Debate: Should students direct their own education?

ROUND 1

SAMM STEIN: All education requires some form of self-direction. It’s impossible for professors to give students all of the material students need to learn. Students have to adjust to teaching themselves. By directing their own education, students can more easily study according to what works best for them. Many teachers try to teach in a way that most students understand. That being said there are seven different learning styles. Professors cannot sufficiently teach all seven of these styles. Students must compensate and direct their own learning so that they can most effectively study. Additionally, by allowing students to direct their education, they can tailor their interests more. Students will be more eager to learn if they can focus on something they have a passion for.

JOY PANDYA: I agree with your point up to a limit. But when the students are at the sophomore or junior level, most of them are struggling to decide their career path. During college, they get exposure to a lot of different areas of study that they might not have heard before. If they are studying according to their self-direction, there are chances that they might overlook studying the entire field. For an example, if a mechanical engineer wants to build his career in the automotive field, there are so many different ways he can start contributing in that field. At the same time, it isn’t necessary that he knows all the latest things and cutting-edge technology used in the industry. We need carefully pre-designed course structure. I agree that one professor might not be very effective for students with different learning paces and styles, but a professor can at least provide the correct direction to the students and then it is students’ responsibility to learn more.

ROUND 2

PANDYA: Nowadays, everything is interdisciplinary in nature. This means it is getting more and more difficult to draw a clear line between different areas. For an example, it is becoming very common to study psychology and criminal justice under a criminal profiling program. Data scientists and electrical engineers both can work on machine learning and artificial intelligence. Having knowledge in just one particular area is not enough at all! Having said that, if the student is designing his own curriculum and if he is very much interested in one area of study, he tends to skip learning about another study aspect and this might damper his future career and overall growth a lot. In this case, carefully reviewed course direction will be beneficial.

STEIN: Humans are inherently curious creatures. Despite having little guidance, we will seek out the necessary information we need. As long as we are given the initial tools to seek out information, such as literacy and technology usage, humans will strive to learn more and more. Curiosity has no limitations. Yes, people will tend to gravitate towards things they enjoy. At the same time, there’s a spark to understand everything. For example, in one day, someone could be curious about the composition of a penny as well as the etymology of a common word. These are practically opposite disciplines. One is materials based while the other is language. They aren’t huge philosophical or technologically advanced questions, but they are questions that further our knowledge. There’s this notion that all learning must be great and ground-breaking; however, general and basic knowledge is equally as valuable.

ROUND 3

STEIN: In a way, directing our education closes our minds off to possibilities. Education is driven by what is needed in the world. For example, there is a demand for technology-focused scientists right now. Many students will see the opportunities that are being promoted and fail to find something else that they may enjoy more. If a student sees that there is a good opportunity in, for example, software engineering, they may settle for that rather than going into something else they really enjoy. Having more freedom in our education could greatly decrease the amount of settling for something that makes money over making the student happy. It is possible to have a directed education and be happy. However, there is still that potential of settling. Allowing students to have more freedom to direct their own learning helps them grow into a field they enjoy and grow as a person.

PANDYA: Closing our minds off to possibilities can be seen as concentrating more in one particular area. At this point, it is really important to talk about the level of your education. By level, I mean high school, undergraduate, graduate or doctorate. When we go from high school to doctorate, we continuously narrow down our focus area, closing our mindS off to possibilities and it is really important in high-level research programs. I agree with the thought that students might lean towards the branch with more opportunities rather than the branch in which they have interest, and they should also be allowed to switch between the branches whenever they want. When they are studying in one particular branch, the course structure should be closely observed and directed by the industry and academic leaders. So, as far as the student is enrolled in one branch, the course structure should be carefully observed and directed.