Global Teaching Standard – Topic based to Context based

- A proposal for a new way of teaching, which can evolve as a global standard

I have always thought, ‘How can we change or improve our teaching methods to make learning a more interesting and interactive experience, and in the process providing a good solid foundation around concepts?’

My wife in a casual conversation said ‘I don’t know why we have separate subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Math and Biology or why do they teach these subjects as 3/4 subjects as if each was totally compartmentalized or isolated from the other, when in reality they are not?’

If you think deeply, you will see that both these questions are fundamentally questioning one thing – Given the advancement in the various fields of sciences and the extent of convergence among these subjects, would it make sense to move from a subject based teaching to a context based teaching?

We learn about Magnetism, Sound, Density, Molecules, Atoms, Velocity, Speed, Acceleration, and States of matter, in disjoint forms. While this helps in learning what an Atom or Density is all about, I think there are some limitations to this approach. First, it makes the subject a bit mundane and at times difficult to comprehend, second it does not provide the context to extrapolate, learn the interdependencies and the related nuances.

What if we were to define learning the way we surf the internet, one hyperlink to the other drilling down based on the area of interest and backing up to the starting point when needed, or backing up to an intermediate point and drilling down on a different area of interest. Can we look at a similar model for class room teaching too, within a smaller context? It may help the students to better appreciate the similarities, differences, the direct and indirect dependencies and establish the connections early on.

For example, let’s take driving on a foggy day, where students are able to relate to it and have a context. The logical hyperlinks for this context could be fog / foggy day/ clear day, fog lights, regular lights, reflection, refraction. In a case like this, you are talking about the environment/geography (clear day / foggy day formations), you are talking about physics (reflection and refraction) and you could be covering reflection and refraction in liquids, solids and gases (chemistry), density (chemistry), temperature, viscosity, etc.. This, I believe would help students to see the connections, influences of one on the other, and would help them appreciate the subject better.

Schools may want to pilot and see how students are able to comprehend and extrapolate relative to the conventional method.