Summary
Two-day event highlights critical thinking as a highly desirable skill for the new generation in multidisciplinary domains of education
Conference aimed to provide a platform for educators, learners, researchers and employers to share their opinion on critical thinking
RV College of Engineering (RVCE), Bengaluru collaborated with the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), New Delhi to organise a national conference on ‘Critical Thinking for GenZ – A Multidisciplinary Approach’.
The two-day event was hosted by RVCE’s Master of Computer Applications (MCA) department and sponsored by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) under the Grants for Organizing Conferences (GOC) 2020-21 scheme.
The national conference was inaugurated by AICTE chairman Anil D Sahasrabudhe in the presence of ISTE president Pratapsinh Kakaso Desai, RVCE principal K N Subramanya, MCA department director Andhe Dharani, dean of Academics Shanmukha Nagaraj and conference coordinator Jasmine K S.
Elaborating on critical thinking, Sahasrabudhe said, “We need critical thinking to transform digital information to knowledge and find the right solutions. The questioning pattern in our education system must be changed so that the students are trained to think, analyze and apply the learned concept. The world is changing drastically, which is why we need a curriculum revision so that we can include courses on relevant topics like IoT, Deep Learning, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.”
Lauding RVCE’s efforts, he added, “I appreciate the initiative taken by the university to select and introduce relevant topics in this conference. It is a first-of-its-kind event that has been organized by a higher education institution. Critical thinking is an ability that is not just required for engineering students, but all the young citizens of India.”
The conference took critical thinking -- an important aspect of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 -- and stressed its benefits for the current generation. It is a highly desirable skill that plays an important role in the education sector.
To develop a deep understanding of the foundations of critical thinking, a long-term approach to learning and applying those foundations in multidisciplinary areas like Science, Engineering, Humanities, Health care, Research, Education and so on must be addressed in the best possible way. This conference aimed to provide a platform for educators, learners, researchers and employers to share their opinion on the topic.
Kakaso Desai said, “Critical thinking is of utmost importance. Thinking is the most important element in education, which is sadly missing. A country is heavily reliant on its youth. In India, the conversion rate of research into products is minimal because society does not encourage the youth to become entrepreneurs. It is high time we provide our youth good education as well as oral support in taking small risks to become an entrepreneur.”
On RVCE’s behalf, Subramanya informed, “Decision making in any field should be done with facts, evidence and the solutions should always be context-based. As a first step towards the implementation of the critical thinking aspect, RV College of Engineering has introduced a course on Design Thinking for second-year students. We are also striving towards the integration of Liberal Arts with Science and Engineering. There is so much data available that restricting fields is not the solution anymore. We must work on converting data to knowledge, knowledge to information, and information to wisdom.”
Last updated on 08 Nov 2021
