INDISCIPLINE IN DISCIPLINES FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY EDUCATION!

Education 2047 #Blog 09 (25 MAR 2022)

 

​There have been frequent nudges to induce multi-disciplinarity in Indian higher education; the latest coming from New Education Policy (NEP2020) that offers an unprecedented opportunity for a big change. As a matter of fact, the world has always been and existed as a multidisciplinary entity. It is in the quest of unraveling it, that lenses of disciplines have been created and the pursuits in inquisition, have been linear. This has led to creation of tools, expertise, websites, journals, policies, institutions etc. enabling deeper diving, resulting in emergence of disciplinary silos. There has been shift though, in efforts for extension of disciplines to their intersection with others, ever since knowledge sharing became unimaginably faster through the internet. Also the scales began to tilt from conversion of resources into knowledge (getting deeper into discipline) to conversion of knowledge into resources (involving multiple disciplines), in the last few decades. Accordingly, experience (of handling knowledge) should become the defining characteristic of higher education instead of (handing out) knowledge. The learners should be coming to the institution to gather and contribute to the experience; knowledge is already available outside!

 

Prescriptive and restrictive as education is (unlike learning), promotion of multidisciplinary education may not ramp-up unless 'indiscipline’ is created in disciplines, encouraging hard-knocks at their boundaries and puncturing them. With least risk in ventures of such nature, our higher education system is well-suited to take up such adventures. Towards this, however, the construct of departments (as compartments of knowledge) whose presence is only going repulse multi-disciplinarity, needs to be re-looked. The institutions can be reorganized with its globally hyper-connected faculty members as the basic unit, getting profusely supported and incentivized for engaging with multiple disciplines. Identity of the faculty should no longer be with the department but with their forays into other disciplines. This should reflect in their peer recognition, stamp on social media, intellectual property and also, through sharing of the infrastructure, laboratories and knowledge they have acquired.

 

One reason why multidisciplinary education, for that matter even higher education has not evolved to the extent it should have, is that it continues to be built and advanced on the principles of pedagogy (the science of teaching children)! What can overwhelm us is that even andragogy (the science of teaching adults and the natural sequel to pedagogy) doesn't fit in now and its principles are outdated. With spatio-temporal-linguistic-economic barriers in access to knowledge liquidating, higher education needs to be remodeled and offered eventually on the principles of heutagogy (the science of self-determined learning) that will be subliminal to a digital/ virtual university.  This is all the more needed now for learners who will live for 80+ years, yearn for more than 2-3 careers that will hinge on skills and lifelong self-determined learning will be one of those powering and empowering skills.

 

Presently we have fixed credits, fixed years and fixed curriculum; that's too much of 'fixation' specially for digital learners! Multidisciplinary courses must be offered unleashed, and autonomy given to learner with just the number of credits alone fixed, after all we have moved past into a knowledge society, ready to be conditioned by Artificial Intelligence.  The institutions of higher learning must, therefore, allow not only choices/ combination of subjects but also blending of conventional and online modes of learning. They should even explore allowing teaching and learning in any language. Mandatory credits should, however, be there for practicals/ projects/ internships wherever hands-on experience cannot be substituted.  

 

By design and intent, multidisciplinary education should be exploratory and it will stand gagged with conventional tests/ examinations. Instead of written examinations (which are linear and test known knowledge), there ought to be open-ended questions/ challenges for assessments, not for advancing to next semester but higher level of salience. The assessment can be made 360°- allowing assessment by self, co-learners, teachers and practitioners- so that learning happens even during assessment. Examinations to reject/ fail/ detain a scholar by an academic body is anachronistic when we are promoting digital learning; rejection can be left to the prospecting/ prospective employers whose expectations anyway do not match with that of academic bodies.

 

Lastly, multidisciplinary education and research will not gain traction in higher education to desired level unless the learners (and their parents) are made aware of career options/ opportunities during secondary education stage itself. Adequate interventions like personalized career counseling, use of data on student's past performance, aptitude tests in school etc., ought to be introduced so that students are clear about their career and also the edge for them due to multidisciplinarity. Further, recruitment rules for faculty should be modified by academic institutions themselves, who must induct/ associate as faculty- experts/ practitioners/ luminaries with diverse experience and not fitting into their departments. This is required for sustenance of spirit of multidisciplinarity, else we will see disciplinary silos continue to not only thrive but harden.

 

As reasoned out above, the present systems are designed to support and promote disciplinary education and there is a need to infuse non-linearity and allow an overdose of it. Towards this- new approaches, formats, styles, designs other than those existing (as insinuated above), are needed to propagate, proliferate and popularize multidisciplinary higher education in the country, in its 'Amrit Kaal'! 

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Author is an Adviser with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on deputation from Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC).

Views are personal.

Feedback will be appreciated in the comment box below. 👍

Previous blogs

Re'class'ification for Learning in the New Normal

Reconfiguring Education as 'APP' Learning

Rejigging Universities with a COVID moment

Reimagining Engineering Education for 'Techcelerating' Times

Uprighting STEM Education with 7x24 Labs 

Dismantling Macaulay's Schools with 'Online' Support

Moving Towards Education Without Examinations

Disruptive Technologies in Education and Challenges in its Governance

Synallagmatic Industry-Academia Linkages

 

RE'CLASS'IFICATION FOR LEARNING IN THE NEW NORMAL

Education 2047 #Blog 08 (17 JAN 2022)

The COVID pandemic has hit the world like a tsunami leaving behind the systems gasping for oxygen; academic institutions left entangled completely in the world-wide-web of uncertainty and tottering on their course to normalcy. The biggest assault of the pandemic in academics- is not on the universities or colleges, not on the learners or teachers, not on the syllabus or examinations but the classrooms. Yes, the classrooms have gone on a toss! But this is not a sudden development as classrooms have progressively been laid redundant since the arrival of smartphones; the virus only catalyzed the process. And what has been attempted to fill the gap during pandemic is imitation or recreation of classrooms on the web, which is not so appealing to the digital learners and is only helping in completion of courses.


Today the learning material can be accessed by the learners anywhere, anytime. A learner can choose from text, audio, video- the best s/he is comfortable with, and can even choose the teacher to learn from. Despite an interface for assured learning possible at click of a button, the classrooms are surviving because of compulsory attendance; remove it for a semester and you will find students still passing to the next semester. That's because what has been a preserve of classrooms is not so any more, learning is happening in a democratized manner outside also; practicals conducted in the lab are already on a low pedestal as most jobs get automated or outsourced to machines. A close look suggests that classrooms, their design and operational hours are teacher-centered and operated for delivery of service rather than learning, and this gets accentuated even as teacher-learner equation tilts in favour of learners.


The conventional layout of classroom places a teacher or an instructor at the focus. There is a delivery of knowledge/ instructions- through speech, writing on the board or demonstration- 'staged' in front of students. The students are expected to listen, take down notes, ask question in case of lack of clarity, respond to questions etc. To check that knowledge has been transferred and grabbed, there are tests. These are the things that happen in a typical classroom and to ensure that all these take place, there is attendance. The classes are (only) on the subjects/ topics in which there are teachers available. Doesn't then the term 'class' itself, sound suggestive of differentiation?

It's a group of learners organized as per the convenience of the academic institution that fills a classroom. The setup doesn't help a learner in pursuing her/his calling, choose subjects, skills, competencies and to excel therein. It also does not support sizeable introverts in each class, not to mention all those who have no liking for that subject/ teacher and those with learning disabilities. Neither does it allow collaborative learning nor is laid out for it. The classrooms may be useful to initiate learning but do not assure its completion. In such settings, it is not possible for an instructor to create a personalized environment for each student. Aren't the classrooms then, as we have them, redundant? Aren't they actually designed to encourage study and pass solo, stay silent and suppress curiosity, ensure education but be unsure of learning?


Classrooms no longer excite the digital learners and will continue to be pushed to the margins. Ever thought when, during the day, are the learners most alert and receptive to instructions? Difficult to pinpoint, right? Most certainly it's not the first half of the forenoon; but that ironically is the time, teaching is at the peak in all academic institutions- alike offices and factories. Schools and colleges operate as service providers, operations at best when the time suits the teachers (and management) and not the learners. Are we having the right timings for our academic systems that really maximize learning? Have you ever noted that technology is shifting the hours of study since your days as students; will the classrooms remain same then? Possibly get transformed to support new age learning, instead of pushing industrial-age education.

With spatio-temporal-linguistic barriers getting liquidated by emerging technologies, the classrooms of future will support- interactions and discussions between learners who would teach each other. Also, share the common space- to learn from volumetric screens and holographic images, which will give whopping immersive experience. These systems will be smart enough to capture the interaction with learners, update themselves and give enriching experience to the learners thereafter. Touchscreens (user interface), fabric-embedded screens (mobile projection), holographic images (near real simulation) along with other technologies will possibly convert classroom into an immersive walkthrough- with right-sized images and their projection on demand. This will offer the learners, options to create new scenarios with available information/ knowledge or fetch an existing content from anywhere in the digital repositories- to support and enhance learning. Advancements in use-interface technologies combined with Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Augmented/ Virtual Reality, Brain-Computer Interface etc will enliven the classrooms to power- adaptive, personalized and purposed (APP) learning instead of peddling- corrective, prescriptive and restrictive (CPR) education, and that will truly be, a 'class' apart!

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Author is an Adviser with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on deputation from Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC).

Views are personal.

Feedback can be given in the comment box below. Thanks!

Previous blogs

Reconfiguring Education as 'APP' Learning

Rejigging Universities with a COVID moment

Reimagining Engineering Education for 'Techcelerating' Times

Uprighting STEM Education with 7x24 Labs 

Dismantling Macaulay's Schools with 'Online' Support

Moving Towards Education Without Examinations

Disruptive Technologies in Education and Challenges in its Governance

Synallagmatic Industry-Academia Linkages

 

RECONFIGURING EDUCATION AS 'APP' LEARNING

Education 2047 #Blog 07 (25 JUL 2021)

Online learning has emerged as a Hobson's choice, as the virus has crippled the education systems world over. Interestingly, internet facilitated system has been there for around two decades now but wasn't getting mainstreamed due to the predictable, stiff resistance from academic fraternity and also due to limitations in access to internet. It would have taken another 5 to 10 years in the natural course, but the pandemic pushed the academicians to the wall who weren't prepared to read what was written on it!

What we have seen in the pandemic is forced completion of education, learning wasn't in focus for the most and has been left for the students to prove themselves. As a matter of fact, learning hasn't been ever the focus, handing out degrees for jobs has been. Imparting of knowledge with instructions and examining its retention is what education has meant largely, with insignificant focus on honing of skills and abilities to thrive in the professions/ jobs. Needless to say  approach, alignment, consistency, relevance, outcomes etc. of education have been skated over all along and changes effected, are largely correcting the past than rejigging systems- aligned with the future.

Education has been the trusted vehicle in industrial society for upwardly movement, and parents have seen investment in children's education as a passport to prosperity. As a welfare measure, governments all over the world have been investing in education of its citizens, through the institutions created/ regulated by them and challenged by goals/ norms like Millennium Development (MDG), Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) etc. But all these have been for the (teacher-centric) times when teachers and books were the authoritative sources of knowledge and a learner had to reach them out, through academic institutions, to complete the education; but the educational landscape has been comprehensively disrupted in the last two decades.

In the wake of IT revolution, educational resources have expanded massively to include digital books impregnated with hyperlinks, recorded lectures by teachers, virtual laboratories, self-assessment platforms, learner analytics etc. and access to them has been democratized. The internet has taken education out of the classrooms- even the students on the first bench and also the teachers are learning online now. The resources are available- anytime and anywhere to everyone; thus, challenging the teachers, institutions, curricula, examination etc, as they weakly extrapolate themselves in the age of internet and need to be reconfigured. 

Internet supports 'learning' and in a massive way- overcoming the spatio-temporal-lingual barriers, but we are stuck at 'education'. We have used online/ internet resources to plug the gap created by the pandemic, basically to complete the courses and thus, the 'education'. In the pandemic, we have seen video-conferencing platforms emerge as a workhorse to facilitate substitution of the classroom or their virtual re-creation. PPTs, PDFs, Word Documents, videos and other material have been transferred like never before, to complete the courses. Technology has also been used to conduct 'high-tech proctored' examinations resorted to stop examinees from cheating (yet no student failing!). Has this all helped in learning?

'Education' is prescriptive and must be taken as offered; online 'learning', on the other hand, offers a range of choices to a learner to create one's learning pathway. Teaching subjects that an academic institution has strength in and resources at its command is 'education'; on the contrary, facilitating access to ubiquitous resources, and mentoring enables 'learning'. Increasing the enrolment ratio has been a concern for conventional education, but online learning opens avenues for anyone interested in learning, making the targets of enrolment meaningless. 

Internet combined with host of other technologies has the potential to support 'Adaptive, Personalized & Purposed (APP) Learning' and this should not be expended in peddling education (that is prescriptive and restrictive). This would mean change in role of teachers, repositioning of classrooms, focus on experiential learning, customizable curriculum, open book examinations and other things- targeted at new age learning. Luckily, for good teachers, online learning is the best thing to happen; they can now be reached by students of institutions other than theirs or even in other locations anywhere in the world. Likewise, the disinterested students forced to sit in their classroom can find an online teacher of a subject that genuinely interests them, anywhere on the internet. Of course, the practical and experiential learning, on a low pedestal now, would also have to be reinvigorated and repositioned, to drive and complement the online courses. It is here that a teacher would be indispensable but reincarnated  to perform the role of counselor, navigator, pathfinder, mentor, and guide- rolled into one.    

It is not that concern on education eclipsing learning, is being raised for the first time.  American business magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) had remarked, "If I had learned education, I would not have had time to learn anything else".  Albert Einstein squared it a few decades later by observing, "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education". With the attributes and versatility of online mode, education can be recast and offered as learning- the 'old normal'- as in the pre-industrialized society! This shift from education to learning, will be accelerated by technologies like artificial intelligence  and brain-computer interface,  supported by other emerging technologies; the growth in number of Edutech companies in the last decade is a pointer to the system leaning towards- hAPPy learning!

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Author is an Adviser with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on deputation from Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC).

Views are personal.

Feedback/ comments are appreciated and can be given in the comment box below. Thanks!



Previous blogs

Rejigging Universities with a 'COVID' Moment

Reimagining Engineering Education for 'Techcelerating' Times

Uprighting STEM Education with 7x24 Labs 

Dismantling Macaulay's Schools with 'Online' Support

Moving Towards Education Without Examinations

Disruptive Technologies in Education and Challenges in its Governance