Blending Ancient Indian Wisdom with STEM Education: A Multidisciplinary Approach
Abstract
Blending Ancient Indian wisdom and STEM education necessitates a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach that involves knowledge from diverse fields. It is an exploration and a work-in-progress direction integrating Indian philosophy, Indian aesthetics, metaphysics, knowledge systems, spirituality, awareness, and mind, located within and outside India, with STEM education. The social context, challenges, opportunities, pedagogic planning, curricular planning, and possible impact of this integration, as a bidirectional bridging by proactive management, is emphasized.
The challenges of the present, projection of challenges for forthcoming decades, integrated Indian views on life, society, interpretation of deep knowledge and genesis of thought-structures are discussed. The 21st century has a different kind of knowledge society, technological dominance, and creative thinking context. Age-old Indian wisdom is replete with methodologies of preserving, assimilating, and spreading knowledge, creativity, and thinking. In general, traditional educational and knowledge spread methodologies were oral. Sanskrit was scripted for preservation. The invention of writing was delayed in oral-focused societies. In contrast with the outside, the Vedic style of learning and teaching was intoned through samans. Mathematics was taught through magical square rhythms. Financial treatises were taught through cryptic versifications. In the Indian scenario, besides quantitative mathematics, various patterns and geometrical shapes of construction were taught according to the needs of times (Chesley et al., 2018). So, awareness and practices were geocentric and harmonious with the environment. It is also recognized that the unmanifest subtle realm precedes the gross visible realm. Such knowledge led to dhurjayavidya or attributing to analysis and synthesis of inert and lethal forces. Divine planes were recognized as aesthetically and geometrically developed patterns (Crayton, 2015). Mathematical findings were embedded in religious and social practices.
Keywords: STEM education, Critical Thinking, Ancient Indian Wisdom, Multidisciplinary Education.
