We Need Teachers with Intellectual Humility

India is in a period of transition; a transition that is taking place at breakneck speed. Technology has greased away all frictions and assured the rapidity of this transition. A tsunami of change—affecting the cultural, educational, economic, social, and political life of the country—has shaken the very foundations of the teaching–learning process. It behoves all the stakeholders in the education system to find new answers to a series of old questions: What must be taught? How should students learn? How can teaching optimise learning? Add to this some more nuanced questions: How should the teacher–student relationship be organised in the context of latest research on learning, well-being, and development? Punishment or reinforcement, which is better? Should technology be entertained?

What is that one quality that might drive a teacher to seek answers to the questions that might initiate change? Even the best teacher with years of experience and unquestionable dedication for the profession may not necessarily see the need to take these questions seriously and look for new, contemporary answers. Only a teacher with “intellectual humility” will feel such a necessity. When a teacher starts genuinely searching for answers to these questions, they will find that their old beliefs and conclusions need to be replaced with new findings based on facts and research. They must acknowledge the inherent “epistemic fallibility” of the human brain, which is subject to perpetual evolution as ordained by the cosmos.