‘My Thinking Program’ lays emphasis on the development of Thinking Skills and Thinking Processes in a learner-centric, learner-induced environment, thereby focusing on an optimal functioning of a mind. The program draws forth the latent capabilities and sensitivities of the mind rather than filling it with pre-designed information. The core foundation of the program envelops the findings of various brain researches including the finding that learning is most effective when it involves the brain’s natural function of creating meaning from an experience. Hence, learning is natural, active and meaningful as it happens in the context of the experience that one goes through.

This active learning is invoked by the motivation triggered by conscious and subconscious mind for intrinsic rewards of knowledge, understanding and experience. The teachers of ‘My Thinking Program’ function as ‘facilitators’ of learning by providing an environment where students search for meaning, appreciate uncertainty, inquire responsibly and draw inferences for their higher growth. This in turn, help students to take responsibility for their own learning, to be independent thinkers, to develop integrated understanding of concepts, and to pose and seek questions rather than being rote learners. This involves learning by understanding rather than mere memorization.

What is the need of ‘My Thinking Program’?

Education is preparing young minds with a basic foundation to apply thinking skills and thinking processes in any given environment – known or unknown.

Thus, the basic aim of education has been redefined to provide the right inputs to help children grow up into conscientious individuals, equipped with an ability to create right perspectives along with the fundamentals to make the right choices in life and be responsible citizens. This can be achieved by imparting cognitive, social and emotional thinking skills, thinking processes and concepts through a well structured and scientifically designed school program which balances formal and informal education, like – ‘My Thinking Program’. The traditional education system primarily focuses on the methods of teaching, largely influenced by Behavioural Science and based on the assumption that effective learning is a matter of a ‘conditioned response’. A child is internally not motivated to the process of learning but extrinsically, defined by only ‘successes’ and ‘failures’. The ‘Traditional School Education System’ got rooted and evolved in the era of Industrialism. Schools were designed as an effective way to pre-adapt children to then industrial society and its rigid demands for discipline and authoritarianism. Children were merely moulded to fill pre-designated slots and independent thinking was not encouraged.

This ‘Traditional-Behavioral-Paradigm’ with its emphasis on ‘Methods of Teaching’ is being questioned today all across. With more and more people vouching for this change in the perception of Education, all the concerned sections of society, may be it parents, or teachers or schools, they are facing a difficult problem of how to increase motivation in the children to learn, while satisfying standard educational requirement. With majority of young people suffering from a lack of required learning (skills!!) which in turn is leading to a passive society, more and more people are realizing that educating our young generation only on traditional education system is not enough.

The need of ‘My Thinking Program’ - A Research Based Perspective   

• Students appear to be learning mechanically rather than truly understanding the concepts.
• Learning is rote-based and does not focus on real knowledge.

• The ability to apply learning to real life situations - essential for competence building - was extremely poor.

•    Indian students fare poorly in comparison to International counterparts. (Source: India Today)

     The survey strikes at the core - the misaligned approach to education-the focus on high value scores in board exams rather than concentrating on imparting real learning.

The need of ‘My Thinking Program’ - A Societal Perspective

v    Thought processes, value systems, etc of individuals create a society which intrinsically are a bi-product of society’s education system. The current social problems are the mirror image of what we made our younger generations learn. This lurch of discomfort in the society is by large seeking the answer to, “Why are we not learning what we need to know to live good and meaningful lives as human beings?”

v     Even an organization like the NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training), that sets the tone for India’s education process, have recognized the learning disparities between school knowledge and everyday experiences. It states in one of its report titled ‘Learning without Burden’ - “Our perception of the child as a receiver of knowledge rather than recognizing their creative instinct and capacity to construct knowledge out of experience is a major reason why learning at school cannot become a joyful experience.”

v     Learning more mathematics, literature, or history does not seem to be equipping us better to face life. This instrumented the common perception that the present system of education has failed to mould the children into ‘Wholesome Personalities’. As a result, parents see the need for their children to learn other skills along with academics, and thence the quest for schools that give time, attention, energy, and additional resources in the form of specialized curriculum / schooling program to induce this relevant learning in a natural way.

v     CBSE attuning itself to the current needs and situation is an attempt to reduce disparity between the new form of learning and the assessment parameters i.e. final board exams, which is used to test children only on ‘rote learned’ knowledge is a strong indication of a change. This year CBSE has introduced HOTS (High Order Thinking Skills) system based assessment, in a small portion of its examination papers. Reports suggest that this would increase to about 40 percent in the coming year. This is a welcome step as it not only tests the child on memory-based questions but also on his or her critical thinking skills, understanding and ability to take initiatives.

v      Neale Donald Walsch, the famous author of the International Bestseller book series ‘Conversations With God’, in the Part II Chapter 9 of the book series has mentioned, why the education system should not have courses on – Understanding Power, Peaceful Conflict Resolution, Personhood and Self Creation, Engaging Creativity, Visibility and Transparency, etc. to name a few. It suggests the need of a ‘curriculum based upon imparting values’ through an understanding of the core concepts and the theoretical structures around the value system.