siliconindia | | June 20169opposite conditioning is inefficient, prone to failure and expensive. We need to change the system, not `improve' it. A horse drawn carriage cannot be `improved' to become an automobile. Creative people often display somewhat chaotic behavior. They are unlikely to be mass produced sitting in neat rows and columns ­ silently listening and `learning'. They can be produced using a somewhat chaotic method called Self Organised Learning Environments (SOLEs) that I have been working with for many years. There are hundreds of teachers around the world whose experiences with SOLEs are described on the Internet. However, changing the system from Primary Education upwards is not possible because the present Higher Education system will not admit such learners. This is definitely not possible at the undergraduate level and thus we need another way to drive the required change in education. Changing the system of Higher Education will drive change in Secondary Education, which in turn will drive change in Primary Education. I think the secret to such change may lie in the way a well-designed PhD program is conducted. In a PhD, assessment is done through a conversation, the viva voce, at the end with panel evaluations in the interim and with peer review for publications. There is no `examination' in the sense in which that word is used in school. Assessment systems at the Secondary and Graduate levels need to be adjusted to match the assessment methods used in PhD programs. Obsolete examinations, such as the GCSE in the UK or the CBSE in India, need to be removed and replaced with a new system. In assessing for the award of a PhD, what we look for is a learner's ability to attempt and, perhaps answer, a question to which no one has an answer. This is the spirit with which we must redesign the system. Not a curriculum of what we know, but a curriculum made up of what we don't know. The teacher's role in such a system should be much like the `supervisor' in a PhD program which is that of a friend, who stays with and encourages the learner in their quest for the unknown. It is children who love Big Questions. Such an adjustment in Secondary and Higher Education will cause Primary Education to focus on critical and creative thinking. Changing assessment can be the easiest way to create a new education system. Sugata MitraHe is currently a Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, UK. He was given the $1m TED Prize in 2013 in recognition of his work to help build a School in the Cloud, a creative online space where children from all over the world can gather to answer 'big questions', share knowledge and benefit from help and guidance from online educators. Prof. Sugata has a PhD in Physics and is credited with more than 25 inventions in the area of cognitive science and educational technology.Changing the system of Higher Education will drive change in Secondary Education, which in turn will drive change in Primary Education
< Page 8 | Page 10 >