Shreyas Bakshi

We have been talking about learning to learn for decades. Research on metacognition, learner autonomy and lifelong learning has established its importance. Education systems are also evolving to respond to changing skills and market needs. So, this is not about introducing a new idea. It is about asking a different question: Have we designed our education systems to systematically help people become better at learning? Much of our effort has gone into making education more relevant to a changing world.  Curricula are updated, new skills are introduced and people are encouraged to reskill or recertify. But if the world keeps changing as rapidly as we know it has in recent times, how long can we keep updating what people need to know? Perhaps we should also make learners more capable of adapting to a changing world. That means developing learning competency : the ability to identify what they need to learn, seek and comprehend relevant knowledge, contextualise and a...

  Idenifying the Problem can also be a Problem! It is commonly said that identifying the problem means it is half-solved - well, may not literally, but figuratively, for sure! Consider scenarios where people were content with: Using landline phones before the advent of mobile phones. Hailing cabs prior to the emergence of Uber®. Shopping in stores before the convenience of Amazon®. Paying with cash or cheques before the rise of electronic payments and digital wallets. Travelling by rail or road before the accessibility of low-cost airlines. There are many more examples across almost all industries. In each case, a handful of individuals were not satisfied with the current ways of doing things and believed there could be other, possibly better, ways – be these radical or incremental. This ‘dissatisfaction’ is the first step toward innovation – recognising that the current method is not the only way and identifying the 'problem' to be solved. This shift in mindset f...