Diversity in Thinking – Comparative Advantage in a VUCA Future

“Who won World War II?  i. Goodies  ii. Baddies”  

Taken from a cartoon, this line nicely sums up how multiple-choice questions in standardised examinations are dumbing down education. We have become besotted with how students perform in examinations. Such exam-centric education unduly emphasises learning the content of a discipline, usually by rote, and students often lack a deeper understanding of fundamental concepts or episteme of a discipline and the underlying thinking framework.
 

In the 20th century stockpiling knowledge in the form of a University degree did almost guarantee lifelong employment but now, when we are in an era where abundant knowledge is easily and cheaply accessible, having a head full of knowledge is no longer a comparative advantage. Admission into a good college on the basis of high marks and the University degree that follows may lead to the first job but mugging up just the content of a discipline does not secure a bright future for students. Moreover, intelligent machines are now taking over cognitive tasks that could earlier be performed only by a human brain and for future employment today’s students will have to compete not only with fellow humans but also with intelligent machines.

Employment and entrepreneurial prospects are significantly brighter for students who learn how to create ‘value’ for a large number of fellow denizens of planet Earth and can deliver this ‘value’ successfully to the market as a product or service. This ‘value’ could be material – designing a more efficient way to tap solar energy, or it could be physical – becoming a Yoga trainer, or it could be social – inventing a service like Facebook or Uber, or it could be psychological – offering ways of living a joyful life to multitudes.

 What complicates the problem of value creation is that students will need to make this happen in a future that is VUCA – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. 

Education needs to prepare students to thrive in a VUCA environment by instilling in them the ability to wonder, which in turn leads to development of a fertile imagination. Education also needs to develop a laser sharp intellect with deep perception as intellect and perception are needed to abstract new patterns by connecting the knowledge dots in novel ways. Ability to deal with complexity is another essential quality for flourishing in a VUCA future. This includes ability to use intelligent machines to churn data to garner insights from information and have the ability to take judicious decisions to solve complex problems. 

To achieve these objectives of cultivating an insatiable curiosity, fertile imagination, sharp intellect, deep perception and ability to solve complex problems, education has to go much beyond its current infatuation with exams and in addition to knowing the content of a discipline school and University education should also cultivate ‘disciplinary skills’ – i.e. mode/framework of thinking, threshold concepts, vocabulary... – elements that need to be mastered to gain deep expertise in that discipline. 

Take history for example. It is not about mugging up facts, which is what an exam-focused education inadvertently emphasises. History is a living interpretation of the past. It is about perspectives, for example victor vs vanquished and how both sides interpret past events. Thinking like a historian is about understanding the 'Arc of Inquiry' – formulating probing questions to understand the larger context, articulating a historical claim, finding evidence for and against the claim in the form of primary and secondary sources, evaluating these sources for their provenance (reliability, authenticity, bias, prejudice), corroborating the sources, drawing inference and presenting your argument cogently with evidence. 

Thinking like a Historian is also about learning from the wisdom of history. As Santayana put it, “Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.” Knowing history should make one capable of taking informed action because history teaches you about choices people made in the past and the consequences of these choices. Studying history should lead to an appreciation of how seemingly insignificant acts can later lead to a domino effect. 

The causal nature of history is akin to science – choices and consequences in history and cause and effect in science. While there are similarities in the two disciplines the way a scientist thinks is also very different from the way a historian thinks. Unlike a historian who is dealing with human events of the past a scientist is mostly dealing with empirical phenomena. Science can be construed as man’s dialogue with nature where a scientist observes nature, formulates a hypothesis, conducts experiments and draws an inference about a natural phenomenon. A historian cannot conduct experiments and can only rely on primary and secondary sources to interpret past events. 

Learning different modes of thinking – thinking like a scientist, thinking like a historian, thinking like a writer, thinking like a mathematician, thinking like an artist and so forth, enhances a student’s ability to perceive the world in a more profound manner by looking at it through different lenses and this makes the student a deep, independent thinker. Disciplinary skills and an appreciation of how experts in different disciplines think also prepares a student to appreciate and understand cross-curriculum linkages – similarities and differences across disciplines. This in-turn develops the ability to connect the dots of knowledge in more creative and innovative ways, which yields fresh insights and facilitates finding novel solutions to complex problems, thus opening up the possibility for value creation. 

And, ability to create value is the new comparative advantage in a VUCA future.

Tinkering with Electronics & Circuits - workshops in rural schools in the Himalayas, Dec 2015

In Dec 2015 I was back again in the Himalayas to conduct Timeless Lifeskills workshops in small, rural schools. The theme of the workshops this visit was ‘Tinkering with Electronics & Circuits – Thinking Like a Scientist’.

The underlying objective of the workshop was to make students aware of how experts in different disciplines think. In other words focus of the workshops was on 'Modes of Thinking'. Figuring out how a scientist thinks (observation > hypothesis > experiments > inference) is different from the way say a historian thinks (claim > evidence > primary > secondary sources > provenance) enhances students' perspective and helps them become independent, deep thinkers.

Exam centric schooling focuses only on learning (some would say mugging up) content. The aim of these workshops was to not only learn content in a fun, hands-on way but also learn disciplinary skills. 

Over a two week period I interacted with 250+ students and over a dozen teachers from 10 rural schools. The first school I visited was Aarohi Bal Sansaar in village Satoli 30 km from Almora.

On day-1 students learnt the basics and tinkered with different electronic components like bulbs, motors, LEDs, buzzers and switches to understand concepts like conductors and insulators, polarity, parallel & series circuits, voltage and current etc.

We then moved to creating Electronic Art by embedding LEDs into paper circuits using copper tape and button cells.

This idea of Electronic Art made with copper tape, button cell and LEDs was inspired by MIT Media Lab's 'Paper Circuits' project - http://highlowtech.org/?p=2505

Another example of electronic art:

We used different types of material to create Electronic Art & Craft. Here we are using conducting dough made from ordinary flour (aata) mixed with salt. This project was inspired by University of St Thomas' 'Squishy Circuits' - http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/apthomas/SquishyCircuits/

A Rangoli made from conducting play dough.

We then made simple Electronic Toys.

An attempt to make a Hovercraft.

We then made Scribbler Bots – simple machines that can draw. Inspiration for this came from San Fransisco Exploratorium's project - http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/scribbling-machines

A Scribbler Bot in action.

An example of Scribbler Bot art.

Can I make this balloon fly? Hmm, I have to make a hypothesis, conduct experiments, draw inferences and keep improving my design… I have to think like a scientist!

Students learnt about electricity and how they could use a simple DC motor as a generator. This project is inspired by Arvind Gupta's Toys from Trash initiative - http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/films.html 

After 4 days at Aarohi I visited Jeevanshala, a tiny school in village Maram, 80 km from village Satoli.

There I conducted workshop for class 4 and 5 students.

The theme was the same – tinkering with electronics, making paper circuits and flour-dough art - to learn to think like a scientist.

Ultimately it was all about imagination, creativity and collaboration – Timeless Lifeskills.

What I found most amazing was that the play dough we used was the same I had given to Jeevanshala three years back! Those who have very little truly understand the value of what they have!

After Jeevanshala I visited a government school in village Chanoli at the invitation of their extremely motivated and imaginative teacher, Kalyan Mankoti (in red check shirt), whom I had met last June during a workshop I had conducted for teachers in Almora.

I had a great time interacting with students from classes 6 to 8. I spent the night at Chanoli village and also got to meet some of the parents.

Class 8 girls building a Scribbler Bot.

My final visit was to the Science Centre run by Himwats, a Haldwani-based organization, founded by octogenarian Prof H.D. Bist. Himwats works with seven local government schools in Champawat, Himwats volunteers supplement and complement government school teachers.

Over 4 days I interacted with children from classes 5 to 8 from the seven schools Himwats supports.

With Himwats volunteer teachers and some students. 

I am thrilled to learn that Deepak (extreme left in greyish sweater), a volunteer at Himwats, is taking the Tinkering with Electronics workshop to other schools. He emailed me this photograph.

Here is a brilliant example of Electronic Art created by students under Deepak's guidance.

On the whole the two weeks I spent in the small rural schools in Himalayas was an exhilarating experience. I am very much looking forward to my next visit when I will shift gears and focus on another Mode of Thinking - Thinking Like a Historian! 

Anatomy of the A-ha Moment

The brightly lit bulb in comics depicts a flash of insight, when something incomprehensible suddenly makes sense, the moment you go ‘A-ha, I got it!’ The mental exhilaration you get when you make
a connection between something new and something you already know is called the a-ha moment.

True comprehension is also what makes knowledge actionable.

But why is it that your formal education journey doesn’t have too many of these a-ha moments? And what can you do such that all the panels in the comic strip of your formal education journey are full of brightly lit bulbs? Well, if you deconstruct the a-ha moment, according to educational psychologists, you can follow a path towards deeper comprehension, whatever be the topic of study:

1. First step in the path to deeper comprehension is ‘Building Your Curiosity’ about the topic.
2. Second step is ‘Formulating Probing Questions’ that pique your interest and activate whatever ‘prior knowledge’ you have about the topic.
3. Third step involves looking at the topic of study from ‘Multiple Perspectives’.
4. Fourth step is formulation of ‘Instructive Analogies’ and ‘Synthesis of Knowledge’ that helps update your mental model.
5. Fifth step is ‘Multiple Representations’ to depict your updated mental model.
6. Sixth step is ‘Multiple Performances of Understanding’ to assess comprehension.

Let’s look at these steps a little more closely -

1. Building Your Curiosity

The a-ha odyssey begins with curiosity. Once your curiosity gets fired up, it secures the cognitive commitment needed to undertake a learning adventure. Curiosity arouses your interest. The deeper your interest, the more likely you are to stick with it, despite the frustrations and setbacks that accompany all learning journeys.

2. Formulating Probing Questions

When you formulate compelling questions that you are curious to find answers to, it not only builds your curiosity – thus strengthening your resolve to learn – but also activates whatever ‘prior knowledge’ you have about the topic of study. This is essential because comprehension is nothing but the bridge between what you already know and the new thing you want to learn.

Here, you must be aware of one thing – problems in understanding can happen because your current mental model or the prior knowledge that you have about the topic is flawed. You must be conscious of this and remain mentally flexible to address this issue, if needed.

3. Multiple Perspectives

After you have formulated insightful questions, look at the topic from multiple perspectives. For example, look at a book from both the protagonist’s and the antagonist’s perspective, or consider the life situation of a mathematician when he postulated a new theory instead of just mugging up the final formula he gave. This will give you a deeper appreciation of the larger context and the nuances of the topic of study, which will help in conceptual comprehension.

4. Instructive Analogies & Knowledge Synthesis

Analogies help you go from the known to the unknown. They invoke your prior knowledge about the topic and help build connections from something you know to the new topic. For example, while studying the circulatory system, you can draw an analogy with a cops & bad guys movie, assigning character roles to red and white blood cells, platelets and organs involved. Once you have formulated instructive analogies, you should then synthesise your knowledge by making connections across disciplines. Say, you learn about Venn diagrams in math but instead of making another Venn diagram in the math exam (which you will anyway and all it indicates is your ability to regurgitate), you should create a Venn diagram in English to compare and contrast two books or two authors – how they are similar and how they are different.

5. Multiple Representations

The next step in the journey to deep comprehension involves representing the new knowledge in multiple ways. For example, you could make flowcharts, concept diagrams, or mind maps to represent what you have learnt and understood.

6. Multiple Performances of Understanding

Finally, look for opportunities to demonstrate your understanding, preferably in a real-world context. You could ask yourself how something you have learnt in science can be practically useful in the local environment where you live. If real-world application is not possible, demonstrate your understanding in other ways like participating in discussions and debates, writing a blog, creating podcasts or making animation, videos or apps. Creating an e-portfolio based on what you have learnt not only deepens your understanding of the topic, it also serves as evidence of your comprehension. It can become another form of assessment.

Nobel laureate Sydney Brenner was of the view that nobody in science, especially students, read anymore. They only Xerox things. He once quipped to a student, “Have you tried neuroxing papers? It's a very easy and cheap process. You hold the page in front of your eyes and you let it go through there into the brain. It's much better than Xeroxing.”

Once you understand the anatomy of the a-ha moment you can neurox any form of knowledge!

The Positive Spiral of Education

As an independent educator, I often conduct workshops at schools and this gives me a chance to interact with teachers. Couple that with all the various parent-teacher meetings I have attended as a parent to a 14-year-old, and it means I have observations on the different kinds of teachers that people the education world. I find that they can broadly be classified into three types:

• Maximum Markus: Some who have a very narrow definition of schooling and are ‘grade’ focused – do this and you will get better marks.
• Subjectus Superior: Some who think end game of education is social success only and hence are very ‘exam’ focused (X subject will be a good choice for GCSE/A-level and will help the student get admission into a good college).
• Expecto Passionum: Fortunately, most of my son’s teachers focus on ‘how to build his interest in their subject’.

I say fortunately because in many schools I feel we have created a vicious circle – first we (parents, teachers, society) prioritise ‘learning to earn’, then we work backwards and say this requires ‘admission to a good college’, which in turn means getting 'good grades’ in school and hence we emphasise ‘gaming the system’ to get good grades.

Gaming the system includes doing things like practicing the past 10 year exam papers, learning by rote and regurgitating what you have memorised, without any deep comprehension and in a manner that gets you good grades in exams.

A good school is one that facilitates and empowers students to discover their area of interest and then fosters a life long curiosity and ability to master and shine in that domain. Interest in a domain secures cognitive commitment to stay the course despite setbacks and frustrations and consequent specialisation in a domain leads to the student becoming a musician, dancer, artist, geographer, historian, scientist, mathematician or whatever maestros will be called in future disciplines.

A virtuous circle of education would first foster a ‘yearning to learn’ (against the current emphasis on ‘learning to earn’) and for this a good school should provide,

• A rich learning environment (offer many different disciplines/subjects, clubs, sports and other extra-curricular activities…) so that students can explore and discover their element.
• Teachers should don the role of the guide and mentor, so as to aid students with becoming self-directed and self-determined learners.
• School management should reward such teachers and policy makers should encourage and support such schools.

And we parents should appreciate that focus of schools on cultivating lifelong yearning to learn coupled with making students capable of taking ownership of their learning is what is in the long-term interest of our children. Especially when the rate of change is as fast as it is in the 21st century and children who will succeed in future will be those who can figure out for themselves:

• What is worth learning?
• How will I learn it?
• How will I know I have learnt it well?
• How will I become better at learning new things and keep reinventing myself?