The advent of AI has revolutionised everything, well almost everything. The ability of AI to sweep across huge data and skim out the required pieces have now turned a boon to the students, just with the help of some prompts learners can get a ready-made essay with little thought given to it. But this submission can be a challenge to the educators as they grapple with tools to detect such instances of intelligent cheating, turning it into a cat and mouse chase. While teachers chase students regarding the genuineness of their submissions, ideas such as critical thinking and innovation are taking a back burner in the education system.
The idea of this article is to reverse the process of the current education system which is overly dependent on grading and even more the requirement of the industry to hire those with higher grades and not with the ones with true potential. Such requirements from the industry and the education system are encouraging students to adopt such means which are an easy way out. Yet, they have one more challenge, which is to face the interim and final exams which again turns out to be a rat race. These are stressful activities that promote rote learning and excessive memorisation for a short term.
Can education really have a lasting impact on the mind of a learner? So, what are the ways in which we can really reverse the way a learner learns? Take for example where learners have to submit an essay- Educators can recommend a set of books that they would specifically have to borrow and cite those authors as a way of thanking them for their literary contribution and for borrowing their words from the books. Every borrowed sentence should have a reflection from the learner as to what resonated with them about that one sentence. They can build a story of their own through this resonating inspiration.
Importance of citations and using technology and tools to get the citations in a standardised form can be allowed here. The help of AI can still be taken to reduce the time of writing references. Encourage hand written assignments than copy paste work. A simple process that a teacher can follow for written submission are: recommend a book or set of books, pick the sentences that inspire you on the given topic, reflect on the words that resonate with you and write your story and thank the author through citations. Even a one-page write-up with this much effort can help students to really be grateful towards an author’s work. This method and process of evaluation can help teachers grade them on skills such as; ability to research, cite, reflect and finally put their thoughts into words with real life examples that they have observed.
To encourage students to speak publicly ask them to speak up about what was the most that inspired them and about their thoughts on the topic. This way public speaking skills can be encouraged in front of their peers. Peers can now give their opinion and ideas to co-create a new thought process on the topic that was given to them. There can be agreements or disagreements in the classroom carefully moderated by the teacher to get them speaking in class to overcome the fear through mutual respect. Always set their expectations as to what is permitted during their discussions to have a clear and easy flow of dialogue.
There are a lot of things that have been abolished in Independent India, why not abolish the ideas of pass and fail. Why not adopt a means of continuous evaluation and the attainment of individual requirements or goals. Education system should help the student in attaining such goals. Some of the basic requirements are to Write, Create, Resolve, Interpret and Apply. Some teachers may be reminded about Bloom’s Taxonomy. Every objective that we write during the lesson plan should become a reality in the life of the student.
After completion of every semester some basic assessments can be: Can a student independently write an official letter, letter of leave of absence, letter of apology, letter to apply for an internship. Can they create something new physically, or theoretically? If they see a real-life problem, can they help solve or resolve by coming up with a solution? When there is a situation, how well can they interpret it or at least initiate a dialogue to understand the situation better? When they are at an internship, how well do they apply what they learnt back in class – anything from discussions, dialogues, brain-storming and team dynamics. The stress can be removed from exams by evaluating students at all these levels even from their interactions with the outside world. Pass and Fail can be changed to attained and yet to be attained. Nothing is lost when you have not yet attained there is still room to learn and attain it in the next task. When you remove this burden of being a failure from the education system can our students be really stress free.
All other matters can be automated while interactions in the classroom can be made more engaging and focused on developing an individual and not only rating them on the performance of the examination, which can be a small percentage of the entire learning process. The educators should not get me wrong here, stress should be there as it will help students focus on management of the task assigned to them rather than on blindly copying and memorising for a short term.
Fear of the unknown should be there, but with the willingness to overcome it with the help of the educator and peers. The entire system should be one which is filled with positive reinforcement, respect and encouragement.
What role do you see of the AI in the above article, very little. Cumbersome processes can be still automated, individual contribution from students should be promoted, and interpersonal relationships should be fostered for mutual growth and development of a student.
(The writer is a seasoned academician and a fervent environmentalist who aims to inspire with work, advocacy and community involvement)
