Education- A View From Both Sides

 What a student wants- 

Small classes where she/he will be recognised as an individual.

What we provide generally-

Large classes where there is no scope for such things.

Other expectations, and reality

Engagement vs. Prepared lectures

Thinking openly about possibilities versus Structured Curriculum 'to be covered'

Collaborative Group work like in real life versus individual exams

Practical or real-world fundas versus a lot of jargon that makes no immediate sense

Discussion, versus evaluative feedback

and so on.. in higher ed.. and not in school. 

To some extent, a few MBA or engineering colleges have projects, or group work or creative assignments, but not nearly enough. When will we see a change across majority of our institutions of higher ed.?

Actual Experience Minus Expectation

There is a theory in Services Marketing that the Satisfaction of a Service customer for any kind of service is given by a formula Perception of Performance- Expectation. If Perception of actual service experience is higher than expectations, the customer is satisfied. Could be true of life as well. Karma with zero expectation would probably sound outrageous to most of us, but isn't that what the famous four lines from the Bhagvad Gita advocate?

But that (lowering of expectations) applies only to "rewards" that one expects, and not to the quality brought to the doing of the job. There are intangible gains from anything done well. A smile of gratefulness, a burp of satisfaction (from a belly you filled with your cooking), a hug from a child you told a story to, or a look of understanding (rare though it may be) from a student you have been teaching.

My favourite example of expectation and its impact is from films. Sholay was one of the best things to happen in the Hindi film industry. But expectations from Ramesh Sippy (the director of Sholay) were sky-high after that, and he could never again meet them, not with Shaan (not a bad movie) or any other film he made since. So, the flip side of doing well, be aware, is that it will raise expectations from you for the next time. Not such a bad thing, really, for quality improvement.