I have little experience (4 years) of teaching at university but as a consultant I got opportunity to plan and train people at government offices and many institutes/ universities. In this way I got opportunity to come in contact of many people who are actively involved in teaching. Certainly most of them were concerned with statistics and economics, hence whatever I am going to present may not be the picture of whole teaching community. Whatever I am going to present here is mostly concerned with higher education although they may be relevant for other level of education in bits and pieces.
In my opinion teaching is a process which evolve in answer of whom, when, in what order by what means, for what purpose in which context. Formal teaching is not limited to transferring the skill or saying something. Neither it is meant for imparting the truth. It makes aware students with experiments and way of communication (through different mode of expressions) which human civilization has documented to solve the problems posed by different sector of life. Students should be free to adopt completely or part of teaching (may be outdated), modify them or create his own way to solve the problems of life and published his finding before community. Certainly to communicate their views to others is very important and is not possible through expressions made in response of current examination system. Such expression will not only enrich the content of formal teaching but will help in reducing the level of distortion from getting the message from teaching. This will free education from dictatorship of teachers and will open door of democratization of education.
Hence core part of education is problem solving. Students should know that trough a particular subject, which type of problems of life are supposed to be tackled, what are validation rule for testing core ideas of subject and what are limitations of subject, what knowledge from other subjects to be incorporated to solve problems posed by life. Final litmus test is whether student can feel (through education) that how he has efficient way of thinking and tools to solve problems differently (than a common man) in concerned area. He should also know whether area of subject is confined to social and environmental issues only or can help to solve personal problems also? If subject area is confined to social and environmental issues only, what are hurdles to use it as a tool to solve personal problems (if management tools can be used to run an organization efficiently then why not a family? If tools of statistics can be used to handle some sort of uncertainty in social or environmental area, why can not be used as tool to handle uncertainty in personal life?)
Thus teaching is process to change students and not transferring some skill. There is gap between knowing the skill and applying it to solve real life problems. Why? Generally we fail to represent real life problems in such a way that learned tools may be applied. Through knowing some facts and their inter-relation do not assure that they can be used to solve a real life problem. It is only possible if intuition of students may be modified through practice of solving real life (or suitably designed simulated) problems.
In above mentioned background, teaching community should ask following question with them selves:
To understand psychology of student for helping them- to pass through phase of confusion and generate power to wait, to utilize outcomes generated through failures, to use network learning in place of linear learning, to improve capability of observe, experimentation and expressing themselves etc. are very important. I do not know why such issues do not attract higher academicians for discussion?
Major challenges before teaching community are as follows:
Now question is how teaching community can face these challenges. Wait till my next post in which I will discuss this issue.
PS
It is good coincidence that Yaspal committee report on “Renovation and Rejuvenation of Universities” is in discussion in these days. I am putting this draft report (submitted on March 1, 2009) with my comments at site of 0space (doc as well as pdf version). Final report can be downloaded from site Human Resource Department. I hope a good discussion on issues I raised through different posts on knowledge creation and expansion in context of this report.
Complex!
Complex!
Teaching could be my profession, and I could be very honest to my profession. As a professional teacher, I'll perform my stipulated duties. If my teaching is not found to be effective in some predefined effectiveness test, the education system will worry how to handle it.
Remember that as a professional teacher, I'm part of a degree-awarding machinery. And, whether I feel any moral responsibility to act as a "true" teacher is a totally personal business. I won't discuss that in the academic circle.
The world may expect me to convert every Tom, Dick and Harry into an excellent (business or personal) "problem solver", but I think that the learner has to take initiative! I can't spoon feed an adult learner.
Of course, to be of any help to a serious learner, I myself must be a good learner. But being a lazy man, I explore and learn things only when I need to solve a problem.
If I were a good problem solver with some moral responsibility on my shoulders, I would have started a relevant course. I would prefer to leave the task of overhauling/repairing education system for educational psychologists and others (e.g. Yashpal committee) who are responsible for the education system.
As a teacher I have restricted myself to pedagogy. I don't spend any time in thinking about structural or functional changes in the formal education system. Currently, that seems to simply function as a degree-awarding setup.
I read you remarks in the right-sidebar of Yashpal committee's report. You have raised many questions and placed some obsevations. But, have you figured out what you can do as an individual teacher to "improve things"? If yes, I'd like to hear that and possibly would work towards figuring out technology solutions for your experiments. Maybe, a good technology solution can facilitate innovations in pedagogy, thereby encouraging healthy academic practices.
I did not forget that I am also a responsible citizen of this great democratic conuntry, and therefore I may have duties towards society and country beyond my professional commitments. Questioning things and expressing myself is fully democratic. But, I'd rather save my energy for designing a good authoring workflow in 0space.
Resolve complexity
Thanks for your patience to read this blog post and report made by Yaspal committee. After reading your comment, I read my blog “Challenges before …” again and tried to find out lines where I raised moral and ethical questions on teachers. I could not find such questions. I have tried to locate some deficiencies in our education system. I do not think all deficiencies shows personal moral or ethical weaknesses. I have mentioned reasons (in morality free context) of some deficiencies in my post.
Possible source of confusion, what I can think, may be suggestions for teaching community to put some question on themselves. There is no need to be agree all or some of questions, if they have sufficient reasons (like for you). I wrote those lines with assumption that some professional (or non professional) teachers may be benefited to fix their direction of teaching using some of points. These points are not mine. I received them from different sources, experimented with some of them (some remained as wishes) and now I am trying to expand (boost) them. I know some (readers) will be inspired by them, some will be irritated and some will be neutral.
Certainly only teacher can not make a student excellent. When I am saying that my ideal teacher is lead learner, how I can make fix responsibility of results on teachers? I am emphasizing to create a training plan with keeping need of students in center in place of knowledge of teachers. I have observed that many teachers give more time and energy (in fixing syllabus also) where their expertise lies.
I have relation with formal teaching since last 43 years (as student or teacher or trainer). I know so many people (some are big also) are thinking for betterment is this area. I hope my effort will strengthen some of voices raised for betterment of education system in India. After all, I am part of orchestra, all though my instrument and art to play is not much recognized .
I could not understand your line “If I were a good problem solver with some moral responsibility on my shoulders, I would have started a relevant course.” Whether it is comment for yourself or on me? If it is comment on me then I would like to say that such courses can be defined by knowing problems to which organizations or students wants to solve. I was involved since last eight years in identifying problems, designing course (for solving specific problem), training and lastly solving the problem. It needs long interaction with trainees and organization. Such courses can not be of generalized nature. As far as application of such technique (problem centric) in university curriculum is concerned, it is possible by university (or collage) teachers only who is aware of course structure of their universities, level of students, time-frame of course, independence for experimentation, examination system etc. Currently I am not associated with any academic institute hence can help in two ways- (1) to assists under graduate teachers of statistics or (teachers of statistics in different discipline) if they want experimentation (2) to assists students in self-learning if they have sufficient web resources. With this intention I want to strengthen Statistics Group, Materials are available on web, only customization according to need is required.
I can plan a course on “Use of web resources in higher education”. In this field currently I am novice and trying to get sufficient expertise so that I can play role of lead learner. Since such course will be free from course structure of academic institutions and there is not much variation in need (may not be correct), I am assuming a possibility of such course.
As I said in my blog post, I will discuss some of possible solutions to face challenges before teaching community in next post.
Let me get it right!
You have been part of the formal education system long enough to form opinion about virtues and deficiencies of the "education system" . [By education system, I mean the formal education system.] And, it is your right to express your views.
Are you expressing your views just for the sake of it? Or have you figured out that this kind of public expression will remove the dificiencies of the education system?
I assume you are a good problem (personal as well as business) solver, and you have a well-defined problem "how to remove the deficiencies of current formal education system". If yes, then since you are not a member of any formal body responsible for rectifying the ed. system, you must be doing it out of your responsibility towards society, country or people. (Or perhaps just for the sake of it!)
For now, let us ignore why you have taken up this issue. My point was simple. If you are a teacher, show us by example what a teacher can do to remove some of the deficiencies. Starting a discussion is good. But why start yet another discussion? Why not just come up with an actionable plan as a solution to the problem and start acting on it? From the outcomes, we will know whether the solution is effective.
I suggested "start a course", because that is the best a teacher can do! Particularly, if in the student life, the teacher himself has suffered from the "dictatorship" of his teachers. You can show how statistics (or any other course) should be taught in a "democratic" way.
By the way, teachers, students and other staffs also constitute our education system. And if we find that the education system has deficiencies, we should check if the human component is a major cause of the deficiencies. If yes, then unless you change human beings overnight by a magic wand, I don't think committees, discussions, reports, rules etc are of any use. So, save your energy for an actionable solution to the problem that has led you to start this blog.
You have mentioned that since you are not part of any academic institute, you could do a few things for teachers and students. But, you have added - "..if they want...". Do you mean you'll do it only if someone else needs it? Did you think we needed you to write this blog and wrote it? Do you think people would be interested in taking a course in “Use of web resources in higher education”, rather than seeing the use of web-resource in a statistics (or some other) course?