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Showing posts from 2017

What if we limit the expression of these two important words: Share and Adapt?

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Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. What happens when you limit the voicing of these two important words? 1) Nescience : (Ignorance is a lack of knowledge) Our eyes and senses are limited by many ways. We are adapted to view the world perfectly only at a particular zooming level . The world becomes blurred when we increase or decrease the zooming level. We can't know what is happening in another country just by our senses. Increasing and decreasing the zooming level requires indirect measurements that are tedious and sophisticated. You need to learn the outcomes of the research, and techniques to make measurements by bringing it down to texts and tools that are compatible with our zooming level. Without sharing these texts, using and adapting it, our knowledge will be limited to our zooming level and will

Higher education must immediately stop obsolete blackboard teaching.

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Higher education must immediately stop obsolete blackboard teaching. Higher ed requires mentor and collaboration. What is obsolete blackboard teaching? [Lecturing is the] best way to get information from teacher’s notebook (mouth) to student’s notebook without touching the student’s mind.                                                                                         — George Leonard Patterns for bad practices of teaching, what is done in higher education, even best colleges. https://iambrainstorming.blogspot.in/2017/11/patterns-for-bad-practices-of-teaching.html So, how this can be solved? This is how colleges must run when there is the shortage of skilled teachers: 1) Give students compilation of pedagogically right content (such as videos, MOOCs, books, magazines etc.) What it means to be pedagogically right content? https://iambrainstorming.wordpress.com/all-books-that-dont-meet-the-learning-criteria-must-be-taken-off/ How learning can be more personalized with a decentrali

Patterns for bad practices of teaching

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1) Teaching whiteboard not students Students work is only to nod head to say yes most of the time even if they understood nothing, disagreement is remarkably uncommon. Teachers don't inquire about student comprehension. Some teachers do inquire but by asking a dichotomous answer of yes or no. But to know the comprehension level, one has to test it by asking questions to students or asking them to explain the concept. 2) Not answering means insult If students don't give the right answer, they are insulted in front of the whole class. Students are completely responsible for not knowing the answer. "Kya tum gharme padthe nahi ho" (Don't you study at home?). So everything you have to study at home. School is not a place for learning. 3) Personal attack when you ask too much question Again students are insulted if they ask too many questions. 4) Target only to finish the syllabus The syllabus is paramount, not students. Why are teachers going so fast that students are

Patterns for bad practices of teaching

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1) Teaching whiteboard not students Students work is only to nod head to say yes most of the time even if they understood nothing, disagreement is remarkably uncommon. Teachers don't inquire about student comprehension. Some teachers do inquire but by asking a dichotomous answer of yes or no. But to know the comprehension level, one has to test it by asking questions to students or ask them to explain the concept. 2) Not answering means insult If students don't give the right answer, they are insulted in front of the whole class. Students are completely responsible for not knowing the answer. "Kya tum gharme padthe nahi ho" (Don't you study at home?). So everything you have to study at home. School is not a place for learning. 3) Personal attack when you ask too much question Again students are insulted if they ask too many questions. 4) Target only to finish the syllabus The syllabus is paramount, not students. Why are teachers going so fast that students

If all scientific discovery relies on peer review for validation, why not assessment be done through peer review?

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All scientific discovery relies on peer review for validation, Why not the assessment of schools and colleges be done through peer review? Peer Review definition: evaluation of scientific, academic, or professional work by others working in the same field. In case of open peer review, the reviewer reports are published which can again go through auditing. Benefits of open peer review: 1) Feedback to the students After a test, feedback to the student becomes a crucial part of their learning. Feedback can be in many forms such as detailed corrections of the answers, making their misconceptions corrected for a particular concept, identifying their specific problems and asking them to take necessary steps to improve. 2) Time-saving of teachers As this can be done in a collaborative manner, it will give freedom to any teacher from the respective subjects to annotate the assessments, the burden is no more to the individual teacher, it will be shared among the country or world. The burden o

Practicing one component in one time to learn the whole

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Most often questions are designed that tests the understanding of whole instead of its components.  Students miserably fail to solve these problems due to lack of enough practice of its components. So systematically breaking down the whole concept into its required components is important. e.g. Take this question: [Cr(NH 3 ) 6 ] 3+  is paramagnetic while [Ni(CN) 4 ] 2-  is diamagnetic. Explain why? To start solving this question you have to know the following components: 1) You have to know the atomic number of Cr and Ni. If you have forgotten the atomic number or not memorized it, you are out of luck to solve it. So, has the teacher or the book has given memory tricks to memorize the periodic table. 2) After you know the atomic number, do you know the electronic configuration of the metal atom? 3) Then, can you determine the electronic configuration of metal ion? 4) Do you know how to calculate the oxidation state, because you need to calculate the charge of metal ion? 5) Have you mem

Practicing one component in one time to learn the whole

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Most often questions are designed that tests the understanding of whole instead of its components. Students miserably fail to solve these problems due to lack of enough practice of its components. So systematically breaking down the whole concept into its required components is important. e.g. Take this question: [Cr(NH 3 ) 6 ] 3+ is paramagnetic while [Ni(CN) 4 ] 2- is diamagnetic. Explain why? To start solving this question you have to know the following components: 1) You have to know the atomic number of Cr and Ni. If you have forgotten the atomic number or not memorized it, you are out of luck to solve it. So, has the teacher or the book has given memory tricks to memorize the periodic table. 2) After you know the atomic number, do you know the electronic configuration of the metal atom? 3) Then, can you determine the electronic configuration of metal ion? 4) Do you know how to calculate the oxidation state, because you need to calculate the charge of metal ion? 5) Have you memo

If all content (subject matter) are alike, how can we expect innovation?

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Problems with alike content: 1) Homogenization of skills When a finished product reaches the market, the product development cycle goes through the touch of many divergent skilled peoples. A product can have many components which require different skill sets of different people. For example, Website Development: When you begin to develop a website, you start with designing a prototype of how it will look, which requires the expertise of graphic designers, you need the skill of programmer to code for the website, you need to be a webmaster to host your website. If you look into the depth, there is much more complexity to it. Each website has its own requirements. A prototype can be designed by using different software, such as Inkscape, illustrator and many others. Each software requires a different kind of learning and experience. Similarly, from programmer side, which language you will be using, which framework, based upon your website requirements such as speed of development, scalab

If all content (subject matter) are alike, how can we expect innovation?

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Problems with alike content: 1) Homogenization of skills When a finished product reaches the market, the product development cycle goes through the touch of many divergent skilled peoples. A product can have many components which require different skill sets of different people. For example, Website Development: When you begin to develop a website, you start with designing a prototype of how it will look, which requires the expertise of graphic designers, you need the skill of programmer to code for the website, you need to be a webmaster to host your website. If you look into the depth, there is much more complexity to it. Each website has its own requirements. A prototype can be designed by using different software, such as Inkscape, illustrator and many others. Each software requires a different kind of learning and experience. Similarly, from programmer side, which language you will be using, which framework, based upon your website requirements such as speed of development,

Solving with formula without intuitive method makes student mindless.

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Solving by intuitive methods helps students to understand the working of the formula, which is most important to build strategies for different problems. But our books and entrances only give most leverage to formula part without the intuitive part . Take it physics, chemistry or mathematics. Students in coaching centers are mindlessly taught short cut formulas so that they can solve the problem in short time, as there is time limitation in entrances. Example of Intuitive vs Formula Based in probability (Addition Rule): Book: Elementary Statistics (Mario F. Triola)

Solving with formula without intuitive method makes student mindless.

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Solving by intuitive methods helps students to understand the working of the formula, which is most important to build strategies for different problems. But our books and entrances only give most leverage to formula part without the intuitive part . Take it physics, chemistry or mathematics. Students in coaching centers are mindlessly taught short cut formulas so that they can solve the problem in short time, as there is time limitation in entrances. Example of Intuitive vs Formula Based in probability (Addition Rule): Book: Elementary Statistics (Mario F. Triola)

Importance of educational videos and solving its limitation by teachers assistance

Many technologies have promised to revolutionize education, but so far none has. With that in mind, what could revolutionize education? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEmuEWjHr5c Why educational videos don't work? 1) Procrastination : Educational videos give freedom of anytime learning, but this can lead to procrastination. According to Parkinson's Law: "Work expands to fill the time available for its completion". But in case of video lectures or MOOCs there is no limit of time, so usually, we procrastinate. Limiting time to complete the MOOCs is also a bad idea, as it takes away its advantage of any time and anywhere learning. 2) Lack of a social interaction : We share emotions, feelings, discuss with the teacher, friends that come to our mind just like a true social animal and classroom brings a social two-way interaction, but it doesn't happen in case of MOOCs. 3) Answerability : No one is there to keep you accountable for finishing the course, no outward pus

Effortful Playing

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Effortful Playing

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Beating confusion: The power of association

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1) With increase in frequency, energy of electromagnetic waves increases or decreases 2) Molarity is Often students confuse between molarity and molality. 3) In positive deviation from Raoult's Law, Solute-Solvent Interaction is strong or weak Students often confuse with these kinds of answers, when there is a dichotomy. It's nothing to do with the understanding of the subject, it's about memory. Students confuse because they have not formed enough association with main concepts . Eliminating these confusion requires memory tricks. Let's work with the first two example: The third one I leave to students or teachers to design so that they can memorize it.  In positive deviation, there will be more vapor pressure, this is only possible when solute-solvent interaction is weak. Weak intermolecular force means more particles in the gas phase.

Common prevailing myths in education that needs to be busted

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A student is not scoring well, the main reason given: He/She has the less innate ability . He/She was not working hard . Let's bust the second myth first. My question to schools, teachers, and parents is after spending about 6-7 hours in schools, or 24 hrs in residential schools and colleges, how can you really blame children for not working hard. Why do schools expect children to study all by themselves? Why they have to do homework? The problem is not about working hard, it's about not following effective study strategies. Not providing them to do enough retrieval practice. The implementing of the effective study strategies is a very complicated process and often contextual, so much of attributes involved, from content, curriculum to test questions. But the good thing is so much of research already available that will guide teachers to help students in learning. http://www.learningscientists.org/ Now the first myth: She lacks the innate ability. Fact: All organisms at the i

Brainstorming ideas on Saturdays in schools

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You can change and improve things if you are able to imagine it. You can't make it, if you can't imagine it. It's naive to think that everything will happen serendipitously or just knowing things is enough. Our schools incentivise student just for knowing things in form of marks without giving considerations to creativity . Attitude toward inventiveness is almost negligible in our schools. You can't make it, if you can't imagine it. Economic growth matters. Wealth brings us flush toilets, antibiotics, higher education, the ability to choose the career we want, fun vacations, and of course, a greater ability to protect our families against catastrophes. If wealth is so important, what makes a country rich? The most proximate cause is that wealthy countries have lots of physical and human capital per worker and they produce things in a relatively efficient manner, using latest technological knowledge. But why do so some countries have more physical and human capital

Alternate thinking, there is no one 'correct' answer.

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How education hinders alternate way of thinking? A teacher gave the following question in MCQs: If you add some dissolving solute to water, does there is a change in total mass i.e. ([mass of water + mass of sugar]) changes? a) There is no change in total mass b) There is change in total mass Student wrote: b) Teacher gave the mark: zero What if the student thought the following deeper idea to answer the question. When we add a solute to water, the reaction can be endothermic or exothermic,  so if heat is released in case of exothermic, an amount of mass is converted to heat, so there is little decrease in mass that is difficult to measure. For an endothermic reaction, some amount of heat is absorbed, so there is little increase in mass. So the answer can depend on scientific theory, concepts, inductive or deductive reasoning, premise, and method or procedure used. There are no one 'correct' answer, the answer can depend on the process of thinking and context.

Alternate thinking, there is no one 'correct' answer.

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How education hinders alternate way of thinking? A teacher gave the following question in MCQs: If you add some dissolving solute to water, does there is a change in total mass i.e. ([mass of water + mass of sugar]) changes? a) There is no change in total mass b) There is change in total mass Student wrote: b) Teacher gave the mark: zero What if the student thought the following deeper idea to answer the question. When we add a solute to water, the reaction can be endothermic or exothermic,  so if heat is released in case of exothermic, an amount of mass is converted to heat, so there is little decrease in mass that is difficult to measure. For an endothermic reaction, some amount of heat is absorbed, so there is little increase in mass. So the answer can depend on scientific theory, concepts, inductive or deductive reasoning, premise, and method or procedure used. There are no one 'correct' answer, the answer can depend on the process of thinking and conte

Comparative analysis of openstax biology and ncert biology

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The sequence of chapters: Openstax biology: In openstax biology, chapters are arranged based on increasing biological complexity . The second chapter is about atoms, molecules, water, and carbons. It gives applied techniques about how biology is being done, for example, carbon dating, molecular interactions that take place in lifeforms and why, how it takes place, its describes all the basics at the atomic and molecular level, and also talks about environmental conditions of life forms such as pH. At the end of the chapter, it says about Carbon, and why it's important for life. Next chapter is about Biological Macromolecules (increasing complexity from atoms to long polymers), then cell structure and other chapters about functioning. Evolution is taught before the five kingdom classification. Why? Because classification is completely phylogenetically linked. You have to understand evolution, in order to understand classification. Classification is also written with linking evoluti

Public-private partnership schools & colleges and its implementation

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Incentives Matters: Flow of Money:              Govt => Students => Teachers => Infrastructure provider NOT     Students => Private Infrastructure provider => Teachers  or NOT     Govt  => Infrastructure provider and Teachers Benefits of  this model : 1) No much reliance on government for the safeguarding of the quality education. Teachers as an entrepreneur will take care of it because it will bring competition for quality. 2) Teachers income depends on the ability to uphold students. So they are solely responsible for their income. They will work for themselves, instead of doing just an obligatory job on a monthly salary. 3) Students will have the freedom to choose a class, not just school. (Funding children not school) It also solves most problems that belong to coaching center model. Some of the problems of coaching center model, that is solved in it are: 1) There is no limitation of students intake, so no personalized care. 2) They are e

Public-private partnership schools & colleges and its implementation

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Incentives Matters: Flow of Money: Govt => Students => Teachers => Infrastructure provider NOT     Students => Private Infrastructure provider => Teachers  or NOT     Govt  => Infrastructure provider and Teachers Incentives are rewards and penalties that motivate behavior https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3z0Rxummxc Benefits of  this model : 1) No much reliance on government for the safeguarding of the quality education. Teachers as an entrepreneur will take care of it because it will bring competition for quality. 2) Teachers income depends on the ability to uphold students. So they are solely responsible for their income. They will work for themselves, instead of doing just an obligatory job on a monthly salary. 3) Students will have the freedom to choose a class, not just school. (Funding children not school) It also solves most problems that belong to coaching center model. Some of the problems of coaching center model, that is solved in it are: 1) There is no limi