Dear all,
One familiar value of Indonesian culture, 'humility' is usually misinterpreted as one's tendency to accept whatever concepts and indoctrination given from the authority without questioning the validity, quality and efficacy of such inputs. Meanwhile, the ability to think critically, independently and open-mindedly is the prerequisite to nourish perpetual search for knowledge, skill improvement, research development, innovation growth and entrepreneurship through collaboration. Those elements have been repetitively proven as the magic cocktail to grow most countries towards prosperity, for example: Germany, Singapore, South Korea, and The Nordics. Inability to comprehend the real value of education as the mean to improving the quality of oneself and his/her surroundings, i.e. family and extended community, might also contribute to the low drive of internal motivation to pursue higher education and practice long-life learning. As the consequences, the quality of Indonesian human resources is poor, innovation growth is slow, and the practices of corruption, collusion and nepotism as the 'shortcut to success' are widespread and deeply rooted in many institutional and business culture in Indonesia. I think we all might agree that such misdemeanours and unproductive culture need to be revised with above-mentioned better qualities in order to improve the lives of Indonesian people socio-economically. Otherwise, the rapid revolution of so-called 'technology 4.0' would not be compatible with the lagging operating system of the 'human mind 1.0'.
I would like to open a discussion on how to 'hack' Indonesian people's mindset and culture to be more critical in thinking, open-minded towards learning, and being able to grasp the real value of education. The premise is by 'hacking' the root factors, both on individual and cultural levels, we can achieve prolonged and sustainable positive changes plus resilience. Please feel free to share your thoughts :)
Cheers,
Lilis
Ok, let me share my two cents here because I think there's a problem in framing the problem here if we attempt to create a systematic change.
So, let's break down what we are trying to find the answer to, which is "how to 'hack' Indonesian people's mindset and culture to be more critical in thinking, open-minded towards learning, and being able to grasp the real value of education."
What do we want to accomplish? Hack or in other words shortcut or trick.
What do we want to hack? Mindset and culture which are products of years of firmly established attitudes and behaviour.
Who are we targeting? The people of the fourth most populous country in the world that consists of various cultures, socio-economic backgrounds, lifestyles, and experiences. Not to mention, wide age range.
What changes do we want to see? A change in the mindset and culture that should dominated by these characteristics:
1. Critical in thinking;
2. Open-minded towards learning;
3. Being able to grasp the real value of education.
In other words, we are trying to find a shortcut to make a diverse group of people to possess those three desired characteristics.
Now, why we want to do it? We think that "so-called 'technology 4.0' would not be compatible with the lagging operating system of the 'human mind 1.0'." "Technology 4.0" means the digital knowledge economy that makes the world changes so rapidly and "Human mind 1.0" means.... I'm not really sure. Perhaps, it is safe to say that there's an assumption that a certain state (1.0) of the human mind could not keep up with the ever-changing world.
So, here's what I personally think...I don't believe in a one-size-fits-all principle and I also don't think there is a panacea for such complex issue.
Having said that, I do think that once we have broken down the large problem into smaller chunks, we can trace the root cause to the problem and try to experiment with a meticulously curated solution for a specifically targeted context.
Should I continue...maybe I should 😉
Let's discuss the desired characteristics:
1. Critical thinking
Do we think that the answer to making learners think more critically is encouraging them to ask "why"? It's partially correct because, among other things, asking why nurtures their curiosity and curiosity eventually leads them to the problem-solving process.
How do we do that? By simply asking them to ask why in a learning environment? How many times have you encouraged a group of people to ask you questions but they turn silent?
But hey, say you successfully make them speak up. What if they start with "Why do I have to learn such boring things? or "Why do I even need to learn this thing while I'm hungry? or "Why do I have to go to school when I can just work and support my family?"
Learning might be relatively joyful for a learner who has developed a hunger for learning, a thirst for knowledge, or what people say intrinsic motivation. They are engaged, easily being directed. So, if you can teach all learners how to ask good questions before jumping to the solution, that's good for you.
Moreover, nurturing a culture of curiosity might also be easy for a facilitator, caregiver, or teacher who has understood the power of teaching how to learn, not just teaching to test.
However, what about people who do not fall into these categories? How can they create such an ideal learning environment? Sadly, the people we are targeting are not uniformed.
2. Open-minded towards learning and understanding the value of education
I combined the two because they are essentially quite similar.
And since Lilis mentioned about higher edu, let's picture an image of a young, privately-educated girl growing up in say Singapore chooses to study Computer Science. She is likely to be aware of how this can improve her prospects of employment and higher income.
Now, picture a young girl who grows up in rural Indonesia where the monetary benefits of studying Computer Science in uni are difficult to see or imagine, let alone access.
Look, we've seen innovators and entrepreneurs have begun to imagine and design educational innovations. We've also seen more and more educated people declare their passion for education. In many cases (you can check UN reports or other research reports), current educational innovations perpetuate the cycle of inequality by prioritising the needs of the privileged students who can afford their products and services.
In a country with relatively low GDP-per-capita or substantial socioeconomic inequality, it is reasonable that a great many marginalised people are unmotivated to learn in school. What evidence do they have that tells them and their parents that the investment they might put into their "education" will financially benefit them in the long run? Unfortunately, in emerging markets such as Indonesia, the benefits of getting an education are often unclear.
So, have we framed the problem we are trying to address critically yet?
Agree, critical thinking is one of the key. Just want to share my thoughts on this.
One of possible 'Hack' to be more critical in thinking is to always start questioning with WHY and not HOW.
Consider about basic math about "power" below:
2 ^ 3 = 2 x 2 x 2 = 8
2 ^ 2 = 2 x 2 = 4
2 ^ 1 = 2
2 ^ 0 = 1
and the "factorial" stuff like:
3! = 3 x 2 x 1 = 6
2! = 2 x 1 = 2
1! = 1
0! = 1
Some students will see the pattern and start to REMEMBER it on how to calculate.
And most teacher will teach them on HOW to calculate it.
But,...how many students will ask a question? Why X ^ 0 = 1 and why 0! = 1?
And when there are students asking the question, most of teachers will answer with "it was already defined" and students will accept it.
If we encourage students to ask WHY questions and challenge on 'WHY it should be like that', 'WHY not this way', etc. It will open the critical thinking and will allow them to create their own formula to solve more complex problem. NOT just remembering pattern to answer exam test.