India Today – August 19, 2019

C

WHAT’SWRONGHERE?

Untiltheexams,whichcouldbe

monthsaway,thereishardlyany

evidenceoflearning.Howmany

studentshaveunderstoodwhatwas

presentedinclass?Howmanyhave

registeredmorethanafewphrases,

andthattoowithoutcomprehend-

ing?Howmanyweretunedout

altogether?Forthosewhotook

notes,werethenotesimbuedwith

meaningorweretheymeredicta-

tion?Wekidourselvesasteachers

ifwethinkmostofourstudents

understandthelecturesmostofthe

time.Weallknowhowtonodasif

wearelisteningattentively.Howev-

erinterestingweprofessorsbelieve

ourlecturesare,it’sdifficulttokeep

theattentionofemotion-ladenado-

lescentsclassafterclass,weekafter

week,monthaftermonth.

WHAT’STHEREMEDY?

Inactivelearning,thestudent

participatesinthelearningprocess.

Thisengagesthestudent’sbrainso

thatreallearningcantakeplace.

Engagementandfocusaremaxi-

misedwhenstudentsareactively

involvedratherthansittingquietly

inaclassroom.Thisisthebasisfor

activelearning;activeparticipation

engagesthemind,whichinturn

promoteslearning.Attentiongets

focusedautomaticallybyexternal

signalsthatareeitherurgentorof

compellinginterest.Wecanmandate

attendance,butbeingpresentphysi-

callyinclassdoesn’tmean

beingpresentmentally.Theclass-

room,therefore,mustincorporate

compellingexternalandinternal

signalsthatengagethestudents’

mindsinvoluntarily.

THE STRATEGIES

Real-time communication

Students should be able to articulate

what they have learned in real time.

In each class, all students must be

called upon to apply what they have

learned and communicate their

responses orally. Nothing focuses the

mind than being called and asked to

say something coherent.

Flipped classroom

Students must acquire information

before the class and use the class-

room for interaction. Professors

can assign short, focused readings,

making it clear that students will be

asked to summarise what they read.

Application, not

just theory

For most students, learning abstract

theories without relating them to

tangible real-life examples or ap-

plications is folly. Active learning

entails connecting what students

learn to what they already know.

No last-minute mugging

You might ask, “Doesn’t the exam

measure learning, and why is it im-

portant for students to be learning

continuously during the semester if

they can quickly digest the material

just before the exam?” The answer is

simple: learning that is jammed into

a short period just prior to an exam

is quickly forgotten.

Use it or lose it

The benefits of learning decays

unless what you learned is revisited

frequently. Curricula and

syllabi should be regularly revis-

ited, applied and connected to

what has previously been learned.

Exams, the mainstay of passive

learning, become powerful active

learning tools if they are adminis-

tered frequently during the semes-

ter rather than just once or twice.

Seven-minute rule

for lecturing

People can muster the self-control

necessary to focus on the lecture for

up to seven minutes. Beyond that,

they retreat to their inner mental

worlds. If the professor needs to

communicate to the students, it

should be done in packets of no

more than seven minutes. n

onsider a typical university class. Students

drift into the classroom. Some gravitate to the

front of the class, some wander towards the

back, and some do not attend. The professor

lectures for 45 minutes, taking a few ques-

tions. The class is adjourned and students

move to their next class. This daily pattern

repeats itself until a few weeks or days before

the exam when the students try to mug up

everything. This is passive learning because

students sit and receive information with

little active engagement.

Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

Jamshed Bharucha

is Vice-Chancellor,

SRM Amaravati University