Metaphors of education

It is important for me to become conscious of the metaphors that I use, and the belief systems that are reflected in these metaphors.

I have been thinking about a metaphor for iterative learning, i.e., clarification of concepts and development of skills through successive iterations, with greater depth and breadth in each successive iteration.

I thought of a metaphor from agriculture, with the successive stages as Tilling, Sowing, Manuring, Weeding and Harvesting. Like all metaphors, it is metaphorical, and hence an approximation. I am using it in the context of developing content and pedagogy for a Software Engineering training programme.

Tilling: Activation of interest and preparation for introducing the topic by grounding it in concrete problems, real-life scenarios and experience of the learners.

Sowing: Examining the problem in detail, and discovering appropriate concepts for problem solution. Sowing the seeds of important concepts.

Manuring: Helping in deeper exploration and clarification of the concepts.

Weeding: Critical examination to reinforce relevant / right concepts and remove irrelevant / wrong concepts. Helping to remove mental clutter and logical fallacies.

Harvesting: Application of newly learned concepts to solve real-world problems. Implementation of projects.

Another step, Threshing, may be added when the programme has a final evaluation, certification examination etc. to denote the stage of measurement and packaging.

As I mentioned earlier, explanation of a metaphor can only be approximate. What is perhaps more useful is that you modify the explanation, or the metaphor itself and derive meaning that is relevant to your context.

I would like to make only important point: Who is the farmer in this metaphor?

The first impulse is to think of the teacher as the farmer. But it is really the student who is the farmer in our story. The teacher provides the plough, the seeds, the fertilizer etc. The student sows and reaps, with support from the teacher.

Reflections on pedagogy and design

Here I am sharing some thoughts based on the work that I am currently involved in. I am working on redesigning a learning programme for entry-level Software Engineers.

Many of the challenges that we face now are design issues. And I believe that they can be addressed only by effective design.

Here I am jotting down some design considerations, which will be operationalized while working out the detailed design.

1. Focus shifts from delivery by the facilitator to delivery by the learners. ("Teachers are midwives in the delivery of understanding." -- Ernst von Glaserfeld, proponet of
   Radical Constructivism.)
2. Learners are engaged in an active construction mode, rather than in a passive reception mode.
3. Learners are continuously challenged to exercise their thinking skills, communication skills and interpersonal skills, and to stretch beyond their comfort zone to deliver visible results on a very frequent basis. Delivery of tangible outcomes (of a substantial size) will be at short intervals of two to three days.
4. Deliverables (remember, by the participants) are divided into Mandatory and Desirable (must have, good to have). Learner cannot move to a subsequent stage without delivering the mandatory /must have items at every stage. Such interlocks are built into the design for error-proofing. Deviation, if any, can be obtained only after due deliberation, and will be documented through Deviation Notes.
5. Effective use of the principles in Game Design: Excitement, immediate feedback, rewards, increasing levels of challenge, giving a clue when stuck, etc.
6. Individuals learn in teams, working together to deliver tangible results as a team. Teams get rewarded for their performance as a team. Criteria for evaluation will include quality of the output, on-time delivery, participation of all the team members, compliance to processes, improvement / innovations in process or product, etc. Evaluation criteria for each deliverable are decided in advance and known to the participants.
7. The programme design uses metaphors such as exploration, expedition, trekking, treasure hunt and space mission. Phases or modules are modelled as 'camps'.
8. Focus in evaluations is on deeper cognitive processes (analysis, synthesis, development and application of models etc.) rather than memory or recall of information.
9. Systematic progress tracking, with significant use of visual displays and controls. Immediate feedback is given on corrections required. For enabling this, emphasis on written examinations is reduced, because it takes more time for detailed evaluation and thus delays feedback. Peer feedback becomes more important as the participants progress through the programme.
10. Participants earn Credits by submitting deliverables - tangible outputs in the form of various artifacts and projects. Some weightage may also be given to traditional methods of assessment (such as quiz, written exam and viva), but bulk of the weightage goes to an ongoing delivery of agreed delvierables as part of the learning process. Credit Scorecard at any point shows the progress for individual learner. Exceptions are analysed rigorously, not individually by the facilitator, but in dialogue with the learner.

Learning as Synthesis and Creative Design

How can we transform learning into an experience of joy, creative expression and free flow of energy?

This is a question that thoughtful teachers, parents, managers, counsellors, educators and leaders ask themselves.

How can we help learners to rise from the depths of imposition and drudgery into the realms of creative expression?

What is drudgery? It is the state where no learning is taking place. Drudgery is monotonous repetition. There is no life without some amount of drudgery -- repetition of already mastered tasks. Even those creative artists, sportsmen and entrepreneurs are not free from this. Attempts to escape drudgery by evasion will only lead to neurosis in the long run. What is the way out then? It is finding opportunities to re-create.

Monotony is cured by re-creation. Re-creation is creative expression. It is not re-arrangement; it is thoughtful re-design.

Learning becomes freed from monotony when learners re-create and re-design. Effective learning is a design process. Effective learning is synthesis.

Learning becomes a burden when the learner is expected only to reproduce what is taught, rather than re-create what he has learned. Why do many students dread the drudgery of schools and colleges, and even quite a lot of corporate training? Because all that is expected from them is to be able to faithfully reproduce facts, figures and formulae (information) in one examination after another. Where is the joy? Where is the scope for creativity and thinking out of the box?

Joy is in creative expression. There will still be struggle, striving and intense effort and a demand for rigour; but it is no longer fruitless striving that drains off energy and deflates the human spirit. The striving becomes an ascent towards the higher realms of the human spirit. That is the joy of learning.

Learning to learn

Let me deal with the most important question first: 'How can we help learners learn to learn?'

Of course, behind this question is a question to myself: 'How can I improve the relevance and accelerate the pace of my own learning?'

When I refer to learning, I am not referring to work-related knowledge and skills in isolation. I see career and profession as strokes and splashes in the painting of my life. Without these the painting wouldn't be made; but these alone do not make the painting.

I assume that everyone learns throughout life. It is only a question of what each person learns, and how fast he or she learns. This is what I would refer to as the relevance and pace of learning.
Let us look at relevance and pace as two dimensions of learning.




To creatively adapt ourselves throughout our lifespan, we have to learn relevant things at a fast pace. In this sense I would define learning as the process of creative adaptation.

Adaptation is not submission to the environment, but a process of evolution through dialogue with the environment. The adapting organism does not stand in isolation from the environment, but works as its constituent and influences the shaping of the environment.

I see from close quarters that the concepts of relevance and pace of learning, and learning as the process of creative adaptation are so much relevant to a domain such as Information Technology. Technology changes very fast. Almost overnight you see a new concept, a new framework, a new technology emerging from some corner of the world and threatening to replace old knowledge and skill-sets. We could say it is the same in every field -- medical sciences, engineering, social sciences, arts and every other pursuit of the human mind.

Themes for these blogs

Two questions that have made me reflect and prompted me to write these blogs are mentioned below:

1. How can we help learners to learn the most important thing -- 'How to improve the relevance and accelerate the pace of learning, and how to keep learning throughout life?'

2. How can we transform learning into an experience of joy, creative expression and free flow of energy?

There are many other questions, but most of them are variations of the above two over-arching themes.

We will face these questions as we go along in our journey of development as educators and leaders. (I believe both terms mean the same thing -- educators and leaders are facilitators of learning.)

Purpose of this Blog

To document and share my reflections on education.

In these blogs I am not talking about education as equivalent to what happens in our schools and colleges. No doubt, education may also happen in these places.

Education is the process of discovering purpose in life. The educated person seeks to know himself through action and relationships, wonders at the grandeur of the universe, finds meaning in life and departs without despair.

The fruit of education is a life well-lived.