Like many people, I’ve grown used to the comfort of online shopping post-COVID. And, two recent experiences have made me more averse to going to a physical store. Both times, I landed up at the shops at 11 am, the…
First published in The Hindu, 4 Aug 2024 When ChatGPT debuted in November 2022, it created a brouhaha. How were educators to make out if a student wrote a term paper or whether ChaptGPT spewed it out? Banning its use…
From a developmental perspective, what is the most important activity for children? Should they spend more time doing homework to hone their academic skills? Or should they read storybooks? Learn a sport like tennis or cricket? Enrol for Bharatanatyam or…
You’ve been working in a team of five people for over two years. Fortunately, the team dynamics are smooth as members seem to click with each other. Recently, a sixth member has joined the team, and for some reason, the…
First published in The Hindu, 29 June 2024 Most educators would agree that a rounded education should nurture the physical, emotional, social and linguistic domains. While most theories of child development embrace these four realms, the spiritual dimension is rarely…
Like many high school teachers, Parul Mathur was confronted by a group of passive and inattentive learners in her Psychology class. Keen to get them to be more active and enthused, Mathur first tried using mind maps to help students…
First published in The Hindu, 1 June 2024 In their brilliant book, Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson claim that metaphors are not just figures of speech but impact how we think and behave. In fact, they…
First published in The Hindu, 27 May 2024 When I was a doctoral student in the United States, I had a friend, who, like me, was from India. Though I struggled initially, I started calling my professors by their first…
Regardless of what subjects or field you pursued in college, you need to be able to apply what you’ve learned and keep learning on the job. To thrive at the workplace, career coach and writer, Katharine Brooks, identifies ten mindsets…
As you scroll down the Excel spreadsheet, your eyes crunch up. You can’t believe what you’re seeing. You run the analysis two, three times, but the figures that should tally don’t match up. It’s obvious you’ve made a mistake.