In India, the time has come to think about a dramatic shift in the way students learn in our schools. The way our students learn every subjects including science is by memorizing rather than understanding the concepts. It is high time that they start to consider analytical thinking and problem solving methods.

What is needed in our educational institutions?

The need of the hour is to train our students to convert what they learn in class rooms to understanding of real world problems and developing solutions for such problems based on their understanding of science and various other subjects. They have to start using what they have learned to solve problems around their society. Students should develop independent thinking based on their learning and doubts should be raised on the theories they learn.

Turn towards good books

There are many ways by which the problem solving skills and thinking power can be improved in the case of students. One way is to read books which will enhance the problem solving skills and thinking power. There are many books like “Thinking Physics: Understandable Practical Reality” by Lewis Carroll Epstein which will help students to have a clear understanding of role of physics in understanding the daily life happenings and there by enhancing their critical thinking and observation capabilities.

For students in the economics stream there are books such as “The Economic Naturalist: Why Economics explain almost everything” by Robert Frank which will help students to think critically about the fundamental concepts of economics. So our effort to make the coming generations to think critically and analyze carefully will be fruitful if our students start to use such books.

A shift of focus is required

There is an increased need to change our focus from just passing exams to understanding the concepts of various subjects. In a conversation with a student in Infosys, Mr. Narayana Murthy had realized that most of them had forgotten what they have learned for their examinations just three months back, which includes basic concepts.

According to Mr. Murthy, we can develop critical thinking among school going students by creating platforms for conducting scientific and mathematical competitions across the country. Students who excel in the district level should be send to state level competition, and those who excel in state level competition should be send to national level competition. The winner of national level competition should be send to international competitions where they will be given a chance to compete with international talents. This will give students opportunity to compete with promising talents and understand where they stand. We should also place our school systems among global comparisons so that we can realize where we stand and benchmark with the best performers to improve our performance. According to a bureaucrat, we were following such a method of comparison in the in international arena, but were forced to stop it as we were rated low consistently.

It is possible

The need to reform the school level teaching may be considered as too much of an ambition. But many countries around us have been able to bring reforms in their education system by making use of these well known ideas. For example Singapore and South Korea were able to accomplish this successfully.

Research should be given attention

In the case of reforms at the college level, the Universities that were able to impact the world were thosewho have excelled in both research and teaching. So our higher education institutions should pay attention to meaningful research activities in addition to teaching. Today our contribution to research measured by the papers published in international conferences, peer reviewed journals, and patent filings falls behind US, China and various other developed countries.

In order to improve the performance of our education system in terms of critical thinking and problem solving skills, we should work on creating a research oriented mindset among students in the undergraduate level. For example, making the students to read the topic before coming to class and initiating a discussion based on important points that students have read before attending the class will help in improving analytical thinking and curiosity.

How to accomplish this?

An easy and effective method to develop a positive orientation towards research and thus develop critical thinking is to make students carry out a research on a topic as agreed by the teachers. Here it is not the research findings that are important, but it changes the mindset of the students in favor of critical thinking and makes them independent in their thought process. Such research related activities has yielded positive results in all the foreign universities and has made the students excel in research. Moreover such academic research works conducted during the period of education have attracted many students to the area of research.

Importance of research in the Indian context

In a country like India which is largely affected by socio-economic and developmental challenges, analytical thinking and problem solving gains importance as it presents our youth plenty of opportunities. India lags behind in the areas of primary education, healthcare, shelter, and sanitation, which will require critical thinking and problem solving skills among the younger generation to come up with possible solutions which will improve the quality of life of the poor.

This requires motivation to the students and this can be provided by making them feel proud about the impact of our educational institutions on the society. If our educational institutions are able to transform the lives of every single Indian, then there is no doubt that the world around us will recognize our efforts and honor our educational institutions. Our schools and universities will become centers of excellence only when they start to compare themselves with foreign universities such as MIT, Oxford etc and benchmark them. In order to reach there, we should have the commitment and focus on speed and execution. India is rich with scientific talents, and now it is the time to unleash the potential of our young minds.