Perspectives : On Education

I often get asked about how I feel about the West versus what I have experienced in the India. A lot of these discussions have prompted me to pen down my thoughts in a series I decided to call Perspectives for it neutral(not pitting once against the other) connotation.

During my undergrad in India, my friends and I would spend many late nights debating about the current state of affairs of the Indian education system and vent our frustrations. This would happen to an extent that by the time we were in senior year, we decided to stop these conversations as soon as they started lest we run into our multi-hour long rants again. We would look at the West and envy students who got much more flexibility and quality in what they learned.

After having now spent three semester in a Western education system, I see how essential it is to have strong educational institutions in any country. I decided to create this running essay of thoughts about what Universities in India could do to create a similar environment that stimulates instead of stifles. This is by no means another cynical rant. Instead it is written with hope, acknowledging the constraints for a country like India. A lot of my suggestions focus not on huge investments but powerful small changes.

Big change however is a product of many small changes. My suggestions, sometimes ideal are mostly best taken with a pinch of salt:

Let students choose their subjects

Letting students choose what they want to study has many benefits. I have seen that this prompts us to critically think about what we might want to take up and why. It forms for many conversations with colleagues and professors as we discuss past experiences in classes or talk about those that we want to sign up for. This gives students a chance to explore and take more ownership of what they want to learn. Even those who are initially lost will take up a few wrong subjects but eventually figure out the right classes/majors that suit their needs. This in turn leads to students getting a better idea of what they want to do career wise based on the classes that they liked or disliked.

In the West, this starts early on as even before entering University, students must prove what inspires them to pick a certain line of study. I feel this really helps people think for themselves.

While we give senior university students some degree of freedom in choosing subjects here in India as well, a huge chunk of the formative years are set in stone with few avenues for exploration.

Give Professors More Freedom

In India, the pattern for most classes is set. A theory component with an end of term exam. In the West it is much more flexible with the Instructor who makes the call. Many of my classes have no exams yet they teach me more than classes that do. Moving away from a culture of only exams helps students see education for what it really is. Something that goes way beyond what you can write on a piece of paper and more about mastering the material. Professors if given the freedom to design their own classes might come up with exciting ideas and projects. For example, one of my classes replaced the final exam with a final project where students could build what they liked based on what they learned in class. This is by all means is a messy process. But higher education is all about getting your hands dirty to get a taste of a subject. As part of the Detkin Lab on campus that supports many professors as they design/re-design classes, I get to see this process often. It is inspiring to see how experimental professors get with classes and how they keep coming up with new ideas to challenge students. This is specially relevant in a time when all classes have had to move online.

Value Feedback — Building a culture of Excellence

When my computer vision professor appreciates an image for its confounding properties, I really am moved by his excitement. Similarly when another professor in my Machine learning class reveals an idea to me and claims that it is magic, she indeed believes that it is beautiful and exciting. It spurs me on to find a similar appreciation. In the West, I have seen that Professors spend years learning, relearning and practicing the material they profess. It really excites them and their excitement is contagious. And they enjoy being challenged. If you ask them a question, they know exactly where you are coming from. Sometimes, if you do not question them, they might say they really expected some questions thrown at that point in the material. And yet at they end of every semester they collect sincere feedback to improve over the next semester. This acknowledgement of a two way learning is really remarkable. It helps build a culture of excellence.

This is almost opposite to what I experienced in India where it seemed like classes were just a medium to get information across. Some teachers stoically read from their notes, some plainly solved a few problems. Only few were truly excited to show us the power of the body of knowledge that they claimed was important for us to know. A lot of professor also demanded reverence and some took offense if you skipped the Sir/Maam while addressing them. And while feedback was collected at the end of the year, what ratings courses received were rarely made public to benefit students who might decided to sign up for those courses in the next semester.

Teaching Assistants

Having students participate in the teaching process as Teaching assistants is a great insight. This frees up professors from doing a lot of the tedious work like grading assignments. It also provides a lot of support to students taking the class who can approach these TAs at assigned hours and seek help from students who have previously taken the class. This makes the learning environment more collaborative as TAs get their hands dirty with you trying to iron out a certain bug or providing hints for a problem you have been beating your head against.

While some Universities in India already have the TA system, its reach and impact are nowhere close to what it could be. The experience of having somebody your own age to go to and talk more frankly about hang ups in coursework is a huge boost to learning. Professor who are really busy are replaced by students who are more patient as they personally attend to your questions.

Academic Integrity

This is maybe one of the bigger differences. The West is huge on academic integrity. Copying work from others is an act of shame. This is quite contrary to how things run in our own country where assignments are mindlessly copied to save time and effort. This however has huge consequences beyond the loss of learning. It is a huge killer of creativity as original work is not valued.

In my undergrad, I would not think twice before just doing a copy paste on assignments that did not draw my interest. However during my Masters this would mean I would be thrown out of the University. Having produced original work for a while now, I see that value it adds to personal development. For one it has made me realize that if I preserver, I can figure it out like the rest of my peers. It has also given me the courage to try new ideas, fail and accept the messy process that learning is. Over time one also learns to take pride in their work with the right support from mentors. This makes the idea of just imitating what others have done as a means to attain a grade all the more appalling. And to not state the obvious, it is great for getting a grip on the material.