Learning Theories and our Education System
Our Indian School Education system is built on treating learners as Entity theorists. The fundamental belief: Intelligence is fixed.
In professional world we try to change this foundation by seeking to become Incremental Theorists: Intelligence can grow over time.
Growth mindset is an outcome of the later.
Entity Theorists (ET) are more prone to quit when faced with a challenging situation. An Incremental Theorist (IT) will try to find a workaround and work incrementally day by day to find solutions.
The inability to rise up to challenges in ETs often results in a situation of “Learned Helplessness”. The blame for landing in this situation is often attributed to entitlements.
Learned helplessness is behavior exhibited by a subject after enduring repeated aversive stimuli beyond their control. It was initially thought to be caused from the subject’s acceptance of their powerlessness: discontinuing attempts to escape or avoid the aversive stimulus, even when such alternatives are unambiguously presented. (Reference)
ITs have a “Mastery Oriented Response”, believing that with time and practice they will succeed.
With every failure, an ET will face a dent in their self confidence and self efficacy. Repeated over time, it leads to depression. With every failure, an IT will rise up to the challenge and seek ways to succeed with more hard work.
As a result of reduced self-efficacy, an ET will start to believe that they are not good enough and reduce their effort substantially. Over a period of time ETs do not even try doing things.
Sadly, the Indian School Education System is full of Entity Theorists.
Corporates on the other hand have Learning and Development teams with an objective to get the employees to go from ET to IT.
For an ET, the educator is seen as a conformist who will try to make the learner believe what they view is right (syllabus oriented).
For an IT, the educator is a friendly assist, whose role is to facilitate learning across channels and mediums.
Indian Education System is the cusp of a revolution.
The last wave of Indian Education startups (both tech and non tech) were all focused on making better ETs.
The new wave of Edtech startups are inclining towards getting children to become ITs.
That’s a FOUNDATIONAL Shift!
This foundational shift, has been facilitated further by the introduction of the National Education Policy 2020.
From the National document: This National Education Policy 2020 is the first education policy of the 21st century and aims to address the many growing developmental imperatives of our country.
This Policy proposes the revision and revamping of all aspects of the education structure, including its regulation and governance, to create a new system that is aligned with the aspirational goals of 21st century education, including SDG4, while building upon India’s traditions and value systems.
The National Education Policy lays particular emphasis on the development of the creative potential of each individual. It is based on the principle that education must develop not only cognitive capacities — both the ‘foundational capacities ’of literacy and numeracy and ‘higher-order’ cognitive capacities, such as critical thinking and problem solving — but also social, ethical, and emotional capacities and dispositions.
A key aspect of 21st century learning is the emphasis on Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication and Collaboration. This is inherent in Incremental Theorists. Entity Theorists fear anything out of scope. Avoiding collaboration is a way to not seek out of scope things.
Entity Theorists are more likely to be familiar with Deductive Learning.
Incremental Theorists on the other hand are more likely to be excited about Inductive Learning.
Deductive reasoning (“top-down logic”) contrasts with inductive reasoning (“bottom-up logic”): in deductive reasoning, a conclusion is reached reductively by applying general rules which hold over the entirety of a closed domain of discourse, narrowing the range under consideration until only the conclusion(s) remains. In deductive reasoning there is no uncertainty. In inductive reasoning, the conclusion is reached by generalizing or extrapolating from specific cases to general rules resulting in a conclusion that has epistemic uncertainty. Fail early, Fail fast is an outcome of Inductive Learning. You are forced to get up, learn and try again! (Reference)
Entity Theorists are less likely to experiment and try out new things.
Incremental Theorists on the other hand, are open to explorations, experiences and trying out new things.
Experiences drive learning more than anything else.
With multiple states re-opening schools, and welcoming children back, it is worthwhile to ponder over the above said notions of learning and intelligence. As educators, we MUST think of the world that is today and the kind of people it needs.
