1/14/2021 Part 2.11
We called this set of posts as learning philosophy. Why it is called so? Let us explain. First learning ,informal and formal education.
Let us understand that there is a difference between learning and education. We mean education as formal ones at schools and higher educational institutions.
Learning starts from the birth and goes on throughout one’s life time. Animals and birds learn for getting food and avoiding predators. Some learn collaboration also. Basically, it is survival learning. Humans are complex made up of habits, beliefs, biases, emotions, behaviors, attitudes, multiple actions like speaking and interactions, etc. Humans learn through several methods – seeing, feeling, observing, visualizing, imitating, discussing, listening, thinking, reading, writing, collaborating, working etc. We learn good behaviors, beliefs, habits, biases, etiquettes, correct manners, languages, ethics, attitudes, emotion controls. We combine native intelligence with acquired intelligence. We learn from the family, neighbors, community, and larger society. We now learn good and bad from media like newspapers, cinemas, TV and radio. Now we learn by browsing the web and googling.
We learn from offices, utilities, and from experience. We also learn human behaviors by interactions with others at various places. We build our character and behaviors through this process.
So learning is a long-term process. We learn a lot more from informal route than the formal education. Can we teach these ways of good behaviors, habits, beliefs and success characteristics in a formal class room? A good teacher can inspire some; punishment can push some either way- good side or bad side; appreciation and rewards also help. But teaching these in a class room has similar effect like teaching swimming from a book in a class room. Impact will be low. But a good community living makes education institutions a better place to learn and practice values. Online systems won’t help in this. So, no point in blaming education system alone for the results we see. But institutions can discuss regularly the value systems, impact of emotions, success traits, helping tendency regularly with examples. They need to make this as a part of education with primary focus. It will have an impact. That is how Panchatantra stories worked. But we have lot more examples today to help students by showing them several paths and guiding them to select appropriate goals, and professions. Students can become aware of problems and deficiencies and correct them. Many schools focus on discipline. It is important but overdoing is not good. It generates fear and hatred. So, we need counsellors. Educational institutions need to make the aspect of ethics and character building and defining goals as a priority not a tertiary or peripheral activity. Their survival depends on this. Otherwise, online teaching will take over and we need to shut down our institutions. We are at cross roads to refocus our educational system. It applies to higher education also. Don’t say it is schools’ responsibility. True it is ideal to build desirable characters at school level. But corrections at the University level are possible though difficult.
Happy Sankranti.
1/15/2021 Part 2.12
To continue further, learning is not a one-way process. Individual interest, effort and passion play a very significant role in learning and absorption. Children learn faster and easier from visuals and they love to imitate. That is an easy form of learning. They have less baggage to carry. By baggage, I mean strong beliefs and biases. They are yet to develop these beliefs. They don’t have egos and attitudes. Also, ambience at home and outside including educational institutions helps them to develop habits. In many cases, simple direction-ing and mentoring will help them to get into good habits. This needs to be done at school level and by parents definitely. Teachers can check on absorption and give more reading materials and exercises to some. Motivational talks, lectures on ethics are becoming core of the curriculum. Examples of great people, their life, their beliefs and thoughts impress children and these need to be part of curriculum. Again, one way talking is not enough. Induce discussions to improve learning and encourage thinking. These activities happen in most US and European schools. We need to collaborate with them and make our education meaningful.
1/16/2021 Part 2.13
Does a higher educational institution have a role in improving learning capabilities of a student?
Does this mean we assume this character building and motivation are parents and schools’ responsibility and we at higher institutions need not bother as one comment assumes. My answer is no. We at higher institutions also have a role and responsibility.
In the case of character building, we need to have a strong role because engineering systems are complex and failures lead to losses of life, property and money. So engineering ethics and teacher’s ethics need to be taught.
Lab work and group work can help students understand better.
Individual development and learning can be done through projects.
Flexibility and choices will improve motivation. Students can shift to different areas and disciplines. We need lot more electives and flexible learning.
Cambridge and Oxford produce leaders. We can learn from that. Teachers become mentors assessing a student’s interest and guiding each to select a suite of courses and also altering midway – no rigidity, no fixed curriculum, no one size fits all axiom that is working with our institutions today.
Special attention to gifted students and students with difficulties will make education inclusive. Tailor education to suit each person. Individual level attention is needed and technology helps us.
Certain biases and beliefs might be difficult to dislodge at this stage, but efforts need to be taken up. You can’t give up. Reimagine refocus education and institutions in order to survive and succeed.
As it is we are not getting enough students and running an institution on traditional way is not helping. Let us innovate our education system in a holistic way to build holistic innovative students. Many institutions have a grand vision statement. But it stays there not implemented. We should work to implement the visions and values.
1/18/2021 Part 2.14
There is a comment from Prof Ashok Kumar, TCE.
“Dear Sir, Good information received during the past two days. As you mentioned to improve learning, discussions are very significant. Now a days students showing interest in discussions are very less. Even in online classes they are not coming forward to discuss in open forum. Because of language problem, lack of confidence, and shyness are some of the reasons. When it comes to written discussion, response are somehow good. I feel Discussion habits will help them to face real world in confidence. How to improve this?”
My response
Well, it is a good question and I am glad of the great interest shown by Ashok Kumar to improve learning by students. His question has multiple components of answer.
We need to start with the fact discussions cannot and will not take place casually without much effort. The first aspect is
What motivates students?
I have seen students discussing intensely and with great deal of enthusiasm about a movie seen recently. They remember the small details of many scenes, compare various aspects of the movie like technologies, music, acting, theme, speed etc. They analyze in depth. Similarly, students analyze games. I have again seen students discussing a cricket match and describing ball by ball actions. Their observation, absorption of details and remembrance as well as critiquing power are phenomenal. So we need to create interest. Choose topics of common interest, relevance. Challenge their intellect.
How to operationalize discussions?
We need a careful plan with multiple approaches.
Since students are shy and all students don’t have one common interest, we have to
divide the class into a number of groups with about six or seven students. Start ice breaking sessions first. Get a moderator and a writer – summing up- for each group. Rotate the roles amongst the student members.
Fix a time slot one hour minimum per week. The groups can meet anywhere, even virtual meet is fine.
Next is the question of what to discuss. We need to choose several topics a priori to get started. These topics can be new technologies, their absorptions, their role in our disciplines, impacts on society and nature, economics etc. It can even be how to restructure disciplines, how to look for major projects, technology forecasts, career aspects, leadership qualities, successful scientists and engineers, or habit formations, attitudes, behaviors, beliefs etc. You may also Ask for suggestions from students not in the class room only but by email or chat from each group.
After the ice breaking, ask groups to identify topics and start discussions. Get the outcomes and transfer to other groups.
Establish ground rules. No fights. Give and take.
This can be done in a formal credit system. Give credits for discussions as part of the curriculum.
Since you asked about your course, pose about five questions every week. Ask the students to write maximum a page for each question. Then put some points which you find striking or controversial for discussions by groups.
Don’t expect students to discuss in a class. They are shy, diffident and afraid, naturally. There is a large gap between faculty and students in India. Once you build a culture, it becomes easy. This can be done in any of the colleges anywhere not necessarily the ones in Bangalore or big cities. They can even do surveys of stakeholders.
We can build more confident students through this way of discussions.
FAER will be willing to work with you all and conduct a search-a-thon to find happenings on some topics .it can be both Google searches and crowd sourcing. We can award a prize. Hope FAER trustees will respond to this idea.
1/19/2021 Part 2.15
Dr.parameshwaran Ajit ,an Astrophysicist talks about discussions in the interview with the Hindu paper
“Kip Thorne’s research group was a wonderful ecosystem, involving researchers from a variety of expertise and age groups. His group meetings were fun and intellectually stimulating. He would start by writing everyone’s names on the blackboard. My surname is difficult — but never once did he make a mistake! There were all kinds of rumors about “the movie Kip was making,” but he was quite good at keeping it to himself. “
Mr Jayashankar talks about his experience on discussions.
“Years back I had the experience of handling group discussions in Quality circles in factories. There we make some important rules.
Quality circles are mainly for resolving quality issues of a product or assemblies.
We call it as a brain storming session.
1) Any suggestions or questions are restricted to only a particular issue.
2) People have freedom to accept or reject suggestions with valid reason. While one is expressing his views no interruption by anybody before the talk is completed.
4) Acceptance or denial of any suggestion should be done very calmly without any fighting mood.
5) If a suggestion seems to be silly or not acceptable, there should not be any condemning or snubbing or laughing. Gently he should be advised that this suggestion is not relevant to this problem and perhaps it could be relevant to some other issues.
Participants should feel ease in expressing their views.
Finally, the language of expression should not be criticized. Once it is done, he will shrink to his shell though he may have a valid suggestion
All I listed for Quality circle participants is applicable to students also. That too students would be very sensitive to criticism.
The participating students should be clearly explained the scope of discussion and advised not to cross the boundary.
I anybody does cross, he should be told gently that this idea may be relevant t some other subject which we will be discussing later.
Last but not the least, the students should be clearly told that each student participation is very important and not to show indifference.
Mr Bala comments:
If you feel my comments are negative, my apologies, but I think it may perhaps give a comparison of classroom management here in Australia to India.
I shared the quality circle approach with my son, who taught high school students for two years as part of earning his M. Ed degree, to get his thoughts. He said, given the extraordinary freedom that students enjoy while studying, such approaches will work well with self motivated learners. It is just not possible to engage the entire classroom. Motivating the students to learn still happens to be the top priority task for teachers as part of classroom management.”
Mr Mahesh Jain comments:
Undisputed evolution of the discussion – we must have Indology (Indian heritage, Indian thought, India) as a subject along with intro to today’s India- problems of rural India, constitution, democracy as a subject (s) in all disciplines of the degree. In science, we should have Indian scientific thoughts as a subject.
1/21/2021 Part 2.16
We have been discussing about discussions. Discussions is the basis for philosophy. Hindu shastras call it Tarka in the first stage and nyaya in the second stage. The main objective is to query, explain and analyze and find truth. This is the initial level of finding truth. More deeper studies are needed to get deeper truth – that is from uttara mimamsa. That is a big objective. But we can have many small objectives for understanding 360 degrees of various activities, situations, problems and happenings.
Gandhiji has the habit of writing regularly to clear his thoughts and propagate his ideas to others. He has written on health, education, Hind Swaraj, and many other aspects extensively. He had discussed with Leo Tolstoy about Hinduism based on Tolstoy’s “a letter to a Hindu ” as a reply to C R Das. He was impressed and deeply moved with Ruskin’s thoughts. He wrote a commentary on Ruskin’s book unto the last. He coined the term Sarvodaya there.
Gandhiji gives us a summary of the teachings of Unto This Last as he understood it:
” 1. The good of the individual is contained in the good of all.
2. A lawyer’s work has the same value as the barber’s, as all have the same right of earning their livelihood from their work. 3. A life of labor, i.e. the life of the tiller of the soil and the handicraftsman is the life worth living.”
I used to see many literatures discussing on many topics daily with friends. Great persons like D V Gundappa, KV Puttappa , Masti and Shivaram karanth spend a lot of time discussing with others and common people. It was a period of great innovative thoughts coming out from them which were also written and those written thoughts live forever.
We need to reintroduce this culture. Despite opportunities plenty, writing has come down. Of course, political writings have gone up. Are we seeing great writers today?
We also need a relook on teaching. Teaching style needs a total change.
Lecturers (and authors) like to teach using a top-down approach, so they usually begin with abstract general principles, and then move on to more concrete examples. In contrast, students usually like to learn using a bottom-up approach, so they like to begin with examples, from which abstract general principles can then be derived. it is desirable to teach using a bottom-up approach. An overview of the topic, its relevance, its scope, its impacts, its applications etc. should be posed before getting into the topic. That will lead to motivation. We teach elasticity and Young’s modulus. Students have no clue why this topic. If we started with buildings, beams in the buildings and move to strength and expansion and then to Young’s modulus, it will improve understanding by many students. Many universities have reworked their teaching using this approach. We used to teach programming from small applications and keep on growing with new constructs. So, we need to go for problem / applications-based teaching. This is one step in improvements to learning.
Received many comments on problem-based learning.
Prof AGRamakrishnan, EE department at IISc has this to say:
Sir, Pranaams.
Yes, this will be the most interesting and effective way of teaching. I was one of the students, who never understood why Young’s modulus is taught. And I am also seeing that when I constrain myself to put down clearly what I think I have understood, new questions come up, leading to more enquiry & understanding.
He also gives comments by Mark Twain
Mark Twain’s Top 10 Writing Tips
“Don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in”
Widely regarded as the greatest American writer of his time, Mark Twain was often asked for advice on the art and craft of writing. Sometimes the famous humorist would respond seriously, and sometimes not. Here, in remarks drawn from his letters, essays, novels, and speeches are 10 of Twain’s most memorable observations on the writer’s craft.
10 Tips from Twain
1. Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.
2. Use the right word, not its second cousin.
3. As to the Adjective: when in doubt, strike it out.
4. You need not expect to get your book right the first time. Go to work and revamp or rewrite it. God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God’s adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed, by and by.
5. Substitute damn every time you’re inclined to write very; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
6. Use good grammar.
7. Damnation (if you will allow the expression), get up & take a turn around the block & let the sentiment blow off you. Sentiment is for girls. . . . There is one thing I can’t stand and won’t stand, from many people. That is, sham sentimentality.
8. Use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English–it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in.
9. The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is that you really want to say.
10. Write without pay until somebody offers pay. If nobody offers within three years, the candidate may look upon this circumstance with the most implicit confidence as the sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for.
Prof Dinesh,SIT, Tumkur agrees.
Yes sir I fully agree teaching has to be bottom-up.
Prof SB Kulkarni from SDM Dharwad also agreed:
“Sir, Good morning, My view: Establishing context then going deeper into the subject may sounds good
Mr P V Joshi, Indian Bank wants action.
1/23/2021 Part 2.17
We called this set of posts as learning philosophy? Why philosophy? What is philosophy? Let us look at this.
Philosophy uses enquiry – questions and answers – method and reasoning to understand various aspects of life, universe and actions.
Philosophy: initially philosophy used reason in understanding such things as the nature of the real world and existence, the use and limits of knowledge, and the principles of moral judgment:
René Descartes is regarded as the founder of modern philosophy. He said ” I think, I am”
It evolved into a discipline -a group of theories and ideas related to the understanding of a particular subject:
the philosophy of education/religion/science/ morality or ethics.
It postulated a particular system of beliefs, values, and principles: for example,
the Ancient Greek philosophy of Stoicism.
Stoicism teaches the development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions; the philosophy holds that becoming a clear and unbiased thinker allows one to understand the universal reason (logos).
The Stoics elaborated a detailed taxonomy of virtue, dividing virtue into four main types: wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation. Wisdom is subdivided into good sense, good calculation, quick-wittedness, discretion, and resourcefulness.
Philosophy was also looked at as an informal way that someone thinks about life and deals with it:
Philosophy (from Greek: φιλοσοφία, philosophia, ‘love of wisdom’) is the study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about reason, existence, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. The term was probably coined by Pythagoras (c. 570 – c. 495 BCE). Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument, and systematic presentation.
philosophy (3rd century),
Diogenes Laertius presents a three-part division of ancient Greek philosophical inquiry:
Natural philosophy (i.e., physics, from Greek: ta physika, lit. ‘things having to do with physis [nature]’) was the study of the constitution and processes of transformation in the physical world. Newton and Bertrand Russel talked about philosophy of mathematics and Physics.
Moral philosophy (i.e., ethics, from êthika, ‘having to do with character, disposition, manners’) was the study of goodness, right and wrong, justice and virtue.
Metaphysical philosophy (i.e., logic, from logikós, ‘of or pertaining to reason or speech’) was the study of existence, causation, God, logic, forms, and other abstract objects (meta ta physika, ‘after the Physics.
Indian philosophy has progressed through thousands of years from Rig Veda times.
We will discuss some aspects tomorrow.
1/24/2021 Part 2.18
One of the early western philosophers who talked about education is Epictetus.
I am copying from the book Enchiridion.
Epictetus, Roman philosopher of the first century and a half of the Common Era, was similar to philosophy’s first martyr, Socrates, in that he never wrote anything down and that what we know of him we know from the writings of his student. Epictetus’ Plato was played by Arrian, who claimed to have recorded the Discourses of his mentor and to have summarized the thought of Epictetus in the Enchiridion. Epictetus is often seen as the bridge between the ancient Stoics [An ancient Greek and Roman school of thought that held that human beings are part of the natural order and thus bound completely by it. To struggle against that which must be was seen as a certain path to pain and anguish.] of classical Greece and the later Stoics of imperial Rome, particularly Marcus Aurelius. His work centers around the understanding that a single purpose or force pervades all reality, that there exists but a single natural law [The natural structure of the universe. Often, philosophers and scientists try to express the natural law by means of principles. For the stoic, the natural law is the deterministic cause and effect.] and from this law nothing is immune.
His work stands as a rebuttal to the oft-made criticism that Stoicism is a philosophical view designed mainly for the powerful. On Epictetus’ view, all people are capable of virtue. This capacity is in virtue of the fact that the natural law or logos is universal. Living morally is first a matter of coming to understand the logos, and since all are bound by it, it is accessible to all. However, moral intuitions are not sufficient for virtue. These are important observations about the need for conditioning our minds with morality.
Rather, according to him, a necessary condition for the achievement of virtue is education. It is only through education that people might come to understand the structure of the universe and how it is interwoven with the fabric of daily life. Given that what is experienced in life is inevitable, the only control a person has is how he shapes his attitude towards those happenings. He writes, “There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power. Within our power are opinion, aim, desire, aversion, and in one word, whatever affairs are our own. Beyond our power are body, property, reputation, office, and in one word, whatever are not properly our own affairs.”
1/25/2021 Part 2.19
There are several reasons for the post of yesterday. It is not to show Romans are better than Indians. It is not that Morality is talked by them. We know that morality is the corner stone of early Indian teachings.
The reasons are
Obeying natural laws is not only elites’ concern. It affects poor people more. So, a subtle need for inclusion of all in the system.
The importance of nature and morality are emphasized. We see ecology, natural forces, their impacts gaining traction even in first century.
Most importantly, these concepts cannot be learnt only through intuition. They need to be taught explicitly. As a country, we do not want to teach ethics. This leads to confusion. That is the reason for the unrest in India. We don’t have a directive principle for this or for preservation of nature.
we have several books and several stories explaining ethics and morality. Poetry is taught in a literature course. Tamils take a pride in kural and teach a few in tamil language subject. The values are not discussed. Similarly, some stanzas of Bhartruhari’s Neeti Shatakam are taught in Sanskrit language class. We need to teach ethics explicitly. That is missing in our system. Many think it is a waste. It is religion. So, taboo.
The main reasons are – how do we inculcate good habits in children? Does education have a role or not? Is there another route to teach this outside formal education system?
That was the purpose of the post of yesterday.
1/26/2021 Part 2.20
Let us look at some Greek philosophers before Socrates.
Thales (c.624-c.545 B.C.E.), traditionally considered to be the “first Greek philosopher,” proposed a first principle (arche) of the cosmos: water. Thales is the first one to go beyond mythical aspects and give reason for his choice.
Like Thales,
Anaximander
(c.610-c.545 B.C.E.) also posited a source for the cosmos, which he called the boundless (apeiron). That he did not, like Thales, choose a typical element (earth, air, water, or fire) shows that his thinking had moved beyond sources of being that are more readily available to the senses. He might have thought that, since the other elements seem more or less to change into one another, there must be some source beyond all these—a kind of background upon or source from which all these changes happen. Indeed, this everlasting principle gave rise to the cosmos by generating hot and cold, each of which “separated off” from the boundless.
Like Anaximander, Anaximenes (c.546-525) thought that there was something boundless that underlies all other things. Unlike Anaximander, Anaximenes made this boundless thing something definite—air. For Anaximander, hot and cold separated off from the boundless, and these generated other natural phenomena. For Anaximenes, air itself becomes other natural phenomena through condensation and rarefaction. Rarefied air becomes fire. When it is condensed, it becomes water, and when it is condensed further, it becomes earth and other earthy things, like stones. This then gives rise to all other life forms. Furthermore, air itself is divine. Both Cicero and Aetius report that, for Anaximenes, air is God . Air, then, changes into the basic elements, and from these we get all other natural phenomena.
See the learnings taking small steps.