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Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. What happens when you limit the voicing of these two important words? 1) Nescience : (Ignorance is a lack of knowledge) Our eyes and senses are limited by many ways. We are adapted to view the world perfectly only at a particular zooming level . The world becomes blurred when we increase or decrease the zooming level. We can't know what is happening in another country just by our senses. Increasing and decreasing the zooming level requires indirect measurements that are tedious and sophisticated. You need to learn the outcomes of the research, and techniques to make measurements by bringing it down to texts and tools that are compatible with our zooming level. Without sharing these texts, using and adapting it, our knowledge will be limited to our zooming level and will...

Higher education must immediately stop obsolete blackboard teaching. Higher ed requires mentor and collaboration. What is obsolete blackboard teaching? [Lecturing is the] best way to get information from teacher’s notebook (mouth) to student’s notebook without touching the student’s mind.                                                                                         — George Leonard Patterns for bad practices of teaching, what is done in higher education, even best colleges. https://iambrainstorming.blogspot.in/2017/11/patterns-for-bad-practices-of-te...

1) Teaching whiteboard not students Students work is only to nod head to say yes most of the time even if they understood nothing, disagreement is remarkably uncommon. Teachers don't inquire about student comprehension. Some teachers do inquire but by asking a dichotomous answer of yes or no. But to know the comprehension level, one has to test it by asking questions to students or asking them to explain the concept. 2) Not answering means insult If students don't give the right answer, they are insulted in front of the whole class. Students are completely responsible for not knowing the answer. "Kya tum gharme padthe nahi ho" (Don't you study at home?). So everything you have to study at home. School is not a place for learning. 3) Personal attack when you ask too much question Again students are insulted if they ask too many questions. 4) Target only to finish the syllabus The syllabus is paramount, not students. Why are teachers going so fast that students are ...

All scientific discovery relies on peer review for validation, Why not the assessment of schools and colleges be done through peer review? Peer Review definition: evaluation of scientific, academic, or professional work by others working in the same field. In case of open peer review, the reviewer reports are published which can again go through auditing. Benefits of open peer review: 1) Feedback to the students After a test, feedback to the student becomes a crucial part of their learning. Feedback can be in many forms such as detailed corrections of the answers, making their misconceptions corrected for a particular concept, identifying their specific problems and asking them to take necessary steps to improve. 2) Time-saving of teachers As this can be done in a collaborative manner, it will give freedom to any teacher from the respective subjects to annotate the assessments, the burden is no more to the individual teacher, it will be shared among the country or world. The burden o...

Most often questions are designed that tests the understanding of whole instead of its components.  Students miserably fail to solve these problems due to lack of enough practice of its components. So systematically breaking down the whole concept into its required components is important. e.g. Take this question: [Cr(NH 3 ) 6 ] 3+  is paramagnetic while [Ni(CN) 4 ] 2-  is diamagnetic. Explain why? To start solving this question you have to know the following components: 1) You have to know the atomic number of Cr and Ni. If you have forgotten the atomic number or not memorized it, you are out of luck to solve it. So, has the teacher or the book has given memory tricks to memorize the periodic table. 2) After you know the atomic number, do you know the electronic configuration of the metal atom? 3) Then, can you determine the electronic configuration of metal ion? 4) Do you know how to calculate the oxidation state, because you need to calculate the charge of metal ion? 5...

Problems with alike content: 1) Homogenization of skills When a finished product reaches the market, the product development cycle goes through the touch of many divergent skilled peoples. A product can have many components which require different skill sets of different people. For example, Website Development: When you begin to develop a website, you start with designing a prototype of how it will look, which requires the expertise of graphic designers, you need the skill of programmer to code for the website, you need to be a webmaster to host your website. If you look into the depth, there is much more complexity to it. Each website has its own requirements. A prototype can be designed by using different software, such as Inkscape, illustrator and many others. Each software requires a different kind of learning and experience. Similarly, from programmer side, which language you will be using, which framework, based upon your website requirements such as speed of development, scalab...

Solving by intuitive methods helps students to understand the working of the formula, which is most important to build strategies for different problems. But our books and entrances only give most leverage to formula part without the intuitive part . Take it physics, chemistry or mathematics. Students in coaching centers are mindlessly taught short cut formulas so that they can solve the problem in short time, as there is time limitation in entrances. Example of Intuitive vs Formula Based in probability (Addition Rule): Book: Elementary Statistics (Mario F. Triola)

Many technologies have promised to revolutionize education, but so far none has. With that in mind, what could revolutionize education? Why educational videos don't work? 1) Procrastination : Educational videos give freedom of anytime learning, but this can lead to procrastination. According to Parkinson's Law: "Work expands to fill the time available for its completion". But in case of video lectures or MOOCs there is no limit of time, so usually, we procrastinate. Limiting time to complete the MOOCs is also a bad idea, as it takes away its advantage of any time and anywhere learning. 2) Lack of a social interaction : We share emotions, feelings, discuss with the teacher, friends that come to our mind just like a true social animal and classroom brings a social two-way interaction, but it doesn't happen in case of MOOCs. 3) Answerability : No one is there to keep you accountable for finishing the course, no outward push, everything lies with intrinsic motivation...

1) With increase in frequency, energy of electromagnetic waves increases or decreases 2) Molarity is Often students confuse between molarity and molality. 3) In positive deviation from Raoult's Law, Solute-Solvent Interaction is strong or weak Students often confuse with these kinds of answers, when there is a dichotomy. It's nothing to do with the understanding of the subject, it's about memory. Students confuse because they have not formed enough association with main concepts . Eliminating these confusion requires memory tricks. Let's work with the first two example: The third one I leave to students or teachers to design so that they can memorize it.  In positive deviation, there will be more vapor pressure, this is only possible when solute-solvent interaction is weak. Weak intermolecular force means more particles in the gas phase.

A student is not scoring well, the main reason given: He/She has the less innate ability . He/She was not working hard . Let's bust the second myth first. My question to schools, teachers, and parents is after spending about 6-7 hours in schools, or 24 hrs in residential schools and colleges, how can you really blame children for not working hard. Why do schools expect children to study all by themselves? Why they have to do homework? The problem is not about working hard, it's about not following effective study strategies. Not providing them to do enough retrieval practice. The implementing of the effective study strategies is a very complicated process and often contextual, so much of attributes involved, from content, curriculum to test questions. But the good thing is so much of research already available that will guide teachers to help students in learning. http://www.learningscientists.org/ Now the first myth: She lacks the innate ability. Fact: All organisms at the i...

You can change and improve things if you are able to imagine it. You can't make it, if you can't imagine it. It's naive to think that everything will happen serendipitously or just knowing things is enough. Our schools incentivise student just for knowing things in form of marks without giving considerations to creativity . Attitude toward inventiveness is almost negligible in our schools. You can't make it, if you can't imagine it. Economic growth matters. Wealth brings us flush toilets, antibiotics, higher education, the ability to choose the career we want, fun vacations, and of course, a greater ability to protect our families against catastrophes. If wealth is so important, what makes a country rich? The most proximate cause is that wealthy countries have lots of physical and human capital per worker and they produce things in a relatively efficient manner, using latest technological knowledge. But why do so some countries have more physical and human capital ...

How education hinders alternate way of thinking? A teacher gave the following question in MCQs: If you add some dissolving solute to water, does there is a change in total mass i.e. ([mass of water + mass of sugar]) changes? a) There is no change in total mass b) There is change in total mass Student wrote: b) Teacher gave the mark: zero What if the student thought the following deeper idea to answer the question. When we add a solute to water, the reaction can be endothermic or exothermic,  so if heat is released in case of exothermic, an amount of mass is converted to heat, so there is little decrease in mass that is difficult to measure. For an endothermic reaction, some amount of heat is absorbed, so there is little increase in mass. So the answer can depend on scientific theory, concepts, inductive or deductive reasoning, premise, and method or procedure used. There are no one 'correct' answer, the answer can depend on the process of thinking and context.

The sequence of chapters: Openstax biology: In openstax biology, chapters are arranged based on increasing biological complexity . The second chapter is about atoms, molecules, water, and carbons. It gives applied techniques about how biology is being done, for example, carbon dating, molecular interactions that take place in lifeforms and why, how it takes place, its describes all the basics at the atomic and molecular level, and also talks about environmental conditions of life forms such as pH. At the end of the chapter, it says about Carbon, and why it's important for life. Next chapter is about Biological Macromolecules (increasing complexity from atoms to long polymers), then cell structure and other chapters about functioning. Evolution is taught before the five kingdom classification. Why? Because classification is completely phylogenetically linked. You have to understand evolution, in order to understand classification. Classification is also written with linking evoluti...

Incentives Matters: Flow of Money: Govt => Students => Teachers => Infrastructure provider NOT     Students => Private Infrastructure provider => Teachers  or NOT     Govt  => Infrastructure provider and Teachers Incentives are rewards and penalties that motivate behavior Benefits of  this model : 1) No much reliance on the government for the safeguarding of quality education. Teachers as an entrepreneur will take care of it because it will bring competition for quality. 2) Teacher's income depends on the ability to uphold students. So they are solely responsible for their income. They will work for themselves, instead of doing just an obligatory job on a monthly salary. 3) Students will have the freedom to choose a class, not just school. (Funding children not school) It also solves most problems that belong to the coaching center model. Some of the problems of coaching center model, that is solved in it are: 1) There is no...

A short cut formula like these add nothing to the understanding of concepts, also overloads children with pointless burden as they have to memorize by parroting. How its need to be solved? P° Solvent = 0.850 bar Mass of solute = 0.5g Mass of solvent = 39g Molar mass of benzene = 78g/mol P Solution = 0.845 bar Molar mass of solute (g/mol) = ? P Solution = χ Solvent P° Solvent χ Solvent = n Solvent / (n Solvent + n Solute ) Solvent: g -----> mol Conversion factor = 1 mol/ 78 g 39g * 1 mol/78 g = 39/78 mol No. of moles of solvent = 39/78 mol Solute: g -----> mole Conversion factor = 1 mol/x g 0.5g * 1 mol/x g = 0.5/x mol No. of moles of solute = 0.5/x mol Putting these values in the equation P Solution = χ Solvent P° Solvent we get following equation (((39/78)/(39/78 + 0.5/x))*0.850) -0.845 = 0 Solving it through python programming: Ans: [169.000000000000] Also why overload students with so much of large calculations (in higher education), when we have calculator or pro...

There is a heated discussion about why remember facts when all information is at fingertips (through the internet)?. So first look at dictionary what a fact is? The first definition that comes up is this: A thing that is known or proved to be true. Ok, but most things we study in our education are facts. Earth revolves around the sun is a fact. New Delhi is the capital of India is a fact. Hitler born on dated 20 April 1889 is a fact. Independence day of India is 15th August is a fact. Out of these, first two and last one, I needn't have to search the internet,  because these facts are very important to me as I live in India, and I am from Earth (Lol). I searched the internet to find out when Hilter was born because his date of birth was irrelevant for me till now. Maybe I will forget his date of birth after one day because it will not come to any use to me later. So, some facts are very important to memorize while others are not.  Then what to memorize and what not? In the ag...

IITians, doctors, and most desired teachers try to join coaching institute instead of colleges. Reason: If you run a coaching institute, teachers are heavily paid, because about 70-80% of students money goes into the pocket of teachers, but no matter how much students pay to college, teachers are given fixed and very low salary. Also, brilliant students don't aim to join as a teacher, as pay scale is too low. Coaching institute business model works best to provide quality education as teachers have the complete sole responsibility about their amount of income and autonomy to provide quality. If teachers don't perform well, their pay scale will be low, so it creates a subconscious pressure to compete for quality . But this doesn't happen in schools or colleges. How allowing mediocre colleges to provide degree certification creates a problem? Allowing them to provide certificate enables them to bring students despite not providing quality.

Source: data.gov.in 0        Andhra Pradesh 1     Arunachal Pradesh 2                 Assam 3                 Bihar 4          Chhattisgarh 5                   Goa 6               Gujarat 7               Haryana 8      Himachal Pradesh 9     Jammu and Kashmir 10            Jharkhand 11            Karnataka 12               Kerala 13       Madhya Pradesh 14          Maharashtra 15              Manipur 16            Meghalaya 17              Mizoram 18           ...

Chemistry Book: NCERT Chemistry book requires a complete reinvention, with eliminating most units that are unrequired at the higher secondary level and making it more systematic with the flow of information and building new connections by using prior information. e.g. How quantum mechanical model is linked with explaining the properties of elements and molecules? And before explaining the quantum mechanical model, it's needed to explain what are model and theories. From Britannica: Scientific modeling, the generation of a physical, conceptual, or mathematical representation of a real phenomenon that is difficult to observe directly. Scientific models are  used to explain and predict the behavior of real objects  or systems and are used in a variety of scientific disciplines. The Higher secondary level is meant to know the basics first with the foundational understanding of the mechanism of concepts in detail. It should be relevant to students day to day life to know their surr...

Personalized pre and post test need to be conducted in the following manner with experimental manipulation: While giving questions, each student needs to be asked for how easy or difficult the questions are. Student Feedback for Questions Ease ( eSALT ): 1) Easy (E) 2) Safe (S) 3) Average (A) 4) Low (L) 5) Trouble (T) Also, keep space for some specific feedback that students want to comment on the question while answering. (e.g. Mistakes in questions, concept not taught in the class, or not understood, unable to recall or don't know the answers or specific part of answers like formula or for example atomic number of element, unable to understand the question). Ask students to be elaborative and be particular to the problem faced while writing feedback. Students can give not so useful feedback in order to hide their problem, so teachers should be make them feel safe so that they can express themselves. Teachers curation 1) Students making mistakes with Questions tagged Easy, Safe,...

Instead of having cut off marks based on students scoring, we can have minimum high pass marks that check if the student has enough knowledge to study medical including checking the projects they have done (it checks whether the student is exceptionally excellent for the work). Then  lottery system can be done if we have a fewer number of seats. The proposal can also include girls and other vulnerable social class under reservation. This will reduce the too much of unnecessary burden on the student, also they needn't have to join coaching centers for getting the seats. No more sky touching marks, and no more importance of special coaching. Scientifically speaking luck do play a role in the entrance exam, it's not all about merit.  How luck plays the role? Students who score 2000 rank is not necessarily better than 3000 rank. Parents can't afford the coaching institute. Not knowing the pattern of exams, such as e.g. following Campbell book instead of NCERT, even though...

Chemistry Book: NCERT Chemistry book requires a complete reinvention, with eliminating most units that are unrequired at the higher secondary level and making it more systematic with the flow of information and building new connections by using prior information. e.g. How quantum mechanical model is linked with explaining the properties of elements and molecules? And before explaining the quantum mechanical model, it's needed to explain what are model and theories. From Britannica: Scientific modeling, the generation of a physical, conceptual, or mathematical representation of a real phenomenon that is difficult to observe directly. Scientific models are used to explain and predict the behavior of real objects or systems and are used in a variety of scientific disciplines. The Higher secondary level is meant to know the basics first with the foundational understanding of the mechanism of concepts in detail. It should be relevant to students day to day life to know their surroundin...