EDUCATION is a process to develop modes of thinking that would enable us to fathom life’s natural and manmade phenomena.
To understand these divine and human creations, man has to use his mental and critical faculties, which refer to the thought process or in short, thinking. The thinking process involves the analysis of phenomena to develop meaningful constructs and the development of this thought process is through formal and experiential learning.
Experiential learning plays a significant part in primitive societies where knowledge is gained through experience in actual life situations. The thinking process is developed through observation and skills by way of imitation, which is embedded in the mind intuitively. Thus, critical analysis is mainly intuitive without conscious deconstruction and reconstruction. This is very much so with traditional craftsmen and artists, who create functional and spiritual crafts and objets d’art without any blueprints, but mainly from intuitive memory.
In modern society, the development of thinking is undertaken by way of formal schooling, by exposing students to various modes of knowledge through specific subjects. Each group of subjects develops a different thinking mode that ranges from computational thinking in science and mathematics, visual thinking in arts and design, conceptual thinking in history, religion and literature, verbal expressive thinking in languages and kinetic thinking in aesthetic and sporting activities. Each subject has its own merit in contributing to a holistic perception of life’s phenomena at different levels of cognition.
Different levels of schooling teach students different levels of thinking modes. For example, in kindergarten, it focuses on visual mode of thinking and expressions. Here, the thinking process is pictorial and tactile in creating and assembling pieces of materials into shapes and forms. They transit to the initial computational thinking in the primary years when visual thinking still remains the norm. It is only in secondary and tertiary schooling that students are guided into conceptual and abstract thinking while the higher level of thinking is usually taught and practiced at the upper end of the educational system, namely the university years.
Thus, the educative process is a conglomeration of modes of thinking.
However, our education system emphasises computational thinking over others, focusing on STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). It, nevertheless, accedes due credence to conceptual and verbal thinking. But, it neglects visual and kinetic thinking, which is grounded in the visual and performing arts. This lack of recognition for the arts is because they do not feature in the innovation of scientific products. They are intangible, sometimes obfuscate and abstract, but nevertheless, are equally important cerebral activity that promotes thinking and problem solving.
Our educative process should in fact promote the various types of thinking by ensuring that students are exposed to these thoughts process through the curriculum, which should incorporate science and arts to allow for the development of verbal, non-verbal and kinetic thinking.
Different subjects require different modes of thinking. Science, mathematics and philosophy are based on logical and rational thinking, while the arts, such as history and geography, are based on causal reasoning. The fine arts (visual and performing arts) are engaged in creative and abstract thinking as well as intuitive reflection.
The performing arts, especially, is where intuitive reflexes override conscious logical thinking. Dance and music are not based on a logical architectonic structure as in mathematics or physics, but on intuitive and creative impulses.
Drama, on the other hand, is grounded in logical progression of thoughts based on cause and effect, especially in realistic plays, which transforms reality and also engage in the illogicality of actions in play that may disregard logic but acknowledge the absurdity of existence.
Despite their educative thought process, the performing arts in schools and universities’ curriculum are dispensed as filling the void of leisure time; a distraction from the rigours of scientific and other scholarly studies.
This attitude towards the arts is the norm with educational policy makers and especially those who are scientifically oriented, simply because they do not understand visual and kinetic thinking.
It is important that we recognise the objective computational knowledge and subjective abstract knowledge augment each other in understanding natural and manmade phenomena as well as towards the development of a holistic person.
While science promotes evidence-based objective thinking, the arts allow us to move into the realm of abstraction and beyond reason. It allows emotional expression especially in language, literature and philosophy, which touch the soul and explore humanity’s harmonious and discordant behavioural pattern.
It is, therefore, imperative that we expose students to a variety of subjects that require different thought processes from the conscious mechanistic to the unconscious intuitive. This would equip students with, not only, the means of solving problems, but also in exploring manmade and natural phenomena by combining disparate elements to create new percepts as well as new tangible and intangible functional and aesthetic forms.
There is a need for a paradigm shift with respect to science and arts which are currently compartmentalised. Policy makers need to bring to confluence these two broad fields of study. The current attitude is that the twain shall not meet and the condescending stance that science is superior to the arts. In fact, the arts are as crucial as the sciences in the educative process.
Schools should, therefore, allow a free flow of the arts and science in the curriculum to allow for the inclusion of a broader spectrum of scientific and arts studies in developing holistic students.
What is important is the mode of thinking that is logical, creative and imaginative, which encompass numerical, abstract and even irrational thinking. All these will provide students with the critical and intuitive tools to understand and use the multifaceted phenomena of existence.
Mohamed Ghouse Nasuruddin is an emeritus professor at the Centre for Policy Research and International Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang