Opening their eyes to the world

The columnist’s ‘superpower’ is his desire to unlock the potential in every student who crosses his path.

NEXT year, in the month of July, I will have spent 40 years of my life as an academic.

I’ve always considered myself a “traditional academic”, not like the young ones of today in the same profession. When I interview candidates for a professorship nowadays, I don’t come across my type of academic any more so I feel that I will eventually face a natural extinction.

I have a different outlook than most academics younger than me on the role of knowledge and the teaching of students.

In today’s column I wish to leave a legacy to others who might want to reignite the traditional view I have about inspiring, guiding and encouraging students towards endless possibilities.

When I walk into any classroom, lecture hall, or face a Zoom screen on the first day of class, I like to start by trying to inspire my students.

I do not spend the day going over what the assignments are, how marks are given, giving attendance guides as well as warnings about late submissions, and all that. The first and last day of class are most important to me.

On the first day I want to inspire the students, while on the last day of class I want to leave them with a message that will, hopefully, linger for the rest of their lives.

In a Structures class, I sometimes start off with what I call an amazing fact, like: Did you know that if you wind human hair into the size of a one-inch water pipe, you can carry 10 sedan cars easily? Because human hair is as strong as normal steel in tensile strength.

Or like the bridge with the longest span, from column to column, with the emptiness of ocean beneath for over 3km. Imagine the Penang bridge’s two mast towers 3km apart rather than in its present form of a third of a kilometre in a span.

I would then put on a slide show of incredibly complex structures designed by, say, Pier Luigi Nervi or those designed by Santiago Calatrava.

Never mind that the class is a beginner’s one for structures that merely sizes simple columns, beams, and trusses, it’s exciting to display how nature deals with the forces of wind and gravity and teaches humans how to span distances over rivers, oceans, and ravines as well as build skyscrapers that reach several kilometres high.

In my Architectural Theory class, I would display the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya and ask, is this Malaysian architecture, is this an architecture type fit for a democracy? I would also then – dramatically! – display a mosque that cost millions of ringgit to build and ask if it represents the values of Islam. Would the Prophet Muhammad be pleased with such a project?

And of course, I would show some familiar pictures of the campus and ask whether the design and planning of Malaysian university campuses are specifically aimed at administrative users or ordinary students?

With these questions ringing in the ears and minds of the students, I would then launch into the message of the class for that semester.

To guide students through their assignments, I would, in the early years of my career, publish books of theory and structures for my two classes. There are theory books in Bahasa Malaysia and English to be used as guides for their exams also.

Nowadays, I have all my lectures on my YouTube channel available for anyone to try and understand. I also have examples of excellent assignments as models for weak students.

The strong students I leave to explore for themselves some different styles and formats of presentation.

For the technical structure class, I would practise the calculations with the students every day. I would then leave them with structural problems to be resolved and walk out of the classroom for 20 minutes so the groups of students will consult each other using the calculators and load tables.

When I return, I ask them to do the calculations on the board and compare the answers with each other.

Of the usually 90-odd students I taught every year, almost half of them would score an A or A- at the end of the semester. No one failed my classes, apart from a few who were absent and did not turn in the assignments due to their own personal issues.

At the end of the semester, I would go over the marks of the students while praising their diligence and hard work, not only verbally but also via text message later. I would then end by projecting the possible trajectories of their knowledge in the various professions of construction, not just in architecture.

There’s another thing I’m not sure most other academics feel the same about: I view students as future leaders and good professionals that have the potential to “rebuild better” the world my children and grandchildren live in.

Every student that crossed my career’s path has received the best of me – I give my attention and my help as soon as possible when they ask.

Because the first and last responsibility of academics is the welfare and “software” of the students.

My “superpower” is how I spend my time with students so they will realise their worth and the possibilities awaiting them beyond the classroom.

I do not teach students to fit in the prescribed boxes of society because true knowledge evolves and influences society towards change for the better, always.

Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at the Tan Sri Omar Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Studies at UCSI University. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.