Transcript Teaching Students to Learn How to Learn: Lifelong Learning

Teaching Students to Learn How to
Learn: Lifelong Learning in HighTechnology, Higher-Education
Speaker Presentation
Indo-US Workshop on Effective Teaching at the College/University Level
(IUWETCUL ‘11)
February 10-12, 2011, IIIT Delhi (Dwarka, Sector III), India
Prof. Sumit Ghosh
[email protected]
Computer Science Department
University of Texas
Tradition of Higher Education in the US
•In the past, genuine teachers were few, idealistic, wouldn’t teach anyone they
deemed unworthy and unethical, sort of elitist model
•Then, US led a new model – formal, open-to-all, public education system
•Starting in the early 1900s, universities started to emerge, eventually leading to
the extensive higher-education infrastructure that we see today.
•For past 70 years, students would routinely enroll in higher education programs,
obtain diplomas upon graduation, then find useful employment
•Occasionally, a specific area (Aerospace industry in 1970s) would fall out of
favor, government step in with funds to provide training in a new emerging, hightech area.
•At the highest level of higher-educational evolution, Bell Labs Research, IBM
Research, Xerox PARC, GE Schenectady CR&D – expose select individuals to
leading science and technology; they would create next generation ideas. Ex.
transistor, computer, laser, C, Unix, LAN, parallel processors, etc.
•Clearly, with the nature of high-tech higher education so complex, self-learning
must have been rendered obsolete. So why are we discussing this issue?
Why is Learning How to Learn, Important?
•Explore three needs/reasons/perspectives/trends
•First, an urgent need
•Sovereign debt crises worldwide, education on the chopping block in US, UK, Italy, Spain,
France, Baltic states, Germany, Egypt
•What are the nations’ leaders thinking? At best, they are confused whether higher education
will bring back the economy; at worst, they never understood the role of higher education.
•Private universities trimming budgets; state universities facing unprecedented and massive
budget cuts. University of California, University of Arizona systems already instituted
furloughs.
•Near-zero hiring of junior faculty; senior professors will be encouraged to retire
•With skeleton faculty, students won’t be able to complete programs easily
•Worse, difficult to find competent professors to teach the subtle scientific, mathematical,
computational, and engineering skills that are inherent in high-technology. A crisis is coming.
•High-tech education indispensable to obtaining high-paying jobs
•Those who have mastered self-learning/self-teaching will have a clear edge
•Look at Industry, the supposed bedrock of our industrial age
 Giant industrial companies such as GE, Verizon, and others have been secretly bailed
out by the US Federal Reserve to the tune of billions of dollars. They are failing and
the evidence is undeniable. Something is seriously wrong.
Why is Learning How to Learn, Important? (Cont’d)
•Explore three needs/reasons/perspectives
•Second, a growing trend
•In the past, an individual worked for a single company, lifelong
•Today (circa 2005), an average CSE engineer changes jobs 17 times
•Employer no longer finds degree from elite institution worth beyond a few years
•Diploma from elite institution no longer guaranteed ticket to lifelong good career
•Degree can help land a good first, second job; definitely not tenth job. How one uses one’s
knowledge to solve never-before-seen problems becomes key
•Traditional knowledge imparted in traditional way is no longer relevant
•A talented and motivated person with a degree from a less known school can surpass a
person with degree from an elite institution
•Typical elite schools charge $200,000 for 4-year program; less well-known school costs
$40,000
•Today, US students carry unprecedented debt ($5 trillion), which cannot be discharged in
bankruptcy court; interest on unpaid debt keeps accumulating
•Per NY Times (Jan 2011), top law schools (U Chicago, Columbia) have altered student
grades to make them appear superior students in the current era of very high
unemployment. Why? Is it that they are unsure of the education they are imparting in their
programs?
•By 2045, average life expectancy will be 125. People will be healthy, mental faculties intact,
work until their 90s. Clearly, people will pursue multiple careers in their lifetimes.
Why is Learning How to Learn, Important? (Cont’d)
•Explore three needs/reasons/perspectives
•Third, a longer-term need
•Helps one grow independently, migrate to new jobs and careers, and remain
fulfilled lifelong, without becoming excessively dependent on the security of
retirement (Lawyer becomes surgeon at age 70?)
•Foster tremendous burst of creativity, which will cause society, nation, and
civilization to leap forward
•Per history, virtually, all great minds were self-taught, examples including
Ramanujan, Leonardo da Vinci, Lincoln, and others.
•Inference – learning how to learn will become the most important paradigm, not only for
surviving but thriving.
What Went Wrong?
•US embarked on mass-scale education, for the greater good
•Noble intent but flawed implementation. Worked good for 70 years and we have mistakenly started to
think that this paradigm had been in practice forever
•True education is one-on-one. Why? Every individual is endowed by Nature with unique capabilities and
limitations
•A genuine teacher, driven by spontaneous compassion, reaches out to each student’s “education blind
spots” and illuminates them. Confucius’ story!
•A mass-scale education, where faculty teaches 30-200 students, is flawed.
•This is a business model, driven by immediate profitability
•Education is not about bottom line but underlies the future of our very existence. Without education, we
will wage wars and destroy ourselves.
•My belief – we may have unwittingly created mindless drones to run factories, VLSI fabrication-lines, and
software mill-factories; however, they are incapable of thinking, forget innovation
•We haven’t done justice to the individual person. Thus, this approach is not sustainable over the long run.
•What is happening to US, UK, Japan, and Europe today, namely massive layoffs, will come to India, soon
•Flawed implementation have given rise to an entitlement mentality – spend money, get diploma, deserve
high-paying job
•Lost is the truth that the true purpose of education is to serve humanity in one’s unique ways
Proposed Approaches
•Students find it hard to self-learn because we spoon feed them
•Knowledge is doubling every 2.5 years; so, push knowledge down the students’ throats
•Immediate instructor evaluation reflects a sense of impatience, short-term view, and immediate
regurgitation.
•No consideration that knowledge takes time to gestate and will express itself years into the future.
•No understanding of long-term nature of Nature. Civilization is intended to run for millions of years
•Ironically, we are condemning our students to obsolescence and stagnancy, fast
•Story of US Liberty ships and ship building skills – what happens to the individual? [At issue is whether
the nation as a whole is important or the laid-off individual’s anguish and frustration is of any concern.
While this is a matter of perspective, the US Constitution clearly considers the individual’s right to pursue
happiness supreme and holds the individual above all groups, organizations, and governments.]
•Knowledge of fundamental principles is changing, technology is changing even faster.
•
Old Chinese saying: Only a fool knows for sure what he is doing; a wise man keeps on guessing
•
Richard Feynman (Nobel Laureate in Physics) writes, We are constantly guessing Nature
•
In my research experience, everything is evolving helically; you just have to have eyes to see it
•Need a worldwide debate – characteristics of teachers, teaching/learning mechanisms to help students
cultivate self-learning while pursuing regular course material; and books and other resources
•Examples of Alfred Nobel’s dynamite invention and unfair termination of Julie Dodd.
Conclusions
•To Prof. Sharan and all my teachers at IIT Kanpur, please accept my
gratitude for opening my eyes and for teaching me how to learn.
•I am convinced that the nation, which correctly implements “learning
how to learn,” will become the next “Great Economic Region.”
Questions/Suggestions/Comments
[email protected]