Ashu Kumar works with four students at a computer station.

Ashu Kumar: Teaching students how to learn

Information Sciences and Technology instructor focuses on helping students learn how to teach themselves

Ashu Kumar wants his students to learn how to learn.

As an instructor in Information Sciences and Technology, Kumar knows his students need to be prepared for their future careers, and that means not just teaching them current technologies and skills.

It means teaching them how to teach themselves.

“I start by asking them a question: What is the difference between going to a school or going to college?” Kumar said.

Most students answer that college is more freedom, while others add that more freedom means more accountability and responsibility.

While all that is true, Kumar said he encourages students to think for themselves and to take ownership of ideas and push them forward.

Kumar tells his students, “Do not expect to be spoon fed something you can learn yourself.”

That’s especially important for students who plan to go into technology-related fields, where things change very rapidly and the need to learn and adapt continues well beyond their time on a college campus, he said.

Kumar focuses on three things when teaching.

The first, he said, is to figure out how the students will learn to learn on their own. The second is to focus on how the students will learn to think critically. And the third is teaching them how to solve problems.

“College is more about creating the environment of learning,” Kumar said. “My job is to create that environment so students can learn. College will be over in four years, but technology is changing all the time.”

Education

Master of Business Adminstration (MBA)
Center for Management Development, India.

Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.)
Rohilkhand University, India.