at current job or otherwise. To achieve this, we need to let people learn from each other by intermingling with others and with their ideas. This peer-to-peer education is the last bit of the education puzzle.

 We need a forum for exchange of ideas and thoughts where people can learn from each other. Sort of like a British club but more focused. TED, Creative Mornings by Swiss Miss and its ilk are something similar though a bit too high level.

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Continuous learning at school

 My continuous learning club would be situated at community school. It has all the moral, technical requirements to host such an idea exchange. There are learning technologies, there is adequate space to house the groups and learning is in the air in schools.

 Even teachers and children can listen in or interact. Children’s creative energies may be available to the community in a constructive way while the children gain insight into the adult world making their curriculum ever so more relevant to them.

 To facilitate this type of learning, schools need to be prepared. The teachers can be facilitators or participants, school infrastructure should be flexible to accommodate the changes. School administrations will have to think more creatively about initiating these events and kick-starting the dialogue between various peers.

 To a certain degree certain art schools and museums are taking initiative in such matters though these tend to be subject specific. The initiatives in Schools must be more community specific make them more relevant to its community.

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Conclusions

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School centric model of education

 The new model of education cannot be one-size-fits-all approach. We need to keep the model superfluous so as to allow the students (young and old) to control what they learn, how fast they learn and from whom they learn.

 At the same time, learning and education must be geared to economic, social and personal development. Without this orientation learning becomes uninteresting and mechanical.

 Learning and education needs to involve everyone in the community and beyond on the internet. Participants are sometimes exclusively teachers

or mentors, sometimes exclusively students and sometimes peers learning from each other. Their involvement with the school at all times is far more than what is currently seen.

 When we make education more community driven, we will make it more relevant. I hope this will unleash the creativity and innovation at community level ushering in new era of economic social and personal wellbeing.

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Contact Info & Credits

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Credits  The first and foremost credit must go to my teachers who went out of their way to help me learn. However, there are few others who I met on the job and they have helped me learn as much. Those at the network called Triiibes (by Seth Godin) have been ablest of peers I could ever find.

 Sir Ken Robinson’s TED lectures have been an inspiration for the ideas. I also find inspiration for this talk from Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture and his concept of head-fake.

 Monika Hardy (@monk51295) has been doing some really innovative stuff with teaching and is inspirational in her own right. She also connected me to a Google+ community Teachers Teaching Teachers which is a treat to listen in.

 I have adapted this template from Nancy Duarte’s Slidedoc concept and am using it in good faith without any consideration. You can reach her @duarte and view the slidedocs concept at http://www.duarte.com/slidedocs/

 

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Reach me here: Website: www.rahuldeodhar.com

Twitter: @rahuldeodhar

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Blog: rahul-deodhar.blogspot.in

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/rahuldeodharvideos/

RD

 © Rahul Deodhar 2014