Students are learners but known to us as students who need to learn. Primary and high school students’ study at the behest of their guardians and possibly learn. How about learners in higher education? How do they learn? Let me remind you that tis learner has made a conscious decision to spend valuable time, money and other resources to secure a degree that ensures a career. Are they keen on learning or establishing a career? Not sure, but not my concern here, now. Teachers are considered as custodians who ensure that learning happens. Is it? I have a different view based on my observations & experience. I consider that teachers ensure learning primarily by establishing obedience, compliance and discipline, rather than through facilitation of learning as the primary way. My opinion needs to be discussed to see if this is reasonable or otherwise, hence I invite commentary and criticism from people who care about learning. Read my story in this blog that shaped my opinion.
It was 9 on a morning, and I was meditating in a St Teresa Church, Chennai. I could hear a firm voice on a mike, advising students at a school to come on time, by 8.25 am, or else stay out of school. I could see some students entering a gate to the school. I am not sure if this rule would have been implemented from the next day, but a question arose, does a teacher or a head of a learning place have the authority to ensure discipline at the expense of learning? Does ensuring discipline and obedience ensure learning, partially or in full? Check the response of ChatGPT which favoured discipline to be essential for academic success; leading to career success and thus overall success. I disagreed, but did not find any evidence to support my case.
An interaction with my former colleague who also was my former student previously lead to more insights. We share mutual respect and a good rapport. He called me few days ago to understand a module I was dealing before when working there. The module was part of the formal curriculum but did not require any mandatory attendance or assessments. Even if a student skips all the activities, it will not affect the completion of the BDS. I liked this format of the module as I could gauge if my work inspired the learners to learn this new topic. The topic is not immediately useful to start work as a dentist but gives an edge as many other newer topics. My former colleague asked me, “How do I make sure that all students attend and benefit?” “Why should everyone attend?” “They should attend, they are not aware how important this topic is?” “Then let them know the importance!” “No students know the importance; it should be enforced”. “Are you being a parent?” We paused. I reflected, no parent owns their kids, it is an opportunity given to you to raise a kid to integrate in the society. I explained to this former colleague that I consider myself as a deviant.
This interaction helped me remember another incident how a student was told to withdraw from the programme when he confessed to be a gamer that affected his grades. Another student was denied learning opportunity because he did not finish some mandatory work. Who gives the institution the right to deny learning opportunity for a learner who has a learning contract. The contract does not stipulate denial of learning opportunities. Blame is squarely on the student who fails his assessments, the University absolved of any mistakes on its part: University never makes mistakes.
You cannot penalise, enforce attendance, enforce discipline, then how about the learning? Will it happen? Is it utopian? Space travel was utopian. AI was science fiction. Internet could not be imagined once. Schools happened because learning happened, not the other way around. Learning happened before schools, with schools and after schools. Schools and discipline do not provide learning. Learning happens because “I want to learn. If I don’t learn, I don’t get opportunities. If I don’t contribute, I don’t have any dignity or place in the society.” This is the educational theory, Andragogy by Malcolm Knowles.
So, my former colleague prodded. “You need to be in a utopian school to have your way, Shaju.” I think not. It is possible to have full-fledged andragogy integrated in the present system of educational, focussed on a single opportunity to be assessed and declared learned. I will discuss my ideas in the next post. Why discuss? Because I believe that ideas with no formal evidence need inputs from all quarters. The one difficulty I find is lack of opportunity to engage and discuss, F2F or through social media. All I have a silence and indifference to my ideas. But when I get those rare moments, like with my former student and colleague, I am ready. Follow this post for my ideas.
#ObedienceDisciplineLearning
I write blogs on Academic Coaching, topics that empower students in their learning journey. If you want to subscribe to email alerts for new content, click here. All blog posts available here.
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