A Note on Learning Environments inside the Classroom

The way a class/course/program is designed can significantly contribute to how much a student does or doesn't learn. When I enrolled in the University of Bath, I was quite paranoid that the learning part may be completely left up to the students, as per my previous experience of postgrad in Dhaka. Or worse- as per my previous experience of studying Business Administration, the program may turn out to be fiercely competitive/assessment-based and divided among groups/cliques. It's my second week here now, and things are so much different and positive that it makes me reflect back on what went wrong (or at times right) during my undergrad.

When I joined IBA, there was no one from my college in my batch or the previous batches. The institution didn't take any responsibility of helping the students work in diverse, different, competitive groups- as a result kids who knew each other from way back teamed up with each other; and many of us who created groups out of necessity didn't get opportunities to learn from classmates with strengths we were lacking ourselves.

Additionally, every learner has a different style. Not everyone is grade/achievement-driven, some want to learn with happiness and collaborate at a more relaxed pace; while some others may only care about the grades and be super anxious about doing "better than others". In my year one of undergrad I realized that I was in a wrong group. I could perform moderately under super anxious situations, but studying/grades were not the only things I wanted from my undergrad, as a result I was super stressed all the time about letting my groupmates down. I wasn't having much fun either.

In my year two I switched my group, did some mix and match to create a few groups with more of a relaxed way of handling things. That put some distance between me and the grade/validation-driven stressful learning style, but still, I didn't get to work with a lot of classmates I really wanted to learn from.

Whenever students only learn through competition, it can make them competitive in a toxic way in their adult lives as well. The best memories I have from my undergrad are of learning from my classmates while they had fierce discourses in the class, and of having fun with my friends.

Unfortunately, more often than not, everyone was so busy trying to be on the top 10%, we didn't spend as much time learning from each other as we should have. I remember having the entrepreneurship carnival- we are so focused on doing well that we missed all the other groups' presentations in the morning slot trying to perfect ours; and as we were one of the last ones in the day, almost no one hung around to see our presentation. Till this day I regret not being able to see my classmates' carnival performances.

As an inevitable outcome of the toxic competitiveness as well as the grouping culture, people who didn't work together in groups wouldn't really hang out outside of the classroom. Many a time all anyone in the class focused on was the final assignment, the final exam or the final submission; including myself, and the more group-based competition existed the less we cared about the materials. A lot of the gatekeeping tendencies were born out of this practice- apart from a few kind, compassionate souls in the batch, no one wanted to share learning of any kind.

Once again, it is completely my personal choice and opinion that grades/benefits are not the only things I want to achieve from any educational or work experience. In my undergrad, I was learning to travel outside of the country on my own, I was doing part time jobs with interesting organizations, I was running a Facebook page to tell stories of my university.

As I extensively interviewed for jobs right after my undergrad, I can guarantee that no interviewer ever asks why your presentation group did not get A or why you didn't outperform fifteen of your classmates, grade wise. Earning grades was never the sole focus of my undergrad life. While I somewhat understand gatekeeping tendencies in real competitions such as business competitions and olympiads- toxic competitiveness inside the classroom where everyone is graduating from the same course just baffles me.

Or at workplaces, for that matter. I have worked for line managers who would set extra, unnecessary tasks for the employees only to give a showdown to another team inside the same organization, to compete, to "win". This aggressive "I must win and rise above all" mentality doesn't work for me at all. What are we, army battalions?

Coming back to where I am today, doing an MBA in one of the top five universities of UK, and I am the only person from my country in this highly selective program. Like me, you are probably paranoid that I must be alone, I must be isolated, I must be back to square one like my undergrad days.

Thankfully, no. The school of management here has designed specific, diverse learning teams- which means no one can create groups on the basis of previous connections (or nationality); and these groups aren't permanent! Which means I will get the chance to work and learn from hopefully all of my classmates (and I am already super thrilled at the prospect of that).

Today my Economics professor came to the class in the morning and requested us to put much more emphasis on the learning, on the tools we will take away from this course, to learn how to apply them in real life- than obsessing over the coursework. And in one day he has taught me more than what I learnt in an entire semester of economics postgrad (which I promptly dropped due to multiple reasons, including that I felt the wave of all too familiar nerdy competitiveness inside the classroom which doesn't add any value to my life at all).

He went as far as running exercises with us where he didn't record the names of the participants, because it wasn't about shaming the person who did the worst or praising the one who did the best. Can you imagine an environment where learning is about learning, and not validation, not winning or losing!

Obviously, the experience here so far has moved me enough to be penning down so many words, but I do have a purpose of writing this. Students in my network studying business back home, please believe me when I say that none of the toppers from my undergrad remember all of the final projects/presentations they obsessed over for weeks and months. Every course has a lot more to offer than just the grade. What wouldn't I give to listen to my fellow 23rds having discussions again, what wouldn't I give to see them churning out creative ideas in front of me- but nothing I do now will bring that time or opportunity back.

Please please step out of the myopic mentality of winning alone and try to listen to others and learn from them, you will only remember the things that helped you grow, and those learnings most likely will come from people who are different than yourself!

At the same time, professors in my list who make grading/final assignment/group-based competitions the end and be all in their courses, please stop doing this, learning is never ever about competing. And please try helping the students in your classes who might be feeling left out due to their different educational/financial/geographic backgrounds, don't let the strong teams become even stronger. Don't let the same strong team work together for four years to become pseudo-Gods, please!

Toxic competitiveness cannot persist in a classroom if the teachers don't actively set the tone to be competitive- this mentality only trickles down in our organizations where we forget that we are all working for the same management; we remain too busy battling each other off and living in constant negativity, paranoia and imagined enmity. Today's been one of the best days in school I've ever had (and that is eight hours of learning economics in one day you guys!), and I am extremely happy about the choices I have made to be a part of this experience. My heart feels as sunny as the weather today!