Learning: Project

  Introduction 

As our final project in this course, we have formulated a thorough, in-depth researched recommendation for the foundation studies program at Srishti. This recommendation focuses on effective learning methods that will enable students to develop learning processes as efficiently as possible. We have done research through questionnaires and interviews. The questionnaires consisted of questions based on the work environment, social factors, and time management skills of students. We asked for suggestions so as to make the learning environment in srishti more productive and beneficial.

 

We have carefully examined and inferred from the research, as well as from our own experience and have devised a potentially working model that includes suggestions and methods. This system if implemented will allow the student to develop through effective learning methods and social interaction.

  I Location & Space

The ambience and environment of an individual affect his learning. As we went around asking people what sort of work space would suit them best as design students, the majority said that they would like a bigger workspace so as to create the right atmosphere for work. In terms of workspace, it is required that sufficient space is available to spread out ones work. Considering the kind of work design students do, they need space for tasks like mounting, working on imperial sized sheets, group work, and 3-d projects. Also, the ambience for learning needs to be open and not claustrophobic as in classrooms. Students would like to sit outdoors in the natural environment for better inspiration and free thinking.

 

Apart from this, we found that students who stay far away from college waste a lot of time commuting to and fro, whereas students living in the P.Gs have an advantage of being closer to the college.

  

II Building Basics

In order to produce competent work in the foundation course itself, ones basics should be clear and established. We figured that the initial courses in the foundation program should include week long sessions on unlearning, basics of Photoshop and mounting as well as learning how to research efficiently.

 

Gaining feedback from peers, seniors and faculty through informal reviews also helps enhance ones understanding of their work and critiquing it. It also gives one a platform of building confidence and motivation to learn from others work and improve ones own.

  

III Time

 Self exploratory learning facilitates a better understanding of the subject. We found our that students would love to explore their work further, not only to try and figure out where their interests lie, but also to simply push their boundaries. Students feel that if they had the time they would love to take a few courses further and try to develop a deeper passion, skill or interest for their work. Learning would be more efficient if students took the time to plan out their work over the duration of the course. This would help them to manage their time and submit work on time.

  IV Social Interactions

Social interaction is an essential part of an individual’s learning process. It is necessary for a design student to communicate with people from other spheres and arenas in life. Better learning can also be facilitated through inter-college fests and events where students transcend hierarchical boundaries. This exchange not only enables the student to open new doors of learning, but also more importantly gives him insights into other fields related to design.

 

Students felt that there should be more interaction between different batches of the foundation program as well as specialization courses so as to gain more knowledge on the subject. We felt that it would benefit students if the work of the entire college could be displayed in Srishti at the end of the year.

 

Apart from a need to learn from each other, we found that students would like to work on their own once in a while. Self-study is an essential part of one’s individual approach to learning. Self- exploratory work and some private time are required for the student to innovate and generate ideas that are original and unique.

  V Extra-curricular activities

Extra-curricular activities would help students unwind and also get inspired. These activities include sports, dance, theatre, film, yoga. They should be made compulsory. Not only will students interact with one another on a non-academic platform, but will also take interest in things outside their daily routine. This helps to break the monotony of work and helps to energize them mentally and physically.

 

Apart from extra curricular activities, we thought that one of the factors that influences an individuals thinking and learning process is nutrition. Being design students we have to deal with work pressure as well as time constraints. This results in poor eating habits which in turn affects the quality of work that one produces. Hence we thought that if a canteen could be set up, then the students would be able to eat healthy and as a result perform better.

  Conclusion

After this course, we have understood that a lot of thinking goes into creating the perfect ambience for effective learning keeping in mind various factors that directly or indirectly affect an individuals approach to learning. Through this project we have learnt how important ones learning process is. It has made us reflect on our own learning styles and how the environment affects it. Through this project we have aimed at analyzing aspects of one’s learning method and tried to suggest ways to make it a more beneficial and fruitful system.

 

 

This is our questionnaire which we handed out to students in the foundation batch and which was a part of our research.

 

Q1. Which method of learning suits you best?

      

 Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Tactile                                                       

 

Q2. What are the tools that do help you learn something?

        Mind maps, Thumbnails, Discussions, Brainstorming, Presentations or any other method

 

Q3. If you are interested in a course even after it is over, would you like to take that interest further?

 

Q4. Do you learn better through self-study, group discussions or when a member of the faculty teaches?

 

Q5. Would you work better if you had a sufficiently big workspace for yourself? Why?

 

Q6. Do you think courses should be more consistent and defined? Why?

 

Q7. Do you think that if all the batches of one course are taught by the same faculty member learning will be more uniform? Why?

 

Q8. Should the college authorities plan excursions and more field trips in order to provide exposure?

 

Q9. Do you think there should be inter college interactions and fests in order to facilitate and discover new learning processes?

 

Q10. Do you think you have enough time to explore your work outside college time?

 

Q11. As a design student what are some things you need to learn in order to produce good work? Why?

 

Any other suggestions you feel will help to facilitate better learning in Srishti.

  

We also consulted some faculty members to find out the way courses and the learning processes in Srishti are structured and this is what we found out.

 

• We asked why there were two foundation years in Srishti and the answer that we got was that it has been a tried and tested system. It has been experimented with for many years with different batches. In the first year, the students are taught the basics of each course and in the second year the first half goes in taking those basics forward. Where as the second half is more towards discovering where your interest lies and thus giving the students an informed idea of what they would like to specialize in. Also, these two years are dedicated towards making the students skilled enough in case they should drop out and take other interests further.

 

• We also asked them why each batch of a course is taught by a different faculty member. We were told that each faculty member approaches teaching in their own style, though the course content is the same. It is a way of allowing each faculty member to teach as efficiently as possible. The students of each batch attain the same knowledge, though there may be some negligible differences. Logistics wise, the same faculty cannot teach the same course for a period of three weeks.

  

             Anuranjini Singh 

             Kamala Murali

         

 

Gone Orang(e)?!

Orangutans (orang-hutans) are native to Indonesia and Malaysia, though they are currently found in the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo. Orangutans are very intelligent animals. They are the only surviving species in the genus Pongo. ‘Orang-hutan’ in Malay refers to ‘person of the forest’. It is believed that orang-utans have a very high level of intelligence. According to recent research by James Lee, a psychologist at Harvard,” Orangutans are the world’s most intelligent animal other than man, with higher learning and problem solving ability than chimpanzees, which were previously considered to have greater abilities.”

An orangutan’s lifespan is about 35-40 years in the wild, and sometimes 50 years in captivity. Like human beings, orangutans have very extended ‘childhoods’. They reach puberty at age 8. Young males may stay close to their mother for one or two more years. Females stay until they are in their teens, so as to pick up mothering skills as they watch their mother nurse a sibling.

Orangutans start the process of learning at a very young age. Their behaviour reflects very much in the behaviour of human children; children will continue to do something only after positive approval form the parents. They learn through observation and imitation of their mother. Orangutan offspring are isolated from relatives and their only source of information is from the mother, the main caretaker. This is why the death of the mother can be devastating to the young one. 

Through observation, imitation and practice, the young ones learn basic survival strategies. One primary example is the requisition of skills that the mother exhibits. Orangutans have been observed to sample the mother’s food to learn acceptable foods as well as follow her hand and learn the feel of the source in order to be able to locate food upon separation from the mother .They learn then what to eat and how to eat it. But at this stage, learning tool-based skills is challenging.

There is a great deal of communication between the young ones and the mother when it comes to learning from her. Much of the communication happens through eye contact and gestures. For example, when a young one has to beg for food, it constantly shifts its gaze back and forth from the mother to the food item. Similarly, the mother gestures to the young one to climb on to her body by extending a limb, usually a leg to touch the infant. They also communicate in other ways such as, vocalizations, body posture, facial expression, touching as well as movement of the eye and the eyelid. This exchange helps the young to understand how to communicate with others of its kind. And in turn, through this learning of how to communicate, it builds a stage for social learning to happen. 

Orangutans also learn through imitation. They observe the mother’s movements and thus this learning enables them through imitation to use movements. The learning allows them to be able to collect food for themselves once they are separated from the mother. They then begin their journey as young adults. They look for new company and a place to settle. In the process, they end up learning new techniques of survival. They learn new skills through interaction with other orangutans. 

 However, orangutans are semi-solitary animals due to there being a scarcity of food in the rainforests. However when there is an abundance of food, they will use the opportunity for social interaction. Adult males will give up their solitary status when they find a female who is receptive to mating. They will then stay with the female to ensure a successful mating, after which they will resume their solitary existence. Adults spend no more than ten percent of their time with other adults. When male contact happens, most situations turn hostile.

Orangutans learn throughout their lifetime. These animals are said to have the longest childhood dependence on the mother than any other animal in the world. Their learning happens primarily from the mother and then through contact with each other. They are taught which foods to eat and which to not eat, and where to get them. By the time they move away, they have a precise map of the forest and also detailed information on the fruiting cycles of trees. In a way, the mother makes sure they prepare and ensure that their young are suited to live life alone. Only when young orangutans move away do they start to explore their surroundings and learn by themselves. Their learning process is slow and their period of development is long so as to evolve the capability to absorb enormous amounts of local knowledge which they can then put to use. 

Orangutans have displayed signs of high intelligence in activities involving tool-based skills. These skills as well as learned behaviour suggest to some extent some form of orang-utan culture and social interaction. Culture plays a big role in the survival of an orang-utan. Its behaviour is not genetically determined, as was thought, but rather learnt through watching others. Tool uses as well as social signalling are learnt through observational learning. The theory is that if one group of orangutans display behaviour it will most likely be different from another group’s behaviour. This demonstrates that behaviour and thus learning is highly culture specific.  

Some tool use and social signalling skills – 

Ø      Handling Thorny Fruits: Orang-utans have devised a method to handle thorny fruits. They use leaf pads when they pluck the fruit. They use the leaves as napkins or gloves to protect their hands from the spines on the fruits.

Ø      Nest building: Since orang-utans live largely solitary lives, they sleep alone in nests that they build. They are arboreal animals and spend most of their time in the tree tops. These nests shelter them from the rain and provide a comfortable place to sleep. Young orang-utans start building nests at the age of just fourteen months and at the age of five years they can construct good solid nests.

Ø      They use sticks to dig out seeds from fruit. They use it to poke into tree holes to search for insects and to scratch themselves.

Ø      They use leafy branches to swat insects or gather water.

Ø      They ride on falling dead trees to grab vegetation before the tree hits the ground.

Ø      They build sun and rain covers for nests.

Ø      They call to one another using a technique wherein they press their hands or leaves against their lips to make a loud sound; called a kiss-squeak.

 Ø      When rain water is difficult to get, they chew leaves to make a sponge to soap up water in tree cavities.

Ø      When it rains very hard, they make an umbrella out of big leaves.

A study was done by Carel Van Schaik and researchers on why orangutan behaviour was culture specific and not universal. He proved that orangutan behaviour was a result of culture innovation and not ecological adaptation. He first found that sites that are geographically more closer have similarity in behaviour. This demonstrates the fact that orangutans pass on their behavior as they roam. Secondly, he noticed that the number of cultural behaviors is highest in regions where there is more social interaction. This clearly suggests that learning not only happens through observation and signaling, but also that cultural learning does take place. Lastly they studied that apes in similar habitats do not share more behaviour than apes in different habitats. This goes to show that these animals do not develop the same behaviors when faced with the same challenge.

One important example came from another finding of Carel Van Schaik. He noticed that orangutans on one side of a Sumatran river used sticks to remove seeds from a prickly fruit, while orangutans on the other side of the river did not. The habitats on both sides of the river were the same, but their behaviour was different. This shows that behaviour results from innovation.

 Another example to note is that one band of orangutans in Sumatra were seen to hold a stick in their hand while trying to pry the seeds from a thorny fruit, while another group used leaf pads as gloves to do the same. Groups of orangutans have distinct methods of feeding, nesting and communicating. In turn, learning is very specific to the group and an orangutan will learn and pass on survival strategies that they learn from the group that they belong to.

Orangutans are well adapted to the rainforest environment. They obtain large amounts of food right from the scavenging on the forest floor to the top of canopies. They know exactly where to find edible roots, how to pick fruits from different heights, which nuts, leaves and barks to feed on. Their protein comes from eating reptiles, ants and eggs. They successfully raise their offspring.So well have they adapted to their surrounding environment that they are now considered to be indicator species. Indicator species are species that act as the barometer for the well being of other species in the same environment and generally for the health of the entire rainforest. Sadly, from the nineteenth century onwards, large scale logging of forests and killing sprees of this species have resulted in orangutans being added to the long list of endangered species. Today, their behaviour can be thought of as adaptations to their shrinking habitat and other environmental pressures that endanger their lives.  

May i have your seat?

 Over the weekend, I was browsing through some interesting articles and I found one in a psychology section about an experiment that was conducted on how people respond to authority. With a backing in psychology, having studied it and developed an interest for it for two years, I found the article very interesting and quite engaging.  

Remembering some psychology, I recalled that Stanley Milgram was a very famous psychologist who conducted many experiments, some of which studied the extent to which people obey authority. His most famous experiment along these lines was that in which he found that every person had the potential to comply with authority till the point of murder. He had asked subjects to administer what was said to be high voltage shocks to people. The results of this experiment were upsetting. Milgram found that people would follow instructions however terrible they were, even if it meant injuring another human being. There is a controversy on Milgram’s approach toward conducting such an experiment as the subjects then reported to be traumatized so greatly they could not lead a normal life. 

This article, however, talks about another one of his experiments he conducted. In this experiment he studied our fear of breaking rules, however senseless they seem. In this experiment he asked grad students to go into New York subways and ask passengers for their seats. Dr. Stanley Milgram was interested in studying the unwritten rules that govern people’s behaviour. He hypothesized that the passengers would readily give up their seats without asking for any reason. Ironically, it was more of an inconvenience for the person asking for the seat than for the passenger. As a result of this experiment, 68% of the passengers that were asked directly got up readily without even asking for any reason. Ironically, it was more of an inconvenience for the person asking for the seat than for the passenger. 

Not only did I learn about what is termed one of the greatest breakthroughs in psychology, but I also began to remember and think about Milgrams famous experiment. I first read through the article and got a gist of what it was trying to say. I read through it a couple more times and then fully understood it. I found myself constantly linking this experiment to previous studies of Milgrams. I began to remember some of the psychology I had studied under human behaviour. Psychology as a subject never failed to interest me and I was passionate about learning new studies of human social behaviour.

After reading through the article many times, I condensed the information I had retained in point form in my head. This made it easier for me to understand something. There were a lot of questions that came up as I read it. When was this experiment conducted? And how much did being a part of this study mentally disturb the students? How did Milgram think of such a simple experiment that could study something as complex as human behaviour? How many times was the experiment done? Has it been done again after he did it? 

In order to get some of my questions answered, I had to read up on some more articles on the web. I searched for as many articles as I could find. I spent a good hour studying this topic. 

The grad students were affected by this experiment. It was reported that some felt ‘sick to their stomach’ as they approached fellow passengers to ask for their seats. Others could not bring themselves to actually ask for a seat. When the students leaned down to ask their fellow travellers, they became pale and almost breathless as a result. This shows how much of the things we do and say are governed by rules. If there weren’t any rules then it would probably result in complete chaos. Some passengers, thinking that the student was ill, immediately got up and gave their seat without asking for a reason. Some were utterly taken aback, but gave up their seat nevertheless. Other passengers told the students off with things like- ‘where are your manners?’, if you were a lady, I would’. 

Milgrams experiment was inspired from a complaint his mother made one day when she said that no one on the subway offered her a seat. He then thought about this and decided to find out that if you asked for a seat, would one be given to you. This was how the simple idea of the experiment was conceived. 

This experiment was done again a couple of times. And each time, the people would feel a sense of paleness or sickness overcoming them as they walked up to their fellow passengers. But the results still remained the same- 13 out of 15 people gave up their seat for others. 

My learning over the weekend was fuelled by my passion for psychology. I not only read the article but also researched on this new topic and understood it completely. 

“All we need is a little patience…”

One of the things that I’ve learnt in all my eighteen years is that of being patient. As a child I used to watch my mother play the piano everyday. We had a piano at home and most days I would wake up to the sound of music. Every time she made a mistake she would stop and start the entire piece again. She used to play until she got it right. It used to make me wonder how someone can practice something for so long without ever getting tired of it. When I started playing the piano though, I understood how much patience it required. I had seen my mother create music that was so beautiful, out of passion and patience that I wanted to do exactly the same. And even if it’s not in music, it’s in other things that I apply this learning.

Thinking through Drawing

 Though this course was on thinking through an idea or a concept, one of the ideas for an assignment came from a conversation I had on the phone. The assignment was to design through drawings a step by step process of assembling a product. The conversation I had on the phone had directly nothing to do with the assignment. But the content of the conversation made me think about how a person puts things together. There is a step by step process to most of the things we do. In our lives, we tend to follow patterns and routines. This way it makes it easier for us to function in an orderly fashion. The conversation we had also followed a certain pattern- the most important things were talked about first and then the less important things. The thread throughout the exchange was of our collective memories together and thus building on the past, what we saw of our future for the coming months. This made me plan out my work with clarity. I thought of the process of putting up a plastic Christmas tree, step by step; just like the way we lead our lives- step by step. 

Basic Principle

The idea behind the wall mural came from everything but mind maps, thumbnails and brainstorming. I spent much of that evening doing routine things like watching TV and cooking.I watched this program on Mtv called Roadies 5.0. It is about youngsters from different cities travelling and competing in various tasks held in places around the country. It’s both mentally and physically challenging. I watched one episode where a jury was holding the auditions. As eager contestants came and gave their interviews and answered some tough questions, it made me think about how different we all are in the way we think and how we look at ourselves. The one thing that all those contestants had in common was that they wanted to be a part of this series. Yet, each person thought differently, spoke in their own way, felt different emotions. They each had a character that was unique to them. This then made me think of college and realize that each student has their own character and thinking and it is this difference that enables everyone to study together. Each student has their own learning style and they bring to their work not only intelligence, but also creativity. This was the idea behind the wall mural that we designed.  

Form & Content

Form & Content

 There was a young lady whose bonnet

Came untied when the birds sat upon it

But she said, “I don’t care! All the birds in the air

Are welcome to sit on my bonnet!”  

Illustrating in Form & Content was really interesting and a lot of fun! One of our assignments was to illustrate a limerick. Just like other limericks are funny and quirky, the one I illustrated was too. Illustrating does not in any way limit ones imagination. It makes one think laterally and draw the wildest illustrations, but illustrations that somehow complement the text, nevertheless. 

As I started on my illustration, I remembered how when I was young, my dad would read me the funniest limericks from a limerick book we had. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to them as they never ceased to make me laugh, as their content came to life in my mind. So when I was faced with the task of actually visualizing one, I drew from my imagination. 

I drew distorted shapes just to see whether they would resemble any of the forms in my limerick. Sometimes my illustrations became too stereotypical and I resorted to listening to music at top volume to clear my head. When that didn’t work, I went for a long walk to imagine the limerick in different ways. I read other limericks on the web. This made me remember how much I used to enjoy listening to limericks. I think that my final illustration was born out of a need to recreate in an illustration where my imagination used to take me as I listened to my dad reading them out.

the Listener…

I finally raised my hand, after years. 

I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans.

I looked up.

I saw what felt like a million pair of eyes on me.

Did they want to hear what I was going to say?

I spoke anyway.

Even as the silence fell and I could only hear me.

That’s when I learnt that what I had to say would make a difference to the discussion.

And how much better I had felt for being heard. 

 

 

Medium Exploration

The day I did this impressionist painting was a good day to sit out in the sun and enjoy the sunny weather. I picked a good place to do my painting. I started my impressionist painting by dabbing paint on my hand just to see what kind of technique I would be applying and how I was going to use my brushes. I took a long time to complete my painting, but I enjoyed doing every bit of it. Before i applied the paint on the paper, i would visualize how it would look each time. I wanted to apply the technique perfectly. I sat alone on the steps in front of the administrative office. I needed silence so that I could concentrate on my painting. I spent a lot of time understanding how everyone else was creating an impressionistic style painting. I also day dreamed a lot – about school, the book i was reading, mostly wondering if the painting would look like an impressionist painting.

On Learning…

We spent the first morning of our learning course understanding the term ‘learning’ and how important it is in understanding the world around us. Learning refers to a process in which we understand something for ourselves. We are constantly learning throughout our lives and it is an infinite process. Sometimes we do not know how we learn, but each one of us has a unique learning approach that we use every time we want to understand something around us. 

We learn to understand life around us and to adapt to it. Learning is also a process through which we adapt to various situations. We apply our learning in most situations in life. We may learn the basics of a concept, but through exploration and questioning we can apply our learning of these fundamental concepts to any situation in life. We learn in order to survive and it then becomes a need. This kind of learning, of need, is universal. On the other hand, we also learn things that are relevant in today’s world, and may not necessarily affect us in any way. 

Learning is born out of a curiosity of things. Learning cannot be imposed on anyone. One must be motivated in order to learn. I think that learning is about understanding not just what is taught, but also through exploratory and introspective thinking. We also learn through failure and making mistakes. Thus learning is about being willing to think and explore; it is about bring motivated enough. 

For me, learning is about asking questions and understanding things by oneself not only through introspection but also through experience. Experience plays a major role in our individual learning. It gives us first hand information about situations. Learning through experience is unique to each person and thus everyone makes learning their own. 

 We each learn in different ways and methods. For some, visuals are effective and for others, understanding theory is equally effective. Whichever approach we take to learn, we benefit greatly from it. Sometimes, we tend to unlearn something. We unlearn things that we’ve learnt before. We even learn unconsciously. It is possible that one can apply their learning without the conscious act of learning taking place. We hardly ever think about how we learn or even that in everything that we do some learning takes place. It is a very important process, and once we understand our own approach to learning we can then seek to understand things with more clarity. 

It is amazing that we’re constantly learning new things everyday in our own unique ways.