Rethinking Education: Unfolding Lessons & Learning

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Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” John Dewey; a quote that’s evergreen and relevant in every age and period. Yet Yuval Noah Harari’s book Nexus critically analyses the irony that, though we named ourselves Homo Sapiens, meaning ‘wise human’ in Latin, our actions throughout history are marked by war, exploitation, inequality and destruction. This reality check invites us to reimagine education as the stage where life unfolds, lessons are lived, and learning is continuous.

In the age of Generative AI, Dewey's vision urges us to focus on what makes us most human—our ability to learn through life, grow through relationships, and act with purpose. The AI boom should urgently redirect the focus of education to strengthening conceptual clarity and revisiting the need to be interdisciplinary. Recently Nobel Laureate, Sir Demis Hassabis stressed on the importance of STEM and introduction to AI through education. He drove home the fact that "It's still important to understand fundamentals" in mathematics, physics and computer science to comprehend how systems work together. While we work on deepening concepts, we also need to emphasise on holistic education for our children where humanities, Art and Social Emotion learning also play an eminent role in creating balanced individuals; students who think critically and creatively.

Micro Learning in Schools

Catering to today' s digital natives and incorporating Nano learning into India’s education presents a compelling opportunity to modernise and personalise learning experiences. With the growing push for digital transformation under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Nano Learning could enhance access, promote inclusivity, and support continuous upskilling. However the short modular formats that may engage students for quick understanding of important aspects may lead to passive engagement of content without critical thought and application.

With the reality of the PISA scores (OECD average) taking a sharp alarming dip between 2003 and 2022, the focus on conceptual understanding is reiterated. It is an urgent call to deepen understanding of concepts through inquiry based and experiential learning practices.

‘Anxious Generation’ by Jonathan Haidt and ‘Disengaged Teens’ by Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop highlight the urgent challenges students are facing today in an increasingly digital and disconnected world. Both the books bring out the loss of purpose driven learning. These insights serve as a wake-up call for educators’ parents and policy makers to nurture emotional well-being and engagement amongst students. 

Students should be encouraged to reflect and introspect, collaborate, set audacious goals and follow them. Instilling the joy of reading in today’s complex world is important to bring back empathy, focus and emotional resilience, empowering students to reconnect with knowledge, culture and themselves. It must be done with a razor sharp focus to bring back deeply rooted values, empathy and democratic participation through education, which cultivate humanity and informed citizens than just workers.

International Pedagogies

A synergy of traditional and contemporary education, to be positive to the reality of AI, its strengths and weaknesses is where our wisdom plays an important role. Negating its possibilities will highlight our resistance to change and fear of the unchartered territories, which will be eventually part of our lives.  By embracing technology anchored with the importance of values and ethics is the way forward to empower our students.

India is a country rich in our own educational practices beginning from the Gurukul System which emphasized holistic, guidance between teacher and learner (guru-shishya parampara), where learning was personalized, values-driven, and deeply relational. The Shastra-Artha-Vichar, which meant Inquiry into Meaning, Nature as teacher (Prakriti as Guru), emphasizing learning through observation, cycles, and interdependence and the Vedic education, where learning was never siloes. Music, math, logic, astronomy, arts, and ethics were interwoven to form a holistic learner. 

Integrating these pedagogies and technology alongside modern parallels of Phenomenon, Play, Project Based Learning, STEAM projects, Socratic questioning, design thinking, Harkness discussions, and philosophical inquiry in classrooms is the need of the hour. These strategies move beyond rote learning to navigate through uncertainty and contribute meaningfully to the society.

Upskill

Traditional means of teaching by the stick and rote are passé. Since students are being prepared for an unknown future with non-existent jobs, it would invariably mean that teachers will need to unlearn, learn and upskill. Teacher training can no longer be the role of the institution; teachers from the Early and Primary Years need to invest in themselves like in every other field consistently to upskill to stay relevant. Today' s teachers must be situationally aware and leverage the use of technology and AI rather than being resistant to it. While adapting may be challenging, they must find meaningful ways to integrate it, to build critical and higher order thinking through research and data based analysis. Their role also advances beyond teaching only content to expecting excellence through innovation, purpose, integrity and ethics.

Soft Skills

With the changing learner profile of digital natives, it is inevitable that teachers are also trained in soft skills as well. Our role will change from sage on the stage to guide on the side where we are learners and partners in learning alongside them. We will need to eradicate the visual of the teacher tyrants who assume centre-stage and transcend into the role of being mentors who emphasise the importance of empathy, collaboration, spirituality and social emotion well-being, thus making soft skills central and not just complementary to effective teaching today.

Mental Health

Globally, mental health has become a priority and schools are taking steps to create emotionally stable and safe environments for students, some with the help of trained counselors so that children can express themselves without the fear of being judged.  NEP 2020 has emphasised the importance of Social Emotional Learning in schools. Some strategies toward this direction is creating reflection journals for deep insights and application into literature/books they have read or service actions that they have initiated in the community. At Indus International School, each student works towards a Tikkun Olam (A Hebrew term which means ‘heal the world’). They chart a path to achieve their Tikkun Olam, inspired by a situation, action or experience that deeply moves or disturbs them in their environment. They also have opportunities to present their actions on a designated day, which makes it exciting and a celebration of their social-emotional growth and agency.

Conclusion

Currently we all seem to be living a life of King Midas or the Sorcerer’s Apprentice where knowledge seems to multiply, pour in and overflow at an unprecedented pace and we are clearly unaware of the direction AI or AGI is leading us towards. Hence, it is essential that education is grounded in conceptual understanding, strong interdisciplinary and an inquiry based approach. It must be complemented with foresight, application, insight and wisdom to prepare students for a world that demands impact, intellect and integrity!

Wishing all educators the best as we embody the true meaning of Homo Sapiens, Wisdom in Action and Purpose in Practice.