Satyamev Jayate – Truly honoured to be part of this connection

It’s almost 2am. I am supposed to submit a research paper-draft to one of my colleagues tomorrow; and so far, I have prepared only a rough version. I need to and I really want to work on it. But, something happened this evening and my mind has been completely occupied since then. One of my friends had sent me a youtube link of the theme song of Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate in the afternoon. I did not pay much attention to it then, as I was analyzing data. But, in the evening I watched it in a complete isolation at home and went through something inexplicable. Even after the video was over, I remained motionless for a few moments, and then tears started blurring my vision. I am not the kind of guy who cries easily. Now that I have resettled, in order to make sense of the turmoil in my mind, I am writing this article. 

Prasoon Joshi, you are one of the most gifted people on this planet. You have found words to express something that people like me have always struggled with expressing. In fact you not only touch the depth, but you also cover the entire construct of being in love with the collective conscience of fellow countrymen.  The beauty is that you have addressed the song saying “Tu” (meaning ‘you’), and that’s sufficient for conveying the meaning. It is a personal conversation between ‘you’ and ‘me’, underscoring the closeness of the relationship. You had done this earlier in the song “Maa” from Taare Zameen Par, and the magic is working here as well. 

The common mistake that I make at times in wishing very best for India is that I want India to look great so that I can call myself a proud Indian. In this case, I am waiting for the collective conscience to do a more positive posturing, while I sit back and relax. I forget to check that if I am not contributing positively, am I eligible to be part of this collective conscience? What is my contribution? I have only remained insignificant for most parts. Nevertheless, India does not kick me out from its collective conscience. The belongingness for me is unconditional. Even if I change passports, my soul is always networked to that collective-soul. Of course, there are some fault-lines and challenges associated with this connection. But, those things are absolutely nothing as compared to the warmth that this connection provides. I am indeed honoured to take the responsibility for bridging those fault-lines. Yes, this demands self-purification, which is painful, but I am highly obliged by and grateful for that connection. This central idea of being humble and striving to be worthy of this unconditional   connection redefines patriotism in current times.  

Ram Sampath, this composition of yours is right on the cards for becoming not only a commercial, but an emotional super hit as well. With a marvellous mixture of a catchy tune with moments of percussion-less rhythm, it will definitely capture imaginations of everyone from children to old age people. Fusion of soft rock with a shade of Sufi, usage of guitars with Rajasthani morchang, very well represent the sound of modern diverse India. 

Lastly, Aamir, I cannot thank you and your creative team enough for providing such precious visuals. I have always wondered – there are innumerable divisive forces in India (e.g., caste, religion, language, regionalism, class, gender and so on), but what are the cohesive forces? How is India maintaining social cohesion? This video answers this big question in less than 5mins. 

This video has fuelled in me the desire for making myself worthy of the incredible connection with the collective conscience of fellow human beings; and has reminded me that as along as my commitment is true, I am guaranteed succeed – “Satyamev Jayate”.

   Composer: Ram Sampath
   Lyricist: Prasoon Joshi
   Singers: Keerthi Sagathia and Ram Sampath
   Production House: Aamir Khan Productions Pvt.Ltd.                                            
   Music: T-Series

“Unscientific” practices of Educational Boards: why tolerate?

Image Courtesy: Vishal Bhatt: www.facebook.com/wizard.vishal

Most of the educational boards in India conduct examinations at the end of 10^th and 12^th grades. The 10^th grade result plays a big role in narrowing down student’s choice of academic discipline for further studies (e.g., liberal-arts, commerce, or science-stream); whereas the 12^th grade result serves as a criterion (at times, a sole criterion) for the choice of career as well as admission to the higher education institution. Over the years, the board examination system has changed at administrative level with things happening in a more efficient way. However, things were poor, are poor, and are on a path towards poorness when it comes to scientific assessment. Here’s why:

The state boards have never published any of the psychometric properties (e.g., reliability, validity, item discrimination, & difficulty value) of their tests. Perhaps nobody has ever cared for asking for it. Today, through this article, I would like to raise this vital issue and draw your attention to a mass-deception exercise in the form of the “Board Exams” that decides careers of our youth.  

Ten big points for improving the Board Examination:

1.                  Improving Reliability and Validity of Test Items

All tests have these two basic characteristics:

·         Validity: Measure the concepts that we want to measure (i.e., A weighting-machine should measure weight, not any other property).  

·         Reliability: Scores should be consistent for the same competency level of student (i.e., A weighting-machine should show same weight every time we step on it, as long as our weight is constant).

The State Board Examination papers often have test items that are likely to have significantly poor reliability and validity. Moreover, some test items simply measure the memorization of the opinion (and not scientific facts) of text-book authors that has nothing to do with the subject content. Let’s have a look at the following test items, which are taken from Question Bank-2008 of Gujarat Secondary Education Board (Source- http://203.77.200.35/gseb/question-paper.htm).

Towards what Indians have developed the feeling of equality? (Std. 10- Social Science)

   A)     Huge living beings

   B)     Nature

   C)    All living beings

   D)    Animals

Which one is the most valuable asset to human being? (Std. 12- Psychology)

   A)     Money

   B)     Strength

   C)    Mind

   D)    Language

What could be the rationale for above test items? Perhaps, “how well do you remember personal (unscientific) opinions of our authors?” The test maker should check validity and reliability for tests and provide rationale for each test item.

2.      Diminishing Excessive Focus on Lower Cognitive Level

In this era of globalization, where our youth will compete with the best of the world, we got to encourage critical and creative thinking and problem solving skills. Research shows that the teaching methodology of teachers and the learning methods of students greatly depend on the type of final examination (type and quality of questions). Thus, if the majority of our students are choosing rote memorization and superficial learning strategies to crack the State Board examination, something must be wrong with the type of questions being asked. The board exams focus excessively on knowledge and understanding levels of cognition (as per Bloom’s Taxonomy). The students rarely get opportunities to exhibit their in-depth learning driven by mastery oriented goals. Our test items should measure higher levels of cognition as well (i.e., application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation).

Let’s look at the following question taken from March-2010 10^th grade social science test-item.

What is Environmental Degradation? Mention the measures to control Environmental Degradation. (5 marks)

This question is at knowledge-level and requires only good memorization skills to get a full score. How about questioning in the following manner-

Based on your knowledge of social science text book, prepare a detailed plan of action to cope up with the Environmental Degradation in your home town/village/city. (5 marks) 

The above question will demand insightful learning of environmental degradation; and will measure higher levels of cognition. Of course, this will also demand better teaching from teachers. Such test items have potential to break the cycle of poor teaching→ poor learning → poor testing; and encourage students to study for mastering the subject, rather than remembering the content. They will also encourage teachers to facilitate learning, and to critically analyze, evaluate, and discuss issues in the classroom. 

3.      Preparing Tests that Distinguish Students

In the present scenario, the test items are not designed so that they distinguish between a mediocre student, a poor student, and a brilliant student (i.e., discrimination parameter in technical terms). This requires creation of large item pool and thorough item analyses of each item.

4.      Making Difficulty Level Uniform

Many times test paper of one subject is more difficult than that of other subjects. It is a mystery if the difficulty level of a test is analyzed by the test-developers. If the difficulty level of tests of optional subjects is different, it will be unscientific to compare the total scores across exams of these subjects. For example- student “A” has scored 80 in Sanskrit-test, which has lower difficulty level, whereas student “B” has scored 80 in Hindi-test, which has high difficulty level. In such case, the score of 80 in Hindi has higher value than that of in Sanskrit. In current practice, these technicalities are completely ignored.

5.      Rationalizing Time Limits

Many times, some exam-papers are lengthy and some are not. And at times, for two students of same competency level, the difference in their result is determined by their writing speed. Now, should the measurement of writing speed be an objective of the state board examination? We ought to devise the length of exam rationally and uniformly. Do we want to give our students time to critically think, to evaluate, to judge, to analyze, and to apply their knowledge? Or we simply want them to vomit out all rote-learning of the previous night? Have the test developers considered the speeededness factor in analyses?

6.      Establishing Uniform Test Administration

Though tests are administered simultaneously in the entire state, the testing conditions are not uniform. The supervisors are not trained and do not have standardized code of conduct. Thus, it is likely that the students in different exam-halls interact differently with the supervisor. Some supervisor may be proactive and helpful, while others may be sluggish and arrogant. This can severely affect the morale of the test taker. The conditions in which students take examination ought to be standardized. Also, environmental factors (like- temperature, wind/rain), physical distance between students, quality of writing desks, noise level, and supervisor behavior should be controlled uniformly across the state. Thus, someone who takes exam in a private school in Ahmedabad has the same exam-experience as someone writing exam in a remote village of Dang.  In addition, we need to control systematic cheating that takes place in many exam-centers. No student should get “center-advantage” or “center-disadvantage”.

7.      Eliminating Subjective Evaluation and Improving Transparency

Many teachers/ parents/ students/ educationalists keep questioning the credibility of the board examination. Subjective evaluation is one of the major factors hurting the credibility of the test. This is related with the inter-rater reliability of test. The test score should be consistent even if different examiner evaluates the test. We got to study the inter rater reliability of these exams. At the very least, inter-rater reliability coefficient has to be greater than 0.7, given that the stakes are high for students.  We cannot allow mood/ personality/or personal views of examiners to determine the careers of our future citizens.

In addition, the examination system has to be more transparent. The students should have an opportunity to know why their score is cut, and what information is missing. They should also get an opportunity to see the answer-key. Of course, there may not be one right response for an essay type question but a model response should be shared with the students so that they can work on their deficiencies. This will also help teachers to have deeper understanding of what objectives they should consider while teaching.

8.      Accommodating Students with Special needs

Most of the educational boards do not provide information on how they accommodate children with special needs except for blind, or speech/hearing impaired. There is a wide range of children that require support. For example- learning-disabled, emotionally disturbed, autistic, schizophrenic, & intellectually challenged etc. When will we acknowledge that formally in educational system?

9.      Improving Predictive Value

If the result of an examination is to be considered for admission or employment purpose, then such examination should have proven predictive value. Though its results are used for admissions and employment, the board exam is aimed only to measure the present competency of student. It does not predict the future success of student in respective subjects. In simple terms, score of 100 in Physics does not predict that the student will succeed in Physics courses at the University level. Now, if we want the result of this examination to be considered for university admissions/ employment, we may include subject-wise aptitude test like SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) in the US. With help of experts, the board can generate tests of high predictive value. The result of such tests may provide important additional information to the universities/colleges/employers about the natural proclivity of the student towards the subject.

10.  Gradually move on to Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT)

In this era of IT revolution (something that India is proud of), we can no longer carry on laborious  expensive and exhaustive ways of large scale assessment. The boards should devise concrete action plans to move on to CAT. Of course, this will take time (to self-educate, to educate educational administrators/teachers/students/parents and masses and to generate resources). But, there are great advantages of CAT as mentioned below:

·         Facilitating convenience of Students/ Parents

·         Standardize test-administration, higher credibility and scientific testing

·         Better control on systematic cheating

·         Greatly encourage computer literacy into masses

·         Development of testing industry in India

In technical terms, the present practices represent a crude and a bit distorted version of classical testing theory. Research in the field of educational measurement suggests that item response theory (IRT) is superior indeed. Many developed nations have moved on to more scientifically rigorous ways of assessing educational outcomes through IRT. It is a high time for Indian states to begin reforms in this direction as well; else they will be out-educated by developed nations with a great margin. There are endless reasons why India has continued these practices. I am simply not going to dig that up as that will be nothing more than a blame game. But, it is clear; I cannot tolerate the current status quo on this front, can you?

How can we have intrinsically motivated students like Rancho?

Image Courtesy: Vishal Bhatt: www.facebook.com/wizard.vishal

Everyone who has seen the movie, 3idiots, must have fallen in love with Rancho, the genius who challenged the traditional notion of “ideal student”. This article is not about 3idiots, but it is about analysing the central question – “How can we nurture students to be like Rancho?”

My interest in educational research has led me to design and test numerable studies, majority of which are unpublished. In this article, I shall share one such “unpublished” social experiment and attempt to explain its results.

The study goes like this:

·         Ask a group of 3^rd graders what they want to become in life.

·         Ask a group of 12^th graders what they want to become in life.

·         That’s all…

The answers that I have received through interactions with young children and late-adolescents have raised many questions in my mind. Responses of young kids would range from police and soldier to doctor, teacher, and scientist and so on. I have also heard responses like racecar-driver, cricketer, and music-director. On the other hand, the 12^th graders usually end up with limited responses – e.g., doctor, engineer, corporate personnel, or “no-idea”.

Now the big question to ponder upon is –“why does this contrast occur?” Quite obviously, there can be N-number of reasons like ignorance of small children, limited access to career-counselling or societal pressure on youth. But the explanation that I find most compelling is as follows:

The small kids do not think about what they will get in return. They simply look at the fun of doing the job. They think – “how would I feel being so and so?” For them, having fun doing some job is the criteria; whereas, for most of the 12^thgraders, the career criterion is ‘salary and security’ (i.e., SS-mentality). Anything that reduces likelihood for both salary and security gets out of the option list. I am not saying that one should overlook the salary, but I definitely feel that one should also consider – “how would it feel like doing work of so-and-so, and would it be fun?”

Another question to contemplate – Are schools playing any role in developing such SS-mentality?

            Unfortunately, without much intellectual exercise one can find this answer in almost every school where Skinner’s operant conditioning is blindly followed. “Reward the desired behaviour and punish the undesired one” has been the motto of innumerable teachers and schools throughout the country. I do not doubt the intentions, but such ‘carrot and stick’ approach develops mental conditioning in children –“Do something when you find instantaneous rewards. When there are no rewards, don’t do it”. As we all know, in life, you do not get a reward for every positive effort, or immediately get punished for every wrong deed. Individuals are on their own and they either sink or swim. So, when a student graduates from a ‘carrot & stick’ school, s/he is looking for places which seem like CARROTS, and there is no consideration for personal interests.

So what is the way out? And how can schools encourage students to follow their strengths and interests?

            J. Krishnamurthy once said – “if a child shows you a drawing, don’t judge how it is. Rather, ask that child to self-judge and find ways to improve upon it”. Clearly, reinforcement strategies of giving stars and saying ‘very good’ every single time have their own limitations. The dependence on external motivation can leave one confused in life. The instructional practices in schools ought to encourage intrinsically motivated functioning of students. Some of the practices that promote inner motivation in students are as follows:

·         School –task/activities: Learning activities can be selected in a democratic way. A teacher can include students while making decisions on class activities by providing a gamut of options, from which students can select their tasks. This will develop a sense of responsibility in the students as they are the ones who opt for a particular task. It is important that teacher provides activities that fall in the zone of proximal development (i.e., challenging but not too hard) of the student.  

·         Autonomy support: Instead of taking charge himself/herself, a teacher can help students to take charge of their learning experiences. The students must have opportunities to select tasks, methodologies, resources, and time frames. The teacher is required to play the role of an active supporter and a facilitator. Most decisions regarding the teaching-learning processes should be taken based on a mutual understanding between the teacher and the students. 

·         Recognition: There is a fine line between nurturing self-confidence in children and making them dependent on external motivation. Regarding reinforcements, mindfulness is must for every teacher. The teacher may appreciate students’ improvements and efforts, but should do it privately and preferably in person. Public admiration or criticism and comparison of different students can severely discourage and hurt the self-confidence of those who perform below average. Quite obviously, such feelings of inferiority and loss are unwarranted in a classroom.

·         Grouping: It can be a great idea to form heterogeneous groups of students for class activities. Students of various abilities, strengths, backgrounds, cultures can be put together. It can be taught to students how they can benefit from each other’s strength and learn cooperatively.

·         Evaluation: One can evaluate the students based on the quality of engagement in academic activities of the school. Teacher can always explore the scope of self-evaluation depending on the tasks. The basic motive of evaluation is that the students realize their strengths and weaknesses so that they can work on their weaknesses and sharpen their strengths. The students should be guided to spot their areas of improvement and the behaviours they need to continue; and to prepare a plan for improving their performance in the future. Ability to self-critic and improvise is an excellent life-skill to have.

·         Time: Consistent with the previous points, students ought to be included in setting up timeframes for assignment submissions. Of course, they are expected to learn to work according to their plan but the teacher should keep a margin for time-extension. This helps students to work stress free and to learn in detail, and also to demonstrate their creativity and imagination.

These instructional practices are meant to provide the students with an opportunity to master knowledge and skills. Such practices promote a mastery-goal orientation, which is in-depth study, and hinder a performance-goal orientation, which is study for the test. In other words, students do not study for the sake of the grades or marks, or any other external motivations.

In 3idiots, we hear Rancho saying –“Kamiyaab hone ke liye nahi kabil hone ke liye padho. Success ke pichhe mat bhago, excellence ka pichha karo. Success jakh maar ke tumhare pichhe ayegi…” [Translation:  Study for mastery of the subject not for cracking the exams. Don’t run after success, but follow the path of excellence. Success will have no option but to follow you.]

According to ‘Achievement Goal Theory’, students with a mastery approach orientation are intrinsically motivated to master the subject and to take responsibility for their learning. They make efforts to satisfy personal interest, curiosity and to improve. Also, as they are intrinsically motivated, the learning experience itself becomes satisfying and rewarding. The students value what they learn. But they desire autonomy, flexibility, relatedness (i.e., feeling of belongingness), and competence. The teacher needs to make sure such needs of all students are taken care of.

Development of a mastery approach orientation in students will be a great investment, as it is self-sustaining, and the students’ motivation does not depend much on the external factors. By adopting instructional practices described in this article, a teacher can play a vital role in triggering intrinsic motivation for learning in students. On an optimistic note, someday our 12^th graders will share something in-common with 3^rd graders while contemplating about their career –“how would it feel like doing work of so-and-so, and would it be fun?” Dealing with a large number of Ranchos will definitely be challenging for teachers and educators, but what a wonderful challenge will it be! After all, it will be a true triumph of the teachers.

I welcome your comments....