How Do We Really Learn: Iqbal's Natural Learning Process

💡Distinguished Lecture Series: How Do We Really Learn: Iqbal's Natural Learning Process 💡

Explore Iqbal's Natural Learning Theory, an account of how human beings learn, drawn from the ideas of the poet and thinker Dr. Muhammad Iqbal. This theory, presented by Educationist & Children's Author Dr. Amina Murad, explains the learning process as a natural cycle of five steps that begins with a challenge and formation of goals which through desire and passion, becomes action, and ends in a stronger, more confident and self- aware learner who is ready for a bigger challenge.

🔗Register here: rabata.info/lecture

🗓️ Saturday, November 14

🕕 6:00 - 7:30 PM

📍Rabata Cultural Center

Purpose

The purpose of the session is to help educators understand what is already happening inside a human-self who is learning, so that they can support their own learning as well as of their children and students, and avoid interrupting it. Many children come alive when they learn through sport, art, play, or a skill they love, yet lose that energy in subjects that are measured by marks, grades and competition. The session shows why this happens and offers simple, practical ways in which educators can keep the natural cycle turning, without needing many special training or resources.

Background

The presentation is based on the speaker's doctoral thesis, Theorizing Iqbal'sLearning Cycle: A Grounded Theory Approach (Institute of Business Management, Karachi, 2024). Dr. Muhammad Iqbal wrote extensively about the human self, which he called Khudi, and about how it grows through challenge, purpose, desire, passion, and action, but his ideas had not been presented as a theory of learning that could be understood and tested. The study set out to ask whether children's own experiences match the cycle that can be found in his work. It listened to seventeen young adolescents aged 10 to 15 from different religions, cultures, and backgrounds, and their own words about how they take on challenges, set goals, feel passion, make plans, learn from mistakes, and grow in confidence supported each step of the cycle. A grounded theory approach, in which the findings come directly from what the young people said, was used to bring their answers together into the theory.

What the Session Will Cover

The session tells the story of the learning cycle in simple language, using the real words of the young participants and short images from Iqbal's poetry, such as the falcon that must not be taught to live like a small ground bird. It explains the learning process as an integral part of human fitrah upon which Allah SWT has created all human beings. This helps to situate Iqbal and his ideas and their applicability at a universal level. The learning cycle explains why an individual’s passion does not scatter thinking but makes it more organized, more creative, and more reflective, and it describes what can go wrong when learning is reduced to grades, comparison, competition to prepare programed learners for a capitalistic society instead of allowing every individual to grow to their innate potentials . It closes with practical suggestions for on welcoming their and children's challenges, helping them form goals of their own, encouraging them to try and fail and try again, and celebrating the pride that follows, which in turn leads to higher consciousness and self-actualization that Iqbal terms as “Khudi.” The presentation includes verses from the Holy Qur’an providing the participants new perspective towards understanding the Divine message and the power of human construction.

Take Aways:

Better understanding of...

1. Selected verses of Qur’an related to Human Fitrah

2. Learning process

3. Terms related to Fitrah, learning, contemporary learning theories

4. One’s own self and potentials.