A number of theories have evolved over the last century – covering a wide range of concerns – physical, emotional, psychological, philosophical and social. The impact of each of these elements on learning both individually, collectively and synergistically have been discussed in depth by the wise men of yester years. Each of these theories did have a valid perspective in a given geography, context and socioeconomic background, but missed some basic essential components relating to the growth dynamics thereby exhibiting some limitations. Possibly they did not foresee the evolution as it happened.
I have always admired the story of the ten blind men trying to identify and interpret the elephant… This analogy possibly applies to the kind of efforts we have been making over centuries to define and understand the process of learning.
In retrospect
A number of theories have evolved over the last century – covering a wide range of concerns – physical, emotional, psychological, philosophical and social. The impact of each of these elements on learning both individually, collectively and synergistically have been discussed in depth by the wise men of yester years. Each of these theories did have a valid perspective in a given geography, context and socio-economic background, but missed some basic essential components relating to the growth dynamics thereby exhibiting some limitations. Possibly they did not foresee the evolution as it happened. While one should acknowledge gratefully the tremendous efforts made by educational philosophers, cognitive psychologists and pedagogues, they did face roadblocks to explain certain shades of learning which occurred informally, incidentally or accidentally. These experiences did fall under the ambit of learning, but were largely under the roof of a formal learning structure. To judge them for all their worthy contributions from a modern perspective would be a great injustice – but all their efforts have in one way or the other contributed richly and immensely to our understanding of the spectrum and process of learning!
The Status
The last century has ushered entirely new dynamics into the process of learning. Some of the issues that impacted the process of learning in the last few decades were
- increasing inputs for informal learning
b. increasing synergy between formal and informal learning systems
c. speed of knowledge dynamics
d. technology intervention in learning systems and delivery modes
e. inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary learning
f. increasing irrelevance of information and skills
g. multi-polar learning
h. assessment driven learning
One could add a few more to this list. Closely examined, all these issues have an underlying correlation. All these and more have impacted the learning styles and processes extensively. We have to possibly re-examine the way learning occurs.
The learning dynamics
The observation by cognitive psychologists that a near 90 percent of learning is informal and just 10 percent appears formal, sets our thinking rolling. This would really mean that the classroom designs need to be reoriented, re-organised and the pedagogical processes reviewed. The uni-directional flow of knowledge from the teacher to the taught (if these terms are still acceptable!) is no more valid. The belief that the teacher is the harbinger of entire knowledge needs to be dismantled and thus the focus shifts from teacher – to – learner and from learner – to – learning. Hence, unless learning happens, the entire resource inputs become redundant. The challenge, therefore, is how to design classroom inputs that would enable and facilitate learning.
This leads to the next issue – that every learner in the classroom is different; every learner is unique and has a differentiated style and direction of learning. The complexity therefore, is that the informal input acquired by each learner is different, essentially an outcome of one’s varied interests, aptitudes, environment, social ethos, geography, and other resource inputs. To synergise these different basics of each learner with a formal input in the classroom would need a magnificent effort on the part of the teacher.
The effort would comprise – understanding the psychic and intellectual needs of the learner, his or her learning style, aptitudes among others. It means that the curriculum for each learner needs to be contextualised to individual and specific needs. The pedagogy, therefore, needs to be diverse, rich, enabling, thought-provoking, current and need based. Do the teachers have enough time to prepare for such an environment? If yes, how do they go about it? If no, what do we do about it? Thanks to the intervention of neuro-cognitive psychologists, many serious misconceptions about learning have been set to rest. The experimental evidences show that learning is essentially neural net connect, influenced by a number of factors including the play of hormones. This has given scope for wider research about the process of learning, memory, attention and other related issues.
The knowledge dynamics
The third challenge is the outcome of the convergence and divergence of knowledge. With diffusing polarity in knowledge boundaries, there is emergence of newer fields and approaches to knowledge bases. Examination of the same content in different disciplinary perspectives has called for participatory approach to building and understanding knowledge systems. There is a paradigm shift from uni-disciplinary learning to inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary learning. Teachers would be required to expand their own knowledge base and introspect on the possibilities of the crosscurrency of knowledge dynamics so that they are in a position to guide and mentor their learners. The classroom pedagogy would have to wear different masks to deal with different issues while examining the multi-disciplinary osmosis of knowledge. Teachers would have to take different ‘Avatars’ to deal with their learners both meaningfully and effectively. There is equal possibility of the ‘power of knowledge’ playing an active role during debates and discussions in different subjects rather than its ‘extensiveness’.
Without understanding the intrinsic power of knowledge and its operability, mere rote discourses in classrooms will create intolerance and intellectual reaction. The intrinsic power of knowledge would also manifest in the form of ‘concurrent skills’ in various domains in which they exist and operate. The mismatch between the skill sets of teachers and the learners will be a challenge to deal with, just for the reason that the learners would acquire these skill sets more through informal modes rather than formal modes.
Managing knowledge dynamics
The speed of irrelevance of knowledge would be a new dimension for management of classrooms. The life–period of knowledge getting minuscule, the speed of acquisition, management, packaging and delivery would put schools and management systems in great stress. The ‘training’ and ‘empowerment’ of teachers, though will be an on-going process and no educational board or system could handle this with the sensitivity it needs.Focus would be more on ‘self-learning’ and ‘on-line learning’. Thus inputs could normalise the learning patterns provided that the teachers learn in the same frequency – which is indeed doubtful.
The new learning curve as projected below tells the entire story. The professional career of the teacher (and the learner) would be spent in learning a series of new knowledge inputs as the knowledge systems will have a very short life. Alvin Toffler said, ‘The illiterate of the 21st century will not be the one who cannot read and write, but one who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.’ This statement can best be explained on the basis of the curve.
The impact of technology
The emerging facets of technology would usher in newer tools, appliances and platforms for learning. Technology will act as a culture catalyst. The focus would shift from individual learning to collaborative learning where the teacher would both be a partner and a mentor. As detailed by futurologists, the focus would shift from ‘intellectual authority’ to ‘collaborative credibility’.
The role of schools would change as value addition centres, human resource centres, counselling centres and life skills development centres. The new role of schools would require ‘newer mindsets’ and hence ‘newer understanding’ of the teachers’ roles and responsibilities. Changes would happen whether we like it or not.
Getting ready for the new generation classrooms is indeed a challenge. But the dominant question is – When do we start? Do we have an option to wait for some more time?
REFERENCE:http://www.progressiveteacher.in/getting-ready-to-face-the-challenges-of-new-generation-classroom/
