“Something special about undergraduate research is that these students take bigger risks and ask bolder questions,” said Sravanti Uppaluri, Biology Faculty at Azim Premji University, as she traced the history of the university’s Science Undergraduate Research Conferences (SURC), the third edition of which was flagged off on 6 December 2024. Her words rang loud and true over the next two days, as the primary participants of the conference, undergraduates from all over the country, presented their work on topics that ranged from abstract to practical, fundamental to cutting-edge, translational to downright wacky.

The first SURC took place in Azim Premji University’s old campus in Sompura, back in 2019. Tulsi Srinivasan, a maths faculty at the university, who has witnessed all the editions of the conference, recalled that it was first designed as a platform for their own students to talk to others about the research they were doing, and for them to be exposed to research from other disciplines. The other, more ambitious goal was to encourage other colleges in the country towards undergraduate research.

This year, about 110 undergraduate students were selected to present their work at the conference. Of this, 60 were from other universities. It took Meera KU, science administrator at the university, and her team over six months of planning to ensure that the conference would proceed smoothly. Vijay Ravikumar, MSR Kumar, Saswata Roy, Antara Das and Mohammed Irshad were the other faculty organisers of this year’s SURC

Each day of the two-day event began with a plenary talk by a prominent scientist. The first talk was by Kusala Rajendran, seismologist formerly with Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. The experience of being addressed to by a famous senior scientist could easily have intimidated a young audience, many of whom were at their first ever science conference - however Rajendran’s talk was meticulously tailored to ensure that no one would feel out of their depth. She awed the audience with the immensity of Earth’s geohistory, the minuteness of human’s presence on earth and the ‘accidents’ that stopped dinosaurs from continuing as the dominant lineage, all whilst staying true to the precise nature of her scientific work. The lively question-and-answer session was a testament to the success of her efforts to engage the undergraduates.

The following day, it was the turn of C. Aiswarya, a computer scientist from Chennai Mathematical Institute. If Rajendran’s lecture was a story, then Aiswarya’s was a puzzle. By cracking codes and interactive crowd work, she shepherded them through a gripping 45-minute introduction to computation with graphs. The problems she posed were by no means a walk in the park, but it was exhilarating to see the level of thinking undergraduates are capable of with the right guidance.

Apart from the two plenaries, the rest of the programmes were dedicated to the undergraduates and their own work. The presentations were organised into three formats: 10-minute talks, poster presentations, and ‘flash talks’, a format that is becoming increasingly popular in science conferences around the world. In a flash talk, the presenter was given two minutes to pitch their poster to the audience. A successful pitch would presumably ensure a good footfall at their poster stand.

The topics spanned the disciplines of biology, physics, chemistry, environmental science, mathematics and computer science. Some examples include: the role of a tree cricket’s microbiome, sea surface temperature trends in the Bay of Bengal, renewable liquid biofuels, stochastic modeling of elevators, p-Adic Numbers, the lottery problem and more. There were also some excellent examples of interdisciplinary work on display, such as two separate posters that looked at elections through a physics and mathematics lens. “There was so much novelty!” commented Antara Das, a biologist who was part of the organising committee for this year’s SURC.

We saw how much is possible even with meagre resources, using freely available data and inexpensive equipment.

For the second half of both days, participants could choose from a range of workshops across disciplines. Vivek Ganesh, from the university’s Research Centre, facilitated a workshop on Geographic Information System (GIS), during which he gave the 20 attendees a broad overview of the components and methods of this now ubiquitous mapping tool. Participants were given 90 minutes of time to create their own visualisations of air quality data from Bangalore. “The students were excited to project data from curved surfaces to flat ones, and to learn that there is no such thing as a 100% true projection,” he said.

Meal times were opportunities for participants to mix, and acquaint themselves with faculty members, both from the host university as well as the 20-odd faculty members from other universities who were invited. Beyond this, there were also a couple of ‘Sci Adventures’ planned by students and faculty of the university, to help their visitors feel more at home. Both proved especially fruitful, especially with the opposition of Jupiter that was coincidentally happening on the stargazing session held on the first night, and the elusive neighbourhood Indian roller bird that decided to present itself during the bird watching session held in the morning of day 2.

Anil Challa, a biologist and science educator from Shiv Nadar University, who was present for the conference, said,

Instead of us lecturing to students, I enjoyed seeing students engaging each other so well.

Anil pointed out the difficulty of having higher participation from smaller universities and colleges. “It’s easier to get students from IISERs and private universities, but we should also find more ways to enable other students to travel,” he said. One way to do this, according to Anil, would be to organise regional SURCs (similar to IndiaBioscience’s regional YIMs).

Indeed, diversifying the participation is topmost on the minds of the university staff as they envision the future of the SURC tradition. “We hope to improve representation of not-so-famous universities and institutes from rural areas in the upcoming editions,” remarked Meera. There is also the matter of disciplinary diversity. Most of the abstracts received were from biology, whereas fields such as mathematics were underrepresented. Srinivasan believes that this is because undergraduate research in maths looks very different from that in biology, physics or chemistry.

In maths, you may not be doing original research, but still there is a lot that can be done. I hope to see many more maths students participate in future SURCs.

While the organisers continue to refine the format with every successive year, they will hope to retain the friendly and encouraging environment that is key to its success. “No one is looking down on you here. This is a place for students to feel safe presenting their science,” summed up Das.

Why does one student fear mathematics while another hates biology?

The challenge often lies not in the discipline itself but in how it is taught. Traditional methods of teaching, which rely heavily on rote learning, fail to foster genuine understanding or enthusiasm for the subject. While students are informed about concepts, questioning them or delving deeper is often discouraged. Such an approach lacks the hands-on engagement necessary for an immersive and enjoyable learning experience.

Sugat Dabholkar, a Research Assistant Professor at Tufts University, USA, is pioneering a shift in how students engage with science and mathematics. As a “Learning Scientist” and faculty member of the Lodha Genius Programme (LGP), he designs curricula that emphasise better engagement through computational thinking.

The computational thinking approach

Computational thinking has been conceptualised in multiple ways. Based on the work by Weintrop et al., 2016 , Dabholkar uses a definition of computational thinking in STEM as thinking that helps investigate a research question or solve a problem using computational tools and methods. Computational thinking has significantly transformed how scientists engage in scientific inquiries. When students participate in scientific investigations using computational tools to learn about a concept, they develop a deeper understanding of the concept and learn computational thinking. Dabholkar describes one project where, using the computational thinking approach, he co-designed a computational model that mimics an experimental model system.

This model is based on a prey-predator relationship and is designed using NetLogo (a multi-agent programmable modelling environment). Using this model, they studied natural selection and adaptation in a population of rock pocket mice in the desert of New Mexico. Being an interactive platform, it allows users to change specific parameters and settings using interface elements.

Aligning pedagogy with national goals

The National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023 in India recommends various pedagogical approaches suitable across the classroom, the field, and the laboratory. It includes hands-on science, the discovery approach, the inquiry approach, and the project-centric approach. The inquiry approach states, “Inquiry approach allows students to navigate through unknown questions, and to explore solutions by themselves. It allows students to work in the same way as scientists. The inquiry approach engages students with systematic observation, visualising, experimenting, inferring, communicating, discovering relations. This approach allows Teachers to choose the appropriate type of inquiry with respect to the concept, and to scaffold (support as per needs) students’ learning.”

The framework encourages students to ask questions, conduct experiments, and independently explore concepts. Dabholkar's computational thinking approach aligns perfectly with this vision, fostering inquiry and critical thinking through interactive and practical learning modules.

Practical applications in education

One of the first courses that Dabholkar co-designed for the LGP was a quantitative and computational biology course. This course was developed around ecology and evolution, and students used computational tools to model and investigate ecological systems. Dabholkar co-taught this course with Sudipta Tung, a faculty at Ashoka University. He has also co-designed a course on stem cell differentiation with Joseph Thottacherry and another on neuroscience with Mehrab Modi.

In the course Tung and Dabholkar co-designed, the LGP students worked in groups on different investigations. One group studied how tree density influenced the spread of forest fires, discovering a tipping point where slight density increases could escalate fires dramatically. Studying such questions was possible due to the computational models that the team developed together.

This model also incorporated variables like wind and humidity, demonstrating the complexities of real-world phenomena. Such hands-on, team-based projects encourage students to think critically, collaborate, and understand the multifaceted nature of scientific problems.

Transforming classroom dynamics

Only course designs do not ensure a better pedagogy. It also involves creating a collaborative learning environment. “In the classroom, I typically try to have less time for an instructor to speak. And more time for students to speak. So, students learn from each other, and there is a lot of peer learning involved,” explains Dabholkar.

Hierarchy in the education system often leads to adverse outcomes in the learning process. Dabholkar bridged the gap between students and teachers interestingly. “One shift we did in the courses was in the teaching team. We were senior learning partners, and the students were junior learning partners. We said we are building a learning community, so there's no teacher-student relationship, but we are all learning together and will be learning partners in the process. And I have continued that idea throughout,” describes Dabholkar. This shift encourages peer learning and fosters a sense of community, enabling students to freely explore ideas and ask meaningful questions.

Pursuing research in this field of education for a decade, Dabholkar has seen how students respond to this teaching pedagogy. While most things are not surprising to him anymore, they still amaze him nevertheless. He says, “Students have a lot of ideas that are not encouraged.” As students try to provide answers based on what is “expected” by the teacher, they generally hesitate to express their own ideas about anything. “However, once you shift that, how students engage with these ideas is exciting. And the kind of questions they ask when they're free to ask are research questions that PhD level scholars ask when engaging with their research,” says Dabholkar.

The art of teaching does not involve just the students in the learning process. Teachers or instructors also learn while developing courses and interacting with the students.

Dabholkar explains, “One thing that I would say was surprising was actually how much I learned about each of these domains when I designed these modules. And I think that is an important aspect for teachers and even scientists. When I talked with Modi, Thottacherry, and Tung, they also mentioned that they developed some insights in their respective fields when creating materials like this.”

Building the future of STEM education

Despite these advancements, Dabholkar highlights the need for significant investment in science education research in India. Few institutions currently specialise in this field, limiting the potential for widespread adoption of innovative teaching practices. He advocates for establishing science education research centres to develop advanced pedagogical methods that can transform the education system.

Dabholkar’s initiatives extend beyond the LGP. In Pune, he collaborated with school teachers to create computational modules for topics like Newton’s laws, simple harmonic motion, and kidney functions. These efforts have shown how engaging teaching methods can make complex STEM concepts accessible to students.

Introducing such approaches into India’s education system on a national scale could revolutionise how students perceive and excel in STEM fields. As Dabholkar aptly puts it,

If I want my child to learn to play cricket, I would give her a cricket bat and send her to the ground. I won't ask her to read about cricket in the books. So why not do the same for science students?

The significance of exams in India and the tension they often evoke is deeply ingrained in the nation's educational culture. Assessments play a crucial role in education, not only as a tool for evaluation but also as a means to enhance learning. Researchers have made significant strides in understanding how assessments can support learning processes. However, in a densely populated society like India, exams often double as selection tools, leading to their high-stakes nature. This has turned primary and secondary school-level exams into stepping stones for competitive examinations, intensifying the pressure on students.

Indian educators are, however, on a momentous mission to bring back the joy of learning so that students reach their highest potential instead of worrying about exams. An electronics engineer with a PhD in educational assessment, Shilpi Banerjee, Faculty at the Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, is involved in designing and offering courses at the postgraduate level in various aspects of assessment to teachers, educators, education functionaries and students. She has firsthand experience of ongoing efforts to reform prevalent assessment methods.

Rewiring assessment style

Banerjee is also part of various technical committees set up by state and national boards to strengthen the design of board examinations and classroom assessments. She notes, “Assessment should not be viewed as occurring only at the end (summative); rather, it runs parallel to the entire teaching and learning process (formative)".

Assessment should also not be seen as something that can only be carried out by teachers; instead, students and peers should be encouraged to engage in self-assessment and peer assessment.

Banerjee mentions that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and several key policy documents over the years in education have emphasised the importance of formative assessments in informing both teachers about their teaching methods and students about their learning progress. She adds, “The objective is to shift away from traditional rote learning and high-stakes summative assessments that often focus solely on memorisation and create stress and anxiety among students”.

The Azim Premji University works with multiple examination boards in this context. To discourage rote learning, the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) in consultation with the university thus has changed the question paper formats where previously the majority of questions were drawn from the textbooks. Aiming to overcome the limitations of a single test at the end and reduce the associated pressure upon students, KSEEB is also encouraging continuous or formative assessments by allocating marks for internal assessments especially for subjects without practical components.

Teaching by practising

At the university, Banerjee teaches an education assessment class of around 40 students each year in the 4th semester of the MA Education course. Here, the students gather from different geographies, subject backgrounds, work experiences, and home characteristics. While managing this variation sometimes becomes challenging, Banerjee shares how the following pedagogical approaches are applied to make the best out of this diverse student body so that they can develop a comprehensive understanding of assessment and its practical applications in schools.

• A dialogic and discussion-based pedagogy: Encouraging students to reflect on their personal experiences with assessments and identify areas for improvement in assessment practices. Here students with varied experiences contribute valuable insights to the discussions.

• Different types of formative assessments:

1. Every exam is not a written exam on a fixed date or common for all students.
2. In-class discussions, quizzes, and informal conversations are also used to monitor students' learning
3. Scope for students to choose a problem when answering (allowing choice) and setting questions that are often open-ended (allowing voice)
4. Sharing clear rubrics regarding questions to help students understand the expectations while attempting those
5. Open-book assignments with enough time and trust to create a comfortable learning environment

• Group work: Creating student groups with some having work experiences in education, so that shared learning can occur, through meaningful and productive discussion benefitting everyone. Group readings are also planned to help all students engage with the material and absorb the discussions effectively.

• Field work: The students are exposed to field experiences of the Azim Premji Foundation in doing assessments across various states and thereby they acquire practical experiences of what may or may not work in the context of education in India.

Equipping the teachers

Banerjee who regularly interacts with a large number of teachers, as her students at the university, has observed that there is a significant gap in recognising the value of ongoing, low-stake assessments that provide constructive feedback during teaching. She thinks that this is a fault of the system where instead of developing subject-specific competencies, the teachers are too keen to prepare the students based on what will be asked in the exams.

Though policies supporting new-age assessments are now in place, their implementation ultimately will depend on how well these are interpreted to the teachers who will be realising them. Azim Premji University is thus actively consulting several states in India in adapting to the new system by helping the teachers through easy-to-follow grade-appropriate and subject-specific guidelines clarifying the concepts mentioned in the policies.

Banerjee mentions, “Understanding the nature of subjects and the competencies required to achieve the goals of education is crucial for designing and utilising assessments that promote NEP 2020 recommended competency-based learning and this shift will require significant changes in both educator mindsets and assessment design.”

She also notes “Current assessment processes in the majority of our schools assess only a limited range of abilities without accommodating individual differences in terms of student capacities and backgrounds.” Banerjee stresses that there is an urgent need for both pre-service and in-service teacher education to equip teachers.

A shared understanding among all stakeholders about the role of assessment is key to moving toward competency-based education.

Besides this, she reminds that some teachers are already highly driven and well-informed. However, besides a significant amount of administrative duties, due to the large class sizes, they don’t have the luxury of applying the necessary pedagogical tools as required for individual classes. Such ground-level constraints also leave many teachers unable to practice good-quality assessments. However, with the clearly defined competency statements now at hand, Banerjee is confident that though not overnight, we will surely see a change.

Henry David Thoreau once wrote, “This world is but a canvas to our imagination,” a truth often overlooked in our mundane lives. Yet, for bright young minds, this idea comes alive —especially with guidance from visionary artists like Rohini Devasher. As an artist, Devasher merges creativity and inquiry, a blend that the Lodha Genius Program (LGP) strives to nurture in today’s youth.

LGP, a collaborative initiative between the Lodha Foundation and Ashoka University in Haryana, is designed to foster holistic education in young individuals by integrating the principles of STEAM—Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.

This immersive campus experience invites 9th to 12th graders to engage in hands-on learning guided by experts from diverse fields, followed by a virtual Continued Learning phase that inculcates ongoing engagement and growth beyond the programme. In 2023, Devasher, a visual artist, conducted a workshop that explored the intersection of art and science through the lens of astronomy. Her goal was to showcase how these two disciplines can illuminate one another and inspire young minds to embrace both.

Devasher spends countless hours contemplating the cosmos, translating her experiences of the night sky into art. Her journey began during her college years in Delhi, where a passion for fiction and a serendipitous encounter with an amateur astronomy club sparked her dual interest in art and science. This workshop at LGP was not just about observing stars; it was about cultivating a sense of wonder and curiosity in the next generation.

Breaking the old binaries and embracing curiosity

Devasher asserts that the perceived divide between art and science is outdated. “We are the ones drawing the imaginary boundaries,” she explains. She emphasises that both fields share foundational elements: curiosity and meticulous passion. Pursuing a PhD in fine arts demands as much dedication as a doctorate in molecular biology or astrophysics.

Science and art coming together is not a modern development; their symbiotic relationship has flourished throughout our history.

Leonardo da Vinci seamlessly blended these worlds in his depictions of human anatomy, which served both scientific purposes and enriched the artistic community’s understanding of the human form. His quintessential use of light and perspective in paintings is another example. In the modern world, thousands of artists draw inspiration from science. Devasher exemplifies this synthesis, demonstrating that the pursuit of knowledge and beauty can complement each other.

“Curiosity is an active state of mind,” Devasher emphasises.

It’s essential to promote a continuous desire to learn and explore. A memorable incident from the workshop beautifully illustrates this idea. During a planned stargazing session for the LGP cohort in Delhi's June heat, clouds obscured the moon and stars. Instead of feeling disappointed, the participants displayed an unexpected burst of creativity. They channelled their experience into poetry and plays, showcasing how curiosity can flourish even in less-than-ideal circumstances. This adaptability not only cultivates creativity but also builds resilience in the face of setbacks.

“Wonder”, the art of questioning

Devasher encourages us to embrace the art of asking questions, to thrive in both science and art. The world offers countless opportunities for inquiry; a simple stroll in a park or a thoughtful read can spark countless questions. However, the pressures of academic curricula often crumble this natural curiosity. Devasher believes that to find inspiration, we must actively seek it, transforming everyday experiences into profound learning moments. Her work, Hopeful Monsters, which showcases miraculous mutations in the environment, exemplifies this approach.

In our daily lives, we often confine ourselves within the boundaries of pre-existing knowledge, rarely questioning these limitations. How often do we truly welcome new ideas? According to Devasher, such moments are rare. We seldom seek out new concepts and imaginative possibilities. To bridge the gap of curiosity, we must embrace innovations and ideas, and have the courage to challenge existing knowledge. This mindset is crucial for supporting a culture where creativity and scientific inquiry can coexist and thrive.

Discovering the science in art

Art often adapts seamlessly to science. For instance, bio-artists like Akriti Sondhi use living organisms for their work, prompting discussions about technology, ethics and science. Their projects blur the boundaries between disciplines, emphasising the need to view art as an integral part of scientific exploration. Additionally, science communication has evolved significantly through visual methods, including illustration and demonstration. Data visualisation has emerged as a vital tool in both domains, with infographics, interactive installations, and virtual reality experiences enabling audiences to engage with scientific data in informative and impactful ways. This convergence creates vast opportunities for collaboration between scientists and artists.

Despite the emerging collaborative projects that integrate art and science, our education system still falls short in viewing art through the lens of scientific inquiry.

Devasher notes that it is primarily artists who draw inspiration from science, while the scientific community remains relatively silent on the influence of art. This one-sided relationship underscores the need for greater dialogue and collaboration between the two fields. By facilitating partnerships that encourage mutual inspiration, we can create a more dynamic and integrated approach to education and innovation.

By nurturing curiosity and creativity in young minds, initiatives like LGP are paving the way for a future where these fields coexist and enrich one another. Devasher’s work inspires a new generation to look beyond conventional boundaries, reminding us that both art and science are essential avenues for exploring the vast canvas of our imagination. As we encourage youth to question, create, and dream, we pave the way for innovations that can transform our world. In the words of Thoreau, the universe indeed becomes a canvas, waiting to be painted by the brushstrokes of curiosity.

1. Can you tell us a little bit about your work?

I am a Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the Pondicherry University. My work involves teaching MSc students and guiding PhD scholars. I am also a member of the Research & Development committee, Intellectual Property Rights committee and innovation committee, to name a few. Additionally, I engage in counselling students, guiding their projects, conducting remedial classes, and helping them with their future endeavours.

2. What does teaching mean to you? What excites you the most about it?

I chose this profession because I come from a family of educators—my parents and all my aunts on both sides are teachers. Witnessing their dedication and enthusiasm to impart knowledge has created a deep sense of admiration for this profession in me.

Teaching is my passion. I enjoy continuous learning and sharing of knowledge.

In my 16 years of teaching, I have taught 14 different subjects related to my field. Being with young minds, encouraging them, and preparing them for their future always excites me. Nothing gives me greater satisfaction than seeing a student’s expression of clarity regarding the concepts taught in class.

My father, A.C. Rajagopalan, and my mother, V. Vijayalakshmi, believed that knowledge should be shared and not sold. I strongly believe in that ideology and they are my greatest role models. Apart from them, my PhD guide Venugopal. P. Menon, an expert researcher in the field of drug design, helped me gain research and administrative aptitude through his capable leadership. My post-doctoral guide, Vijaya Gopal, taught me how the motherly care of teachers nurtures young mind.

3. Higher education today is more than teaching and involves imparting individuals with critical-thinking and problem-solving abilities. According to you, what is the role of an educator in meeting these goals?

An educator should be responsible for the holistic development of the students. They should be approachable and willing to guide younger minds in their field of interest. Our curriculum should incorporate components of creative thinking, and assessments should be based on creating novel strategies or products.

The students may be encouraged to create a go-to-market strategy/product as a part of their post graduate program, which may help to improve their creativity and problem-solving ability and can fetch revenue to the institutes. The teachers may arrange to connect students with industry, explain the current requirements in the field, or arrange industry-academia meetings regularly for knowledge exchange and growth.

4. Novel pedagogical approaches backed by research can enhance the teaching and learning of biology. However, implementing them may need additional effort by teachers and support from institutional administrators. What factors have helped you in implementing some of these approaches in your own classroom?

I believe that the best students get the best out of teachers. Though the teachers try to teach in a standard methodology, the interest in students makes them give their best. Regarding the facilities, our campus is completely wi-fi enabled and we have smart boards in every classroom. Hence, we could easily adopt newer approaches. The COVID-19 pandemic has helped us to become well-versed in the usage of online platforms for teaching and learning.

Under the umbrella of industry training and research, we organised multiple events for students like ‘Wiser Wednesdays’, ‘Tete-a-tete-Tuesdays’ and ‘Thoughtful Thursdays’. The enthusiasm of the students was the main factor that kept us going with all these programs apart from the regular classes.

5. Have you used any unique teaching techniques in your classroom? Tell us about it.

Classroom seminars are an integral part of teaching. I ask my students to choose topics that I have already covered in class and to explain only the points that were not addressed. As we cover all aspects of the topic, students must search harder for new insights and novel discoveries related to that particular topic. This approach helps them to learn more about the subject.

I also insist on seminars based on previous competitive exam questions on specific topics. This approach has helped students learn and easily solve similar questions in their exams. As a result, our students shine well in their national-level competitive examinations.

6. What is your favourite and not-so-favourite aspect of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and why?

My favourite aspect of the NEP in higher education is that it allows students to learn what they want. There is no fixed curriculum, and students may shift to different courses within the university and between universities. They may take a break in case of personal problems and rejoin later to complete the course. This empowers students and allows them to figure out their true interests. Another aspect is that students can directly join PhD after completing their 4-year UG degree, BSc (Hon) in research. This reduces the time spent before entering a research degree.

One important aspect is that students need guidance. If they choose subjects randomly, they may end up loosing their time without proper career opportunities. Therefore, a mentor should be assigned to every student to help them choose the subjects wisely. At present, there is a lot of confusion among students after higher secondary education, but I hope these initial challenges will resolve as we move forward.

7. NEP 2020 emphasises the need to engage undergraduate students in research. What are some of the roadblocks that you have experienced in incorporating research in UG courses?

I believe it is beneficial to engage the students in research at an early age. They are enthusiastic and full of ideas when they step out of school. I have guided a few students in their higher secondary projects, and their enthusiasm for research drives them to work tirelessly in the lab. However, the real roadblock is providing adequate facilities for their research.

In fields like biochemistry and molecular biology, the cost of equipment and chemicals are high. Without proper financial support, it is difficult to nurture young minds with quality research.

8. Networking with like-minded educators can be valuable in bringing new insights and collaborations. What kind of platforms and opportunities have helped you connect with educators from across India?

Organising and attending conferences and project presentation meetings have helped me collaborate with researchers in my field. The Indian Science Congress, Society of Biological Chemists, Biotechnology Research Society, Society of Free Radical Research, and International Atherosclerosis Society have been instrumental in connecting me with other experts.

9. Are there any courses or training programs that you found useful for your professional development and teaching practice?

I have completed several e-learning courses on brainstorming and promoting creative thinking, understanding ethical business practices etc., which have significantly contributed to my professional development. Regular refresher courses from the Human Resource Development Centre have also helped me hone my teaching skills. I believe that all teachers should regularly update themselves with the latest developments in their field to give their best.

10. Any advice for people who have newly begun their journey as an educator or hope to do so soon?

I consider two professions very important; one is teaching and the other one is medicine.

Doctors save lives, but teachers save the whole society.

I insist that new educators understand their responsibility in this profession, and guide the students with passion. I wish them all the best for creating responsible future leaders!

With more than 30 crore students in schools and higher education institutions, education is a massive endeavour of critical importance for India’s development. Overcoming the initial inertia, the National Education Policy (NEP) launched in 2020 is in its fourth year of remodelling the Indian educational milieu and preparing India’s children for a 21st-century world. Being the most populous and one of the most linguistically diverse countries, there are, however, several challenges to overcome and needs to be fulfilled on the way to this feat.

It takes a village to educate a child

As per the Economic Survey 2023-24, there are approximately 94.8 lakh teachers in school education and 15.98 lakh teachers in higher education. However, to transform the system besides teachers, an army of education professionals in different capacities is the need of the hour. These professionals could be teacher-trainers, subject matter experts for curriculum, pedagogy and textbook development, education researchers, policy analysis experts etc.

“Considering the enormity of India’s educational landscape, however, there is a dearth of such trained professionals and good courses in preparing them.” says Rajagopal CV, Lead Admissions Outreach at Azim Premji University”, Bengaluru. Run by the Azim Premji Foundation known for its work in improving school education since 2000, this university offers a postgraduate degree and a bunch of diploma programmes in Education to nurture passionate professionals for the evolving Indian Education System. Aiming to reach the regional youth, they carried out a week-long outreach drive entitled “Careers in the Education Sector” at several locations in West Bengal.

CV, himself a Malayalam speaker, was delivering one of these presentations at the Milli Al-Ameen College, Kolkata, in a mix of Hindi and English and the audience comprised Bengali, Hindi and Urdu speakers. This is a nice illustration of the melange of the languages in India. CV comments,

While it’s great to live in such a diverse country, so many languages, however, is a major challenge for the education system, pointing to the demand for more education professionals with the necessary language education skills and perspective to overcome this unique problem.

Language education for India’s education professionals

Agniva Pal and Abdul Qaiyum, faculty at the School of Education, Azim Premji University were also part of the outreach team. Pal comments, “In India, there are 22 scheduled languages that have gained an advantage and become prestigious. However, NEP 2020 says, students should be instructed in their home language for a better understanding of concepts, so all the other Indian languages should also be in focus.”. He thinks that the language issue is solvable by hiring people from the community who speak local languages.

Throughout a theoretical linguistics scholar, initially Pal was unsure how he could be useful in the education department. However, soon he saw many applications of linguistics in teaching education. He also understood how these two disciplines could be combined and merged with the NEP guidelines.

Pal notes that they have already begun implementing several NEP guidelines like four-year bachelor programmes (some courses), continuous assessment (no exam at the end of the semester), encouraging critical thinking among students, and interactive pedagogy. Pal notes, “The right interpretation of NEP is crucial, otherwise there is the scope for misunderstanding as is happening in many places.”

As per the university protocol, Pal was not allowed to take classes as a new faculty for the first six months. Instead, he needed to shadow the ongoing classes to understand the pedagogical methodologies practised here. After this intro, however, faculties are free to decide their teaching style. He says, “Here we encourage students to read widely, develop critical thinking, ask questions and freely discuss. There is a huge value in giving them agency in participation so that they don’t remain a dead component of the class."

They need to enjoy to understand the concepts. Anonymous feedback from students is also collected on teaching and that helps faculties a lot.

Theory to practice

Presently Pal teaches two courses in the MA in Education programme. The first one is ‘Language Education’ which consists of introduction to language and literature (ILLE) and advanced language and literature pedagogy (ALLP). Pal says, “During the ILLE classes, students are acquainted with the language scenario of education in India, issues like unplanned language death and planned ones caused by governmental policies like recognising selected languages and thus neglecting the rest. The ALLP classes teach pedagogy to teach literature so that students can appreciate and enjoy.”

The second course is ‘Field Research’ which teaches students how to do literature reviews, understand current global scenarios in education and based on that ask research questions on education practices in the Indian context. Students also have to complete actual field research by visiting places like Dhamtari (Chhattishgarh), Sirohi (Rajasthan), Kalaburagi (Karnataka), where Azim Premji Foundation has schools and district institutes for teacher training and research. Here students observe classes, teach and carry out their research on the side by staying for ninety days. The analysis part begins as they come back to the university and a few works get published as well.

Pal adds, “The three months before the field visit are spent preparing a strong research proposal. After a preliminary drafting under the guidance of faculties, a meeting is held with the field faculty who helps in checking the feasibility of the proposal in the field and realising it.”

Trouble in the classrooms

One of the challenges in language education classrooms is artificial intelligence (AI). To tackle this, they have started giving assignments where the students have no option to consult AI. Pal says, “For example, we are giving personal assignments like linguistic autobiography where they need to discuss the languages they have learnt or been associated with since birth.”

Language itself could be a challenge also. Many students from remote areas come here. Though they are competent in their own language, but find learning and higher thinking in English difficult. Thus, the university has a one-month programme providing language and cultural support to students in need. Pal says,

These students start one month earlier than the rest and are oriented through the programme. A year-long programme is also there for students who need additional support.

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a radical shift in education, transitioning classrooms into virtual spaces. As students returned to in-person learning, educators grappled with the challenge of balancing traditional teaching methods with modern, technology-driven approaches. This shift sparked important conversations on different learning styles and emphasised the need for more inclusive classrooms.

At Azim Premji University, we are committed to student centred learning and have adopted pedagogical paradigms that support active engagement. Three years post-pandemic, we conducted a university-wide survey to assess the pedagogical practices among science and maths faculty across our Bengaluru and Bhopal campuses.

Depicting the student body

While the student body is relatively homogeneous in terms of age and neurodiversity, our survey suggested significant differences where language, economic background, and social factors play crucial roles in shaping student diversity within Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) classrooms. The findings suggest that a critical comparison between rote learning and lecture-heavy approaches versus student-centric pedagogy, which addresses the needs of diverse learners, is both necessary and inevitable.

For instance, many students come with varying levels of understanding in foundational subjects, particularly in science and mathematics. This diversity, when harnessed effectively, can actually enrich classroom interactions. Faculty at Azim Premji University shared various strategies to address these challenges, with group work emerging as a particularly effective tool. By forming groups that reflect classroom diversity—whether based on socioeconomic background, gender, or academic ability—faculty ensured that students learned from each other’s experiences and strengths. This approach is echoed in a quote from a Physics faculty,

In my electricity and magnetism course, the end-term group projects have worked well in helping students learn to apply (sic) the theoretical concepts.

They also identified promising solutions that leverage diversity itself including in-class activities, field plots, debates, and experiments. Faculty members emphasised the importance of creating heterogeneous groups that reflect the classroom's diversity, not only in terms of socioeconomic background and gender but also in scientific knowledge and abilities.

One faculty member commented, "I've tried to 'engineer' the groups a bit to be socioeconomically diverse, gender-balanced, and mixed students of varying mathematical knowledge/ability." In finding ways to promote deeper understanding, another faculty states,

Sometimes if the class is very diverse, people bring in examples from their own local habitats and ecology, and that also helps immensely to appreciate diversity.

Innovative pedagogical tools

The survey highlighted various active learning strategies that instructors found effective. These methods moved beyond traditional lectures and included:

1. Group work: Faculty structured group activities to reflect diversity and foster collaboration. Whether in the lab or field, group projects helped students apply concepts to real-world scenarios, enhancing understanding through practical experience.
2. Multimedia resources: Educational videos, podcasts, and reading materials catered to different learning styles, making lessons more engaging.
3. Asynchronous learning: Encouraging students to engage with materials before class—like popular science articles or lab journals—helped deepen their comprehension.
4. Think-pair-share: This method encouraged students to reflect individually, discuss with a partner, and then share insights with the class, promoting a deeper engagement with the subject matter.

Language barriers and building relationships beyond the classroom

One of the key characteristics influencing student diversity in STEM classrooms at Azim Premji University was language, followed by economic and social backgrounds. Language differences were among the more challenging aspects of classroom diversity. University instructors addressed this by offering translated texts and encouraging students to express their ideas in their native languages. This inclusive approach enabled students to engage more fully, without being limited by language proficiency. For instance, one successful exercise involved students creating educational videos in Indian languages, which was well received.

Another key strategy is the emphasis on building strong relationships between instructors and students. Faculty members made efforts to connect with students both inside and outside the classroom. They held one-on-one conversations with struggling students and offered personalised support to ensure that every student had the chance to succeed.

Incorporating neurodivergent students

Inclusion at Azim Premji University goes beyond linguistic and socioeconomic diversity. Approximately 4% of the university’s science students have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning disabilities, or are on the autism spectrum. Accommodations for these students include tools like text-to-speech software for those with dyslexia and providing powerpoint slides in advance. Faculty also hold one-on-one meetings with neurodivergent students before the semester begins to better understand their individual challenges and adjust teaching methods accordingly.

Assessments are another area where faculty adopt flexible strategies to accommodate diverse needs. For example, neurodivergent students are allowed to take tests in distraction-free environments, with the option to ask real-time questions. This approach reduces anxiety and ensures assessments remain fair without compromising learning outcomes.

Lessons for the future

The experience of our faculty members highlights the importance of adaptability in teaching. The pandemic has shown that effective education requires a balance of traditional methods and innovative strategies that are tailored to the needs of a diverse student body. By embracing student-centric, inclusive teaching practices, Azim Premji University is paving the way for a more engaging and equitable learning environment.

As educators continue to navigate this post-pandemic landscape, the lessons from this survey provide valuable insights into how diversity, inclusivity, and technology can be integrated to create more meaningful educational experiences.

1. Let’s start with what you do. Can you tell us a little bit about your work?

I am a faculty member in the Department of Biotechnology, Assam University, Silchar, engaged in teaching post-graduate students of biotechnology and supervising doctoral research in cancer biology, cancer therapeutics and drug repurposing. I teach biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology and immunology, as well as more applied areas including biochemical engineering and bio-entrepreneurship. My teaching also covers the ethical guidelines and regulations to be followed in biotechnology research and requires me to mentor students for community-based programmes.

2. What does teaching mean to you? What excites you the most about it?

To me, teaching is a great privilege. It offers the unique opportunity of interacting and shaping young minds. I consider it my responsibility to not only teach my subject well, but to also guide my students towards developing the abilities of independent analysis, critical thinking and scientific social responsibility.

I strive to inculcate a sense of strong work ethics, honesty and integrity, and a desire for excellence among my students, through example.

3. Indeed, in the present day, higher education must not only facilitate employment, but inculcate creative individuals with critical-thinking and problem-solving abilities along with social responsibility. As an educator how much role do you think you play in meeting these goals?

Educators play a key role in shaping the entire spectrum of interactions that students engage in, including interactions with their peers, prospective employers, their local communities and the national and global communities as a whole. In my opinion, educators can positively influence these facets of a student’s life by:

(1) drawing attention to local issues that require students’ intervention within their own communities. For example, being deeply concerned about the rampant tobacco use in North-East India, I use my classes on carcinogenesis to educate my students about the health implications of tobacco, and encourage them to abstain from tobacco use themselves, and to disseminate this information within their communities;

(2) equipping students with the skill set they would require to be employable;

(3) encouraging students to read more, to question facts and to think independently;

(4) encouraging students, especially doctoral students, to incorporate new ideas into their work.

4. Research-backed teaching and other novel pedagogical approaches have shown to enhance learning. But implementing them needs additional effort from teachers and support from institutional administrators. What factors have helped you in implementing some of these approaches in your own classroom?

In my experience, a teacher’s motivation to give the best education to their students, the students’ willingness to learn out of their comfort zones, infrastructural support, encouragement and appreciation, heads of departments, deans and administrators are crucial factors while implementing novel approaches for teaching and learning in an institution. Students’ feedback plays a significant role in helping teachers and administrators review the efficiency of a teaching approach.

My institution has a well-structured system for collecting feedback, and this, I personally feel, has provided invaluable insights in my endeavours to teaching.

5. What is your ‘go-to-approach’ for teaching biology?

My ‘go-to approach’ for teaching biology has always been to adopt an integrative approach. For example, I always try to interconnect a student’s knowledge of cell biology and biochemistry in an earlier semester with genomics, molecular biology and immunology in a later semester and correlate this information with evolution of living forms, disease development, diagnosis and prognosis later on in the course.

This approach, in my opinion, helps the students develop an understanding of life as a complex whole, made up of several discrete, but interconnected parts. It also helps them to think laterally and integrate ideas more easily.

6. Have you used any unique teaching technique in your classroom? Tell us about it.

Most of my classroom teaching is conventional information and communication technology (ICT) aided teaching. However, the Covid-19 pandemic posed a whole new set of challenges to us teachers. I realised through interactions with my students that they missed their practical lessons. I therefore developed a few video tutorials on simple practicals for DNA isolation, chromatography, electrophoresis and a demonstration of restriction digestion using materials easily available at home.

My students reciprocated by enthusiastically performing these simple practicals, and sending me their own recordings of the process. I designed this entire exercise with the objective of infusing optimism in my students, and showing them that given the will and a little innovative thinking, the fundamentals of science can be learnt even without access to sophisticated infrastructure.

7. What is your favourite aspect of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and why?

My favourite aspect of NEP 2020 is the component of compulsory community engagement, because it requires students to interact with their local communities, which, in the process, acquaints them with the problems faced by the communities and gives them an opportunity to identify possible mitigation measures rooted in science.

This has the potential of propelling students towards solution driven research, which is the need of the hour, and at the same time instilling in them the sensitivity as well as the knowledge of ethical guidelines required to be followed when working with individuals and communities.

8. Are there any courses or training programs that you found useful for your professional development and teaching practice?

Yes. I have attended various faculty development programmes and short-term courses relevant to biological sciences, which I found useful. I found the online programmes organised under the aegis of the Malaviya Mission Teacher Training Programme for understanding of the NEP 2020 particularly useful.

9. Throughout your professional journey, who have been your mentors and what did their mentorship entail?

I was fortunate to have been mentored by several distinguished teachers and researchers along my professional journey. The foremost is my PhD supervisor R.N. Sharan (retired) from the Department of Biochemistry, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. He was an excellent mentor who guided me patiently through the various stages of doctoral research, encouraged me to push my limits and strive for excellence, and fostered my confidence by giving me the independence to implement my own ideas.

He continues to remain in touch and advises me on my work to this day. I have also been mentored by the various departmental heads here, and am grateful for their valuable guidance, constant encouragement and unstinted support along the way.

10. Any advice for people who have newly begun their journey as an educator or hope to do so soon?

Teaching is a service, and as in all other services, our students come first.

We should always keep their best interest in mind and leave no stone unturned to teach and mentor them well. We should also be willing to learn, unlearn and relearn periodically, because as teachers of science we need to constantly update and upskill ourselves.

When the NEP was announced in 2020, it was met with mixed reactions. Four years later, has this perspective changed among educators?

There is still a lot of scepticism. However, educators are now forced to accept the NEP and implement it. So, there has been a lot of consensus-building to see how best we can make this work.

Tell us a bit about your process and timeline of implementation of the policy at IISER Kolkata.

We have begun implementation since the last academic year. The batch that joined in 2023 is already following our new syllabus and course structure. We have also started giving multiple exit options to our students. In fact, we had built-in exit options for students who could not cope with the curriculum earlier, and with NEP, this has become more streamlined. So, in terms of multiple-exit options, we are indeed following the NEP guidelines. However, implementing multiple entry options into a course is more difficult, and we have not even considered it at present. However, we do have MS and MS-by-research courses, in addition to the PhD and integrated PhD programs.

In addition to the academic program, we have begun discussions about skill-development courses, providing a more inclusive environment to students through gender-neutral hostel facilities (we already had one gender-neutral wing in the hostel), and providing a platform for students to discuss gender issues and better access to mental health management for students.

Multidisciplinarity, imaginative and flexible curricular structures, new pedagogies and new ways of assessments in higher education institutions are some of the key goals of NEP. How do these feature at IISER Kolkata?

We already had these ideas built into our curriculum to a great extent. With the NEP, we are trying to make course structures more flexible, with fewer core courses, and a more diverse basket of courses across departments that the students can choose from as electives. In addition, students of the 5-year BS-MS program can opt for a 4-year MS with research, if they meet the credit requirements and have a certain CGPA. This will give them research experience in addition to the coursework.

The use of regional languages as the medium of education is another key goal of NEP. How is this being implemented in an institution like IISER Kolkata, which receives a student diaspora from across India?

This is very difficult to implement in a national institute like IISER Kolkata. Every course then needs to be taught in multiple languages. However, we have asked faculty members to consider recording one version of their course in a regional language of their choice. Until now, we have no volunteers. However, we have always had the practice of explaining concepts during tutorial hours and one-to-one sessions to students in Hindi or Bangla, if required, and even in another language, if possible, with the help of TAs [Teaching Assistants], if a student found it difficult to follow the class in English.

What other measures are being incorporated to increase access, equity, and inclusion of students from diverse backgrounds and socio-economic strata?

We have a fund created by donations from faculty members for students who come from weak economic backgrounds, to help them pay their fees. We are trying to generate more funds to increase this corpus, especially through our alumni, so that more students can be supported by this pool. We are trying to look into options for teaching aids for helping differently-abled students. We also have gender-neutral toilets to enable inclusivity in the academic environment.

How is the professional development of teachers and educators, which is another key aspect of the policy, being incorporated?

We have not planned for this yet for our faculty members. However, we are contributing to the professional development of high school teachers through the Vigyan Pratibha program led by HBCSE, for which IISER Kolkata is now a regional centre. We are also expanding this to local school teachers, and conducting workshops in Bangla for inclusivity.

What challenges are being foreseen with the successful implementation of NEP 2020 at this point?

One major challenge is funding. We need more funds to build more hostels so that our PhD students do not have to live outside the campus, provide more infrastructural facilities to differently-abled students, build married students’ quarters to encourage more women to continue their careers in academics, and provide better creche and medical facilities on campus.

Your message to students who may be anxious about the changes that the policy brings?

Every change comes with some hiccups, but being the first batch also means being the first to experience the benefits and explore completely new horizons. I would recommend students not to worry too much and explore the opportunities this opens up, but maybe not experiment too much either. The system will eventually sort itself out and stabilise. We are all learning together; it’s part of the journey. In the end, when you look back, it’s the journey that matters.

In Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games," the dystopian world of Panem is captivated by a brutal competition where participants must outlast their peers in a fight for survival. This depiction, though set in a fictional realm, resonates disturbingly with the competitive ethos prevalent in today’s college education systems.

Panem comprises twelve districts ruled by the Capitol. Each year, the Capitol selects a boy and girl from each district as "tributes" to participate in a televised death match known as the Hunger Games. These tributes must navigate a dangerous arena filled with deadly traps, engineered by the Game Makers who control the environment based on their whims. Maps of Panem and the arena play crucial roles in the strategy and movement of tributes, illustrating the controlled and perilous nature of their environment. The tributes seek sponsors who can send them critical supplies during the Games. The tributes must use their wits and survival skills to endure the Capitol's brutal entertainment. Throughout the Games, alliances are formed and broken. The story highlights themes of survival, sacrifice, and the effects of totalitarianism. While the comparison might be a stretch, there are elements that can be instructive to us in rethinking and reimagining our current education system.

In today’s college education system in India, students are, much like the tributes of Panem, thrust into academic arenas armed, not with weapons, but with textbooks and lectures. Survival in these arenas hinges on outperforming one another rather than collaborating towards mutual success. The competitive framework of college education not only echoes the ruthless nature of the Hunger Games but also reveals profound implications about how educational systems shape student experiences and outcomes.

The battle begins: Classrooms as arenas

In many higher education institutions, the classroom serves as the initial battleground. Here, knowledge is dispensed not unlike the maps in the Hunger Games, outlining the treacherous terrain students must navigate. However, these maps (curricula) are often presented without adequate guidance on how to traverse the complex landscape. Students are expected to chart their paths independently, deciphering dense academic material and mastering intricate concepts with minimal support. This is especially true when instructors use classrooms only as venues to transmit factual information unidirectionally to students, and not as discussion forums where students are made to construct knowledge through interactions with instructors and peers.

This approach favours those who, akin to tributes with sponsors, come equipped with prior advantages—be it through involved parents, superior preparatory education, or access to resources. Conversely, less fortunate students find themselves in a perpetual catch-up, misconstruing their struggles as personal failings rather than recognizing a need for different tools or strategies.

Examinations as opportunities for demonstration

The metaphor extends poignantly to examinations, the quintessential arenas where academic fate is often decided. These assessments can resemble the Hunger Games' deadly traps—unpredictable and unforgiving. The criteria for success are frequently opaque, with students left guessing which of their efforts will yield points and which will be deemed irrelevant. Here, survival is contingent on more than just preparation; it involves deciphering the unwritten rules of the game—what the examiners seek, how to present knowledge effectively, and how to avoid pitfalls that could lead to academic demise.

However, rather than being mere traps, exams can be re-envisioned as platforms for demonstrating mastery and understanding. By making the criteria for success transparent and aligning them closely with the learning objectives, educators can transform exams into meaningful assessments that genuinely reflect students' knowledge and skills, rather than arbitrary hurdles.

The tyranny of grading curves and rankings

Adding to the gladiatorial nature of this academic competition is the practice of grading on a curve, a system in which student performance is assessed relative to their peers. This normative approach can be as arbitrary and capricious as the Game Makers' whims in the Hunger Games. In such systems, the achievement of an 'A' becomes a scarce resource, attainable by only a select few, as if there were a finite amount of success to be distributed among competitors.

Why can’t everyone achieve an 'A'? If education is genuinely about learning and mastery, then a system designed around the artificial scarcity of grades is not only counterproductive but also ethically questionable. It creates an environment where students are pitted against each other, with success framed as a rare commodity rather than a shared goal.

In many colleges and Universities, students are ranked based on their academic performance. High ranks often come with rewards, such as being recognised on the Dean’s List or being awarded the University Gold Medal. As these awards and special recognitions are given to a limited number of students (only one University Gold Medal and only the top 5-10% of students being recognised on the Dean’s List), it can create a zero-sum game where students feel that for them to succeed and secure these rewards, their peers have to perform worse than them. This creates a hostile environment, discouraging students from sharing study resources, working together on group projects, and sharing information about competitive internship openings, application tips, or industry contacts, fearing that helping others could diminish their own chances.

Towards a new vision: collaboration over competition

The need for a shift from competition to collaboration in education is critical. By fostering an environment where students work together towards common and transparent academic goals, educational institutions can dismantle the adversarial nature of learning and replace it with a cooperative model that values each student's success. Collaborative learning environments encourage the sharing of ideas, mutual support, and collective problem-solving, which not only alleviate the stress and isolation of competitive learning but also prepare students for real-world challenges, where teamwork and cooperation are often keys to success. They also make education more equitable, ensuring that all students, regardless of their starting point, have the opportunity to succeed and thrive.

Educators play a very important role in fostering collaboration over competition by creating a supportive and cooperative learning environment. Encouraging teamwork and peer mentoring through group projects and structured mentoring programs could allow students to leverage their diverse strengths and learn from each other. By emphasising progressive learning goals and promoting a growth mindset, educators can create an environment where individual mastery and continuous improvement are valued over relative rankings. Utilising formative assessments that provide continuous feedback further supports this approach, helping students focus on their personal learning objectives. By implementing these strategies, educators can cultivate a collaborative learning atmosphere, ensuring all students succeed and thrive in their educational journey.

This does not imply that we should eliminate competitive recognition, awards, and opportunities. Instead, it is essential to diversify the avenues of recognition, celebrating a wider array of talents and strengths. By acknowledging achievements in various domains—such as leadership, creativity, community service, and teamwork—we provide students with multiple pathways to success. This approach not only fosters a more inclusive environment but also promotes a culture where collaboration and mutual support are valued in addition to individual excellence.

Reimagining the educational arena

The parallels between the Hunger Games and today's competitive educational practices serve as a poignant critique of how we shape young minds and futures. By reevaluating and reforming these practices, we can transform educational institutions from arenas of competition to communities of collaboration. In doing so, we promote a culture where excellence is not an exclusive domain of the few but a universal aspiration that drives all students to reach their full potential, thereby enriching both their lives and the society at large.

The conventional material ontological view of the biosphere, discussed in the previous article of the series, projects living beings as a composite of smaller constituents, divisible down to the level of atoms. This view, however, is insufficient to explain the dynamicity and diversity that is inherent, even essential to and immediately apparent in the living world. A fundamental re-imagination of the nature of the living world comes from the metaphysicians of biology who would like to look at the biosphere as a collection of processes, not materials. The development of this processual view is the focus of this article.

Like the materialist worldview, the process description of the natural world has its historical trajectory within the Grecian schools of philosophy. Within classical Grecian philosophy, processual thought can be traced back to Heraclitus (around 530 BCE - 470 BCE)[1]. Heraclitus belonged to a group of early philosophers termed monists who believed in a singular aspect (the arche) that fundamentally constructs the natural world. The reader may be familiar with some aspects of monist thought, even if one is unfamiliar with the term – for instance, some of the monists’ arche included the infamous Grecian elements – earth, wind, water and ether.

For Heraclitus, the arche principle was fire, which emphasized flux or change; “Panta Rhei” or everything flows is what he was supposed to have held. Heraclitus is most famous for a saying that is often attributed to him, “you cannot step into the same river twice.” Here he alludes to the ever-changing and dynamic ontology of both the river and the temporally individualized being who steps into it. In other words, both the river and the person are forever becoming.

A contemporary philosopher of biology who is attempting to champion the processual ontology of the living world is John Dupré with the University of Exeter. In a book he co-authors with Daniel Nicholson titled “Everything Flows – towards a processual philosophy of biology”, Dupre offers a framework to discuss the processual nature of biological entities. Here,

1. Processes are considered more fundamental than substances. A substance is but a temporal abstraction of a process. Processes yield materialities that are then amenable to sensory engagement in their temporally stabilized form; making the latter dependent on the former. We are conditioned intuitively to imagine processes as something that is carried out by materials. This is a view that processual ontologists aim to correct. For instance, we are intuitively inclined to think and speak of ‘Enzyme catalysis’ as a process that happens due to the structural and compositional properties of a protein called the Enzyme. However, a processualist might argue that an enzyme itself exists as a consequence of the process of protein synthesis before being broken down by the process of protein degradation. Several other processes, occurring at various other spans of time have to co-occur in the duration that the enzyme is available for catalysis, for catalysis to happen (this is also elaborated in point 3.).
2. Processes have temporal parts, unlike substances which have spatially measurable parts. Time rather than space is a more useful measure to describe a process.
3. Lastly, processes are relational. Simply put, they too exist in hierarchies or nestations where one process influences and informs another.

Let me illustrate this with an example from one of the most fundamental processes that qualify living organisms – metabolism. This is something exclusively alluded to in Dupre and Nicholson’s book. Conventionally, metabolic reactions are imagined as nothing but mass-energy transitions that obey the laws of thermodynamics. Here, a metabolite in metabolic reactions is considered the agency for these transitions. These transitions are regulated crucially by a class of molecules called enzymes. Living organisms are considered to be open systems, continuously exchanging matter and energy with their surrounding environment. However, living organisms exist in an imperfect equilibrium, where some of the matter consumed is utilized in the construction of its own infrastructure and the energy consumed is utilised in both this constructive mechanism and towards performing crucial biogenic functions, chief among them being replication. In order to maintain this imperfect equilibrium, the living organism must constantly consume and constantly work at these matter-energy transitions.

Unlike machines that operate within the laws of thermodynamics and whose structural integrity is independent of the fuel they consume, living organisms must constantly act, and engage in constant change to maintain their integrity. Within each organism, each metabolite only comes into existence as a consequence of a reaction and is almost immediately used as a substrate for further such reactions until it can no longer be transitioned and is eliminated from the organism. In other words, a metabolite is available only for a small fraction of time and as is often the case, may act as a precursor or intermediary in more than one metabolic pathway.

The enzymes that catalyse these reactions, themselves have temporally stabilized windows of existence, preceding which they are synthesized from genetic information and broken down by proteolysis, the products of this proteolysis utilized for further rounds of protein synthesis. In the nested framework posited by Dupre and Nicholson, within a larger temporal framework, each enzyme is subject to its own evolutionary trajectory and the enzymes that are available today are only extant versions of an ongoing process.

Each cell that we encounter, within which these metabolic processes are compartmentalized, remember, is also confined to its own differentiation, developmental and evolutionary timelines before coming into existence and eventually being subjected to a tightly regulated deconstruction process called apoptosis. Each organism within which the cell is in turn found, is itself operating as an extant individual with developmental and evolutionary timelines. And subsequently, the biosphere is a composite of symbiogenically existing processes with their respective timeframes of operation.

This in a nutshell is the processual ontology of the living world.

'What is the living world made of?', Now that we reflect upon this question, we realize that depending on how one chooses to study the components of the biosphere, it is critical to be aware of the nature of being of each component investigated. It may be safe to assume that the distinct perspectives discussed in the two articles could be combined to provide a better understanding of the living world than either one of them alone. This assumption may, to borrow a line from Dupre and Nicholson’s work, “have interesting and sometimes unexpected consequences on fields as diverse as physiology, genetics, evolution and medicine, where it forces us to question deeply ingrained assumptions and revise basic theoretical tenets.”

Today, teaching and learning in the natural sciences are taking an ‘inquiry-driven’ turn. There is an expectation that students develop their understanding of the natural world, not through explanations handed down in textbooks, but through their own observations from guided investigations.

As an ideal, and most teachers would agree, this is a welcome change and a step away from ‘rote learning’, which has plagued education at large. However, one must be very cautious that this ideal does not slip into some disguised form of ‘methodology’ training, in which case, there is a very real threat that what students learn may remain confined to the classrooms, devoid of social or cultural relevance, and disconnected from one’s everyday life. Students may continue to remain unconscious of why or what it is that they are actually studying and the contexts in which knowledge in the sciences is constructed.

In a series of two articles, I aim to impress upon the reader an instance of placing biology within its historical and philosophical contextualities. These could serve as a reference for the epistemology[1]-driven learnings that this new generation of biologists will undertake. Let us take for instance, what appears at first sight, a rather simple question – What is the living world made of?

To seek answers to this, we turn to a domain in the philosophy of science, called metaphysics[2] and specifically, to ontology or, to be very strict, Formal ontology[3]. Ontologists of biology, who tackle the above question, often begin by categorising the various constituents of the living world.

There are predominantly two super-categories used by ontologists for this purpose. One of these, which is relatively more popular and which we may be familiar with to the point of intuition, is to look at the living world as a collection of autonomous material objects; as living beings. For instance, we may consider the living world to be a collection of plants, animals and microbes, each in turn consisting of (a collection of) cells made up of the four categories of biological macro-molecules and so on.

Another way of looking at bio-phenomena, one that seems to be finding traction with some contemporary philosophers of biology, is the processual view. The thrust is to perceive the biosphere as a state of constant change, as flux, as living becomings.

Crucially, temporally-measured processes are considered the fundamental components of the living world and spatially-measured material beings are mere consequences of processes in action[4]. For instance, and here too one should notice a hierarchy exists, a processualist might consider a cell as a collection of metabolic processes that generate the macromolecules; the cell, in turn, being an entity stabilized during the processes of cell division (and apoptosis) and so on. On a lighter note, a processualist might argue that it is a 90-minute football game that generates a football player and not the other way around, for without the game, the notion of the player is not very meaningful.

Which of the two views helps us better to answer our question? To understand, let us first consider the materialist context of the living world, consisting of living beings.

The traditional way of conceiving a materially constructed reality, at least in Western scientific traditions, goes back all the way to the Grecian atomists[5]. They held that what appears real, can be deconstructed into its material physical constituents until you reach an indivisible point in space – the atom.

They argued that the nature of more complex and constructed entities can in fact be reconstructed from atomic components, behaviour and interactions. Two foundational thinkers of the early Greek atomist schools were Democritus and Leucippus who lived around 500 BCE. Their ideas were later improved upon by Parmenides. Parmenides’ substance-based ontology can be seen influencing mainstream Grecian philosophers, especially Aristotle, who is considered the most foundational thinker of the life sciences.

Aristotle considered all natural entities to be made of matter (substance) that had their own internal qualities and agencies (souls and essences). In fact, within Aristotelian thought, an entity is considered ‘natural’ only if it possesses an agency of being that is internal to itself and dependent upon its material constitution. The smallest constituent substance that can assume a form (shape, structure, behaviour and so on) that will generate life-affirming properties would later be termed minima naturalia.

Aristotle would then go on to write his famous treatises such as Physics, Metaphysics and, more relevant to our discussion, The History of Animals and The Generation of Animals, all based on these foundational principles. In The History of Animals, Aristotle presents one of the earliest compendia of a systematic and comprehensive classification of the living world based on observable physical characteristics (this resonates with a term students of biology may be familiar with – phenotype!) and a methodological framework to study biological phenomena. It wouldn’t be remiss to consider the entire history of the development of concepts within the biosciences was in a way corroborating or reforming Aristotelian ideas[6].

This material part-whole construction of the biosphere finds its way into the two hierarchical models of organisation of the biosphere that most biology students are familiar with. These are the Linnaean Taxonomic Hierarchy and the Levels of Organisation (or the Layer Cake) model; the latter begins with the fundamental level of atoms, which make up molecules, then onto cells, organs, organ systems and so on till the ultimate unified level of the Biosphere (Figure 1).

In the history of the development of biological thought, Aristotle’s conceptualisation of the material nature of the living world, including that of internal agencies would ultimately lead to the discovery of genetic materials, macromolecules and their functions, cellular organelles and the conceptualisation of cells as the building blocks of the life. This way of studying and imagining the biosphere would become the norm thereafter and would crystalise with the development of academic and research disciplines around them, such as molecular biology, cell biology, microbial biology, genetics, and more recently, systems and network biology, and so on.

A crucial factor that would contribute to the idea of a materially constructed natural world would stem from the way we carry out scientific investigations, especially biology and the absolute need for sensory engagement with our object of study[7]. The entire lexicon used in the discussion of the biosphere was built around a material ontological perspective. A case in point is the word, ‘Cell’, inspired by materially-enclosed physical housing units in prisons that Robert Hooke observed under his early microscope.

Additionally, for a long time, the discipline of the life sciences borrowed fundamental operating principles (such as thermodynamics) from the other two mature natural sciences of Physics and Chemistry. For these two disciplines, at least historically speaking, the physical construction of the universe was a fundamental assumption.

While there are tangible benefits of viewing the biosphere as a collection of objects, this might endanger biology students, especially those in their formative stage of learning, to slip into intuition. In our early stages of development, we learn to objectify as a cognitive habit to distinguish things. We then assign names to them. We abstract them from their contexts. Combining this with the conventionally reductionist approaches we take in both investigation and pedagogy, students face the real danger of missing the forest for the trees.

In the next part, we will look into the birth of the view of our biosphere as a collection of processes, a view that aims to provide an explanation to some of the most essential features of the living world that the materialist reductionist approach often seems to miss – its dynamicity and diversity.

The journey of a teacher involves continuous learning, adaptation, and collaboration. Often these are facilitated by training programmes from government agencies like the Ministry of Education (MOE), the University Grants Commission (UGC), the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), and others, which help improve the Teaching Learning Process (TLP) on the whole. One such endeavour was a series of workshops for teachers nominated from DBT-STAR colleges across India.

These workshops were designed to train the teachers to use research-based pedagogical tools (RBPT) in undergraduate and postgraduate classrooms. This approach focuses the teaching on the process of science, rather than facts, which augments the critical thinking and research skills of students.

These workshops, which took place between March 2016 and January 2019, were organised by the Centre of Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education (CoESME) at IISER, Pune and were jointly sponsored by the Newton Bhabha programme of the British Council, MOE (then Ministry of Human Resource Development) and DBT. A team of experts from the Centre of Science Education, Sheffield Hallam University, UK conducted them.

What began as a training ground for teachers, laid the foundation for building an empowered network of individuals. This group represented a diverse set of educators from all science subjects; some were very new to the field, while some had many years of teaching experience.

The trainee teachers were also encouraged to cascade their learning into regional RBPT workshops. The content for each of these regional workshops was curated by CoESME.

As the educators began hosting RBPT workshops at their own colleges, they realized the value of connecting with each other. They started sharing their experiences, best practices, and challenges on social media platforms and online forums. This facilitated a sense of community and collaboration, as they supported and learned from one another. The educators discovered that by sharing their experiences and expertise, they could:

• Collaborate on workshop designs: By sharing their workshop plans, they could refine their designs and create a repository of effective activities.

• Share resources and materials: They could exchange resources, such as lesson plans, presentations, and assessments, to enhance their teaching practices.

• Participate in online discussions: They could engage in online forums and discussions, staying updated on the latest developments in higher education

• Mentor and be mentored: They could offer guidance and support to fellow educators while learning from their peers' experiences.

Several of these educators took on activities that went beyond the RBPT gamut. These individuals forged strong collegial bonds and took this association further to create a thriving community of educators committed to excellence. Motivated by a shared commitment to enhance their teaching methodologies and stay abreast of the latest advancements in their respective fields, these educators formed a network that would soon become a driving force in transforming the educational landscape. Faculty development programs, training workshops, and knowledge-sharing forums invited talented individuals from this pool, fostering professional growth. Through collective brainstorming, these teachers orchestrated subject-specific pedagogy leading to innovative teaching techniques, evaluation methods, and the creation of a common pool of resources that were easily accessible to all the others on online forums.

To date, the educators have kept their active communication channels open, paving the way for the community to stay at the forefront of educational advancements. This effort exemplifies how the coming together of teachers has contributed to the growth and enhancement of an entire educational community.

As these educators continue to connect, share, and learn from each other, they are empowering themselves and their students to make a positive impact. Many of them have hosted each other in college outreach activities that involve awareness of antimicrobial resistance, foldscope workshops, guidance for funding opportunities and more. Their story serves as a testament to the power of networking and collaboration in transforming education and driving meaningful change.

The Research Ethics and Integrity Office at BRIC-inStem is a dedicated office for academic integrity and one of the first of its kind in the country. Could you give us a quick overview of the office?

The Research Ethics and Integrity office, which I lead, is located at and established by BRIC-inStem. It has been envisioned as a common office for NCBS-TIFR [National Centre for Biological Sciences-Tata Institute of Fundamental Research], BRIC-inStem, and other Bangalore Life Science Cluster institutes [which currently includes the Tata Institute for Genetics and Society (TIGS) and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP)].

While administratively they [NCBS and BRIC-inStem] are different entities, we work very closely, and the office has three primary objectives. We work on capacity building by teaching research ethics to different stakeholders. Second, we help formulate policies. For example, if there is research misconduct, we decide how to take the case forward and create a committee. The third objective is documentation. For any publication that goes out of BRIC-inStem and NCBS, all the associated raw data needs to be deposited in our Research Publication Data Archive to improve the transparency and reproducibility of the research being done. The overall aim of our office is the prevention of research misconduct, not punishment.

Tell us about your experience teaching research ethics and integrity to various stakeholders.

Towards the capacity-building objective, we have an hour-long monthly ethics seminar for visiting students and scientists at different career stages. I also teach a two-credit course for over two and a half months for PhD students from NCBS, BRIC-inStem, TIGS, and other higher education institutes in Bengaluru. This course is mandated by University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations and has to be taught as per their prescribed format (e.g., topics, hours). The course is designed by me and senior colleagues Raj Ladher from NCBS and Dasaradhi Palakodeti from BRIC-inStem. We also have other teaching faculties, such as Sunil Laxman, who teaches philosophy of science, Ketan Thorat, who teaches human ethics, and Mohan GH, who teaches the animal ethics component of the course. We also have guest faculty from abroad who deliver lectures online and enrich the course.

Ethical behaviour is doing the right thing when no one else is watching—even when doing the wrong thing is legal.

I use a definition of research integrity from the NIH [National Institutes of Health, USA], which says that research integrity is how you do research adhering to good scientific practices, how you report your results, and be mindful of the professional norms. Also, if you are doing this right, for whom are you doing this right? You are going to do it right for the host institute, the scientific community, and finally, the taxpayers.

I also quote Aldo Leopold [American conservationist, philosopher and writer] who said, “ethical behaviour is doing the right thing when no one else is watching—even when doing the wrong thing is legal”.

We discuss different kinds of research misconduct, plagiarism, the peer review process, conflict of interest, and international norms in authorship. We discuss case studies pertaining to each of these issues, where we work through the various scenarios that I present to students. We also talk about different kinds of journals, including predatory journals, and the limitations of the h-index and impact factor. We end with animal and human ethics, where we discuss how to humanely treat animals, the importance of power calculations, and how the animal ethics committee functions. In the human ethics class, my colleague talks about the importance of obtaining informed and understood consent from the participants of a study. In the research data management class, we talk about how to name files and folders and how many times one should back up their data. As an assignment, the students create their own research data management plan for their PhD.

Students do assignments summarising and discussing case studies of research misconduct, which are available through various online resources. We also use multiple kinds of games. One game, developed by Dr. Zeenath Reza Khan from the University of Wollongong, Dubai is called the Age of Integrity, which focuses on exercises related to different kinds of plagiarism. I really enjoy teaching; we have a lot of discussions in each class and that really excites me.

Often mistakes happen because they are unintentional and out of ignorance or a lack of training.

What suggestions do you have for faculty, especially early career researchers, to ensure that their labs are more mindful of research practices?

A lab could be highly productive but could have a very toxic research culture. The moment one places too much emphasis on publishing in a “big” journal, the students as well as faculty become vulnerable to research misconduct. Having an open and productive research culture, where the student can come and talk to the Principal Investigator [PI] is one aspect of doing research mindfully. Also, the PIs need to set some expectations of academic integrity from their students. Often mistakes happen because they are unintentional and out of ignorance or a lack of training. A resource that I often use for faculty workshops is called the FAITH project from the European Network for Academic Integrity which uses role play-based activities to improve an understanding of the nuances of academic integrity.

There are ethical standards and certain rules for regulatory compliance, which can be different for different countries. The UGC, ICMR [Indian Council for Medical Research, Govt. of India] and DBT [Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India] have guidelines on best research practices in very detailed documents, but many researchers are unaware of them. I would ask young faculty, especially if they have shifted from outside India, to familiarise themselves with these documents and transfer this information to their students.

I would also recommend that they ask their institutions to create a research integrity office or a regulatory compliance office because it helps the larger ecosystem.

Outside of teaching, what projects have you been involved in? Looking ahead, what aspects of your work are you most excited about?

I am working on a research project funded by the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance, where we are designing a website based on the UGC-recommended research and publication ethics curriculum. We are building a database of useful resources for teachers in India, who often struggle to identify resource materials for teaching research ethics to undergraduate and postgraduate students. In the same grant, we reached out to various Life Science departments in India to understand the challenges they face in research integrity and regulatory compliance.

We also conducted an in-person workshop at BRIC-inStem with representation from 21 faculties from diverse career stages, subjects and backgrounds. The workshop had a talk on useful resources, a panel discussion on common challenges, conversations around regulatory compliance and biosafety, and networking opportunities.

I am going to present the results of another research project at the World Conference on Research Integrity in Greece in June 2024, which I am really excited about. In this study, we are looking at around 13,000 retraction data points in the life sciences and trying to understand what influences them. The challenge is that most funding agencies do not have research integrity and ethics as an area of funding. So, even if you want to run a particular project, you cannot apply for funds, which needs to be addressed.

“It doesn't matter how many resources you have. If you don't know how to use them, it will never be enough”- Anonymous

We, as educators, talk about providing experiential learning to our science students. But to provide this experience, instead of letting them experiment with possibilities, we often hand them “Standard Operation Protocols” or ‘Kits’, which never allow them to fail. Do they really learn the science concepts we want them to learn this way? Do they think of innovative ideas in the laboratory? Being an undergraduate teacher for a decade, I have seen students beam with enthusiasm while entering the lab and leaving it disappointed due to a lack of creativity in the practicals.

On the other hand, engaging students in activities such as model making, fieldwork, etc., can not only stimulate experiential learning of the concepts involved, but also teach them basic science skills of creativity, observation, data collection, analysis, critical thinking, and problem-solving.

I teach at the Department of Bioscience and Technology, Dr Vishwanath Karad’s MIT World Peace University, Pune. This year, to invoke experiential learning, I asked the second-year students of Integrated BSc MSc Biotechnology to create working models of bioreactors using inexpensive and easily available objects.

In our theory classes, we had already discussed different bioreactor designs and their applications. The model-making activity would now challenge them to use the basic information they had learnt in class and build a model or a demonstration using readily available materials. I grouped the students into groups of 5 (we had 11 such groups) and gave them 1 month to come up with different models. I also asked them to submit a write-up explaining the following points:

1. Product
2. Bioreactor construction
3. Biochemical reaction
4. Observations/learnings

In the course of the project, I helped them identify problems with their models and suggested modifications, if needed. By the end of the project, students came up with amazing working models that could explain the working of the airlift bioreactor, bubble reactor, and photobioreactor in the simplest manner. Students had prepared traditional rice sake, kombucha, and mead from kitchen supplies. I assessed the students based on novelty, originality, and execution of their models, along with their understanding of the concept.

This activity provided experiential learning to students in 4 stages:

1. Experiencing: students recollected their experiences with fermentation, bioremediation etc.
2. Reflecting: students reflected on how they could demonstrate the phenomenon in the form of a simple bioreactor model
3. Thinking: students ideated on the design aspects of the bioreactor model
4. Acting: students constructed the working model

This activity also stimulated creative problem-solving, which, at the heart of frugal science, focuses on delivering maximum value with minimal resources. Bioreactor design involves using specific geometry and dimensions of reactors to ensure the optimal growth of microorganisms. The students struggled to find the right container that would work as a bioreactor. They had to use inert materials.

Students Meetrayu Raut, Teertha Nambiar, Srushti Walvekar and Parnika Thakur were trying to use earthen pots to make rice sake. Nambiar took a traditional recipe for making the starter culture from her parents. In their first attempt at using earthen pots, most of the water was soaked up by the pot and the experiment failed. With lots of trials and errors, they could establish an actively growing culture and produce rice wine.

Krishna Bangar, Kena Sojitra, Carolene Mathew and Samiksha Sonawane were working on constructing an airlift bioreactor, which requires circulation of compressed air. The challenge for this group was to control the air pressure. If the pressure is high, it would lead to frothing and loss of material; and if low, the biomass yield would be affected. After multiple attempts, they managed to control the airflow.

The confident smile on the students’ faces while demonstrating the model to their peers and teachers arose from an understanding of the basic concept of the process.

When we design a syllabus, we pen down course outcomes and course objectives. This activity resulted in achieving an outcome – understanding a concept without using fancy equipment. The experiential learning approach gives students a chance to observe scientific phenomena around them keenly and learn by experimenting. Every trial-and-error attempt allows them to derive conclusions, from not only successes but also failures. When things do not work students proceed to think and ideate. In this activity, students were evaluated for the attempt, not just the result. This will encourage them to make more such attempts without fear of failing.