Personal website, Founder Illumine
The challenge in preparing our students for the world of work today is not so much building capabilities, but building a contributive orientation to work and society. This is our role as educators.
The challenge in preparing our students for the world of work today is not so much building capabilities, but building a contributive orientation to work and society. This is our role as educators.
(Addressing principals and faculty of 500 affiliated colleges of the Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad in November 2011)
What kind of people will society need in the coming future? And therefore, what kind of capacity-building should our education system focus on?
What kind of people will society need in the coming future? And therefore, what kind of capacity-building should our education system focus on?
(Addressing participants of the Positive Economy Forum at San Patrignano, Italy, April 2015)
As a teacher, how do you train students to become enlightened citizens of our country?
Training our ‘citizens’ means enabling our fellow countrymen to transcend their narrow personal identities and work within the framework of their shared identity as Indians.
Working within a ‘shared identity’ as Indians also means that each of us takes responsibility not first for ourselves but for the collective.
This is easier said than done – because this means a second shift from ‘membership’ to ‘ownership’ – ‘I am a member of this community’ to ‘I am co-owner of this community’ – leading to a recognition that “If I do not take up the challenge, then who will?”
These dimensions of the citizen identity – shared identity (beyond one’s narrow/functional identities) and ownership (of the whole, rather than the part) together represent the building blocks of citizen training.
How is this shift in identity & ownership to be brought about?
We seek not that people add new skills and capabilities; we do not seek that people “understand the magnitude of the challenge in front of us”.
We seek instead that people awaken to the challenges – that they recognize that these challenges need to be dealt with by each one of us – and that they choose to act such that they are able to contribute effectively to the challenges facing us.
In short, we seek human transformation i.e. (i) awakening (ii) recognizing (iii) choosing, and (iv) contributing to the challenges.
Let us appreciate the scope and limitations of the current educational model – so that we find out why such a human transformative education has not been successful thus far.
The first and most crucial aspect of the current educational model is its emphasis on “knowing”.
Knowing is an intellectual activity. “He is a dull child”; “he is a bright child” – all these terms are related to knowing.
School is therefore seen as a framework to enable individuals to acquire, comprehend, and apply, if possible a vast body of knowledge.
While it is true that schools speak of all-round development – the thrust of our current educational model remains “knowing”.
The second aspect of the current educational model is its inordinate emphasis on “measuring” – based on the premise that life is a race and the fastest, swiftest, ablest shall win.
The third aspect of the current model is its complete disregard for the practice of conscious self-reflection – the capacity to investigate oneself and thereby make a change in the inner individual.
The fourth aspect of the current model is its deep disdain for the qualitative aspects of human capacity – such as our capacities for love, beauty, harmony etc.
And the fifth, perhaps the most important aspect of the current educational model is its inability to deal with man’s capacity to transcend his own narrow – almost material boundaries and soar to a larger vision of himself as collective.
This review provides us with a comparative context in which we seek to present a new model for education for human transformation.
Firstly, we would need to shift the emphasis of the schooling system from ‘knowing’ to ‘becoming’.
Becoming is an ideal, where individuals embark upon and proceed on a journey of personal transformation – not as a by-product of circumstances, but as a conscious journey of human expansion.
Secondly, we would need to shift the emphasis from ‘measuring one human being against others, on one or more dimensions’ to ‘enabling each human being to benchmark himself or herself as an incentive to progress steadily in the pathway of becoming’.
Thirdly, we would need to bring to practice, the methods of conscious self-reflection.
This implies that we would need to enable individuals to build a new ‘model of reality’ that is not outside man alone, but a new model of reality that includes man outside and man inside. Such a model would enable individuals to move self-reflection from a non-specific, qualitative expression of feelings and ideas into a specific methodology for identification and directed action.
Fourthly, a human transformative model would enable individuals to affirm their own “inner vision of reality” – which includes their own conceptions of beauty, love, knowledge, reality etc.
All too often, these profound aspects of human life are reduced to specific physical expressions such as attraction for physical beauty, a set of specific culturally valid expressions of love, a reduction of knowledge itself into a body of information to be acquired etc.
This reaffirmation of man’s inner conception of reality validates and brings to the fore the deeper trans-functional aspects of human existence.
This in turn enables individuals to become free of outside evaluation and outside opinions – and create their own meaning in life.
Finally, a human transformation education, must necessarily undertake the agenda of expanding each individuals conception of himself or herself – such an act leading to a breakdown of ever-growing divisions between man and man, and an increase in inter-human love and sympathy.
The discussion thus far has highlighted why the much needed transformation of our society is not taking place.
The truth: our current educational model is simply not equipped to deal with this kind of change.
What can an individual teacher or educationist do, so that such a human transformation is brought into the scope of an educational system that is deeply tied up in an existing institutional structure on one side and an existing structure of societal expectations on the other?
The question is to be answered by proposing a roadmap for change.
Step 1: Let us all inquire into the educational system – not by analyzing its ills – but by identifying specific gaps and then bringing about positive change in these gaps.
Step 2: Let us address for ourselves – whether we ourselves are perpetuators and perpetrators of the very system we condemn. In short, are the doctors themselves patients first? If yes, what can I, as an individual do about it?
Step 3: Let us propose a new model of education that doesn’t tear down, but instead builds on the present model.
Step 4: Finally, change, especially in the most stable of human institutions – the educational system – must take place because society itself must recognize the need for transcending the current system – and seek, therefore, our adjustment to the changing society outside.
In other words, we do not propose an alternative – we propose instead an evolution – which will be tuned not to man as a static economic being alone (bread-winning), coping with the world around him, but to an evolved concept of man as a dynamic, member of the human collective, who seeks and finds fulfilment, both outside and within, through life itself.
What is our prototype for developing men? This prototype cannot be restricted to the meditative Indian rishis, nor to the Greek prototype of physical perfection, nor to the Roman prototype of organization and expansion, but must include all.
A new prototype deeply aligned to the national ideal of renunciation and service was proposed by Swami Vivekananda. He himself was a living embodiment of this prototype. In his own words:
“You must try to combine in your life immense idealism with immense practicality. You must be prepared to go into deep meditation now, and the next moment you must be ready to go and cultivate these fields. You must be prepared to explain the difficult intricacies of the Shâstras now, and the next moment to go and sell the produce of the fields in the market.”
The quotation above demonstrates clearly that the ideal proposed by Swami Vivekananda necessarily involved a deep flexibility of role and contribution, keeping in mind the higher purpose towards which we work.
This role flexibility is in direct contrast to the fixed constellation of roles that characterize not just Indian society through centuries but also most hierarchical institutions as well.
(Originally written in May 2009)
What should be our techniques of education so that we don’t just transfer knowledge but help people transform?
The ideal of education that dominates schooling is “transmission of knowledge” from teacher to student.
A teacher who lives by this ideal will measure his or her own success through parameters such as
In contrast, a teacher who seeks to live by the human development ideal would use a completely different set of parameters. These parameters would include
In this context, let us now examine the challenge we seek to address:
How to achieve the goals of the human development ideal within the context of an existing schooling system that is clearly built on the “transmission of knowledge” ideal?
How to, in effect, accomplish the dual goal of developing dynamic human capacities needed for developing human personality while mastering the “knowledge-domain capacities” required by the educational and commercial systems?
This paper proposes that teachers who seek to integrate the human development ideal into the contemporary educational system could potentially accomplish their objectives if students were able to assimilate knowledge.
Assimilation of knowledge means not just comprehension of ideas but the translation of ideas into a transformed human being. Put differently, “assimilation of knowledge results in developing the student’s capacity to transform – himself, the situation in which he finds himself, and the possibilities open to him – by effectively leveraging the ideas and knowledge available to him.
However, a school or educational institution that seeks to promote such an assimilation of ideas by its students will need to bring about basic shifts in thinking at all levels of educational design.
These shifts are explored below
From “teacher as provider” to “teacher as enabler”
Assimilation means that the responsibility for self-transformation is awakened in the student. This responsibility is invoked when the teacher subtly modifies his/ her role in the classroom from “provider of knowledge” to “enabler of learning”.
From “providing information” to “supporting growth”
What is communicated by the teacher in class? In the current educational model, teachers elaborate upon what is already available in the text books or provide alternate sources of information that may be more relevant/ comprehensible. In the assimilation model, the teacher provides “triggers for learning” such that the students’ capacity to engage with the subject matter is improved. Such an approach amplifies the teacher’s contribution to the educational process and the students love for, and involvement with, knowledge and self-development.
From “mechanistic input” approach to “conditions for growth” approach
In the mechanistic input model, information is an asset that is “poured into” the students mind, much as fuel is filled in a motor vehicle.
In the conditions for growth model, knowledge is viewed as a nutrient or catalyst that can invoke, speed up, and ease the students’ struggles with knowledge and capacity development.
From “see, hear, and react to stimuli” to “engage with challenges”
Knowledge is born in a space beyond the senses. It is born within the human being, deeper, beyond the senses.
The trans-sensory nature of knowledge means that we go beyond the current obsessions with multi-media and multi-sensory education experiences to creating challenges that invoke inner excitement that comes from meeting challenges head-on.
The outcome, as in the case of the other shifts, is deeper ownership of knowledge, greater assimilation of ideas, and awakening of the evolutionary potential in the heart of every student.
We now translate these principle-level shifts into a practical model for classroom education. At the heart of this new model for classroom education is the recognition that the relationship between teacher and student is not a “push” relationship (teacher giving knowledge to the student), nor a “pull” relationship (student’s self effort and practice being the main cause of growth), but a “sense-respond” relationship (teacher enabling assimilation by the student)
In the assimilation model, both teacher and student are seen as “co-creators” of the learning experience.
“Co-creating” involves a journey of the teacher and student coming together; who, at the beginning of the process, are ‘far-off’ from each other – not in physical or emotional terms, but in terms of knowledge. Through this process, they come together; until finally, the teacher and student become ‘one’.
In this endstate, there is a ‘conscious’ practice that the student does, which the teacher continuously enables; until they become one single entity learning together.
This is a vision of education that reflects an ancient Indian tradition – the idea of ‘teacher-student’ as one single whole; with the teacher enabling the student’s growth, and the student growing in the environment provided by the teacher.
Here is a model which translates this vision of assimilation into a simple 4-step architected journey which the teacher/ educational leader can use to achieve predictable and replicable assimilation outcomes.
This model, easily adoptable by any school or educational institution that seeks improved quality of education, is described below
The Illumine Assimilation Model says that the teacher in any classroom needs to address four key dimensions of the assimilation challenge.
The dimensions are:
Each of these dimensions is explained in the subsequent sections.
Assimilation Dimension 1: Mental Access to the subject
Firstly, it is important to recognize that ‘mental access’ is different from ‘physical access’. A glaring example of having only physical access to knowledge, is when a student repeats something verbatim from memory but is unable to explain that subject in his/her own words.
Mental Access means providing a means for the student to “make sense” of the subject matter – in the context of his/ her own knowledge and experience.
One method of creating mental access is by providing a newcomer with a map. A well known example is the map of the London Underground railway. Visitors to London make sense of London by using this map, instead of using a geographical map.
Here are some examples of how a teacher can create mental access to a subject
Assimilation Dimension 2: Invoking Aspirations
Mental access is not enough, because the student has to aspire to learn. If a student doesn’t seek to learn, there is nothing a teacher can do. So, the next step of the journey is that the student’s aspiration must get awakened.
This requires a shift from ‘ambition’ to ‘aspiration’. The surest signal of ambition is the urge to acquire things. If a student wants to merely acquire knowledge then he/she will never feel like learning, and will instead find faster, shorter ways of getting quick results.
How is aspiration invoked? A student, in order to aspire for more understanding, more capacity, more assimilation of knowledge, must see the value and purpose of knowledge in the context of his/ her deeper identities.
Students have different identities with respect to knowledge.
In the light of the above, an effective teacher enables students to identify and adopt appropriate identities that encourage assimilation of knowledge.
Assimilation Dimension 3: Enabling Insight
The third step in the Assimilation Model is enabling insight.
Insight takes place when the student develops an “inner recognition” of the ideas being presented by the teacher.
This “inner recognition” is an act of discovery by the student.
The role of the teacher at this stage (after providing mental access, and invoking the aspiration of the student) is to provide triggers for this act of discovery.
Students achieve this inner recognition through a variety of mental capacities.
They include reasoning (the use of data), perception (the use of “frames of references”), narratives (the use of stories), and principles (the use of scenarios).
The teacher encourages the development and utilization of these mental capacities in the student, thereby enabling discovery and recognition of inner knowledge / insight in a more predictable and systematic manner.
Assimilation Dimension 4: Creating response capability
The fourth step in the Assimilation Model “creating response capability”.
Once “inner knowing” is created within the student, the teacher now awakens this knowledge so that it manifests as dynamic human capacity.
This manifestation of dynamic human capacity takes place when the student faces appropriate (not too hard, not too trivial) challenges – both within the knowledge domain and the real-world domain.
How is a challenge different from problems set in every examination? The difference lies in the outcomes we seek.
A teacher who sets “problems” wants “answers” or “set solutions” to the problem.
A teacher who provides “challenges” seeks that the student “responds creatively” – without the necessity of being right or wrong.
This creative response comes only when the student goes beyond the boundaries of memory (reaction) and enters the realm of possibilities and potentialities.
At this stage, the “knowledge” is being assimilated into transformed human potential.
The final stage: Conscious Practice
By this stage, the teacher has steadily enabled the student in the journey of assimilation.
Now, the teacher and the student are together, in cognitive terms.
The goal of both the teacher and the student is now to continue to grow and evolve in all aspects of knowledge related to the subject at hand.
This continued assimilation and consequent evolution will take place when both teacher and student undertake “conscious practice” of the subject – practice which is combined with awareness of potential improvement and growth.
This last stage is usually the realm of truly committed teachers and truly committed students.
For the rest, even one or more of the steps in the assimilation journey means a great advancement over the current reality, which we seek to progress beyond.
(Paper originally published in the September 2010 issue of Prabuddha Bharata (or Awakened India), the official journal of the Ramakrishna Order)
How do you help widen the notion of education from merely academic excellence to include the entirety of the human being?
How do you help widen the notion of education from merely academic excellence to include the entirety of the human being?
In this talk Srinivas shares Swami Vivekananda’s radical new vision for education with school teachers and principals –
(Keynote address at the Seminar on Education titled ‘Beyond Academic Excellence to Human Excellence’, organized by Ramakrishna Mission Mumbai, September 2011)
How do you create an education system that does not just give people theory/ technical know-how but develops them into potential contributors for society?
How do you create an education system that does not just give people theory/ technical know-how, but develops them into potential contributors for society?
(Addressing school principals at the National Seminar on Education organized by Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi, February 2011)