Rethinking education

 Rahul Deodhar
Rethinking Education

2|
Foreword  Education as we know it is changing and that it needs to change is
something everyone agrees to. What is not clear is what should
new education look like.
 We know that some parts of our current education systems are
valuable while others are redundant. The redundancy is result of
different causes. Some have been made redundant because of
advent of aiding mechanisms (e.g. calculators) while others are
redundant because we no longer need them.
 Conversely, there are other skills that are becoming ever more
central to our jobs and work. The ability to interact with computers
and with humans through computers is an example.
 We typically ask what should we teach children, thereby focusing
on K-12 or high school education. It is a wrong question to start
out with. The most apt question is what does any ordinary person
need to learn. When we know this, we will know what do we need
to teach children.
 So this slide-doc is going to take the first principles approach to
education. It is the first attempt to breach the education dilemma
and thus, not complete. Please email me or tweet about it so that
we can invite comments.
 Rahul Deodhar
 @rahuldeodhar | rahuldeodhar@gmail.com

3|
!"&
Goals of
Education
Economic, social
and personal goals
are critical goals of
education and
emphasis must be
laid on each for
betterment of
society.
Contents of
Education
What is taught fits
two spheres – skill
based and
information based.
The segregation is
needed so as to
develop appropriate
methodology for
them.
Schools Versus
Colleges
The next debate is
where should the
education be
imparted. There are
critical differences
between Schools
and Colleges and
their approach to
education.
The Role of
Teacher
The role of teacher is
for future education
depends upon the
nature of content and
goals of education
which it is
addresses.
Continuous
Learning
We expect to keep
learning while
working – either
directly on the job or
alongside the job.
Peer-to-peer learning
is the last bit of
education issue.
#"
$"%"

5|
Starting from Content  There is an important reason
why we need to start with
content before going to the
goals of education.
 Most of the educated folks
believe that their education has
held them in good stead and if it
weren’t for their education, not
only would they be less well off,
but also their lives would have
been empty. Naturally they
leans against any change in the
nature of education.
 The reason for relevance of
education to many is because
of unique composition of
content we were fed. This
content was all mashed up and
intermingled that we don’t know
what to fix and what to keep.
 For precisely this reason, we
need to separate the content
into two aspects.
 First would be skill-based
content which relates to basic
skills. Basic math, grammar,
navigation, group interactions,
working in teams etc. are basic
skills.
 Second is information-based
content which tells you what
happened and how things came
to be. This we find in history,
geography etc.
 However, not each subject
mentioned above sits neatly in
either category. So history has
lessons about basic skills rather
than simply information.

6|
Why Classify Content  The method of instruction
depends upon the nature of
content. Thus for skill based
content the emphasis is on
technique, repetition, practice.
Skill-based content lends more
easily to old-British headmaster
type schools. Now languages
sit in this category but
exposition of classics augment
our lessons in grammar
allowing us to deploy our
language skill with dexterity.
 For information-based content,
it is development of the
narrative rather than dumping
of information to the students.
Thus history is better told as
collection of stories. Here the
way we link between various
stories is more important.
 Further, a topical history –
American revolution, Chinese
revolution, colonization, or
renaissance without the
sociological context does not
add as much value as
exposition of the same stories
over and over emphasizing
different textures. And what
textures need emphasizing
depends upon the audience,
where it is in life rather than the
history itself.
 From this point of view we
realize how incredibly difficult it
is for a teacher to deliver
information based content. It is
easy to shift to “teach to the
test” mentality. Still, we need to
invest in this area a lot more.

7|
Modern Content  One of my pet peeves with
Skill-based content is that we
do not cover the essential.
 Modern skill-based education
needs to cover basic math, at
least two languages including
English at basic level, Basic
science, maps and navigation,
cleanliness and hygiene, civic
sense, physical sports etc.
 To this we must add skills
related to computers and
protecting your digital self,
abilities to communicate across
cultures and time zones.
 Even skills like driving, running
(jogging so as to not hurt
yourself), dietary basic etc. are
essential in modern world.
 On top of this basic skill
requirements we need to add
skill requirements tailored to
individual needs. Thus, those
who love engineering will need
advanced math skills, while
sportsmen amongst us will
need advanced sport training.
 The Information-based content
needs to be modified as per the
requirement of individual. The
variety within the content and its
textures is quite vast and the
limits are imposed only based
on time and interest of the
individual.

8|
Skill & Information,
compulsory &
customized
 It is essential to have a mix of
skill and information. The there
has to be almost equal split
between skill and information
based content over the years at
grade school. If we emphasize
too much on skills we will impair
the ability to grasp information-
based content later.
 It is also necessary to have
some compulsory exposure to
different skill and information
type content at each year till
say tenth grade or so. However,
the amount of compulsory and
uniform exposure to all reduces
over time – so in first grade
almost all content will be
uniform and in tenth grade you
will see say 20% content being
uniform.
 The idea is to expose the entire
brain to various stimuli and
ensure that the real passion
gets exposed.
 The requirement of having to
customize the information-
based content to individual
specifications is important and
how to do that will form part of
our other sections.
 I would note specifically that
these two are different types of
classification and education
experts may be able to suggest
other such classifications that
need to be met based on brain
and physical development.

10|
Different Goals  Education was a solution to
demand of the industrial age for
workers who would be tools of
production. That has since
changed considerably.
Nevertheless, we know for sure
that we need education and
that it does help us. But in what
ways?
 I believe the education is
essential for our economic,
social and personal
development and thus, these
should be the goals of our
education system.
 Economic development goals
implies that we are learning the
skills that are necessary for the
jobs and nature of work we are
likely to do.
 Social development implies that
we become able citizens of the
society and this world. We need
to be aware of the norms (like
driving, not littering, hygiene
etc.). These help forge a
cohesive society.
 Personal development helps us
be self-aware, of what our
strengths and weaknesses are
and how to become a better
person. This will be able to
unleash the potential of the
person to the advantage of the
society as well.
 Education has following
goals:
I.  Economic Development
II.  Social Development
III.  Personal Development

11|
Economic Goals  The main aim of education is to
create a population that can be
productively deployed for
economic growth. Arguably, the
goal of education in the olden
times was to promote the better
organization of the empire or to
create population to work in
factories depending on who you
ask. Nevertheless, the
economic advantage of
education cannot be denied.
 However, the nature of
economic activity has
undergone a considerable
change. We are in, what Alwin
Toffler calls, the information
age. However, our education
continues to be moored to the
industrial economy.
 The content of education needs
to adapt to changing economic
realities.
 The present economic realities
do not require mass
manufacturing based on
regimented workforce. Rather,
today’s economy thrives on
diversity of thought and cross-
pollination of ideas.
 This part of the education must
look ahead in partnership with
economic leaders and try to
build a core competence at
early stage.

12|
Social Goals  Another important goal of
education is to build a cohesive
strong society. By society and
social goals I refer to person’s
interactions with people who
are not related to him or her.
 Thus education must build
competency to interact with
various people in various
situations. Education must
improve the awareness of rights
and duties of the individuals
and how to present them in
society.
 This aspect of social goals is
missing from the older
conformism creating education
system.
 Another aspect of social goals
is to build respect for law and
order. It should help build
capability to assess right and
wrong as well as to abide by /
side with the right.
 To my mind the essential part of
these goals is to help students
learn to interact with people
they identify with and with other
with whom they do not identify
while still working together thus
building empathy for everyone.
 These can be developed
through physical community
work, online group activities
drawing upon Internet based
Computer games, team sports,
etc.

13|
Personal Goals  A friend once remarked to me
how alumni of certain well
respected institutes are being
found to be morally corrupt. I
believe that these exceptionally
talented people were unable to
develop their personal sides.
 The school curriculum does not
do adequate justice to personal
development. And personal
development is not merely
knowing your hobbies, having
extra-curricular activities,
scouts and guides etc.
 It also encompasses our ability
to self-examine, to reorient
ourselves according to our
wishes etc. the factors which
cause emptiness in our lives
otherwise.
 Personal goals also include
developing sensitivity towards
our own families and knowing
and augmenting our support
systems.
 I believe mentorship is a critical
aspect of this development.
Who can be a mentor? Can
teachers be mentors to all their
students? Is it right to limit the
choice of mentors to teachers?
 I guess no. “It takes a village to
raise a child” so goes a saying.
In modern context, we need to
involve the community into
developing the students –
mostly as mentors but also as
specialist teachers too. And
thanks to technology mentors
need not be physically present
all the time.

15|
The School vs.
College Question
 To many this seems a queer
question but here is my
explanation for it. Schools are
designed around communities
(or vice versa) while Colleges
are designed around content or
courses. Yes even the content
delivered at the school cannot
be customized but a lot of other
things at schools can be
customized to the community.
 When I look at it this way, it
seems to open my mind to
distortions caused by these.
When we select a college we
are pretty much narrowing our
subjects and what flexibility we
have pertains to the depth. But
what if there is no course as yet
that is designed for me.
 This is a situation most of the
graduates feel themselves in
today. Most managers today
come from humanities,
engineering, quite a few finance
professionals come from
physics and engineering etc.
 Today we have expanded the
role of colleges who try to be
cutting edge experts at many
subjects. What we need is
schools which builds functional
skills that are relevant for that
community. The role of colleges
will restrict to develop cutting-
edge expertise at subjects they
want to pursue thereby
attracting scholars for their
subjects.

16|
Community
Customization
 In the next phase of education,
we need individual
customization as well as
customization to a community.
 The institute of learning thus
becomes a physical social
network hub connected to the
other hubs globally through
internet. To my mind the
teacher can be virtual but
students must be physically
connected. A pure virtual hub
may also be able to achieve
this, but in my experience it
happens in fewer cases. To
unleash the developmental
power of this learning, it is
essential to involve a
community.
 Silicon valley is an example of a
new area of expertise at
colleges advancing to economic
viability. It represents the
success of ability of colleges to
push the technology into
economic viability.
 However, there are other kinds
of innovations that are not
simply about pushing the
technical boundaries but in
rewiring the existing knowledge
to achieve new goals. E.g. The
customized auto-modification
shops that sprung up around
Detroit and later in different
cities. Schools and communities
can facilitate this type of
innovation.

17|
Role of Schools  Schools, I think, should take up
community based learning
responsibilities. School will be
open to the entire community in
which it is placed including the
young, middle aged and even
the old.
 Schools will be guiding the
groups about what to learn.
Here the school enables
research and dialogue with
various experts rather than drill
their course down the throats of
this community.
 Once the content is chosen,
Schools will use their expertise
at researching the relevant
content, getting experts or
tutors to interact with the group.
 The group along with their
teachers then can set up goals
of their programs and Schools
and ensure that maximum
group benefit is derived. The
idea is not to let the group
choose their goals but arrive at
goals from first principles.
 Schools will also be monitoring
progress through administering
the tests or projects etc. so as
to allow flexibility to the tutor
and student.
 This is the role that will
formalize the learning, and
grant it recognition (required by
the society / employers) and it
is absent in individual learning
over the internet.

19|
Teachers at Schools  Teachers, as we traditionally
know them, at school and grade
level have two distinct type of
roles depending on the content.
 For skill-based content, the
older more familiar role will be
used. The critical aspect of this
part is to differentiate between
what is skill-based and what is
not. Misapplication of the older
technique has resulted in many
a disillusioned student.
 To initiate skill-based content, it
will be essential to give a larger
picture of why such skill is
necessary. Thus, you may be
skilled in teaching the students
about logarithms but unless the
students know why they are
learning logarithms the exercise
seems pointless.
 The initial aspect is more
information driven rather than
skill-driven. Good teachers are
good at this aspect which
tickles the curiosity of the minds
of the students to all the
complexity that logarithms
involve.
 This will require continuous
training on part of teachers
themselves in light of their
increased responsibilities.
 Naturally, these teachers need
to be paid more and equipped
additionally to meet these
challenges.

20|
Teachers for
community
 This group of teachers is
transient in nature. They are
activated based on need of the
community. It will be the
required of schools to maintain
a network of such individuals or
explore creation of such
network based on demand by
the community.
 There needs to be a general
mechanism to compensate
these expert teachers based on
a well recognized formula.
 The role of school teachers in
this context is to get the experts
required by the community on
board with the schools. Or it
may simply be to connect the
group to appropriate sources on
the web.
 Aside from this initial
handholding, teachers will be
more concept librarians than
active teachers as required by
grade school.
 Teachers will also be required
to administer the content by
way of test or projects etc.
 Thus teachers in this context
are a bridge between the expert
tutor and the group. The
teachers input allows
formalization of learning the
expert’s knowledge by the
student group. Thus, teacher’s
role changes to that of
“regulator” of the process.

21|
Community Mentors  To further the goals of personal
development, one needs to
have mentors. These Mentors
help individuals connect with
their own self.
 Traditionally, the local parish
would have discharged this
responsibility. However, in the
new context, I believe Schools
are better placed.
 Mentors, however, are not
school sponsored agents but
rather independent community
members who are requested to
help out. The mentors are much
more aligned with real life work
in area of your interest than
your career counselors at
schools.
 School makes its infrastructure
available to use by mentors and
mentees for education and
individual development.
 In return school becomes the
anchor for almost all the
discussions around education
and development in the
community. You may even get
an advice to go to college at
school.
 With mentors, the relevance of
the school expands throughout
our lives.

23|
Types of continuous
learning
 In our current scenario, we
encounter the term continuous
learning to mean on-the-job
learning or concurrent-to-job
learning.
 I always dreaded the employer
sponsored “continuous
learning” programs. Most of
them were a waste of time.
Learning in an environment
induced by the employer need
not always be relevant for the
employee.
 Learning needs a potential
difference between a curiosity
on part of the person and
opportunity on part of the
employer. When these two
meet
 Rather we need to create
avenues for the person to
maximize his potential, at
current job or otherwise. To
achieve this, we need to let
people learn from each other by
intermingling with others and
with their ideas. This peer-to-
peer education is the last bit of
the education puzzle.
 We need a forum for exchange
of ideas and thoughts where
people can learn from each
other. Sort of like a British club
but more focused. TED,
Creative Mornings by Swiss
Miss and its ilk are something
similar though a bit too high
level.

24|
Continuous learning
at school
 My continuous learning club
would be situated at community
school. It has all the moral,
technical requirements to host
such an idea exchange. There
are learning technologies, there
is adequate space to house the
groups and learning is in the air
in schools.
 Even teachers and children can
listen in or interact. Children’s
creative energies may be
available to the community in a
constructive way while the
children gain insight into the
adult world making their
curriculum ever so more
relevant to them.
 To facilitate this type of learning,
schools need to be prepared.
The teachers can be facilitators
or participants, school
infrastructure should be flexible
to accommodate the changes.
School administrations will have
to think more creatively about
initiating these events and kick-
starting the dialogue between
various peers.
 To a certain degree certain art
schools and museums are
taking initiative in such matters
though these tend to be subject
specific. The initiatives in
Schools must be more
community specific make them
more relevant to its community.

26|
School centric model
of education
 The new model of education
cannot be one-size-fits-all
approach. We need to keep the
model superfluous so as to
allow the students (young and
old) to control what they learn,
how fast they learn and from
whom they learn.
 At the same time, learning and
education must be geared to
economic, social and personal
development. Without this
orientation learning becomes
uninteresting and mechanical.
 Learning and education needs
to involve everyone in the
community and beyond on the
internet. Participants are
sometimes exclusively teachers
or mentors, sometimes
exclusively students and
sometimes peers learning from
each other. Their involvement
with the school at all times is far
more than what is currently
seen.
 When we make education more
community driven, we will make
it more relevant. I hope this will
unleash the creativity and
innovation at community level
ushering in new era of
economic social and personal
wellbeing.

28|
Credits  The first and foremost credit must go to my teachers who went out
of their way to help me learn. However, there are few others who I
met on the job and they have helped me learn as much. Those at
the network called Triiibes (by Seth Godin) have been ablest of
peers I could ever find.
 Sir Ken Robinson’s TED lectures have been an inspiration for the
ideas. I also find inspiration for this talk from Randy Pausch’s Last
Lecture and his concept of head-fake.
 Monika Hardy (@monk51295) has been doing some really
innovative stuff with teaching and is inspirational in her own right.
She also connected me to a Google+ community
Teachers Teaching Teachers which is a treat to listen in.
 I have adapted this template from Nancy Duarte’s Slidedoc
concept and am using it in good faith without any consideration.
You can reach her @duarte and view the slidedocs concept at
http://www.duarte.com/slidedocs/

29|
Reach me here:
Website:
www.rahuldeodhar.com

Twitter:
@rahuldeodhar
LinkedIn:
Rahul Deodhar
Blog:
rahul-deodhar.blogspot.in
Slideshare:
www.slideshare.net/rahuldeodhar
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/rahuldeodharvideos/
RD

Rethinking education

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