LEARNING SCIENCE THAT DRIVES LEARNING OUTCOMES: INTRODUCING ‘ACHIEVE’ 

What if we lived in a world where everybody reaches their true potential? Wouldn’t that be wonderful? At Embibe, we believe that every child deserves a ‘no regrets life’. When it comes to education, they all deserve a fair chance to unleash their veracious potential. 

This is possible when they have access to quality education and personalised guidance. In order to provide that to every student, we have launched Achieve which is backed by the most powerful AI engine ever invented. It is designed to make student achievements match their amazing potential.

THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN INDIA

A major problem that students across India face is the lack of a truly personalised learning experience. Every student is different. They have different strengths and weaknesses, they have different learning goals. How can they all learn the same way then? And how can we apply the same yardstick to measure their potential?

But identifying the learning needs of every student individually is a hard problem to solve. First of all, the teacher-to-student ratio in Indian schools is extremely low. According to a report published in 2017, India has about 32 pupils per teacher in primary schools across the country. That’s the average number of students a teacher has to look after. The number is quite high for government schools. And the post of teachers in many schools in the remotest parts of India remains vacant for years. Under the circumstances, catering to the needs of every student individually and providing them with personalised attention is not possible.

Second, even if the teacher-to-student ratio in Indian schools is high, it is not humanly possible for teachers to pay attention to every individual student and cater to their minutest needs. Because knowledge forms only 61% of what constitutes learning outcomes. The remaining 39% is formed by behaviours. This means, even if a student is academically strong, they might not perform well and score high in the actual exam if they do not work upon their behavioural skills. Teachers just do not have the means to keep track of a student’s knowledge and behaviour at a granular level.

THE SCIENCE OF LEARNING: WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND STUDENTS AT A GRANULAR LEVEL

Learning is a complicated process. It evolved as an adaptation for promoting survival. For example, we learned that we shouldn’t get close to the fire because it might kill us. All living things learn. But learning in human beings is more complicated. This is because the human brain and the human world are both complicated. 

In a world as complex, ever-changing and competitive as ours, it is not just about survival, it’s about thriving as well. It is about life outcomes. We constantly strive for a better life. Learning – gaining knowledge and developing skills – plays a crucial role here and that’s why humans put conscious and systematic effort into learning. Formal education in schools and colleges are great starting points but learning in humans happens all through our lives in one way or another.

Every learner goes through these levels when they learn something:

1. Unconscious Incompetence: At this stage, the learner doesn’t know that they don’t know.
2. Conscious Incompetence: Here, the learner knows that they don’t know.
3. Conscious Competence: Here, the learner knows but still needs to focus to accomplish a task.
4. Unconscious Competence: At this stage, the learner knows and understands properly; they do not have to put much conscious effort to accomplish a task.
5. Conscious Unconscious Competence: Here, the learner knows and can even explain the nitty-gritty to others.

Let’s elaborate on this with an example. Chirag, who has never seen a bicycle isn’t aware that he does not know how to ride a bicycle. This is Unconscious Incompetence. Now, when Chirag sees Shreyas riding a bicycle for the first time, he knows that there’s this vehicle that he does not know how to ride. This is Conscious Incompetence. Chirag starts learning how to ride the bicycle with the help of Apurba and within a week or so rides it himself, without any help, but still needs to stay focussed to maintain the balance while pedalling. This is Conscious Competence. Now, after a month of practicing, Chirag masters the skill. Now he doesn’t need to put conscious effort to maintain his balance while riding the bicycle. This is Unconscious Competence. After years of cycling, Chirag becomes a pro and can teach anyone how to ride it. This is Conscious Unconscious Competence.

The learning process that results in a learner transitioning from one of these levels to another is cyclical and involves the following stages:

1. Perceiving: This is where the learner receives an input or stimuli and perceives or develops an idea about what needs to be done.
   Continuing with our previous example, Chirag sees Shreyas riding a bicycle and develops the idea of riding it himself.
2. Deciding: At this stage, the information (input) received in the previous stage is processed by the brain.
   Chirag notices how Shreyas rides the bicycle, how he sits on it and pedals.
3. Acting: At this stage, the learner acts based on the information received and processed.
   Chirag sits on the bicycle, lifts both his legs on the pedals and tries to ride it. 
4. Feedback: Here, the learner receives feedback (internal or external) based on the actions. This serves as an input for the next cycle.
   Chirag loses his balance and falls with a thud. This serves as feedback and an input for the next cycle.

As you can see, the process of learning is extremely complex and traditional modes of teaching do not have the means to address these aspects of learning at a granular level. The learning system, be it teacher/instructor-led or technology-powered, must consider the science behind it, for effective learning of students, especially because every student is different.

Coupled with these are the other nitty-gritty of the learning mechanism. Here are a few examples:

1. When we learn or put effort into learning, the brain works. Now, the brain doesn’t have unlimited capability to process data and extract information constantly. It gets tired and overwhelmed when too much new information is presented to it. The point at which a person’s brain becomes overwhelmed by new information is called Cognitive Overload. This reduces learning. Now, one student may get overwhelmed by a certain amount of information presented to them within a specific duration but some other might be absolutely OK with it. The classroom-based traditional modes of teaching and learning don’t consider this. They treat everyone the same way and expect the same outcome from everyone. 
2. What the brain really craves is novelty, new and unusual ideas. The brain releases dopamine when it is exposed to new things. Basically, it activates the pleasure centre of our brains. We find it rewarding. It serves as a motivation for learning. Boredom, on the other hand, kills the attention and willpower to learn. The monotonous nature of learning in the traditional classroom setup doesn’t really cater to the novelty aspect of learning. As a result, the learner loses willpower and the brain gets overwhelmed.
3. Learning is connected. Knowledge does not exist in isolation. We collect new information all the time but to make sense of it and develop new knowledge, we need to use our previous knowledge. This is validated by scores of learning theories and yet, this aspect is not considered in the traditional classroom setup. 
4. Learning is affected by the way learners feel. From the way we perceive information to the way we process, remember and use it to solve problems, everything is affected by emotions. Negative feelings like anxiety, stress, shame and fear activate the limbic system which interferes with how memory is generated. It is, therefore, important to teach learners how to regulate their emotions from an early age.

Being aware of the student’s strengths, weaknesses, emotions and abilities can help the learning/teaching system to modify its methodologies accordingly and stay in sync with the dynamics of learning at the same time, thereby, making it easier to personalise the learning journey for the student.

Unfortunately, traditional, classroom-based modes of teaching cannot cater to these needs. They just do not have the means to keep track of everything. Teachers too are humans after all. The biological (and physical) limitations apply to them as well. For example, it is humanly impossible for a teacher managing a class of 50 to give feedback to every single student in the class on a regular basis. This doesn’t really happen in traditional classrooms and feedback is one of the most important stages of the learning process. A teacher does not even have the necessary tools to truly understand each and every student, their strengths and weaknesses. How can they personalise the learning journey for them? 

Technological intervention is, therefore, the need of the hour. With technology, it is absolutely possible to deliver learning experiences that are totally aligned with the science of learning.

EMBIBE AND THE SCIENCE OF LEARNING: EVERY CHILD WILL NOW ACHIEVE

Embibe, from its inception, has tried to understand where exactly our education system is lagging behind, what is to be done so that every child reaches their true potential. We realised the science of learning lies at the heart of the answers to all these questions. That’s why Embibe leverages the true power of technology to drastically improve and even revolutionise education in general and learning in particular. Because delivering a learning experience that is aligned with the science of learning is otherwise impossible.

Embibe’s Achieve has been created at the crossroads of learning science and AI&ML (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) to address this issue. At Embibe, we have picked up the best elements of more than 50 crucial pedagogical models as well as learning theories and integrated them with our personalisation engine, Achieve, to deliver an effective learning experience to students. While the scope of how all these pedagogical theories and models are used to build Achieve isn’t in the scope of this article, we would like to elaborate this with two particular concepts – Instructional Scaffolding and Zone of Proximal Development. 

The concept of Zone of Proximal Development was introduced by Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky. It is the zone of the closest psychological development of the learner that includes a wide range of their emotional, cognitive, and volitional psychological processes. In simple words, it is the distance between what a learner can do on their own, without any external help and what they can do with support from someone more knowledgeable. Check out the image below:

In this image, there are three concentric circles. Let’s imagine that the learner is at the centre of these circles. The innermost circle which is closest to the learner, therefore, represents what the learner can do on their own, without any external aid. The outermost circle represents everything that the learner cannot do at all. The circle in the middle represents things that the learner can do with guidance from others. This is the Zone of Proximal Development for the learner. Needless to say, this zone is different for different learners.

Vygotsky believed that while learning can happen when a learner is left to discover things on their own, this approach will not help them advance very far. At some point, they will get stuck. It is, therefore, important for the learner to interact with others who are more knowledgeable.  Many educators believe that every learner should be given a learning experience that is within their Zone of Proximal Development. This is where personalised learning, in the form of Instructional Scaffolding, comes into the picture.

Instructional Scaffolding is an approach to providing support to a learner by an instructor or a system. It has mainly three features that facilitate effective learning:

• First, there should be meaningful interactions between the learner and the expert. The interactions help the expert to understand where the learner is standing currently in terms of their knowledge and skills – it helps in determining the learner’s Zone of Proximal Development.
• Second, the learner is provided with support (scaffolding) to facilitate learning in their Zone of Proximal Development. Needless to say, the personalized support that is provided at this point requires the expert to understand the current levels and abilities of the learner.
• Third, when the learner starts working as per the interventions and recommendations of the expert/system, makes improvements, and becomes proficient, the support is gradually removed so that the learner can manage on his own.

Researchers believe that a child can learn any subject efficiently through Instructional Scaffolding if the scaffolds are provided in their Zone of Proximal Development.

Achieve’s personalised learning journey draws inspiration from, among other things, these two concepts that are supported and validated by many pedagogical models.

Achieve works in three steps:

Step 1: Create and Attempt Your Diagnostic Test

Step 2: Plan for Your Targets

Step 3: Start Your Achieve Journey

To start with, a student has to take the diagnostic test, which consists of two tests – 

1. Prerequisite Diagnostic Test to test the student’s command over prerequisite knowledge that are required to master concepts covered in the syllabus of current grade/exam, and
2. Achieve Diagnostic Test to test the student’s command over the syllabus of the current grade/exam.

As you can see, the fact that learning is connected is considered here. That’s why the Prerequisite Diagnostic Test is taken at the start of the Achieve journey.

The student also has to set a target for themselves. 

The two tests give the student their current and future achievement prediction. 

Based on how the student performs in the tests, our AI engine identifies where exactly a student is lagging behind, in terms of both knowledge and skills, and creates a Personalised Achievement Journey for the student. 

Basically, the diagnostic test serves as an interaction between the student and the system that allows the system to identify the student’s Zone of Proximal Development.

Achieve then serves the student with only the most essential and relevant learning recommendation from a pool of 50,000+ videos and 16,00,000+ questions from their current and previous grades so that the student can get to their best, the fastest. It also provides the student with feedback, personalised guidance and nudges at every step to address their knowledge and behavioural gaps. 

The practice sessions are powered by our very own Next Question Engine. It adapts itself to the student’s abilities and serves questions that wouldn’t confuse a student. It considers around 25 parameters, including a student’s mastery over a concept and how they feel, before serving a question to them. And if a student is still not able to answer the question, there are hints, step-wise guidance and detailed solutions. As a result of all this support and guidance, the student doesn’t get overwhelmed at any point. The system also gives real-time speed vs accuracy analysis to help students master the art of solving questions.

As you can see, the personalised learning content along with feedback, guidance and nudges facilitates learning in the Zone of Proximal Development of the student. This is also in alignment with the process of learning elaborated above where feedback plays a crucial role.

Note that as the learner interacts with the system, Achieve also identifies their behavioural strengths and weaknesses and guides them to learn how to regulate their emotions.

The novelty aspect of learning is also catered to by the vast variety of interactive and immersive content that Embibe serves to the learners. To learn concepts, students watch 3D videos that bring the different concepts to life. Visualising the different processes in 3D makes it easier for students to understand the different concepts and retain them for a longer period of time. To take it to the next level, we even have virtual labs and simulations, wherein learners can actually interact with different processes and experience how they work. Imagine being able to play around with the digestive system of the human being – rotate, zoom, dissect the different organs and even see how they work when a particular type of food passes through them. That would be easier to understand and retain, right? The diverse variety of content, 50,000+, available on Embibe, which is not limited to syllabus oriented videos but also Do It Yourself, Experiments, In Real Life, etc., make learning a really fun activity wherein the student will not get overwhelmed at all. 

Once the student watches the videos and solves the questions, Achieve conducts a revision test to certify their improvement. This improvement cycle continues until the student has mastered all the topics and chapters they need to in order to reach their target. A student can create Achievement Journeys for any chapter, subject or goal.

All features of Achieve are derived from crucial elements of various pedagogical models and learning theories and are totally in alignment with the science of learning. And all these features contribute to improving learning outcomes, which are validated by students’ attempt data that we collect.

Right now, Achieve is still in beta and is available for selected users. We will launch it for everyone soon. Achieve’s personalisation engine caters to around 500 exams for school, college admission and government jobs. But with this technology and the way it is evolving, it is only a matter of time before we solve all learning-related problems, regardless of which stage of life one is in and what their goal is – clearing an exam, staying relevant to their profession or simply learning for the sake of it. Our 38 publications, 9 patents and millions of success stories are testimonials to the way we are delivering learning and life outcomes and this is just the beginning.