What ails education?

Education can no longer limit itself to the delivery of concepts and theory inside the four walls of a classroom. It was never supposed to be this way, not just today. But the rapid pace of changes in technologies, global economics, business models and consumer preferences have led to a yawning gap between what the industry demands and what universities supply.

What ails education today? One way of looking at is the lack of Active, Intentional and Lifelong learning, AIL in short. Active learning insists on experimentation to try out what is learnt. Intentional learning is more about the attitude to learn. Lifelong learning brings in the time element – there is always something new to be learnt. There is an old saying in Tamil taught to all of us in schools to insist on humility: what we have learnt is as much as a fist of mud in our hand. What we have not learnt yet is as wide as the world. Whatever be the knowledge gained in terms of degrees and certificates, there is always more to be learnt and we need to have the appetite and humility.

Learning can longer be just for the sake of it, to score grades or marks. Practical skills that can be demonstrated are most important today. Rote learning where a student is able to recall from memory and reproduce the content the teacher delivered is of little importance. What is important is to truly grasp what was taught and be ready to apply it for a practical need. Let us look at AIL or Active, Intentional, Lifelong learning in detail.

Active learning for hands-on skills

Active learning is not a new concept. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Carl Wieman popularized the term. He saw a pattern in his research labs: bright, successful graduate students were actually "clueless about physics". But once the students had a few years of hands-on lab work, he saw them develop into colleagues, even "experts." Today, Wieman's message is: ditch the lectures. Budding scientists learn by trying—and also by adapting from their mistakes. He refers to it as "active learning".

In their monolog titled “Active learning: creating excitement in the classroom”, authors Charles Bonwell and James Eison insist that students must do more than just listen. They must read, write, discuss, or be engaged in solving problems. Most importantly, they must engage in higher-order tasks such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Active learning is "a method of learning in which students are actively or experientially involved in the learning process and where there are different levels of active learning, depending on student involvement."

Active Learning is among the top 2 skills in the?World Economic Forum ?list of top 10 skills for 2025, in its Future of Jobs report 2020. It is a newly emerging skill in self-management.

Intentional learning for an attitude to learn

Intentional learning is the practice of treating every experience as an opportunity to learn: conversations, meetings, or deliverables. It is the ability to learn and the most important skill to learn in today’s digital age, according to the World Economic Forum . Instead of looking at learning as something that occurs separately, the desire to learn should be an always-on, instinctive approach to everyday situations.

Two things set intentional learners apart from everyone else: a growth mindset and a curious mindset. People with a growth mindset believe their capabilities and even intelligence can be nurtured, expanded, and changed over time. Curiosity is the starting point of everyone’s learning, right back to infancy. Cultivating curiosity can mean overcoming the fear of asking questions or of trying new things.

Lifelong learning to stay in touch with alma mater

Much has been written about lifelong learning. What we learn in a few years in a university setting will not be sufficient for a life long career. There is a high probability of what we learnt becoming obsolete in a few years. It is important for professionals to keep their umbilical cord with their alma mater – classmates, friends, professors and staff. It is a mutually beneficial relationship for both professionals and educational institutions.

What Debora Spar, from Harvard Business School sums it up . She said “It makes no sense that people should get all of their education in their 20s because if we live until our 80’s there should be many points in time when one could come back and get re-educated”. Harvard, Columbia and other business schools are starting to add ‘lifelong learning’ to their programs, a shift that could transform business education in the years ahead. Students can attend an initial period of 1 year as regular students. Then they can go back to their school for a week for example each year, to learn new skills.

Active, Intentional, Lifelong learning or AIL in short is one way of addressing what ails education, starting from kindergarten to high school, universities and even in corporates. Educationists who address these 3 aspects will make a difference to their students. Students who understand these three and practice will use their education effectively.?