tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14325029922202414522024-02-02T18:56:07.537-05:00My Life & My ThoughtsThe Blog contains 'My Thoughts' about various things in 'My Life' and the world, which may or may not affect my life. The topics posted may vary in domain from the most trivial things/incidents of life to the most important and serious ones.Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.comBlogger114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-73041879722927456712017-06-03T05:02:00.002-04:002017-06-03T05:04:16.718-04:00Post GPP (Switzerland) Trip Reflection<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I am sitting in a train running at 300 km per hour (186
miles per hour). While the view outside is nice, the train goes through really long
tunnels. So to utilize my tunnel time, here are some of my experiences and
learnings from the GPP trip:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The GPP trip got over two days ago. It was a fun-filled
experience but exhausting at the same time. We visited 8 universities in period
of 8 days, talked to professors, deans, and students at those universities. I found
almost all of them to be very receptive of us. During my visits to the universities,
while I was interested in learning about different facets of the higher
education in Switzerland, France, and Italy, I was particularly interested in
knowing how the universities handle the issue of linguistic diversity. Switzerland
has four national languages – German, French, Italian, and Romansh. In order to
ensure the mobility of students, the universities need to devise some system
through which students who do not speak a particular language in a fluent way
can still attend any university they want to without any language consideration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">However, what I found was very interesting. Universities, generally,
impart instruction in the language that is spoken in the area. For example, in
the Zurich region, the language of instruction is German, while in the Ticino
region, the language of instruction is Italian in the universities. Some of the
course are taught in English as well. In Zurich, one of the professors told me
that the Swiss learn multiple languages while they are growing up. For example,
someone growing up in the German speaking part learns to speak French and vice
versa. Moreover, a lot of people learn English given the global presence of the
language. During my stay in Switzerland, I did not find anyone who I could not
talk to due to language gap. Almost everyone could understand and speak some
level of English. Even while in France, which takes quite a bit of pride in its
language, I did not have many issues when I was once lost in a cafeteria. While
all the servers could not understand me there, they called in someone who
could.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Another aspect that I learned about the Swiss higher education
is its stress on quality. At ETH Zurich, I learned that while all the students
who want to pursue engineering are given admission, after the first year, many
who do not meet the standards are weeded out. This is not to say that students
are not provided with resources to help them succeed during the first year. I
found this to be in quite contrast with the US engineering education where
there is a lot of push to retain students in engineering.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There were many more subtle differences among the education
systems in different European countries that I observed and between European countries’
and the US education systems. Moreover, the way people behaved in general
varied across different countries in Europe and different parts of Switzerland.
Of all the people I met, I loved the most how Italians and Swiss-Italians
conducted themselves. But more on that later as I am about to reach Rome soon! :)</span></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-60270283063867795752017-05-16T19:01:00.001-04:002017-05-16T19:03:21.420-04:00On the Eve of Departure<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">Europe - a place I have head is very beautiful and a place I have wanted to visit for a long time. I still regret the fact that I was not proactive enough to apply for a summer internship in Europe during the junior year of college. But no more regrets! I am going to Europe tomorrow and am pretty excited about it.</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">The purpose for going to Europe is to visit universities in Switzerland, Italy, and France and learn about the higher education system in those universities, and at the same time forge research collaborations with those universities. Given my interest in learning about higher education and especially how academic cultures vary across the globe, I am really looking forward to this trip as this trip will unravel some of the intricacies of the higher education system in European universities for me. I am specifically interested in knowing how the universities that I will visit address the issues of diversity and inclusion, given they have a diverse student base that not only differs on the basis of race, ethnicity, and gender but also differs in terms of linguistic abilities.</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">While I am excited to be going to Europe, a part of me is nervous as well. I think there are two reasons for my nervousness. First, I have some kind of travel-phobia where the fear of unknown makes me very scared of traveling. Before travel, I am usually anxious about whether I am forgetting some important things that I should pack or if I will be able to reach to the airport in time or something else on similar lines. Second, this is the first time I will be traveling in countries which do not speak Hindi or English. And to be honest, I am a little scared about that aspect. I have been to the Dominican Republic before where people speak Spanish but I went there with a school group and all the arrangements where done by our hosts to make sure we are comfortable once we reach. This time, I do not get to meet with the school crew until I spend three days there by myself. I was thinking about it yesterday morning - what happens once I reach the Munich airport and need to know specifics about the local transport system and nobody speaks English? What happens if I have to find directions on the street and I ask people and nobody understands me? I know that it will be not as bad as someone will understand and speak English (my English privilege), but as of now the fear of unknown dawns upon me.</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">While I aim to forge professional collaborations while I am in Europe, I aim to build personal friendships with many, especially the ones who will be with me as part of the school crew. I think there is something about being together in a foreign land that brings people together in unique ways. Needless to say, I am excited for the educational and cultural experience. See y'all in Europe!</span></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-72222554308702394252017-03-17T15:45:00.000-04:002017-03-17T16:00:59.101-04:00More on Visa Hassles<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So, the last time I wrote about the challenges in figuring out the forms and documents that are required to apply for a Schegen visa. The latest news is I applied for the visa and appeared at the Swiss embassy in Washington DC last week, and today I received my visa. Yayyyyyyy!!! Hopefully, there will be no more immigration hassles before I reach Germany (my first destination in Europe).<br />
<br />
The visa interview went rather smoothly. My appointment was at 9:15 am on March 9. I reached the embassy at around half past eight along with Rabih, who is also going to Europe with the Global Perspectives Program (GPP) group. We waited for half an hour before we got inside the embassy. When it was time, they called my name and I went in for the interview. The interview went smoothly in that the officer asked me about my purpose for going to Switzerland (and Europe in general) and how I will fund the trip. They also asked for proofs of my enrollment at Virginia Tech, details about my stay in Europe, and my medical insurance. A complete list of the documents required to obtain a Schengen visa can be found <a href="https://www.eda.admin.ch/content/dam/countries/countries-content/united-states-of-america/en/131.30_Merkblatt_Visa_for_tourism.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
One of the requirements for obtaining tourist visa to visit any Schegen area is that the visitor needs to provide proof of stay in the Schengen area, either in the form of hotel reservations or letter from family or friend that specifies that the visitor will stay with them. I had already gotten the required letter from my friend in Germany but the officer wanted my friend to email the letter directly to them. So, my visa got approved on the condition that the embassy receives a letter from my friend directly.<br />
<br />
The next morning, I got an email from the embassy that said my medical insurance for the trip was not adequate as it did not cover the entire duration of the trip, and I needed to purchase another insurance that covers the entire duration of the trip. The university had only purchased insurance for the duration of the GPP program. And the visa officer had earlier told me that they do not accept Aetna, the insurance that I currently have. After spending many hours in figuring out the documents that were required to apply for the visa and traveling to DC, I now had to spend more time in figuring out how to extend my insurance duration. It did take an hour and $60 to get that.<br />
<br />
So, each time I apply for visa, the entire process of obtaining the documents and making sure I have all the forms filled up correctly seems more difficult than actually planning the trip abroad. At these times, I really feel jealous of people who can do visa-free travel to most countries. More about that in a later blog.<br />
<br />
P.S. 1) I had done a blunder in filling out the visa application form. In the place of birth field, I had filled in Blacksburg and in the country of birth filed, I had written USA. The visa officer corrected that for me.<br />
2) The Swiss embassy had minimal level of security I could have imagined for an embassy. There were no security guards at the entrance.<br />
3) There were no restrooms (for visitors I guess) in the embassy.<br />
4) The visa officer did not take the visa fee from me. She told me that as my purpose of visit is study, I do not need to pay the fee. This is interesting because someone else who is going on the same trip was asked to pay a visa fee of 60 euros.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-90866614185297897822017-03-07T12:56:00.000-05:002017-03-07T12:56:12.201-05:00Trip to Europe and Visa Hassle<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The new year brought good news for me in that I was accepted as one of the 15 participants to the Global Perspectives Program (GPP) offered by the Graduate School at Virginia Tech. The trip entails visiting universities in Switzerland, France, and Italy to learn about higher education in those countries. And to add to that joy, the Graduate School pays for most of the trip to minimize the financial burden on students. I assume this learning experience would be one of its kind where one is not only gaining knowledge along with traveling abroad but also having all this experience with minimal cost out of one's pocket. Everything great. But is it?<br />
<br />
The first challenge I have been facing is in obtaining the Visa for my travel. Given I am an Indian passport holder, I require a Schengen Visa to go to either Switzerland, France, or Italy. And there are multiple hassles in obtaining any Visa (I have applied and obtained Visa for the USA and Canada in the past).<br />
<br />
So my hassles in trying to obtain a Schengen Visa started with finding out the right website to figure out what I need to do in order to apply for the Visa. And it was not easy - there were numerous websites that gave information about which documents I need or how I can apply for the Visa but none of them were official. So, while I had the information, I did not know how much I could believe that information. After talking to many people, I finally found out the website of the Swiss embassy that gave me more legitimate information about what I need to do to get a Schengen Visa.<br />
<br />
But my pain did not get over here. Once I figured out which documents I need to apply for a Visa, the list seemed unfair and almost like a nightmare. I am required to provide them with a medical insurance during the period of my stay, which makes sense. But they also require me to get my travel tickets and hotel bookings for my entire stay. The Graduate School has been helpful in getting the tickets and accommodation confirmation well ahead of time, but what do I do for the duration when I travel on my own in Europe? How do I plan a trip so much ahead of time and also get my hotel reservations done? And never to mention that I will have to travel to DC to appear for an in-person interview.<br />
<br />
I hope the Visa interview goes smoothly but I sure will write another post about it if it does not. And definitely, I will write more posts about Visa policies across the wold and how it is skewed in favor of "richer" countries.<br />
<br />
Till then, Tada!!<br />
<br /></div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-79259158624826339442015-11-30T22:20:00.000-05:002015-11-30T22:20:58.215-05:00Role of the Professoriate in the 21st Century<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like everything, the role of professoriate has been evolving
in the 21<sup>st</sup> century and it will further keep on changing. Gone are
the days when professors lectured large classes and students carefully listened
to them while taking notes in their notebooks. Technology has brought about a
major shift in how we learn. At the same time, there has been a lot of push
from education researchers to implement learner-centered pedagogy in
classrooms. And finally, academia has started to realize the inherent
discrimination and exclusion that is propagated by the current education system
and there is a need to impart education that is not only inclusive but also
geared toward raising critical consciousness in students. The following
paragraphs elaborate these points in details.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Use of technology:</b>
Students in the current times live in a digital world. They are connected to
the Internet most of their day, are avid gamers, have shorter attention-span,
and are experts in multi-tasking. They can get the same information being
conveyed to them by the instructor in a classroom on the internet using their
phones and hence do not necessarily need to pay attention to a lecture being
delivered to them. The educators of the 21<sup>st</sup> century need to make
use of the Internet and other technological advancements to engage students in the
learning process and help them learn better.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Learner-centric pedagogy:</b> Education research suggests that students learn and retain the
content better if they are actively engaged in the learning process. At the
same time, student-centric approaches increase student motivation to learn,
build on students’ prior knowledge, help improve the transfer of learning from
classroom to the real-life situations, and increase student metacognition. Hence,
educators should move away from the lecture-based model of teaching to
project-based and problem-based approach to learning which are student-centric.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Inclusive and
critical education:</b> Critical education aims to raise social and political
awareness among students, help them recognize authoritarian tendencies in the
classroom and the society, and empower them to raise voices against injustice
and discrimination. Such an educational approach departs from the "baking
system" of education which teats students as passive receivers of knowledge. Instead,
critical education treats students as active agents in the process of knowledge
construction. The teachers, instead of acting as "dispensers of knowledge" act
as "transformative agents" who help students transform reality by constantly
interacting with it. The present day education should aim at promoting critical
consciousness in students. Also, education should be inclusive in that it
provides opportunity to all the students irrespective of their class, race,
gender, nationality, sexuality, and other identities to learn and thrive
without discrimination and prejudice of any kind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the future educators, it becomes our responsibility to
keep up with the changes in the nature of teaching and learning. We need to
devise teaching strategies that effectively use the technology around us to foster
students’ learning, use approaches that are centered on the students instead of
being focused on the teachers, and, most importantly, get rid of the banking
model of education. We need to create a learning environment that empowers students
from all backgrounds and identities, and raises critical awareness in them.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-73945743145258644782015-11-10T20:18:00.000-05:002015-11-10T21:02:00.602-05:00Professional Code of Ethics for Engineering Educators<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Few scholars have stated that engineering education should
be considered a profession. A profession is characterized by a code of ethics
that the members of that profession accept and follow. To this end, the
American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) recently came up with <a href="https://www.asee.org/member-resources/resources/Code_of_Ethics.pdf" target="_blank">a set of ethical codes</a> for the members of the Engineering Education profession. These
codes of ethics address the responsibilities that engineering educators have
toward their students, improving their professional competence, ensuring
honesty and integrity in their work, and social justice.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First of all, there is an acknowledgement of the fact that engineering
educators are also members of their own technical disciplines and conduct work
in their own disciplines. For those who do work in their own disciplines, they
are expected to follow the code of ethics of their own discipline including
holding “paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.” In addition
to the ethical cannons from one’s engineering discipline, engineering educators
are expected to follow the ethical cannons outlined by the ASEE.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are a total of fourteen ethical cannons outlined by
the ASEE. The first three of them define the responsibilities that engineering
educators have toward their students. These responsibilities include ensuring
graduates have an understanding of their professional and ethical
responsibility, encouraging students to work for human welfare, and encouraging
students to understand the societal and environmental impact of their work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cannons 4 and 5 address professional competence and
improving competence. Cannon 4 suggests that engineering educators should take
responsibility only in the area of their competence and cannon 5 suggests that
they should take active steps to maintain and improve their expertise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cannons 6-9 outline the need for honesty and impartiality in
the work of engineering educators. Engineering educators are expected to respect
others’ intellectual property by “by properly attributing previous works and
sharing appropriate credit with co-authors, including students” and avoid any
conflict of interest in their work. Also, they are expected to build their
reputation on the bases of their work and professional collaborations made by
them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cannons 10 and 11 address the issue of social justice by
suggesting that engineering educators should treat all persons fairly and
demonstrate respect for colleagues and students. Cannon 12 obligates
engineering educators to maintain the confidentiality of their students and colleagues.
Cannon 13 addresses the issue of fair assessment of students and colleagues and
cannon 14 asks engineering educators to support other colleagues in following the
code of ethics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Recently, there has been another code of ethics drafted by
some scholars <a href="file:///C:/Users/GTA/Desktop/ENGE%20Stuff/Fall%202015/PFP/Blogs/Final%20Blog%20post.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 107%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> in
the field. I believe this will create a dialogue among engineering educators to
reconsider the code of ethics suggested by the ASEE. As the discipline evolves,
the code of ethics that engineering educators follow will evolve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/GTA/Desktop/ENGE%20Stuff/Fall%202015/PFP/Blogs/Final%20Blog%20post.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 107%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Alan Cheville and John Heywood presented a paper at the 2015 IEEE Frontiers in
Education conference. In the paper, they discussed a draft code of ethics for
engineering educators.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-82451899395778924092015-11-07T19:49:00.000-05:002015-11-07T19:52:04.955-05:00Education in Ancient Kemet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Last Monday, when Mr. <a href="http://www.timwise.org/" target="_blank">Tim Wise</a> was giving a talk at Virginia
Tech, one of the members of the audience noted that her friend thought
education in Africa is about learning how to throw spears. She thought that
this viewpoint of her friend stemmed from ignorance and wanted Mr. Wise to
suggest strategies to engage with people who are living with the “luxury of
ignorance.” While Mr. Wise suggested suitable strategies to engage with people
who are ignorant, he handled this topic in a much nuanced way noting that the African
education system was appropriate for the local contexts and was aimed at
preserving the nature instead of destroying it for personal benefit. He further
added Africans had a very advanced education system long before most of the
world. In this blog post, I will discuss the education system in ancient Kemet
(ancient Egypt) that was prevalent almost 3000 years before Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The goal of education system in ancient Kemet was not seen
primarily as the acquisition of knowledge. Rather, it was seen as progress
through the successive stages of rebirth to become one with God. This unity
with God could be achieved through studying the nature and understanding
various natural phenomena. Other goals of education included achieving unity
with oneself, unity of the tribe, and unity with the nature; development of
character and social responsibility in a person; and development of spiritual
power. The degree to which a person could become godlike was determined by the
degree to which one could overcome certain natural flaws or impediments of the
body.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Education was carried out through the process of initiation.
Each initiate (or student) was separated from the everyday environment and was
placed in a setting that enabled them to become closer to nature. Each initiate
carried out a disciplined study of the natural phenomena under the guidance of masters
(or teachers). The masters modeled the behavior that the initiate were expected
to learn. Also, the masters nurtured the experiences of the initiates so that
they could learn higher level lessons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">During the initiation process, each initiate was deeply
immersed in an interactive and comprehensive process that had much time devoted
to examination of signs and symbols, and learning of stories, proverbs, songs
and dance. While learning was done by individuals, the method adopted was seen
as a collective effort than an individual effort. There was a lot of emphasis
on interaction with the masters and other initiates during the learning
process. During the education process, one was challenged with the problems of
conscience. This developed critical thinking and a sense of responsibility in
individuals. Besides developing critical thinking and social responsibility in
students, ancient Kamites maintained an education system appropriate to the
environment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Education was carried out at temples. Each temple had a
library and teachers of various disciplines. The various disciplines taught
included astronomy and astrology, geography, geology, philosophy and theology,
and law and communication. It is estimated that at one time, there were 80000
students studying at a university called Ipet Isut University in ancient Kemet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Scholars believe that the Kemetic education system is the
parent of the western education system and one can see many aspects of the
Kemetic education system in present-day education system in the West. I think
we can learn a lot from the education system in ancient Kemet. The current
education system, especially in the West, focuses on individual gains over
social responsibility. This is why we see people engaging in rampant
destruction of the environment for personal gains. We are developing technology
to harness the natural resources instead of better understanding the nature as
was done in ancient Kemet. We need to bring the educational goals of social
responsibility and preservation of nature to our current education system.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>P.S.</i> The
information presented about the education system in ancient Kemet in this post
has been taken from the essays written by Asa G. Hilliard in the book <i>The Maroon Within Us</i>. More details about
the ancient Kemetic education system can be found in this book.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-23984394307074141862015-10-31T23:26:00.001-04:002015-10-31T23:30:58.313-04:00From Technology to No Technology<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Technology has slowly been entering into multiple aspects
of teaching and learning. Classrooms are one such space where people are trying
to integrate technology in various ways. Colleges are pushing for the use of
technology in classrooms. For example, in 2007, the College of Engineering at
Virginia Tech made it <a href="http://www.cnet.com/news/tablet-pcs-required-for-virginia-tech-engineers/" target="_blank">mandatory for each incoming freshman to own a tablet-PC</a>.
The purpose behind this move was to change the way engineering classes are
instructed at the university. However, at the other end, there are professors
at various universities who are doing away with the use of electronic gadgets
in classrooms. Tal Gross who teaches at Columbia University and Clay Shirky who
teaches at New York University recently banned the use of technology in their
classrooms.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tal Gross, who teaches public health at Columbia University
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/30/this-year-im-resolving-to-ban-laptops-from-my-classroom/" target="_blank">recently banned the use of laptops</a> in his classes. He argues when students take
notes using laptops in class, given their fast typing abilities, they tend to
copy down almost everything that is said in the class. As a result, the
classroom does not remain a place for dialogue and conversation anymore, rather
it becomes an “exercise in dictation.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gross supports his decision by citing a research study conducted by </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.12px;">Pam Mueller at Princeton University and Daniel Oppenheimer at UCLA</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"> in which 67 undergraduates were asked to watch a video lecture. Half of them
were randomly assigned to take notes using pen and paper while the other half
was asked to take notes using a laptop while watching the video. After that,
the students were asked to take an exam. It was found that the students who
took notes using pen and paper did much better than the ones who took notes
using laptop on conceptual questions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few months before Gross pulled the plug, Clay
Shirky, a social media professor at New York University, <a href="https://medium.com/@cshirky/why-i-just-asked-my-students-to-put-their-laptops-away-7f5f7c50f368#.43zqgugph" target="_blank">banned the use oftechnology</a> in his classrooms. Shirky observed that distractions due to
electronic devices grew over the years in his classes. Moreover, he notes whenever he asks his students to shut down their electronic devices, "the conversation brightens, and more recently, there is a sense of relief from many of the students."</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="background: white; letter-spacing: -.05pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shirky’s move to ask students to shut down electronic
gadgets was aimed to prevent them from multi-tasking and engage with social
media. He reasons multi-tasking is bad for high quality cognitive work and
cites <a href="http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/august24/multitask-research-study-082409.html" target="_blank">a study from Stanford</a> that suggests heavy multi-taskers are not good at choosing a task to concentrate on. He further adds “the problem is especially acute with social media,
because on top of the general incentive for any service to be verbose about its
value, social information is immediately and emotionally engaging. Both the
form and the content of a Facebook update are almost irresistibly distracting,
especially compared with the hard slog of coursework.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally, Shirky cites <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131512002254?np=y" target="_blank">another study</a> that suggests participants
who were multitasking on a laptop during a lecture had lower scores on a test as
compared to those who did not. In addition to that, participants who were in
direct view of another participant who was multitasking scored lower than those
who were not. This suggests laptop multitasking distracts not only the one
who is doing it but also the one who is sitting nearby and can see someone
multitasking.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The above stories suggest technology is not always
beneficial for students in a classroom. Hence, we, as educators, must engage in
enough deliberation before asking students to use technology and electronic
gadgets in classrooms.</span></span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; letter-spacing: -.05pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-76186877110340674052015-10-29T20:29:00.002-04:002015-10-29T20:29:22.690-04:00Training PhD students about responsible conduct of research: Whose responsibility is it?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is needless to emphasize the importance of maintaining
ethical standards while conducting research. However, for engaging in ethical
research practices, one needs to learn about the ethical standards. Most of the
researchers start learning about conducting research during their PhDs. This
means that they should start learning about ethical and responsible conduct of research
as PhD students. But the bigger question remains: who teaches PhD students about
responsible conduct of research? Is it the faculty who serve as mentors or
advisors or supervisors to the student, or is it the university or the institution?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Titus and Ballou <a href="file:///C:/Users/GTA/Desktop/ENGE%20Stuff/Fall%202015/PFP/Blogs/Scholarly%20Integrity.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
conducted a quantitative study to figure out how faculty (mentors or advisors
or supervisors) work with PhD students to educate them about research
standards, and who (the institution or the faculty) they think is responsible
for teaching PhD students about responsible conduct of research. For this
study, Titus and Ballou selected 10000 R01 researchers who had NIH grants
during 2005 and 2006, and had the primary responsibility of overseeing a
doctoral student in the last five years. They surveyed the selected researchers
using a web-administered questionnaire between October 2008 and March 2009 to
answer their research questions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In their study, Titus and Ballou found that more than half
of the faculty did not 1) teach the doctoral students how to write grant
proposals, 2) co-author a research paper with the student being the first
author, 3) prepare an IRB or IUCAC protocol with students, and 4) provide data management
guidelines to students. 30% of the faculty reported that either they did not
have any guideline from the institution on their responsibilities for working
with PhD students or they could not remember if any guideline was provided. More
than 70% of the faculty believed it was their responsibility to 1) set standards
for data collection, 2) provide training for data management, 3) provide policy
on authorship, and 4) provide financial support to students. However, more than
half of them believed that it was institute’s responsibility to 1) provide
training in responsible research behavior, 2) provide training about IRB or IACUC
regulations, 3) provide training in identifying research misconduct, and 4)
managing cases of research misconduct. Less than 30% faculty reported that they
had been trained to advise or mentor doctoral students and develop research
skills in students.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The findings of the above study provide important implications
for research institutions to train the faculty to work with doctoral students. At
the same time, there should be a clear delineation of responsibility between faculty
and institution for developing ethical and responsible research behavior in PhD
students. Training PhD students about responsible conduct of research is an important
part of their development as PhD students and both institution and faculty
should hold hands to achieve this goal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/GTA/Desktop/ENGE%20Stuff/Fall%202015/PFP/Blogs/Scholarly%20Integrity.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></a> <!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"custom":[]}
CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY <span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]-->Titus,
S. L., & Ballou, J. M. (2013). Ensuring PhD Development of Responsible
Conduct of Research Behaviors: Who’s Responsible? Science and Engineering
Ethics, 20(1), 221–235.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-55985054688369545002015-10-28T19:43:00.002-04:002015-12-02T10:05:12.518-05:00Learning Partnerships Model: The Future of University<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="Default">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With rising costs of higher education, more and more students
are getting attracted to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). MOOCs are cheaper
and provide almost the same content knowledge to students as they would get
from a course taught in a college classroom. Besides cheaper education, MOOCs
also help students get past the barriers of time synchronization and
co-location. While being enrolled in a MOOC class, a student does not need to
be present at a fixed location during a fixed time. They can access the course
content any time and from any location according to their convenience. This is
why MOOCs are becoming more popular each day to the extent that some
universities ask their on-campus students to take online courses. I myself have
taken a 3-credit graduate level online course at Virginia Tech as the professor
who teaches the course (or rather prepares the online material and coordinates
its delivery) is not present on the main campus of the university.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If a student can learn the same content at cheaper price and
with more convenience, it is reasonable to argue that their inclination to
attend a physical university will go down. In such a case, the reasons for
which a student might want to attend a university would change in future.
Universities will have to move beyond the information-transfer model to
something which will add value to students, and something which cannot be
learned through MOOCs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the book <i>Learning
Partnerships: Theory and Models of Practice to Educate for Self-authorship </i>(edited
by Baxter Magolda and King)<i>, </i>Marcia B
Baxter Magolda notes the 21<sup>st</sup> century college education should help
students develop systemic thinking, enable them to critically analyze the
knowledge claims made by the authority instead of merely accepting it, help
them construct their own knowledge and beliefs, and prepare them to be open to
new possibilities. These skills will help students grow into “effective
citizens” who can take ethical actions for the good of not just the individual
but the society as a whole. In order to achieve the goal of developing students
into effective citizens, Baxter Magolda suggests universities should create
learning environments that help students attain three learning outcomes:<i> </i>cognitive
maturity, integrated identity, and mature relationships. Cognitive maturity
refers to the ability to take mature and reflective decisions while problem
solving. Integrated identity refers to the ability to make independent
decisions, understand one’s own culture and backgrounds, and choose one’s goals
and values. Mature relationship is linked with respecting others’ beliefs and
identities, and integrating the diverse perspective brought by others with
one’s own. Figure 1 depicts an integrated model of the three learning outcomes
which universities should help students attain.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFJ3WYN-jM-gxS1iTUyQvrq_FVAlFsi5lzHDVZtAu1g9m5hQl5OmX6H83ogGIMA1Fk2TciXHqIKnXhbJA4jCrMZGVNiMNzrVbPGK7rdOLXYceYCHOx17e2KjAOGTmnw0aYop5kWI8Fxck/s1600/self-authorship.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFJ3WYN-jM-gxS1iTUyQvrq_FVAlFsi5lzHDVZtAu1g9m5hQl5OmX6H83ogGIMA1Fk2TciXHqIKnXhbJA4jCrMZGVNiMNzrVbPGK7rdOLXYceYCHOx17e2KjAOGTmnw0aYop5kWI8Fxck/s1600/self-authorship.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFJ3WYN-jM-gxS1iTUyQvrq_FVAlFsi5lzHDVZtAu1g9m5hQl5OmX6H83ogGIMA1Fk2TciXHqIKnXhbJA4jCrMZGVNiMNzrVbPGK7rdOLXYceYCHOx17e2KjAOGTmnw0aYop5kWI8Fxck/s320/self-authorship.jpg" width="305" /></a><br />
<div align="center" class="Default">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Figure 1. An integrated model of university/college
learning outcomes <span style="line-height: 17.12px;">[1]</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="Default">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Baxter
Magolda further suggests that these learning outcomes can be attained by
employing the learning partnerships model (as shown in Figure 2) in the
universities. A learning environment based on the learning partnerships model
conveys knowledge as complex and socially constructed and situates learning in
learner’s experiences. Depicting knowledge as complex validates learner’s
capacity to learn. Situating learning in learner’s experiences conveys the idea
that self is vital for knowledge construction. Such a learning environment
helps students develop cognitive maturity and integrated identity. Finally, in
order to help students develop mature relationships, the learning environment
portrays authority and expertise as shared, and learning as mutually
constructing meaning.</span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhEYVf1mhRu7TJLIQY61uF2xZVncl1I4G6V0nIXdbNxkAyODg-fmwulaEl11aM4nQwxadoloenZj2D1wg601V-Z6JAuHFeom5HRXfWJFNbaE0N8ARxDwL4t7cELbYYlkpTdrdEVC13Jrk/s1600/learning+partnerships+model.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhEYVf1mhRu7TJLIQY61uF2xZVncl1I4G6V0nIXdbNxkAyODg-fmwulaEl11aM4nQwxadoloenZj2D1wg601V-Z6JAuHFeom5HRXfWJFNbaE0N8ARxDwL4t7cELbYYlkpTdrdEVC13Jrk/s320/learning+partnerships+model.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
<div align="center" class="Default" style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Figure 2. The learning
partnerships model <span style="line-height: 17.12px;">[2]</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/GTA/Desktop/ENGE%20Stuff/Fall%202015/PFP/Blogs/Future%20of%20University.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></span></span></a></span>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For universities to become the “centers for learning” in the
true sense of the terms, I think, they need to move toward creating a learning
environment based on the learning partnerships model. Such a learning
environment will produce graduates who not only have the required knowledge to
do a job but also are able to make ethical decisions for the good of humankind
while executing the job.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1432502992220241452" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/GTA/Desktop/ENGE%20Stuff/Fall%202015/PFP/Blogs/Future%20of%20University.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 107%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Baxter Magolda, M. B. (2004). Self-authorship as the common goal
of 21st-century education. In M. B. B. Magolda & P. M. King (Eds.), <i>Learning
partnerships: Theory and models of practice to educate for self-authorship </i>(pp.
1–35). Stylus Publishing, LLC.</span><br />
<a href="file:///C:/Users/GTA/Desktop/ENGE%20Stuff/Fall%202015/PFP/Blogs/Future%20of%20University.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 107%;">[2]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Baxter Magolda, M. B. (2004). Learning partnerships model. In M. B. B.
Magolda & P. M. King (Eds.), </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Learning partnerships: Theory and models of
practice to educate for self-authorship </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(pp. 37–62). Stylus Publishing,
LLC.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-56416769980819387752015-10-19T19:26:00.001-04:002015-10-19T19:26:28.932-04:00Critical Pedagogy in Engineering Classroom<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Critical pedagogy is the education movement aimed developing
students into socially and politically aware individuals, helping them
recognize authoritarian tendencies, empowering them to act against injustice,
and employing democratic and inclusive classroom practices. The term “critical
pedagogy” has been used by educators to refer to a broad range of pedagogies
that employ critical theory, feminist theory, queer theory, anti-racist theory,
multicultural education, and inclusive pedagogies. In this post, I will discuss
some of the critical pedagogy practices employed by Dr. Donna Riley (currently
a professor at Virginia Tech) while teaching a class called “Engineering
Thermodynamics” as Smit College, an all women college, during Spring and Fall
semesters of 2002. It should be noted that Riley uses <i>liberative pedagogy</i> as an inclusive term for critical pedagogy,
feminist pedagogy, and radical pedagogy. Some of the classroom practices
employed by Riley included:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Connecting learning
to students’ experiences.</b> Students learn the most from examples which they
can relate to, based on their social and cultural backgrounds. Hence, Riley
used a wide variety of thermodynamic systems in class as examples. Also, the
textbook for the class was chosen such that it contained a wide variety of
examples of thermodynamic systems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Democratic classroom
practices.</b> Students were assigned teaching roles to teach parts of the
course to the entire class. They were not only asked to develop modules to
teach the class but also encouraged to relate them to their own lives. Also,
the seating arrangement reflected the democratic classroom practices. Instead of
sitting in rows facing the instructor, students were asked to sit in circles
with each student facing and talking to the entire class instead of just the
instructor.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Taking responsibility
for one’s own learning.</b> Students were required to take responsibility for
their learning in that they were asked to do metacognitive reflections on what
was working or not working for them in the class. They were also asked to do assignments
in which they reflected on their learning of various aspects of the course.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Ethics discussions.</b>
In order for students to be develop as ethically responsible individuals, they
need to learn the impact which an engineer’s work has on the society. To develop
such an ethical awareness, Riley and her class watched and critiqued videos on “energy
in society”, critiqued the textbook used for the class by analyzing the aspects
(e.g. alternate energy, environmental applications of thermodynamics, energy
system in developing countries) which were missing from the textbook. Also,
students were assigned ethics problems to reflect on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Breaking the Western
hegemony.</b> In order to decenter the male hegemony of the Western
civilization, Riley discussed examples of thermodynamic inventions done by
non-Western and non-male inventors. Also, some of the assignments required
students to make interracial and intercultural connections in thermodynamics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Normalizing mistakes.</b>
By normalizing mistakes in the process of learning, Riley fostered a classroom environment
in which students were comfortable attempting problems (sometimes even on the
black board) in class and learning from their mistakes. Another strategy used
by her for normalizing mistakes was acknowledging when she herself did not know
something.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Discussion of history
and philosophy.</b> Riley discussed the history and philosophy of the development
of thermodynamic laws to demonstrate to the students that the process of discovery
does not lead one to an absolute truth. Instead, making mistakes is acceptable
in the process of discovery. Students were also required to reflect on how the knowledge
of history and philosophy of thermodynamics helped their learning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Assessment
techniques. </b>The assessment of students put a greater emphasis on
participation. Moreover, a flexible grading system was adopted. Students were
asked to work in pairs on some exams. In the second offering of the course,
problems were given to the students only as a learning exercise and not as an assessment
tool. Moreover, continual course feedback was taken from students to improve
their learning experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the critiques of critical pedagogy is that it does
not provide specific classroom practices. It just suggests that teaching and
learning should be contextual and aim at raising critical awareness among
students. A lot of times educators do not know how to apply critical pedagogy
in their classes, especially in hard and applied sciences, due to a lack of
knowledge about how to apply it. I hope the practices noted above can be
adopted to and adapted for any classroom and any discipline.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBibliography">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>P.S.</i> The
complete paper in which Riley discusses her experiences of applying liberative
pedagogy in her classes can be found from: Riley, D. (2003). Employing
liberative pedagogies in engineering education. <i>Journal of Women and
Minorities in Science and Engineering</i>, <i>9</i>(2), 137–158.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-39744753391072237362015-10-15T20:25:00.000-04:002015-10-15T23:17:02.730-04:00What should students pursue, interest or money?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was attending the 47<sup>th</sup> North American Power
Symposium during 4-6 October in Charlotte, North Carolina when I had this
interesting conversation with a professor from another university. I told the
professor that I did my Masters in Electrical Engineering and then I moved to Engineering
Education to pursue my PhD. The first reaction which the professor had was in
form of a comment in which they told me that it will not be very beneficial for
me in terms of the salary which I will earn after graduating from my degree
program. I think the assumption which the professor made here was that a
graduate with an education degree will earn less than the one with an electrical
engineering degree.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There might be some truth in what the professor said
(although when I compared the salaries of professors from Engineering Education
and Electrical & Computer Engineering departments at Virginia Tech, I did
not find much difference between them; but for now, let us go ahead with the
assumption that electrical engineering professors earn more than their
counterparts in engineering education). It might be difficult for me to compete
with electrical engineering graduates in terms of the salary which I will earn
after my graduation, but is that all I want from my education? A big fat
salary? Or does it have to be more? Is there a bigger purpose for me and for
others that leads us to pursue higher education? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If I look at the current narrative about the higher
education, it seems like students see it as an investment in terms of time and
money and the expectation is that this investment will pay off once they
graduate from the university. And this is why a lot of their time and energy is
focused on taking classes or engaging in activities that help them secure a
high-paying job. This is not to say that all students look at higher education
only as a means to get a high-paying job but the number of students who do so
is significant. And this is very evident in my own discipline, engineering. In
fact, I have myself fallen into the trap of taking classes and engaging in
activities that, I thought, would eventually help me get a high-paying job.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am not against having a desire for a high-paying job. In
fact, with the rising costs of higher education, one needs to ensure that one
has a well-paying job by the time they graduate so that they can payback their student
loans. Issues arise when people start constructing their academic lives around
money and jobs; and ignore various avenues of learning which are essential for
personal growth and development into a responsible citizen. Moreover, there are
other issues with focusing one’s higher education entirely on getting
high-paying jobs. The economic landscape is changing rapidly and it is possible
that the sectors which are high-paying now will no longer be high-paying a few
years later and vice versa. So, if students pursue money while they are in
college, there is no guarantee that they will succeed in that pursuit as there
might not be many high-paying jobs in their fields few years down the line.
Moreover, the charm of money fades away after some time and if one does not
find their work interesting and satisfying, one might encounter dissatisfaction
with their career and life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my opinion, students should follow their interests while they are pursuing higher education and try to get into careers they love. Even if they do not make a lot
of money as compared to those who pursued money, they will still love what they
do and hence live meaningful lives. And when the going gets tough, doing what
they love will keep them going.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-11343392343250838422015-10-12T18:03:00.000-04:002015-10-12T20:44:42.975-04:00Why is "Behave like a Roman while in Rome" attitude problematic?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A couple of weeks ago, I reached my <i>Contemporary Pedagogy</i> class ten minutes before the class start-time
and started charting with one of my classmates who had also arrived almost the
same time I had. Somehow, the conversation started drifting toward writing and I
argued that the professors (at Virginia Tech or any educational institution)
should be cognizant of the fact that different cultures have different writing
styles. For example Asian cultures follow a circular writing pattern and on the
other hand, the dominant writing style in the USA is linear. Hence, when the
professors are evaluating a student’s work, especially an international student
or even a domestic student from a different cultural setting than their own,
they should be at least cognizant, if not considerate, of the student’s culture
and look at their writing with the knowledge of student’s cultural background
in mind. This is important because in the absence of knowledge of variation in
writing style among cultures, the professor may judge student’s writing and
hence their level of understanding of the subject matter poorly in case there
is a writing style mismatch between the professor and the student.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While I was making this argument, another classmate who belongs
to the majority group (white male) jumped in to the conversation and presented
a counter argument by saying “Behave like a Roman while in Rome.” I find this
attitude of the white guy very non-inclusive and even oppressive. However, this
is not to say that he was intentionally trying to be non-inclusive or oppressive
while making his comment. It is very much possible that he was unaware of his
own privileges and the oppressive nature of his comment. And my aim for writing
this blog post is not to point fingers at anyone. It is just to express my own
feelings and if that classmate of mine reads this post, it is to educate him
and many others who might be unaware of their privileges and the non-inclusive
structure of the university and education system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In order to understand why the comment made by my while male
classmate non-inclusive and oppressive in the context of higher education in
the US, we will have to go to the history of higher education in the country. The
first colleges and universities in the country were set up to educate ministers
or to provide education so that the graduates could take up public employment in
Church and Civil State. The universities were accessible only to the dominant
majority i.e. the white men. It was not until the middle of the nineteenth
century that females and other racial minorities were given access to college
education in the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In such a case where the universities were only open for the
white males and were run by them, it is easy to understand that the education
system was structured according to what the white males deemed appropriate. In other
words, the university structure was designed in a way which was suitable for
the white males. And the same argument can be made for the accepted behavioral
styles including writing styles in the university and the academia. The styles
of behavior and academic writing which seemed appropriate to white males were
adopted and others were deemed inappropriate. While the universities opened for
females and other racial minorities almost 150 years ago, I argue that on a structural
level, universities have made little changes to accepting what is appropriate and
acceptable; and what is not. Thus, the structures which govern the universities
are still very “white male-ish” in nature. And hence, the university structures
are not very inclusive of minorities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How does this non-inclusive structure lead to oppression? Universities
expect all the students to follow the rules, guidelines and structures and adapt
to those. For a minority student who was taught a different set of behavioral
patterns and social etiquette in their cultural setting, the guidelines which the
universities ask them to follow might be strange and unfamiliar. Thus, what
universities are asking them to do is to forgo what behavioral styles they
learned as appropriate in their cultural settings and follow the behavioral
styles which the universities espouse i.e. the style favored by the dominant
group. When students try to adapt to the new set of behavioral patterns as
asked of them by the universities, they face disconnect with their own cultural
heritage and hence suffer isolation. They are neither able to identify with what
they learned at home about appropriate conduct and behavior nor they fully
learn the new style of behavior. And a lot of times, this difference in the
behavioral styles is seen as an inability to learn. This perpetuates further oppression
and segregation of the minority students.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know it is not easy for any professor to learn about all
the cultural styles whether it is related to writing or behavior. However, only
by being cognizant of the fact that differences exist one can move a step
forward in creating an inclusive learning environment. This is how a professor
can start putting in efforts to understand where students are coming from and
what values they bring to the classroom. This, instead of asking students to “behave
like Romans while in Rome,” will create an inclusive learning environment in universities.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-1631988661953328932015-10-11T11:53:00.000-04:002015-10-11T12:13:45.608-04:00Inclusive Classroom Lessons from the Movie Freedom Writers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7zRfYkcl4KWejTtlBbbG_DzjsC0A2P16ybjvlI3PR_naDamKimC6WectQY09thxL1gJDf8Qn0pjEhsYFzlQJf3eMIp4RTvYLNUy5o4ws1fHlIVMhFi3zaG3vanFh6ihgEBS0b9RsnnpQ/s1600/freedomwriters6-hi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7zRfYkcl4KWejTtlBbbG_DzjsC0A2P16ybjvlI3PR_naDamKimC6WectQY09thxL1gJDf8Qn0pjEhsYFzlQJf3eMIp4RTvYLNUy5o4ws1fHlIVMhFi3zaG3vanFh6ihgEBS0b9RsnnpQ/s320/freedomwriters6-hi.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(A still from the movie <i>Freedom Writers</i>. Image Source: http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/dvd/aplus/freedomwriters/freedomwriters6-hi.jpg)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my <i>Education and
Anthropology</i> class last Thursday, we watched the movie <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Writers" target="_blank">Freedom Writers</a></i>. I am a movie buff (In fact, based on my innumerous
references to movies in class while teaching, last week one of my students, Nicholas, asked me, “Ashish, are you the movie guy?”) but very few movies make me think
as deeply as this one did. Based on a real-life story, the movie tells the tale
of a high school in Long Beach, California. Erin Gruwell joins the school as
the new English teacher. She is given the responsibility to teach English to “at
risk” students who come from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and most of
them have a long history of racial and gang violence. They do not see a future
for themselves and do not see how school is helping them in any way. Gruwell, a
first time teacher, works her way through the administrative struggles to
ignite her students’ passion for learning and helps them envision a future for
themselves. How does she do it? Through inclusive pedagogy! She teaches us the
following four important lessons about creating inclusive classrooms:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Validate students’
capacity to learn: </b>The first and foremost requirement of making a classroom
inclusive of students’ needs is to have enough trust in the students that they
can learn and succeed. We fail the students a lot before they encounter actual
failure if we do not lay our trust in their abilities. When the entire school
treated her students as a burden, Erin believed in her students’ abilities and
kept putting in efforts to provide new learning experiences to her students. She
even took up two part-time jobs after her regular job so that she could buy
books for her students and take them to museum trips.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Listen and understand:</b>
To make the teaching inclusive, the teacher needs to listen to students’ needs
and understand their needs by being cognizant of the sociocultural backgrounds
they come from. For assignments, Erin Gruwell asked students to tell their own stories
through an anonymous journal. These stories not only helped Erin to know her
students better but also increased her students’ confidence as they started
believing that their own stories are as important as any other story and others
need to know their stories.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Have instructional
materials relevant to one’s background:</b> Students, in any classroom, come
from diverse backgrounds and the same educational material might not cater to
the needs of all the students. Erin Gwen soon realized that her students did
not see value in learning about Homer and his works. Hence, she changed the
texts to the ones about the lives of teenagers in times of violence and war so that
her students could relate their own experiences with the texts they were
reading.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Bring in your own personal
identity to relate to students:</b> While a teacher needs to have deep sympathy
with their students’ oppressed histories, they also need to empathize with the
students to relate with them on a higher level. And this empathy can only be
evoked by the teacher if they bring their own personal identity and history to classrooms
and relate others’ intense experiences with their own culture and identity.
Erin Gruwell does that almost perfectly when she brings her own Jewish identity
and the history of Jewish oppression to relate it with her students’ identities
and histories of oppression and violence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Erin’s case, most of her students had a history of oppression
and violence and all of there were identified as “at risk” students. Students in
our classroom might not fall into those categories. However, we can still make
the classroom more inclusive of students by understating their identities and
aspirations. As, educators we need to understand the classroom context and
devise our instruction accordingly. And that way, we can move toward "inclusive classrooms" in true sense of the terms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-24168583948229459872015-10-06T12:19:00.001-04:002015-10-06T12:19:04.143-04:00Open Access: A Social Justice Approach<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the present system of publication of research articles,
most of the publishers charge some money from the users to access research
papers. While it is understandable that publishers need money to print a paper
copy of any journal article and make it available to the users, charging users
to access online copies of journal articles is unjustified. Publishers do not
have to pay any money to those involved in the process of publishing. Researchers
conduct research using research funds which come from the government or private
funding agencies. Peer-review of journals before publishing is done by
academics as part of their “service” to the discipline. In such a case, asking
people to pay to access online copies of research articles is unreasonable. And
to add to it, the price to access journals has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=435&v=L5rVH1KGBCY" target="_blank">increased exponentially</a> over the
past three decades. Such a system of publication promotes and reinforces the exclusionary
tendency of the academia and is ethically unfair.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By asking students and researchers to pay to access the
research work done by other researchers, the current system of publication restricts
those who cannot afford to pay to access research papers from learning about
the research work being done by researchers. This reinforces the exclusionary tendency
of the academy and promotes elitism. In such a system, people who have
sufficient amount of money can pay to access the latest research and build on
it. However, people who cannot do have such an access due to monetary constraints
are not even aware of the research being done by researchers. As a result, they
are systematically excluded from accessing and contributing to the research
being done in a particular field.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Besides being accessible to limited number of people, this
system of publication is ethically unfair to the general public. A lot of
research is funded by the government in the form of research grants. This money
comes from the taxpayers. Asking the public to pay again to access the research
work which was done with taxpayers’ money (in other words, their money) is
asking them to pay twice for the same thing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In order to make research more accessible to people, the
academy should move toward “open access.” As the name suggests, open access
refers to the unrestricted access of journal papers and their unrestricted use
to advance research and Scholarship. In a system of open access, researchers
will upload their work on an online database and this database will be made
available to anyone who wants to access and build on the research done by other
people. This system will be more inclusive of people who cannot afford to
purchase research papers and hence are denied access to the latest research being
done in any field.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-17147382045447100162015-09-25T23:12:00.002-04:002015-09-26T08:57:56.158-04:00The Credit Hour System in US Universities<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the United States, the credit hour system is used to
calculate the academic work done by a student in universities, both at the
undergraduate and the graduate levels. Students need to earn a specified number
of credit hours in each degree program to be eligible to be awarded the degree.
Apart from computing the amount of academic work done by students, credit hours
are also used to compute the tuition and fee for students and determine their
academic status. For example, at Virginia Tech, the <a href="http://www.bursar.vt.edu/tuition/" target="_blank">tuition for each credit isUSD 437.25 for in-state undergraduates</a> for the academic year 2015-16. Similarly, there are different fee amounts
for each credit at graduate level and out-of-state enrollment. Moreover,
<a href="https://www.registrar.vt.edu/academic_records/enrollment/enrollment-status.html" target="_blank">full-time enrollment is defined as</a> enrolling for at least 9 credit hours at
graduate level and 12 credit hours at the undergraduate level. In order to
obtain an undergraduate degree, a student is typically required to earn around
120 credits. In order to earn a graduate degree, the requirements vary starting
from 30 to 90 credits depending on the type of degree.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In order to complete an undergraduate degree in four years,
one needs to take 15 credits per semester on an average. According to the US
Department of Education, to earn 1 credit, a student needs to spend 1-2 hours
per week in-class and 2 hours of preparation time out of class. This means that
a student who takes 15 credits per semester is required to spend 15-18 hours of
time in class and 30 hours of time out of class. This sums up to almost 45-48
hours of academic work each semester. I think this is a very high expectation
from students, especially considering the fact that students need to spend time
on extra-curricular activities and co-curricular activities in college for
which they do not get any credit. And if a student does a part-time job besides
attending full-time college, something that a lot of students do, the number of
hours which they need to spend on school and work easily add up to around
55-60. This means students have very little personal time in college. In order
to meet their job and college requirements, a lot of students neglect their
health and social life. This, in turn, leads to heath and psychological issues
for them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The situation gets even worse in graduate school. A lot of
graduate students do a 20-hour assistantship besides their full-time graduate
level academic work which is 9-12 credit hours per semester. At Virginia Tech,
a graduate student on any assistantship is required to take 12 credit hours per
semester. Although the in-class hours for graduate students is less than those
of undergraduate students, due to the nature of graduate courses, the
out-of-class hours per credit are greatly increased. Even if we assume that
each credit in the Graduate School at Virginia Tech requires a total of 4 hours
of academic work (this is only 1 hour per credit more than the undergraduate
credit requirement), this would mean that each graduate student with a 20-hour
assistantship needs to spend 68 hours on academic work and assistantship.
Needless to say, this is impractical considering this is required of them each
week of a semester.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, this is not to say that students actually spend the
same number of hours per week as discussed above to obtain their degrees.
Studies have shown that students, especially undergraduates, spend a lot less
than 3 hours per week to earn a credit. I myself have earned a graduate level
degree at Virginia Tech but do not think I spent 4 hours per credit for all the
credits I earned for the degree. But whatever number of hours students actually
spend to earn their degrees, in theory, the requirements seem too difficult and
taxing.</span></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-3802244717059012152015-09-24T23:08:00.000-04:002015-09-24T23:08:28.835-04:00The Stanford Prison Experiment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yesterday, I watched the movie <i>The Stanford Prison Experiment</i> at <a href="http://www.thelyric.com/" target="_blank">The Lyric</a> and I was mesmerized
and hence today I watched it again. The movie absorbed me not only because it
was a nicely made movie which captures the essence of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment" target="_blank">experiment</a> which was
conducted 34 years ago but also because it teaches so much about human nature,
how our behaviors impact others, and what kind of responsibilities we have in
order to ensure that our behavior does not harm others’ well-being. Given that I
myself am an educator, and teach the first year engineering classes at Virginia
Tech, it made me think of my position as an authority and how my comments,
remarks, and attitude toward them in and outside the class might affect my students.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Given the fact that students see the instructors as an
authority figure in class, especially in the undergraduate classes, I think I carry
with me an immense amount of power when I enter a classroom to teach. I have
the power to not only shape their learning but also direct how they see the
world and see themselves in it. I can provide a learning environment which increases
their confidence in their own self by validating their capacities to learn and by
situating learning in their experiences. Such a learning environment will lead
to a development of intellectual power, reflective judgement, self-confidence
and integrity in my students. At the same time, by portraying learning as
shared among their peers, I can teach them to value others’ cultures and
viewpoints.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I do not only have the responsibility to ensure that the
students develop self-confidence and respect for others through my teaching but
also have the duty to ensure that I do not do anything which psychologically
hurts them and hinders their development as a citizen who is capable of taking ethical actions for the common good. This becomes even more
important while teaching the first year college students. The first year is the
initial step for the college students to understand the world. This is the
first time when they are away from their parents and actually live their lives on
their own. They start to interact with the world without an immediate safeguard
from their parents. At the same time, it is a time when they start thinking
about their majors and career paths. This is the period when they beginning their
journeys to find an identity of their own. With all of this happening to them
at the same time, it leaves them in a very delicate and psychologically fragile
state of mind. In such a case, any insensitive or inappropriate comment from an
instructor about their abilities to succeed might have a huge impact on the
students. This in turn can adversely impact their development as effective
citizens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While I realize that I carry a huge responsibility on my
shoulders while teaching and interacting with the first year students, I believe
that the responsibility which educators carry while interacting with students
at any grade level is equally huge. I just hope that we, the educators, keep on
doing our work with utmost honesty and student interest in mind.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-21811401842981223442015-09-20T21:17:00.002-04:002015-09-20T21:17:42.052-04:00I Do and I Understand<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Curiosity is an inherent human nature. We want to learn
about the world around us. And we have been doing so since the day we were
born. When we are curious, we actively engage with the world around us and in
that process learn about it. Unfortunately, our education system undermines
this basic instinct of human beings. It treats students as passive learners or
empty vessels. And the job of the instructors is to “fill students’ minds” with
knowledge. Classrooms are treated as places to transfer information where the
instructors act as the “sea of knowledge” who aim to transfer their knowledge to
the students.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, this system of knowledge transfer does not lead to
students’ learning. Yes, the students do get some information in this process
but they do not necessarily understand it. And they forget it after some time. Students
are not empty vessels which can be filled with knowledge. They have a mind of
their own. They think and construct knowledge out of what they hear, see and
experience. And they learn in this process of knowledge construction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If we want students to construct their own understanding,
the only way to do that is to engage them in the process of learning instead of
delivering content to them. And the way we can engage students in the learning
process is by involving them in activities which lead to their learning. When
students are engaged, they can learn the most difficult and intricate topics. This
is because while they are engaged, they try to connect the new information to
their long-term memory. This, in turn, leads to their understanding of the
topic they are trying to learn. As the author James Paul Gee notes in his book <i>What Video Games Have to Teach Us About
Learning and Literacy</i>, kids tend to learn even the most complicated
of video games because they are deeply engaged in the process of learning it. There
are multiple instructional strategies which can be used to involve students in
the learning process. These include, but are not limited to, project-based
learning, problem-based learning, case-based teaching, discovery learning,
collaborative learning, co-operative learning and peer-teaching.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An old proverb suggests, “I hear and I forget. I see and I
remember. I do and I understand.” If we want students to understand the content,
we need to engage them in doing activities instead of making them hear lectures
from the instructors.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-42718258648561889772015-09-14T10:52:00.001-04:002015-09-15T08:28:25.537-04:00Are Grades Credible?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Grades are used in the education system to assess the level
to which students have achieved the learning objectives of a course or an
assignment. Grades also act as feedback to students to indicate what they have
learned and the deficiencies in their understating. While this system of giving
feedback to students using grades has<a href="http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/case-grades/" target="_blank"> adverse impacts on students’ motivation and learning</a>, I argue that grades do not necessarily say much about students’
learning and their ability to apply learning to real life problems. This is because
the problems which students are required to solve on assignments or tests to obtain a grade are <a href="http://www.csun.edu/~SB4310/How%20People%20Learn.pdf" target="_blank">different from real life problems</a>. This diminishes the credibility of grades to assess students’ learning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Real life problem solving requires collaboration. I cannot
think of any profession which does not require one to work with others. An
engineering product is an outcome of the collaborative effort of all the people
working on the product development team. A researcher is required to
collaborate with other researchers to conduct their study. An airplane pilot
needs to collaborate with other members of the flight crew and the ground staff
to fly the plane. A surgeon needs to collaborate with other members of the
medical team to perform a surgery. However, a majority of assignments which
students submit for grade and almost all the tests which they take for grades
are based on individual efforts. There is a possibility that a student works
better when put in team as compared to when the same student is asked to do a
task individually. Similarly, a student who does well on individual tests might
not perform as well while working on a team. As a result, the grades which a
student gets on individual work does not say much about their ability to apply
their learning in the real world setting which is based on collaborative work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Real life problems require the use of tools such as
computing tools, drawing tools, design tools to solve problems. A lot of
problems asked in the tests and assignments require students to do mental work.
A good grade on a test may indicate proficiency with mental work but does not
say much about whether one has learned the required skills to solve problems
using tools in real life situations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Real life problems are context-dependent. On the other hand,
the questions which students are required to do for assignments are mostly
abstract and devoid of context. For example, while writing an essay or an
article, the writer needs to consider who the intended readers are, the kind of
knowledge the readers will have about the topic and other such contextual
details. However, such contextual details are usually missing when students
write something for an assignment or a test. As a result, one cannot conclude
whether the student has acquired the skills to write in a given context and for
a given set of readers even if the student gets a perfect grade on an essay
assignment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are a lot of skills required to solve real life
problems. A lot of times, these skills are a part of course learning outcomes. However,
all of these skills are difficult to measure. For example, it is difficult to
measure students’ learning of teamwork and ethical issues in problem solving.
As a result, the grade which a student gets in a course at the end of the term
might not be based on the evaluation of all the skills which the students are
required to learn from the course.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To answer the question I asked in the title of this
blogpost, I would say that the grades which a student gets on a test or an assignment
are not credible; and we need to stop valuing grades as much as we do and
treating them as a measure of student’ learning. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-39357788703634877232015-09-07T21:32:00.001-04:002015-09-07T21:32:38.683-04:00Mindless Learning Through Standardization<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Standardization is the buzz word in the current education
system. The curriculum which is taught to the students is standardized, the way
that curriculum is taught to them is standardized, the tests given to the
students are standardized, and the remedial actions taken when the students do
not do well on the standardized tests are standardized. While this
standardization is clearly visible in K-12 where students are required to take
a standardized test at the end of each grade level, the higher education is
also not untouched by standardization. College courses are designed around learning
outcomes which the students are expected to achieve by end of the semester. These
learning outcomes are then measured through tests and assignments through the
semester. These tests and assignments are standardized in that they are the same
for all the students in the class.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Any kind of standardization ignores the fact that each
student in a classroom is unique and different from another student. Each of
the students has different aspirations and comes from a different social and
cultural background. Each student has a different way of leaning and a unique
way of demonstrating their learning. A standardized way of teaching and
evaluating students’ learning might not be relevant to each student. As a
result, some students might not find what they are learning in class to be
useful. This, in turn, kills their curiosity to learn by engaging with the
course material. They instead become passive receivers of knowledge and find
the process of learning boring and disengaging. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a result of this, the only motivating factor which
students see in a course is the grade which they get at the end of the semester.
Hence, they turn all their attention to getting a better grade instead of critically
engaging with the learning material. This is where they start mindlessly engaging
in the process of learning. Mindless learning is characterized by low attention
to the context of learning, lack of alertness to distinctions, and ignorance of
multiple perspectives. Paying low attention to learning contexts might lead to
a non-understanding of the context, which in turn hinders the process of
transfer of learning from classroom to the real world. A lack of alertness to
nuances might lead to misconceptions in the minds of the learner. Misconceptions
further hinder students’ learning. Ignorance of multiple perspective prevents a
well-rounded development of a student.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To realize the full potential of education, standardized
learning environments should be replaced with customized ones which cater to
the needs of each student and help them engage in mindful learning.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-32833229321432687512015-08-31T18:57:00.001-04:002015-08-31T23:48:19.183-04:00And You May Contribute a Verse…<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While answering the question ‘what is good among the
struggles, failures, and emptiness of life?’, the famous American poet Walt
Whitman, in his poem ‘O Me! O Life!’ says, “That the powerful play goes on, and
you may contribute a verse.” Here, he refers to life as a powerful play, the
sequence and progression of which is beyond any individual’s control. However,
at the same time, the poet gives immense power in the hands of each individual
by noting that each person “may contribute a verse” in this powerful play. In other
words, a person can use their voice to contribute to and shape the ongoing
conversations in their life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The ability to contribute to the ongoing raises a basic
question: How does one do it? There need to be some channel or medium through which
an individual can put forth their opinions and viewpoints. The Scholarship in
any field is limited to the researchers or the ones who have made their mark in
the field. The print media is similarly not accessible to the common masses to
express their viewpoints. And both the Scholarship and the print media, at
times, are guided by the dominant narrative and have ulterior agenda and
motifs. In such a case, it becomes difficult for anyone to present an opinion especially
if it does not go along with the dominant narrative.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Social media which includes, but is not limited to, blogs, Twitter,
YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, provide a means for people to share their
beliefs with the world and eventually engage in a conversation with others on
topics which they are interested in. Once can use one or more social media
platforms to post their viewpoints on a topic and similarly be aware of others’
viewpoints on the same topic by following others on the social media platforms.
Moreover, through social media, one can connect with people with similar interests
and passions and eventually form a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6vpBDFoMqc" target="_blank">tribe</a> which has the power to bring
about changes which an individual alone cannot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Social media not only provides a platform to express oneself
and communicate with others but also serves as a platform for academic collaboration,
teaching and learning, and engaging in a social dialogue. There are multiple
blogs (some of which are referenced <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/07/28/twitter-and-blogs-academic-public-sphere/" target="_blank">here</a>) which are dedicated to history, medicine, and business among
other disciplines. These blogs can serve as resources for students and faculty
alike. Blogs can also be used as an outlet for students’ works as is being done
in the ‘Contemporary Pedagogy’ and ‘Preparing the Future Professoriate’ classes
done at Virginia Tech. Some blogs allow multiple authorship and thus those
provide avenues for collaboration in academia and in the process of learning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blogs and other social media platforms foster interaction among learners.
This interaction helps people construct knowledge from a constructivist
viewpoint. Unlike the traditional teacher-centric model of education, social
media provides a model of learning which is centered on the learner in that the
learner engages with the rest of the world using social media and learns in
collaboration with others. Collaborating with others to learn also helps the
learners to integrate multiple viewpoints in their learning unlike the traditional
model where the learner is exposed to only the teacher’s and/or their classmates’
viewpoints.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a nutshell, while Whitman suggests that the good thing
about life and the world is that one has the ability to change them through
their efforts, social media provides one with the opportunity to channelize
those efforts so that they bear fruits.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-1391695346421988292015-08-28T11:08:00.000-04:002015-11-07T19:53:58.887-05:00Mission Statements of Universitites<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the name suggests, mission statements
represent the purpose of educational institutions. These are the milestones
which universities aim to achieve and hence serve as a guide to institutional
practices. A lot of times, mission statements are aspirational in nature i.e.
they suggest what the intuitions aim to achieve in future and are working
toward it. While there exist similarities in mission statements of different
universities, there are also considerable differences in their mission
statements. These differences differentiate one educational institution from
the others. In this blogpost, I will compare and contrast the mission
statements of two universities, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT
Roorkee) and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech),
from which I hold engineering degrees. I did my undergraduate from IIT Roorkee
and my Masters from Virginia Tech, both in Electrical Engineering.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The home page of the official website of
IIT Roorkee states that the institute’s mission is<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“To create an environment that shall foster the growth of
intellectually capable, innovative and entrepreneurial professionals, who shall
contribute to the growth of Science and Technology in partnership with industry
and develop and harness it for the welfare of the nation and mankind.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">IIT Roorkee is primarily an engineering
university in India, owned and run by the central (or federal) government of
India. It is a small university with a total student population of less than
10000, including undergraduate and graduate students. Since IIT Roorkee is
primarily focused on engineering, its mission is to “contribute to the growth
of Science and Technology.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The mission statement of Virginia Tech
states:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia
Tech) is a public land-grant university serving the Commonwealth of Virginia,
the nation, and the world community. The discovery and dissemination of new
knowledge are central to its mission. Through its focus on teaching and
learning, research and discovery, and outreach and engagement, the university
creates, conveys, and applies knowledge to expand personal growth and
opportunity, advance social and community development, foster economic
competitiveness, and improve the quality of life.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Virginia Tech, located in Blacksburg,
Virginia, has a student body of around 30000, which means it is almost thrice
as large as IIT Roorkee in terms of student enrollment. Although the name of
the university has the word “polytechnic” in it, students can study diverse
disciplines at Virginia Tech including liberal arts, humanities, social
sciences, music, and theatre. This is probably the reason why the mission
statement does not explicitly mention words like technology or engineering.
Rather it states that the university focuses on “teaching and learning,
research and discovery, and outreach and engagement.” One notable information
provided in Virginia Tech’s mission statement is a public land-grant
university. There is no information provided about the type of university IIT
Roorkee is in its mission statement.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One thing which stood out to me while
reading Virginia Tech’s mission statement was its goal to foster “economic
competitiveness.” IIT Roorkee’s mission statement does not mention of any kind
of competition. I think the reason for this is the nature of social systems
present in both the countries. While India is a welfare state where the
government has the responsibility to ensure the welfare of all its citizens,
the USA thrives on a capitalist system where money and profit guide
organizations with little government control in the lives of the people.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite having notable differences, the
mission statements of both the universities have some similarities as well.
Both the universities aim to contribute to the welfare of their respective
nations and the mankind in general. Both the mission statements mention
individual’s growth as one of their aims. And finally, both the mission
statements promise generic qualities such as growth of intellectually smart
individuals, research and discovery, entrepreneurial mindset, engagement,
welfare of the nation and the humankind. This is in accordance with some of the
skeptics who suggest that mission statements use vague language and present
generic outcomes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-86253476240383933952015-01-07T22:02:00.000-05:002015-01-07T22:03:22.428-05:00My Teaching Philosophy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">SA VIDYA YA VIMUKTAYE<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">(Knowledge is that which liberates!)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The above quote
from Hindu scripture, <i>The Vishnu Purana,</i>
accurately states my teaching philosophy. I believe that the goal of education is
to emancipate one’s mind from ignorance, help discover the wisdom within and
outside, and apply that knowledge in different walks of life. This means that students
should be able to apply the learnings from class in aspects of their lives
other than academia. Hence I work to relate classroom teaching to its real-world
application. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Coming from a
constructivist worldview, I see students as active participants in the process
of learning. They create and organize knowledge based on their experiences
instead of passively receiving pre-existing knowledge of the world. The role of
the teacher is to provide the students with opportunities and resources which
can facilitate the process of knowledge creation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In order to help
students create their own knowledge, I encourage discussion among their peers
in my classrooms. With this view, most times my role is just to guide the
discussion in right direction. I try to mold the conversation in such a way
that students can identify the broad themes themselves and encourage them to
speak their opinions about a topic under consideration. Thus it ensures that
they actively participate in knowledge creation instead of passively receiving
the information from me. I also ensure the classroom environment is friendly
and their opinions are considered and valued. I make the class environment
jovial and engaging by regularly telling jokes and talking to students about
their out of class activities. In order to make sure that students’ opinions
are respected, I incorporate students’ responses during discussions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The practice of
respecting students’ opinions is reflected in my grading too. While I tell them
where they could have improved their assignments, I make sure to point out what
I liked about their work. While grading numerical problems, I stress reasoning
and logic and not just the correct answer. This is why I encourage students to explain
their though process especially when they are trying to solve numerical
problems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The way a student
creates knowledge is related to their family and cultural background,
proficiency in the medium of instruction, classroom context etc., which means
each student creates a sense of the world in a different way as each student
comes from a unique background. My aim is to understand these complexities and
shape my instruction to cater to the needs of each student. In order to better understand
each student, I take a short break during each class session where I ask one
student to talk to the entire class about themselves and share their likes and
dislikes, their hobbies, their aspirations and other interesting details about
them with the class. I also organize movie nights and dinner events for the
class so that students can spend time with one another in informal settings. These
activities not only help me know them better but also open up an avenue for
students to talk and be friends with each other, and hence become comfortable
in classroom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Moving beyond
instruction, I believe that the relationship between and a teacher and his
students is not just limited to the classroom settings. Students, at times,
look up to their teachers for guidance in other walks of life. I try to become
a friend, an advisor and a mentor to my students. I spend a lot of time and
energy in creating a comfortable space between me and my students so that they
feel free to share their concerns with me. This is why I strongly encourage
students to see me during office hours and take a keen interest in their
overall development.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I regularly take
oral and written feedback from the students about my teaching and their
understanding of the course content. I also sometimes ask my colleagues to observe
my classes and suggest improvements. By reflecting on my teaching and incorporating
the suggestions given by my students and my colleagues, I continually try to
improve my teaching.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-50192331457866032892015-01-01T06:20:00.000-05:002015-01-01T06:22:52.039-05:00My Customary New Year Blog Post!!!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have been away from blogging for almost six months and
hence I was a big deal for me to break the inertia to start writing a
blog-post. But I had to break that inertia because I want to start writing
again. And what can be a better day to restart my activity on blogosphere.
Moreover, the past year was so full of internal joy, peace and happiness that
it would be unfair if I do no cement my gifts from the past year by writing
them here. This is a break from my usual New Year posts where I would write
about some philosophical wisdom and will eventually decide to follow that
philosophy. I think this is an apt change because a lot of times what happens
with our lives is completely unexpected and not according to our plan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Without further ado, let me now briefly talk about some of
the most beautiful things which happened to me last year in no particular
order. It should be noted that a lot of these things are related to each other
in that one of these things was affected or influenced by the other or one led
to the other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Instructor at Virginia Tech</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was the instructor for ENGE 1215 (Foundations of
Engineering-1) during Fall 2014. Teaching 56 beautiful students was very
satisfying. I believe that I love someone when I am ready to go to any extent
for their happiness and success, and I felt the same for each of my students.
Moreover, it was extremely gratifying whenever any of my students told me that
they enjoyed being in my class.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Friends</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I believe friends occupy a very important aspect of my life.
Last year I made a few friends who I can rely on in case of any need. If you
are my friend and you are reading this, I promise you I will be with you every
time you need me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. S<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">elf-Identity</span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last year, I was able to free myself with years of guilt and
agony over my own self-identity. I tried to openly embrace who I am and it was
a feeling like no other. I am extremely happy that I got the required support
from the people around me to do this.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. AcrossBorders@VT</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I along with my friend Hoa started a group at Virginia Tech
to provide support to those people who identify themselves as part of sexual
minority and were born and brought up in a non-American culture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have purposefully written only a few sentences under each
of the above-mentioned headings. If you are interested in any of these aspects
of my life, please feel free to talk more about it with me. I absolutely love
talking about any of these things.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And to close it, I would just say:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Life is beautiful and
there is love in the air, enjoy the life and feel the love!”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! :-)</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432502992220241452.post-42811201689480513122014-08-01T15:37:00.000-04:002014-08-01T15:38:35.828-04:00A Better Teacher!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had read somewhere that there are no difficult subjects,
just bad teachers. For some reasons I believed in this and tried to see any
student failure as the inability of the teacher or the system as a whole to
transfer knowledge to the student. This was a year back and I had recently
joined Virginia Tech as a graduate student and teaching assistant. The past one
year in both the roles has taught me a lot about teaching and learning. And I
hope working in both the roles during the next academic year will add to my
learning.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Learning something is not like drinking a magic potion which
a student can just gulp down the throat and be equipped with the desired
knowledge. It is like a bridge which can
only be crossed with joint efforts of the teacher and the student. While a
teacher has to understand the needs and attitude of the student and teach them
accordingly, the later has to put an equal amount of effort in learning what is
being taught. Even the smartest teacher cannot teach a student who is not
willing to learn and even the smartest kid cannot learn from a teacher who is
unable to understand the needs of the student and accordingly modify his/her
style of imparting knowledge.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a child I was told that learning is a difficult endeavor.
Not that it is painful but it requires hard work and dedication. For some
reasons I feel that is true. Working as a teaching assistant, I came across
many students who would just be interested in getting the right answer instead
of learning the subject. Needless to say they did not learn much from the class
and during the time they spent with me. These are the kind of students who
graduate from universities without much idea about what they learned in four
years while they were attending college. I have heard my fellow teaching
assistants complaining how students in their senior year at times are unaware
of what they should know by the end of their senior year. On the other hand,
there would be students who would try to understand the subject matter while
trying to get their homework done. And the later were the ones who actually
were able to appreciate the course material.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While I was in my undergrad, I had the same attitude towards
education. I just wanted to score well in tests without trying to learn the
course content. I managed to do fairly well when it came to getting a good GPA,
but failed to learn what I should have during those days. On the contrary, in
grad school, when I started putting serious efforts in learning, I feel that I
am learning a lot. Not that the quality of teaching has drastically changed but
it’s the step required to be taken by me which has lead to the difference. I
had good teachers in my undergrad days and I have great teachers now, but the
extra step taken by me has made me a better student.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While it is important to understand the role of student
effort in learning, blaming just the kids for not putting in the required
efforts can be overstretch. Students these days are forced to go on the
traditional educational paths which can secure jobs for them while their
interest lies somewhere else. For example, I know so many students who are
studying engineering because it is a secure way of getting a job after
graduating. Moreover, when the capability of a person is measured in terms of
the degree he or she has or the grades obtained in tests, the quality of
learning is bound to deteriorate. This system of education puts in little value
in a child’s interest. If a potential musician is forced to become a doctor, he
will surely end up becoming a bad one.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Sir Ken Robinson says that the present education system
was modeled to cater to the need of industrial revolution. We are now way past
the industrial revolution time, and hence the system of imparting knowledge
needs to change. And then we will have not only better teachers but also better
students.</span></div>
</div>
Ashishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04476071617208400688noreply@blogger.com0