Organic Pedagogy: Man-Machine Collaboration
and Self-identity
Dr.
Elham Hossain
Faculty of the Department of English
Green University of Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Abstract: The term ‘organic pedagogy’, a portmanteau
constructed with a fragment from Antonio Gramsci’s term ‘organic intellectual’
in combination with the word ‘pedagogy’, and it implicates that
teaching-learning process makes both the teachers and the learners work.
Organic pedagogy puts emphasis on the process of teaching-learning through
experiencing. Its sole aim is to ensure literacy to the learners, accomplished
through action, interaction, and values, not only in people’s heads but also in
activities or performance. Now in the age of man-machine collaboration, unlike
traditional conception, literacy does not mean a matter of privacy happening in
the heads; but it rather refers to social, political, cultural and
institutional activities of the learners in association with cognitive
achievement. The era of digitalization and AI promotes man-machine
collaboration in the pedagogy to cater to the market-oriented dimension of
learning. Emerging technology and its accompanying thought-process are
constantly challenging the long-cherished and traditional teaching-learning
process which basically emphasizes the learners’ cognitive development rather
than skills. In the era of unprecedented global transformation, computers,
internet, AI, various apps and even video games have turned into pedagogical
tools with immense potential and are causing a remarkable shift in the paradigm
of the teaching-learning process. This article seeks to show how man-machine
collaboration prepares the future generation for the ever-changing job market.
It will borrow New historicist theoretical framework to qualitatively
investigate relevant issues.
Keywords: Man-machine collaboration,
pedagogy, Future generation, AI, Organic pedagogy
The portmanteau ‘organic pedagogy’ is inspired by the Italian Marxist
philosopher Antonio Gramsci’s ‘Philosophy of Praxis’, and in consideration of
the multidisciplinary demands of the existing and the next generations,
pedagogy has to be organic. To Gramsci, an activist intellectual is an organic
intellectual. In line with the same vein, the pedagogy which transforms the
learners into a working resource fortified with problem-solving capacity may be
termed as organic pedagogy. Paradigm shift in the pedagogy has been very
frequent since the wake of the revolution in digitalization and cyber
technology. Teaching-learning is no more a knowledge transmitting process as it
was a targeted objective of the traditional pedagogy. Now in an era of
digitalization and man-machine collaboration, teaching-learning process emphasizes
experiencing and working affectively and effectively, leading to the attainment
of employability, constructivism and progression to the learning journey based
on the development of problem-solving capacity. True, knowledge is never
absolute or solid; it is rather liquid, and accordingly, organic pedagogy
assures that the learners should generate innovative ideas and working
cognition from time to time and bring about both revolutionary and evolutionary
changes in human society. Evidently, a society, even a civilization cannot
sustain with culture and history only. If it were possible then Mesopotamian
civilization, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro had not gone into extinction. They
ceased to sustain as soon as they ceased to produce new knowledge and ideas.
Production of knowledge is a continuous process and proceeds onward through
evolution and innovation. In this innovative, evolutionary and creative process
of knowledge and skill production, digital tools and apparatuses in
collaboration with human teachers can help learners grow better with not only
employability and problem-solving skills but also humanistic qualities leading
to empathy and close engagement with the society.
Teaching-learning is considered to be a science, mostly related to
neuro-science, and education “is represented by the learning outcomes, because
only through them can one judge an educational strategy or an effective
educational method etc.” (Leng et al 263). In terms of educational strategy and
effective learning, accelerated learning, and active learning must ensure
continuous professional development which is closely connected to the
creativity across the curriculum. Actually, creativity “is the process of
finding and implementing new and appropriate ways of thinking and doing” (Best
and Will 35). Effective pedagogy adopts cognitive acceleration programs which
include intervention approaches seeking to enhance learning outcome through the
use of innovative methods centering on thinking skills. Besides, it puts
emphasis on constructivism in which learners, by reflecting on personal
experiences, create their “own understanding of the world they live in” (Best
and Will 27). Behavior management is one of the major tasks of the teachers.
Behavior improvement approaches require the collaboration of the digital tools
in contact of which the present generation of learners and teachers live.
Target setting approach to pedagogy also requires the adaptation of digital
tools.
If emotional and behavioral
aspects, together with the digital apparatuses can be delicately added to the
cognitive aspect of the learners, then their future engagement with the society
can be ensured. Engagement with machine challenges the development of human
qualities, and the lack of these qualities should be addressed by pedagogy.
Integration between mental and material aspects of the learners can be ensured
with a view to enhancing learning outcome which intends to bring about changes,
both self and societal. To ensure holistic changes, collaboration between man
and machine in the respective pedagogy is the demand of the day. Use of
computer, robots, AI, above all, digital technology in the pedagogy is
conspicuously creating self-motivation among the learners. An excellent
assimilation among all these tools helps the learners overcome the barriers of
not only home-based learning, but also institution-based learning. Integrating
fields, such as computer science, psychology, ethics, and business contributes
to the acceleration of learning outcomes emanated from the man-machine collaboration.
Actually, “Learning is a change in long-term memory; therefore, an
important aim in education is to create long-term memories” (Kirschner 75).
Actually, memories are the repository of a nation’s history, heritage,
epistemic elements, culture and aesthetics. Man lives in memories. Memories
have the power to sustain human civilization and at the same time, memories
create stereotype of thoughts and ideas. Organic pedagogy is needed to break
the stereotype of thoughts and ideas. True, pedagogy, in the era of
digitalization is mostly context based and hence, pedagogical approaches
address crucial aspects in terms of context with specific focus on critical
thinking, inquiry, analysis, problem solving, and synthesis. Problem based
learning; experiential learning and constructivist learning lead to a long-term
memory retention. Long term memory retention is required for problem-solving
skills, and if emotional interactions can be collaborated with real-world
experiences, then the pedagogy can be psycho-affecting for the learners and the
teachers. True, “[T]he understanding of the problem situation and its
step-by-step transformation, based on planning and reasoning, constitute the
process of problem solving” (Finegold & Notabartolo72). In the traditional
pedagogy, teachers used to generate new knowledge and share it with the
students. But in the era of digital apparatuses, educational institutions put
emphasis on the impact of the knowledge and skills on the society. As a result,
the present pedagogy puts emphasis on the problem-solving skills of the
students so that they may face challenges and work effectively in the changing
situation. Employers want employees to work effectively even from the first day
of their joining the job. There is no chance to lose time in learning and
afterwards contributing. An employee is to contribute to his/her employer
institution from the moment he/she joins. So, educational institutions are to
teach him/her all necessary skills required for problem solving. For producing
multi-skilled graduates with professional development-knowledge, capable of
spearheading nation building in the digital era, educational institutions must
develop curricula. In this connection, outcome-based education is now becoming
popular all over the world as the learners are “expected to be able to do more
challenging tasks other than memorize and reproduce what was taught”
(Waghodekar 124). Besides, after learning under OBE curriculum learners develop
confidence which enables them to do research, detect problems, collect data,
analyze data and find solutions.
Let me delve deeper into my topic with a statement of Mikhail Bakhtin
according to whom, “We are suffocating in the captivity of narrow and
homogeneous interpretations” (Bakhtin 140). So, only dialogic or interactive
pedagogy can generate new ideas and knowledge. It is not new though the digital
tools have been added to it recently. In the traditional pedagogy of the
subcontinent, we find the elements of dialogism. It is an inevitable part of
the psychology of the people living in this subcontinent. Amartya Sen, in his
seminal book The Argumentative Indian has clarified that not only in the
elitist circle but also among the commoners it was a very common practice to
generate ideas. In his words:
It is sometimes asserted that the use of
dialects is largely confined to the more affluent and more literate, and is
thus of no value to the common people. The elitism that is rampant in such a
belief is not only extraordinary; it is made more exasperating through the
political cynicism and impassivity it tends to encourage. The critical voice is
the traditional ally of the aggrieved, and participation in arguments is a
general opportunity, not a particularly specialized skill (like composing
sonnets or performing trapeze acts). (xiii)
Amartya Sen raises a counter discourse against the discourse that
dialogism is confined to the elitist section of people. He puts emphasis on the
belief that dialectical disposition is an integral part of the disposition of
the people of India, and thus means to suggest that the process of the
generation of knowledge in this subcontinent is quite ancient and it is a
characteristic feature of the Indians. If viewed from the historical
perspective, it is found that the interdisciplinary teaching and learning
process in Nalanda University which was situated in Bihar in the fifth century
by the king Kumara Gupta ensured holistic learning for the learners with
special emphasis with the development of human qualities such as, empathy, tolerance
and cosmopolitan attitude. Besides, the pedagogy, curricula and the subjects
taught and learned in Nalanda University were based on interactions, debate and
dialogues essential for generating new knowledge and ideas dedicated to the
development of the community. At present
the concept of outcome-based education, whether it admits or not, has got many
things common with the traditional pedagogy of the subcontinent. The concept of
student-oriented class or engaging class borrows from the interactive pedagogy
of that of the ancient subcontinent.
But with the advent of the colonialism, India began to lose its
traditional pedagogy. Muslims put emphasis basically on memorization-based
pedagogy, and the British utterly replaced the local pedagogy with the colonial
pedagogy with a view to otherizing the locals. When after the Second World War,
colonialism through a drastic paradigm shift was transformed into imperialism
which is still going on with a mission of sustaining its exploitative
enterprises, pedagogy, as one of other tools became the target of the
imperialist to perpetuate their interest. In line with that intention, the
imperialist countries are still desperately trying to replace the local
pedagogies of the Global South with their constructed pedagogies capable of
transforming the developing countries into their market and thus perpetuating
their imperialist hegemony. In this connection it is relevant to assert that,
“Words and images do not simply persuade, they also coerce” (Hevia 4). So, they
want to bind the world learning process within their own format, and if it is
implemented then the Global South will be deranged from its own dialectical
pedagogy capable of generating new ideas and knowledge, essential for
liberating itself from the neoliberal and capitalist exploitation. In the name
of will be the consumers and they will always remain the manufacturers. Hence,
for the implementation of this project they are introducing machines in
collaboration with a view to producing a generation who will learn skills.
When a student some thirty years back used to confine himself in his
reading room and remain busy with memorizing his or her lessons now after
thirty years in the era of digitalization a student is found held up in the
traffic jam inside an overcrowded bus and browsing internet in his mobile phone
and preparing his tomorrow’s lessons or preparing PowerPoint slides for
presentations. Some thirty years ago the class was one sided and usually the
teacher was active while the students used to play the role of the passive
learners and then only 5% students were benefited by the lecture of the
teachers. But now it is expected that 100% students will learn the skills
needed for the job market. With the change of the modern life-style pedagogy is
changing. Even video games have turned into a powerful tool of pedagogy. Video
games offer not only pleasure but also problem-solving skill. Video games
designers are usually learning designers. These games are like activities which
encapsulate talking and writing of the learners. In the postindustrial society
video games turn into trans-cultural activities which enable the gamers develop
their world-views. The internet communities create and share these games and
“engage in reading and writing practices similar to those that teachers focus
on in writing classrooms” (Keller et
al 72). Actually, video games and other technological tools present
differential access and experiences to people occupying different special categories
and thus widens the canvas of teaching-learning process.
But now liberal education system has empowered the students to be more
important than their teacher in the classroom. Feudal values and ethics are
giving place to the capitalist power-structure which intends to transform the
educational institutions into factories to produce human resources required for
the ever-changing job market. Guru based pedagogy goes through a paradigm shift
and turns into student-based pedagogy. Now students with varied intellectual
level must have diverse intellectual training to be fit for the job market.
With a view to producing resources needed for the job market outcome-based
education is introduced in the curricula of many universities.
Just even till the revolution of cyber technology, stories used to
create intergenerational link. Stories are the repositories of aesthetics,
humanities, science and philosophy and hence, when the stories shifted from one
generation to another generation there occurred the paradigm shift of a
generation’s wealth of knowledge to the successive generation. The stories of The Mahabharata and The Ramayana are the faithful record of the cultural, political,
social and economic realities of the ancient Indians. The stories of Panchtantra are still a great source of
knowledge which comes from the past to the present generation. Actually, human race as well as civilization
lives in the stories narrated and listened for millenniums.
But after the rise of cyber technology, the place of stories has been
snatched away by the electronic media as well as social media, such as
Facebook, twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram and many others. The place of papery
books has been taken by kindle, laptop, android phone set and others. Sages,
instructors, decision makers, examiners, question setters are replaced by AI or
artificial intelligence. Algorithms are creating artificial intelligence which
threatens to hack human brain and destroy human civilization. Speech
communication is giving place to the messaging, twittering, WhatsApping, emoji
etc.
No doubt, after every twenty-five years generation changes. This change
brings innovations, alterations and revision in teaching-learning process.
Generation X and Generation Z are distinct in terms of their response and
engagement with the technologies, especially cyber technology. But both the
generations just after 2000 are exposed to internet. Gen X in 1980s and even in
1990s used radio and television as teaching-learning assisting tools, though
not as widely as it is now. But the members of the Gen Z who are born after
2000 are completely exposed to internet and Facebook, AI, ChatGPT, WhatsApp,
Messenger, Google search engine and several other social media conducted by
cyber technology. Gen X learns through both analogue and digital tools used in
the pedagogy. But on the whole, both these generations are called Net
Generation because of their exposure to IT or information technology. Actually,
“Net Generation learners—students who were born in the 1980s and later” ...
“possess unprecedented levels of skill with information technology; they think
about and use technology very differently from earlier student cohorts” (Kvavik
82). They are using technologies with a view to accelerating their learning
outcome essential for the job market. Thus, curricula are in need of intensive
modification which with accommodate IT side by side with the traditional
teaching-learning methodology.
The main challenge of the pedagogy based on man-machine collaboration is
the ethical concern. Man by instinct possesses impulses that tempt him be
emotional more than logical. On the other hand, machine is utterly devoid of
emotion. Man needs rest but machine does not, and it keeps working even when
human beings sleep. Artificial intelligence is now capable of developing
conversational interaction with itself and with humans. The most apprehensive
aspect of AI is that it is now working as an autonomous agency and trying to
work voluntarily and if eventually, it assumes the capacity to decide,
instruct, control and hack human actions, then what would be the role of human
teachers in future? But it cannot be denied that “digital learning resources
can create in students a mismatched sense of familiarity and comprehension that
does not align with how much they have actually learned” (Leng Chye ix).
Machine should be collaborated with man and pedagogy must be digitalized as
digital education has the potential to bring about positive changes in the
learning outcome but “learning transformation may not occur by simply adding on
the latest technology tools in classrooms. New learning model, innovated
academic environment and pedagogical understanding of teachers must be ensured
to guarantee the problem-solving skills of the learners. Furthermore, in a
country of the Global South like ours we have some fatal limitations, out of
which economic constraint is the first and foremost crisis. In this connection,
Jyoti Kapoor et al assert, “One of the limitations of digital pedagogy is the
acceptance factor of new technology over the older ones. Lack of digital
knowledge and in many rural remote undeveloped situations, the lack of rear
support is not negligible” (Kapoor et al 87). Hence, while implementing
man-machine pedagogy, we must be care about ensuring a democratic environment
for learners. Compartmentalization of the society on the basis of economic
variables cannot ensure proper education for all and it rather discriminates a
society. Hence, the implementation of man-machine pedagogy requires the
elimination of discrimination.
The main challenge of man-machine collaboration in the pedagogy is that
it does not basically put emphasis on the nourishment of human qualities. In a
traditional classroom both teacher and the students are interactive and sharing
of views which are tinged with subjective impulses brings about bridging
between these two parties in terms of human qualities essential for
socialization. On the other hand, dependence on machine, so to speak, complete
surrender to machines used as tools in the teaching-learning process cannot
ensure the warmth and enthusiasm congenial for developing intimacy between the
two parties that is teachers and students. Only skills needed for the job
market devoid of human qualities cannot contribute to the development of a
peaceful society. Uncritical surrender to machine in pedagogy has got the
apprehension of transforming educational institutions into factories to produce
intellectual slaves to the emerging neo-liberal capitalism and transforming the
Global South into a pool of labor devoid of the capacity of generating new
knowledge and ideas, and thus finally transforming it into a consumer always
buying knowledge, ideas and technology from the Global North. Without
generating new knowledge no nation can sustain in the present age of
ever-changing needs and demands. Global North may have a deliberate politics of
imposing technology upon the Global South via pedagogy to transform it into an
entity which will always depend on the Global North, and thus it will continue
its imperialist hegemony. The rise of Crony capitalism, that is, negotiation
between capitalism and politics patronizes the enterprises of the Global North
and helps it implement its agenda of transforming the Global South into
‘Other’. After all, it is undeniable that pedagogy is never apolitical.
Besides, man-machine collaboration in pedagogy impacts the behavior of
both the teachers and the learners. Imposing autonomy upon machine while
solving mathematical or scientific problems, or even in the process of deep
learning dependence of AI has got a crucial impact on human behavior. Even in
the assessment system machine technologies are now being applied as it is
belied that human judgment is vulnerable to biases. It is appreciable because
it ensures correct assessment. But at the same time, it marks the shift of the
paradigm of the dialectic or discursive integration between teachers and
learners and it has chances to intervene the cognitive development of the
learners. It is true that man-machine collaboration is “often characterized by
uncertainty, complexity, and dynamics” (Xiong et al 99). So, a healthy
integration between man and machine is to be ensured for overcoming cognitive
limitations. Development of computational power and advancement in algorithms
enable machines to catch up with or even surpass human abilities in case-study
and interpretative approach to various academic issues, and hence, technology
is heading towards autonomy. It is an undeniable reality and pedagogy must
accommodate it. But the issue that this article intends to bring to the
comprehensibility of the readers is that we need to integrate man with machine
on a healthy and balanced platform so that human qualities may have congenial
atmosphere side by side with skills and potential essential for the job market.
Besides, as pedagogy can be aptly used as tool of transformation, the Global
South will have to use it as an apparatus in constructing anti-imperialist
discourse.
In fine, it is conspicuous that current world-wide pedagogy which is
mostly job market-oriented is crucial in terms of its role as a political,
economic and cultural apparatus needed for constructing individual identity and
liberating a nation from the politics of neo-liberalism and re-colonization
under the disguise of globalization. In this connection, “critical
revolutionary pedagogy” is much needed to fight back the politics of
transforming a nation into other on the highest stage of capitalism in the form
of imperialism (McLaren and Farahmandpur ix). Actually, competent pedagogy
should have the courage to question the invasion of the politics of
transformation and otherization. It will incorporate the present-day technology
to accelerate the learning outcome. But at the same time, it must not forget
that incorporation does not mean annihilation. Juxtaposition of man and machine
can make pedagogy more effective and ensure more outcome by inspiring the
generation of not only manual skills but also intellectual capacity to
construct new knowledge and ideas which are essential for constructing
self-identity.
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