*(Note: This essay is a living document and one that I'll keep returning to and updating over time as I get more clarity. The latest update is as of December 2024)* I have been working in education for the last seven years and this essay is my attempt at distilling my key insights and organising all the thoughts that I've gathered over the years. To help organise my thoughts I will use an approach similar to Krishna Kumar in his book "What is Worth Teaching?". The vast majority of thoughts and reflections on education can be classified into three main questions - 1. What should be learnt? 2. How should learning happen? 3. How to distribute opportunities for learning? While there is a significant overlap of these questions and in some ways all these questions are deeply interconnected for the purposes of this discussion this separation is helpful. Before we dive into answering these questions let me first explain what values we are optimising for and what we are hoping to achieve in the answers to these questions. --- 1. Equity - Everyone must have the opportunities and access to learn and develop to their fullest potential 2. Agency - Everyone must be able to make choices for themselves and create their own learning journey 3. Progress - Learning and education must help humanity progress forward and help us understand the universe better. 4. Joy - Joy is a precursor to learning not an outcome. The "aha" moment when something clicks in your brain is something I believe we must strive for. (I will be writing additional essays on why I have selected these four as the key goals to answer these questions but for now you might refer to Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Seymour Papert's [[Mindstorms]], John Holt's [[How Children Fail]], Pasi Sahlberg's Finnish Lessons 2.0 and bell hooks' [[Teaching To Transgress]] which have influenced my thinking) --- Now that we know what we are striving for let us return to the three questions above. One of the reasons for this classification is that while these problems are deeply interconnected I personally believe that the best answers to these questions can be found in different domains. I am a firm proponent of systems thinking and am in no means suggesting that these are the only domains where these questions must be considered but it is currently where I feel the biggest opportunity lies. ### What should be learnt? - The Political Question The first question "What should be learnt?" is one that I believe must not be answered by any individual or entity. To truly build an equitable system we must invite as many voices to be heard and allow for as much diversity as possible. Though it might make us uncomfortable it's important to recognise that there is no apolitical education system and that conscientisation must occur for us to build a more equitable society and progress humanity. Curriculums have a huge disconnect with the socio cultural realities of individuals and perpetuate existing power structures. Improvements in technology allow for curriculums to not be so narrow. Advances in AI have made it easier to personalise learning, and it's a matter of time before anyone can learn anything they choose to. Global internet access has also made it easy to find learning communities and interest groups. However, as much as technology has its benefits it's also important to remember that these tools are not without biases and that they too often exacerbate existing gaps. We must strive to create checks and balances on technology systems and protect the interests of the underrepresented in particular. Personally I have not invested as much time on this question, and it's not been an area of work so far. In the future I hope to get involved in this domain as well and be involved in public policy. ### How should learning happen? - The Technology Question While I am by no means suggesting that the answer to this question is purely technological I personally believe that the recent advances in technology must be kept in mind when addressing this question. There are two particular reasons why I think the advances in technology have fundamentally altered the landscape here - #### AI as a Thinking Partner So far we have largely followed the banking model of education where knowledge has been transferred into the mind of the student from a textbook, video or a teacher. There are few counter examples to this but so far these countermovements have not been scalable. Today with advances in AI, it is possible in the near future to allow every learner to have a thinking partner. Someone they can learn, teach and dialogue with as equals. Unfortunately today's technology tools are utilising AI using the same model in the form of AI tutors, or AI generated content. Instead of letting AI program the learner we must allow the learner to play around with AI. #### AI as a Benchmark There's no point in human history where mastery and deep conceptual understanding has been as important. AI is already able to succeed in most of our exams and tests right up to the post graduate level. It's a different matter that tests and assessments themselves are fundamentally flawed but with our current system we are simply creating humans that are inferior to AI. We must focus on using AI as a scaffolding and build the skills that make as human. #### Current Work At the Ira Project we aim to reimagine the way learning happens by creating activities that have the following core principles in mind - - Productive Failure. Activities must be designed such that learners learn from their mistakes rather than be penalised for them. - True Fun. Activities must be sufficiently challenging to enable true fun - the confluence of connectedness, playfulness and flow, - Holistic. Activities must involve a diverse set of skills outside of knowledge and memory tests. - Scientific Basis. Activities must have some basis in literature and must be robustly tested to ensure that it improves learning. At the Ira Project we're designing activities in high school Physics and Math, but we believe that this approach should extend to a wide variety of topics. Also see how we are [[Ensuring We Build the Ira Project Ethically]] ### How are the opportunities for education distributed? - The Community Question One of the mistakes I think a lot of people make while addressing this question is to seek a technology solution or some sort of silver bullet to address the question of distributing opportunities for education. I fundamentally believe that to improve opportunities for education we must look for processes and not products. We must build capacities for communities to act for themselves and solve their own problems. In my experience the biggest reasons for inequity in education are adverse childhood experiences and systemic challenges that affect marginalised and oppressed groups. Building healthy relationships and safe learning environments where learners are not judged is the only way to overcome these challenges. I personally feel that schools should be communities of practice where adults and children alike come to learn. They must be governed and run by communities and the learning facilitators must be a part of the community as well. Participatory action research should be used as a method to constantly iterate and improve the learning spaces. #### Current Work Vismaya Kalike aims to create joyful, community lead learning spaces where learners can craft their own learning journeys. We are also working towards building community leadership by launching a community education fellowship.