It's one thing to go through school and college because you are forced by your parents. It is another thing to do it because you really want to learn.
I've had the latter opportunity during the past one and a half years of pursuing my M.Tech in AI.
Getting back to the classroom environment after spending a decade as a professional working in the industry, one gets to view academia with a broader perspective and an understanding of how things work.
1. Poor textbooks
Wanting to revise some of the basics of integration, differentiation and partial differentiation, I looked up my old Bachelors of Engineering textbooks and was shocked at the content.
The explanation of concepts was almost non-existent. The problems that were worked out were lacking many steps that would help a student understand it. There was hardly any explanation about the history of the techniques. There was no explanation about how these techniques would be used in practical applications.
How to improve:
2. Poor explanation in classrooms
I remembered that a majority of the teachers in schools and colleges were people who either didn't know the subject well enough or didn't know how to break it down into concepts that could be digested by the students easily. It isn't entirely their fault either. They themselves were a product of the same education system that didn't care if the students actually learnt anything. I've never heard of colleges conducting any screening/audition sessions for teachers to check if they had the ability to actually teach!
On a side-note, an often ignored point in classrooms is sleepiness. When you feel thirsty, you don't go and start exercising. You drink water. Same way, when you feel sleepy, you aren't supposed to drink coffee to stay awake. You are supposed to sleep. When students feel sleepy in class, they should be allowed a 10 minute nap instead of being asked to remain awake.
How to improve:
3. Wasted, unsafe practicals
Lab sessions were introduced so that students would get hands-on experience with whatever they learn. However, not all labs go as they are intended. They either follow a mundane list of to-do things or are just plain boring. Many schools and colleges don't use safety equipment either. I heard of a student at NTTF who lost an eye when a piece of metal shot into his eye while he was working on machining it.
How to improve:
4. Scrap the written exam
Every student learns differently and at a varied pace. You can't put everyone in a similar class with horrible teachers and expect them to actually learn.
In all those subjects I didn't score well, my parents, relatives and I used to think I was too dumb to learn. In later years I learnt that it was the above three points that made the subject boring and un-learnable. The subject was actually easy. It was very interesting too, when I looked at it after many years. Yet, at the time I studied it it seemed horrible.
Moreover, many of those who were extremely adept at memorizing information and reproducing it with perfection in the exam hall were clueless when they were asked to generalize and creatively apply the concept. They didn't even know where to start.
A high score in an exam does not mean the student is intelligent. It means they have the capability to assimilate information and remember it for longer than others. This does not mean they would be able to apply the concept well in real-life.
So when you hire people into your organization, think about the role. If all you want are people who do what they are told, go ahead and hire those with a high GPA. If you want people who love applying concepts and building things, hire those who create their own personal hobby projects. One crucial point to note is that you shouldn't manage the latter bunch of people in the same way as you'd manage the former. The creative bunch of people deserve a lot more trust, freedom of thought and expression. If you constrain them, it's as good as having not hired them at all.
How to improve:
Perhaps the education system would only be able to change once the industry starts being more specific about the kind of people it hires. Our roads are in a bad shape today because of people who don't really care about creating good roads. Many doctors can't diagnose patients well because they never really wanted to become a doctor. Many engineers disregard safety and design best-practices because they never really wanted to be engineers. You can see this in every other profession: Religion, politics, education, manufacturing, sales, aviation...
Isn't it time we had a system which could evaluate children for what they are best at, and allowed them to pursue that as a career interest? To allow people to pursue what they love doing and are good at doing. If anything, it'll lead to a happier, more comfortable world to live in.
Getting back to the classroom environment after spending a decade as a professional working in the industry, one gets to view academia with a broader perspective and an understanding of how things work.
1. Poor textbooks
Wanting to revise some of the basics of integration, differentiation and partial differentiation, I looked up my old Bachelors of Engineering textbooks and was shocked at the content.
The explanation of concepts was almost non-existent. The problems that were worked out were lacking many steps that would help a student understand it. There was hardly any explanation about the history of the techniques. There was no explanation about how these techniques would be used in practical applications.
How to improve:
- A consortium of students can evaluate textbooks to check if it conveys the concept in a way that newbie students would be able to understand it even if there was no teacher to teach the subject. Stop buying any textbooks that are not good enough.
- Create a wiki which collates the best three internet sources that teach any particular concept very well.
- Teachers across the globe who are best known for teaching a particular subject well could prepare course material and distribute it for free to the world (one such excellent source is Coursera).
- Create a template for textbooks, which specifies how the author should introduce the topic. First a brief history on what was lacking which caused the introduction of a new technology or technique. Then an introduction to the technique and comparison on how it fares with respect to other techniques. Then an introduction to the technique itself and finally, how the technique is used in various real-world applications.
2. Poor explanation in classrooms
I remembered that a majority of the teachers in schools and colleges were people who either didn't know the subject well enough or didn't know how to break it down into concepts that could be digested by the students easily. It isn't entirely their fault either. They themselves were a product of the same education system that didn't care if the students actually learnt anything. I've never heard of colleges conducting any screening/audition sessions for teachers to check if they had the ability to actually teach!
On a side-note, an often ignored point in classrooms is sleepiness. When you feel thirsty, you don't go and start exercising. You drink water. Same way, when you feel sleepy, you aren't supposed to drink coffee to stay awake. You are supposed to sleep. When students feel sleepy in class, they should be allowed a 10 minute nap instead of being asked to remain awake.
How to improve:
- Before hiring a teacher, conduct a session where they are asked to explain at least three different randomly chosen topics of varying difficulty. The teacher should be allowed sufficient time to prepare for the topics, but then be rigorously evaluated on their ability to convey the topic in a simple manner that students can understand easily. They can choose any method to deliver the lecture. Just spoken words, the white-board, a slideshow or even VR.
- The teachers can also use a template for teaching, where they first introduce the history of the technology, compare it to other techniques, teach the actual technique and then explain how it is used in real-world applications.
- Repetition helps. So it can also help to adopt a teaching technique where the teacher covers the entire syllabus in a few days, where the basics of all concepts are touched upon, and then takes up each topic one-by-one. It's a reality that a student's mind might wander during a lecture, and the second repetition can help them get back on track.
- Allow sufficient breaks and nap-time when students feel sleepy. A ten minute nap can be refreshing for them and it'd help if teachers can also take small breaks.
3. Wasted, unsafe practicals
Lab sessions were introduced so that students would get hands-on experience with whatever they learn. However, not all labs go as they are intended. They either follow a mundane list of to-do things or are just plain boring. Many schools and colleges don't use safety equipment either. I heard of a student at NTTF who lost an eye when a piece of metal shot into his eye while he was working on machining it.
How to improve:
- Use safety equipment. There's no excuse.
- Use half the lab time to allow students to practice what the lab manual stipulates and the other half, where the teacher challenges them to try creative things (that aren't dangerous) to tweak their existing understanding and see what happens if they try something different. This is a precious childhood trait we all have, which gets crushed by years of disciplining. It helps to unleash this trait in a safe, controlled environment and observe how learning actually becomes fun.
4. Scrap the written exam
Every student learns differently and at a varied pace. You can't put everyone in a similar class with horrible teachers and expect them to actually learn.
In all those subjects I didn't score well, my parents, relatives and I used to think I was too dumb to learn. In later years I learnt that it was the above three points that made the subject boring and un-learnable. The subject was actually easy. It was very interesting too, when I looked at it after many years. Yet, at the time I studied it it seemed horrible.
Moreover, many of those who were extremely adept at memorizing information and reproducing it with perfection in the exam hall were clueless when they were asked to generalize and creatively apply the concept. They didn't even know where to start.
A high score in an exam does not mean the student is intelligent. It means they have the capability to assimilate information and remember it for longer than others. This does not mean they would be able to apply the concept well in real-life.
So when you hire people into your organization, think about the role. If all you want are people who do what they are told, go ahead and hire those with a high GPA. If you want people who love applying concepts and building things, hire those who create their own personal hobby projects. One crucial point to note is that you shouldn't manage the latter bunch of people in the same way as you'd manage the former. The creative bunch of people deserve a lot more trust, freedom of thought and expression. If you constrain them, it's as good as having not hired them at all.
How to improve:
- Either scrap the written exam altogether or create two types of exams that students can choose from. One exam which is the typical exam where people can memorize things and write it. Another exam where students are given challenges to apply what they've learnt and even come up with new discoveries. Don't make goldfish climb trees. Don't crush the confidence of children by showing them a written-exam score which does not really tell them anything about their innate skills.
Perhaps the education system would only be able to change once the industry starts being more specific about the kind of people it hires. Our roads are in a bad shape today because of people who don't really care about creating good roads. Many doctors can't diagnose patients well because they never really wanted to become a doctor. Many engineers disregard safety and design best-practices because they never really wanted to be engineers. You can see this in every other profession: Religion, politics, education, manufacturing, sales, aviation...
Isn't it time we had a system which could evaluate children for what they are best at, and allowed them to pursue that as a career interest? To allow people to pursue what they love doing and are good at doing. If anything, it'll lead to a happier, more comfortable world to live in.
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