Sunday June 6, 2010

Time to train youngsters to think

EMPLOYERS and those involved in recruiting graduates lament that many of our local graduates have resumes that boast of Cumulative Grade Point Averages (CGPAs) of between 3.5 to 4.0, but tend to underperform and fail miserably when it comes to real work.

When businessmen lament that our graduates are not creative at work, it really means that they are not thinking persons.

Therefore, we have to create environments to produce thinking individuals who use their grey matter to understand and analyse.

Such traits can be acquired if they are instilled from a young age.

To create thinking individuals, we have to take into consideration one’s culture, parental habits, the mindset of teachers and professors, and the type of stimuli in the classroom.

Only by looking into these factors, can we hope to produce graduates who can think, instead of graduates who learn by rote.

First, the environment or setting must be right to raise thinking individuals.

We, as parents, also need to change the way we bring up our children.

We cannot limit our children by allowing them to be completely influenced by other people’s opinions; not allowing them to question adults; expecting them to blindly obey adults; and subscribing to the adage that “children should be seen, not heard”.

Lacking in confidence

Such a culture has unknowingly brought about a lack of self-esteem in our children.

They also lack the confidence to experiment with new ideas and concepts, and are unable to think out of the box.

We should not be bound by what others say in coming up with bold measures and ideas, and should instead, be strong enough to put forth our own ideas and stick by them.

For example, we should not be afraid to ride a bicycle, instead of driving a car to work, if the intention is to save energy.

While others may think it is a crazy idea and criticise or ridicule us, we should be bold enough to stick by our decisions without being disrespectful or offensive to them.

We must also bear in mind that we have to be sensitive to others when it comes to issues concerning morality, discipline, respect and decency.

This country is made of people of different races, and we should capitalise on our multi-cultural and multi-religious backgrounds to hone our creative skills and thoughts.

Look at the United States — its success is due to its “thinking people’’ of diverse backgrounds.

We, too, can emulate the global power in this area.

The second effective change is for parents to drill the importance of reading into their children.

This can be attained if parents themselves pick up the reading habit, as their children will naturally follow them.

Try to have libraries at home, not collections of toys. Your children will soon become voracious readers.

Thinking is best done in silence. Parents should control the noise level at home by not switching on the TV, music and other forms of entertainment all day long.

There are studies saying that our brains work best at its lower waves.

Good decisions are made and creativity works best during the alpha brainwave, which can be attained only when we have quiet surroundings. Great religions preach about the power and strength of silence. There is science involved in such teachings.

Activating the mind

Thirdly, the education system should offer a curriculum that promotes thinking instead of rote-learning.

Thinking helps an individual to develop the habits of inquiry.

It will also cultivate skills of expression and effective communication. All these in turn will produce active citizens.

Similarly, we can add other methods of academic engagement to our traditional methods of teaching, such as lectures, seminars, distance learning, field trips and computer-assisted activities.

Also, it is about time that professors and lecturers learn to accept and respect queries raised by students.

They should not intimidate their students, but instead, treat them as equals and encourage them to have intellectual discourse.

The fourth element is providing the stimuli in class to make students think.

This can be done through activities that, among others, involve the metaphorical power of language, logical thinking, the centrality of thinking, misthinking, the role of expectation, and sharpening our senses.

After all, education means developing one’s mind from emptiness. We rely on education to develop thinking and appreciate wisdom.

Educators should also emphasise and instil in students an attitude that the best-educated man is the one whose mind never ceases thinking.

Make them see education as a process of constant and perpetual self-improvement.

Develop a stance that education is to educate, not train, as training involves rote-learning, which does not promote thinking.

DR MEGAWATI OMAR and DR ABU BAKAR ABDUL MAJEED

RESEARCH MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE

UiTM, SHAH ALAM