DEMYSTIFYING LEARNING

One feels like saying “Enough is enough”. The number of interventions to design a future society through imparting a process of education have caused more confusion than necessary. Repeated attempts to ‘destress learning’ have caused more stress through its policies, instruments and methods. We possibly need to draw a line somewhere and let children learn what they want to learn, what they need to learn and what they are capable of learning.

\

Learning is a continuous process and it does happen from birth to death with and without interventions. Learning has been happening since the origin of the organic species either through conditioning or through discovery, exploration, experience, curiosity, adventure and several other factors that impacted survival and living. Learning happened out of necessity, out of joy and out of the needs arising out of co-habitation. Learning was exclusively informal as the species developed and with a social orientation, formalization of learning occurred, thanks to political, social, cultural and economic compulsions. Nevertheless, learning was never conditioned by space and time, though oftentimes they have been facilitation factors.  Learning happened and does happen both consciously and otherwise.

Brain sciences have proved beyond doubt that learning is an emotional experience. In the absence of emotions, assimilation of data and information are raw inputs to memory, good enough to be recalled and delivered to needs, situations and demands with or without purpose or results. “Emotional stimulants” have articulated and impacted the learning methods, learning inputs and learning outcomes. However, these emotional stimulants were not necessarily ‘classroom inputs’; they have largely been personal, social, cultural and economic triggers that have colored the learning content to design ideas, thoughts and opinions.

Studies in the gender differences in brain have also shown that essentially the human brain has an overwhelming similarity, though minor differences in the design and the harmonic inputs to the brain have impacted the learning styles and quality. However, no variations resulting in superiority of either gender have been established. Social, cultural and other conditioners have impacted learning to be subjective, polarized and biased, though it is not the natural course of the brain and its plan of work. The role of Mirror Neurons in social learning, imitative learning and in collective behaviour have been discussed widely by neuro-cognitive psychologists and increasingly their role in ‘peer learning’ and ‘learning from nature’ is being discussed.

Several philosophical and psychological treatises have been tried globally to opine how ‘learning has to take place’ and the need of a curriculum and syllabus to provide a pathway to such purposes. These pathways – curriculum and syllabus – have both a limited and ‘close-door’ value to the learning process which is not linear, more often a synthesis of several sensory and non-sensory inputs that go along with it. Interestingly the number of visual, auditory and sensory pathways in humans is much larger than any other species thereby increasing the spectrum of learning both in terms of quality and quantity. Further, according to several cognitive psychologists, the capacity of ‘synesthesia’ of the brain opens up a wide variety of possibilities in terms of ideation, imagination, creativity and communication.

Learning thus being a natural selection of the human brain by choice, opportunity, need and curiosity, is not restrained by either a prescribed curriculum or syllabi, though they do have a limiting value to lead to some desired results either through convergence or through diversification. They have largely helped in meeting some professional needs of an evolving society. Schooling, an instrument of a social design, possibly born out of a social protectionism, has challenged the exploratory travelogue of the human brain, depriving its thrills and fantasies. It is important to understand that the quantum of a syllabus is neither gift nor a threat to the sojourn of an active mind. Of course, psychologically it can be a stimulant or a stress, depending on the articulation of its delivery process.

One of the serious considerations, in the schooling system why periodic interventions take place at various levels of the hierarchy, is to ‘destress’ the process of learning. It is unfortunate, however, that main ingredients that cause the stress are never attended to, but several peripherals are positioned as negative to learning.

1.       Learning is individualistic and personalized. Hence curricula and syllabi are only facilitating these personalized learning experiences. They are facilitators and are not deterministic.

2.       It is not the volume and the content of the syllabus that largely impacts learning (to a reasonable extent), but the way they are delivered that matters. Aptitude, attitude, attention and curiosity play a significant role in enabling effective learning; therefore, the process facilitation is more important than product orientation.

3.       Informal learning dominated over formal learning, according to several studies. Hence the ‘closed wall’ approach needs reconsideration facilitating discovery through inner and external experiences. The ivory tower approach to delivery of knowledge needs reconsideration.

4.       The purpose of assessment is to position learning and facilitate smooth progress in the learning curve of the learner. The threatening and negative role of assessment, the fear and insecurity it causes as a social filter to disorient an individual, has to be modified. Assessment, as a tool for re-engineering learning and as a search engine for identifying and filling gaps for onward journey has to be recognized.

5.       Learning is a happy experience. It is indeed an urge of the individual consciousness to find, establish and sustain its identity in its beautiful journey through life. This human endeavor should neither be restrained nor assaulted by information and data packages delivered as gifts of a society orchestrated by thoughts and experiences conditioned by the past. Learning has to move towards the future and the unknown.