Teaching & Learning

The first article in this series spoke about Motivational interviewing (MI) as a counselling technique pioneered by William Miller and Stephen Rollnick. The next article talked about asking open-ended questions and affirming students’ strengths, two MI practices that can benefit…

Aruna Sankaranarayanan First published in Deccan Herald, 6 Oct 2026 When I was in school over thirty years ago, Civics was one of the dullest and driest subjects. Learning was limited to spewing back content from the textbook that failed…

Aruna Sankaranarayanan First published in The Hindu, 3 Oct 2026 In the age of AI, you may think honing your writing is redundant. If you can get a bot to edit your work, why bother with sharpening your writing skills?…

Aruna Sankaranarayanan First published in The Hindu, 6 Sept 2026 As AI continues to leapfrog day on day, educators are grappling with the types of assignments and assessments to give students. Due to rampant cheating using AI, many universities are…

First published in Deccan Herald, 25 Aug 2026  A man comes home tired from work to find his wife gossiping with the neighbour. The man beats his wife. When Sanjana, Senior Program Manager, Enfold Proactive Health Trust, Bengaluru, presented this scenario to a group of children in…

In last month’s issue, I described the spirit of “motivational interviewing,” (MI) a conversation style developed by psychologists William Miller and Stephen Rollick to enhance intrinsic motivation of clients in a clinical context. Today, I discuss two interviewing skills used…

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a “conversation style” developed by psychologists William Miller and Stephen Rollnick to help people cultivate intrinsic motivation and a “commitment to change.” Originally conceived in a clinical setting for patients suffering from substance addiction, it has…

A few months ago, I decided to cultivate a small terrace garden, mainly to provide a more pleasant view for myself. As I’m a novice gardener, I contacted a local nursery and went with their recommendations of a random assortment…

“Why do we have to memorise tables in this day and age?” is a lament that Jasmine Oberoi, a high-school Math teacher at Strawberry Fields School, Chandigarh, often hears.