Articles that will help motivating us in seeking knowledge and roles of educators in giving the best knowledge to the students

Over the weekend, I had a chance to read two good articles one by a school teacher, Nithya Siddhu entitled "The learning experience" and one by Assoc Prof Dr William K Lim (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak) entitled "Need to change educational culture".

The first article hightlights the importance for teachers/educators/lecturers to have a willingness to take time and trouble to motivate, help, guide, and encourage students to seek new experiences for their growth. She quoted a work by a Japanese educator named Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944) who believed that a child learns when she or he is given the experience to do so. He gave the following cycle:

 

 Therefore, it is my duty to give you the theoretical development for you to experience in EEE132 then you will have the conviction to learn. Hopefully, once you grab the learning you will explore and hope for more opportunities. Then, the knowledge will be very easy and of interest to you rather than a burden. So, I think one way to ensure that you gain the knowledge is by approaching (or we advertise) projects that students can undergo during the break. It can definitely be a paid one depending on the availability of fundings from the respective lecturers. Another way that Nithya encourages me to do is to let the student participate in EE related competitions. This will definitely create interest in the field.

The second article is more on the need for a culture change exam oriented Asian style to the Socratic tradition of dialectic and critical questioning. This is what I want you to be able to question anything  (active learning) that I reiterate in the class room. To the very least, this is one short path towards going to the latter approach. The author requested for a session like going to a supermarket for Mathematics class in which active learning is inculcated. He further elaborated that knowledge should be acquired by seeing (definitely you show me write something on my tablet), hearing (even some of you gain that in your class napping session!), smelling (the electrons???), tasting (wafers???) and touching (the equipment - sputtering, CVD, etc???). 

To the very least, with my 10-year experience as a full-time lecturer I will hopefully be able to think of something called active learning in our class of 114 students.