Critical reflection and lifelong learning

Learning happens in a continuum. We are all lifelong learners. It might be a new perspective, a new ritual, a new recipe, new technology or anything, we are learning something or the other all the time.

Learning happens when we learn to think. The best way to engage learners is to help them create connections of content in the context of things they have knowledge or experience about. These connections happen through reflection. However, we all have a tendency to walk on treaded paths. We are very often averse to new ideas, especially those that can change or challenge our pre-formed beliefs and assumptions. Therefore, reflection may help us make connections between new ideas and assumptions but it may be still biased. We may be viewing and accepting new ideas with old glasses and not truly introspecting them in the light of current knowledge.

Our biases kill our creativity and imagination. We cling to our assumptions and biases as they fall in our zone of ‘the known’. In order to avoid being daunted by ‘the unknown’ zone we avoid risking our assumptions and beliefs in the light of new knowledge or awareness. That is when we fail to grow. To be clear and unbiased in accepting and forming new thoughts, ideas and assumptions we need to critically reflect. We often reflect on our experiences and assumptions in the manner most comfortable to us and thus keep living in a skewed view of things.

If we all learn how to be reflect critically, we learn to grow, accept and adapt.

Nothing is stagnant in this world. We live in a flow world where along with everything else, knowledge, assumptions and beliefs are changing all the time as per the needs of the world, as per the new information discovered and as per the new technologies and tools being created. In this flow we need to be lifelong learners and learn the art of reflecting critically and teach our children the same thing.

Then only we would be able to understand and accept the world around us.