Learning the right way

While watching the news, I see very little about many critical issues of education with reference to developing creativity and critical thinking. Our political climate has taken over the news, and it seems as though education takes a back seat to important political events as well as salacious stories about reality-television stars. It makes me wonder how much education is valued despite many shortcomings in the present education system. I want to focus on the issues that impact our lives in negative ways to issues that impact our lives in positive ways. I believe, this is high time to have a critical look at the issues we face in education, and create some dialogue and action around these issues, and talk about them sooner than later.

The education system pushes the students to the use of the drill and practice method that forces them to get good marks otherwise their academies will flop. Thereby students have to choose such things in which they get more benefits. Parents also demand that their child passes the exam at any cost. Board results are the main reason behind this. In the exam paper, the questions measure only students ‟ability of rote memorization", not concepts. Our board examiners check the same book wordings to be written in answer sheets. Though many students believe that they can achieve only short-term objectives but not creative and critical thinking development.

Even a few teachers informed that they were responsible to develop a system of marks in our country but they discouraged it throughout their teaching career. Unfortunately, students start rote memorizing at an early age and when they go into higher classes, they fail as creative and critical thinking are required there.

Most tuition academy managers highlighted that private tuition academies had a strong and positive effect on students' achievement. They argued that the education system is examination-oriented; therefore, they provided notes and guess papers, prepared after consulting the past papers (questions that are asked again and again), to students rather than covering the whole syllabus and more focused on drill learning, thus becoming helpful in achieving higher marks in the examination in a shortcut way. The tutors did not feel any necessity to focus on students' creative and critical learning. This has some implications for the education system because this can attract students and parents who are after good grades. However, extra coaching methods used in academies also inhibit students' creative and critical skills. Most importantly a small number of students realize that through drill learning, they achieved only short-range goals rather than long-range goals such as creative and critical thinking skills. This way of teaching causes stress and anxiety among the students because it does not help to understand the subject deeply. One of the areas of concern is the perception educators have of their students. Sometimes teachers lower their expectations of students because of the background they come from, and other times they hold unreachable expectations because they believe their students are too coddled. And even worse, I have heard educators talk about certain students in very negative ways, with a clear bias that must get in the way of how they teach those students.

The idea that 'knowledge is power' is quite simply not enough in today's ever-changing world. Instead, individuals need to think critically in order to adapt to unfamiliar situations and to prevent the spread of misinformation, as the pace of change continues to accelerate and the complexity of work and the world around us intensifies. Being able to think critically has been shown to be a strong predictor of academic achievement in children and adults and successful life decisions in general. It is pertinent to mention that the third decade of the 21st century has begun and the environmental challenges ahead of us are many. The major environmental problems are climate crisis, pollution and health problems, ocean pollution, energy transition, sustainable food problem, loss of biodiversity, unsustainable urban development, water scarcity, extreme meteorological phenomena, overpopulation and waste management.

Unfortunately, creativity has been absent in both theory and practice in the educational area of environmental sustainability. Even we cannot deal with the environmental problems through thinking patterns that have been created in the first place. Too often, critical thinking confines itself to simply choosing among the pre-existing alternatives instead of imagining or creating new desirable values. Creativity appears on different scales, from individual to organizational to societal. To cultivate individual creativity, education should focus on developing individuals' creative potentials instead of focusing on immediate creative output.

According to researchers, developing creativity for environmental conservation comprises four types of environmentally responsible behaviour (i.e pro-E behaviour): 1) eco-management (i.e. the physical or direct actions that preserve the environment); 2) consumer and economic action; 3) interpersonal and public persuasion and 4) political action. Extending these behavioural spheres yields specific examples such as creativity in the recycling of discarded batteries and cans, reusing old materials, reducing the consumption of water, electricity and paper, greener methods of garbage disposal, greener consumer behaviour, organising conservation activities and advancing policy recommendations. Similarly, a useful model has been proposed by researchers based on five competencies in sustainability (i.e. pro-S competencies): 1) systems thinking competence, which is the ability to analyse multiple interactions of stakeholders/elements in a holistic approach; 2) anticipatory competence, which is the ability to envision and construct future sustainable scenarios; 3) normative competence, which is the ability to develop values and perspective reflecting pro-sustainability; 4) strategic (action-orientated) competence, which is the ability to transform sustainable ideas into real-world practice; and 5) interpersonal competence, which is the ability to facilitate collaboration among relevant stakeholders.

For educational practices, creative environmental education may not necessarily take the form of a stand-alone curriculum but can be integrated into many currently offered general courses. Another important point is that creativity, as a kind of self-actualization, had developed both individual competencies and intrinsic motivation, which are expected to be conducive to life-long self-determining ES behaviours. Future education perhaps best to realize the development of creativity and ES in a synergistic manner, cultivating their intrinsic motivation, sensitivity, problem-finding, problem-solving, future thinking, together with self-creating lifestyle and re-conceptualization.

Views expressed are personal