Team
KP Mohanan
Mohanan, a co-founder of ThinQ, has taught at the University of Texas at Austin; MIT; Stanford University; and at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He has made significant contributions to linguistic theory; he co-designed with Tara an Inquiry-Oriented undergraduate program in Linguistics at NUS; and has worked extensively with the nature of academic knowledge and inquiry, against the backdrop of human beliefs. He joined the IISER-Pune Faculty in 2011, where he continued his work till he retired at the end of 2016.
PhD, Linguistics, MIT (Cambridge, USA)
Tara Mohanan
PhD, Linguistics, Stanford University
Tara, a co-founder of ThinQ, is well respected internationally for her work on theoretical issues in semantics, syntax, morphology, and phonology, based largely but not exclusively on phenomena in Hindi and Malayalam. At the National University of Singapore, where she taught for 16 years, she co-designed with Mohanan an Inquiry-Oriented undergraduate program in Linguistics. She has a rare range in educational experience that spans experimenting with Inquiry-Oriented activities in 2nd Grade to advising PhD scholars writing a doctoral dissertation
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Madhav Kaushish
Masters, PhD, Mathematics
University of Arizona
Madhav, a co-founder of ThinQ, got his PhD in Mathematics, with a focus on Mathematics Education, at The University of Arizona in 2021. His focus for his PhD was on students constructing mathematical theories, and his thesis was titled 'Theory Building in Geometry Education.' He received his Masters in Mathematics in 2019 from The University of Arizona. His Master's thesis was titled 'Assumption Digging in Euclidean Geometry.' Before starting on his PhD, Madhav consulted for UNESCO-MGIEP on developing a course on Global Citizenship. Before that, he worked with Learn Today, the educational arm of India Today, developing curriculum and managing their online product development team. His first job after graduating from Oberlin College in 2011 was founding a startup, SmarterGrades, an online, adaptive numeracy learning portal. He is currently writing on mathematical thinking at madhavkaushish.substack.com.
Vigneshwar Ramakrishnan
PhD, Computational Molecular Biophysics, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Vigneshwar is an Associate Professor of Bioinformatics at SASTRA University, Thanjavur. His research interests are in deciphering the genotype-phenotype relations of organisms at various levels of organisation and in developing suitable computational methods for it. With an interest in inculcating scientific thinking in young minds, he founded the "Science Arattai", an informal forum for science discussion, for undergraduate students at SASTRA, where alongside the knowledge component, he takes every available opportunity to build inquiry abilities into the curriculum. His current preoccupation is in understanding how students’ innate concepts shape their learning
B. Tech. (IIT Madras),
M. A. (Delhi School of Economics)
Vaideeswaran (Deesh) consults in the field of environment, climate change, and sustainable solutions. He has an established advisory practice, in both the development and business sectors, and works within India and in other developing countries. He has been a core consultant with the World Bank for about 25 years. Further, he is keenly interested in the betterment of education, and contributes as a resource person.
Sriram Naganathan
Sriram has been closely associated as a resource person with IgnusERG, a group of professionals working to improve the quality of education for marginalized children across India at elementary and secondary levels. When he finds time, he also teaches History at The School-KFI, Chennai. Sriram trained in Business Journalism at the Times Research Foundation in Delhi and was a Reuter Fellow at the University of Oxford, UK. He held editorial positions in publications such as Business India and Business World, and wrote for publications such as Asian Venture Capital Journal and Oxford Analytica before moving to the field of education full-time. Sriram also advises Venture Intelligence, which tracks deals in the private equity and venture capital ecosystem in India.
MSc Biotechnology,
University of Pune
Rashmi worked as a curriculum and program developer at Agastya International Foundation, an NGO working in the space of hands-on science education for underprivileged children in rural India. After many years of research in Neuroscience at NCBS, Bangalore, Rashmi got very interested in school education and the neuroscience of how we learn. Rashmi believes that ThinQ was a transformative experience for her as it helped her overcome fear and insecurity associated with open exploration and begin to see it as an exciting journey. She is committed to developing an inquiry-oriented high school curriculum for Biology as well as pursuing research on how knowledge is created in the brain.
Ramesh has a range of experience from working in various fields - starting with troubleshooting electronic devices as a hobby from his school days, training and tech support in computer hardware and networking, facilitating personal development programs in Landmark Education (based on Werner Erhart's work), being a volunteer and trainer for a suicide prevention helpline, and doing photography and videography for social causes. He currently runs a school in Chennai, where he is initiating meaningful changes. He believes in using his life for causes that can make a difference to the world. He saw ThinQ as a good solution to ailing school academia, that bothered him all his life, and thus volunteers his time with ThinQ.
Sayali Tamane
Sayali, after completing her Bachelors in Engineering, entered the developmental sector. She went on to complete her Masters in Educational Technology from the University of British Columbia and has been involved in the design and development of the 'Avirat' online training program for secondary school teachers across Maharashtra. She has worked as a member of the Board of Studies for creating the textbooks for 'Self Development and Art Appreciation' for grades 9th and 10th for the Maharashtra State Board. She has been working on educating students from underprivileged background for several years. She currently works as a consultant in education and educational technology for different non-governmental organizations.
Aditi Ahuja
Master’s in Elementary Education
(TISS, Mumbai)
Aditi discovered her interest in thinking about education during a sociology lecture in her undergraduate degree. Since then, she has been volunteering and interning with various organisations that work in education and began working with ThinQ in July, 2018. Here, she learnt ways to tap into her intellectual interests and pursue them wholeheartedly. She is also trained in Bharatnatyam and enjoys reading about philosophy.
Rahee has been working in the field of education at the undergraduate and higher secondary level for over two decades. Teaching Language, Literature and Humanities has allowed her to engage with constructs, question binaries and facilitate students to think through how and why they learn. She hopes to contribute to a classroom environment that encourages the learners to use, explore and develop their metacognitive skills and have no fear of failure. She feels that ThinQ's IIE course has been instrumental in making her a conscious learner, especially while teaching. She enjoys writing and translating poetry and working with theatre.
Velavan was a member of the ThinQ IIE 2016 cohort and thinks that the course marked the beginning of the second innings of his life as a learner. He is the co-founder of Qrius Learning Initiatives, an organization that mentors teachers and designs academic programs on literacy and numeracy. Velavan facilitates inquiry and critical thinking sessions for secondary school students at The Aalam, a Montessori school in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
Datta Dandge
Datta has lately settled upon his identity primarily as a student of science, language, history, religion and spirituality and secondarily as a teacher and a creative writer. He has been a teacher of chemical engineering for more than 30 years after trying to learn it himself in ICT Mumbai and IIT Bombay. He believes the real learning happened only while preparing for his classes. Though he enjoyed the process of learning, he found the job of teaching (understood as transferring of knowledge) very challenging and at times frustrating. In last few years, he has been focusing on how a teacher can facilitate the self-learning of the students. He finds ‘inquiry’ to be a primary key to unlock one’s potential as a learner. Spiritual literature penned by the saints of India appeals to him for the richness of its language and the essential purity of its pursuits. In particular, the abhangas of Namdev and Tukaram keep him excited about the idea of how Bhakti naturally unites Karma and Dnyana within itself. Datta confesses that his attempts at creative writing serve as an outlet to his own frustrations in realizing this unity.
Chirantan Shah
Chirantan is currently the CEO of Gyan Shala, an organisation that operates community learning centres for over 25000 out of school children and intends to improve the quality of primary education in India.
Prior to joining Gyan Shala in 2018, he worked in various roles as a civil engineer, software developer, journalist, consumer research manager, sales manager and brand manager. In 2017-18 he tried to co-found an interviewing organisation to provide a platform to those of us on the fringes of the society. He couldn't make it financially viable and his discomfort with India's socio-political situation drew him towards primary education as an enterprise that could move our society towards being more ethical, just and egalitarian.
Participating in IIE in 2023, and engaging with the ThinQ community has helped Chirantan understand better the role between rational thinking and knowledge construction by human beings, and has helped him become more aware about his own irrational thinking.
He wants to think more deeply about the relationship between participatory democracy and justice, freedom. Going forward, he hopes to keep learning from the ThinQ community and work towards finding solutions to develop rational thinking as also cultivating participatory democracy in school education.
Support
Sanan has studied in KFI schools all through his school life. His academic interests are in mathematics and natural sciences, particularly physics. In sports, he started with playing squash, got interested in athletic events and now is active in basketball. At this point, it looks like basketball will be his sport. Having played the piano for a few years, he is now busy debating whether he should pursue it further. He was a participant in ThinQ’s IIE2019, which has contributed appreciably to his methods of learning.
Jayasree Subramanian
MSc, IIT Madras
Jayasree has taught in schools and colleges. Associated with Educational Initiatives, she has worked on the development of diagnostic assessments, teacher assessments, learning modules for an adaptive learning tool, and evaluation of educational programmes in the government school space. She has been working with ThinQ for several years, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Math Education at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education.
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MA (English), Pune University;
Post-Grad. Diploma (Communication Media for Children), SNDT University; School Psychology, Jnana Prabhodhini, Pune
Committed to the cause of education, Malati Kalmadi worked as a teacher for three years before becoming Trustee at Kannada Sangha, Pune, which runs the Kaveri Group of Institutes (KGI). She continues as a Trustee today, playing a significant role in keeping KGI motivated in accepting change and being creative, and building a culture of trust. She has been the guiding force in bringing to KGI a vision of learner-centeredness and a safe environment, as well as in initiating programs that offer students a wide spread of arenas for overall development. Malati is also an Ex-Senate member of Pune University; Director at Anjali Morris Foundation that works with children with Learning Disabilities; Trustee of the University Women's Association, Pune, which works for the welfare of women and the girl child; Life Member of INTACH, a national body for Culture and Heritage; and a Member of 'Connecting,' an NGO that works for the Prevention of Suicide among Youth.
Jeevan
Jeevan Mendonsa is a Jesuit priest and Lecturer in philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome. His main area of interest is moral philosophy in which he also received his PhD. His other areas of interest include philosophy of religion, neurophilosophy and philosophy of biology.
Previously, he worked for six and a half years in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra in the field of elementary education. He also actively promoted children’s literature in tribal villages and made the library a more child-friendly space, given the constraints of rural infrastructure. Firmly convinced about the significance of critical thinking and reasoning in education, he endeavours to promote these abilities wherever possible.
Shamli is a self-designed learner who has done her education outside the school system throughout her life. She lives in Palampur, Himachal. Her interests are in mathematics, physics, biology, art, writing and more. She also likes to look at things under a microscope, bake bread and cakes, used to play the tabla, and attempted the flute. She has worked with schools in primary classes as a math facilitator for about two years, where she also designed the curriculum to develop thinking classrooms. For her mathematical game design for education project, she was selected as an Ashoka Youth Venturer in 2019 . She was part of ThinQ's IIE-2019 cohort.
Anjali N
Anjali discovered her love for languages during her undergrad, leading her to pursue a Masters in Linguistics. She worked on documenting the grammar of Gaddi, a minority language spoken in Himachal Pradesh, India, published here. She was also involved in the surveying and data mining of a linguistic census in her university during her Masters. She is currently pursuing her PhD in JNU, New Delhi, on the nature of roots in Malayalam grammar. Apart from Linguistics, she is interested in engaging with ThinQ to learn the epistemological and pedagogical foundations of theory construction in science education.
Shyam is a strong proponent of self-directed learning which breaks disciplinary boundaries and integrates diverse perspectives, thereby creating the conditions for original thinking and novel insights. He dropped out of engineering to pursue an interdisciplinary MA in Humanities and Social Sciences, where he indulged in an unrestricted exploration of ideas. Not wishing to limit himself to any one discipline, he defended a thesis in the philosophy of social sciences in general. He continues to pursue his interest in philosophy—he has taught ecological philosophy as a Teaching Assistant at Ashoka University, and is working on an intellectual project to develop a comprehensive philosophical critique of the fundamental premises of global modernity. He pursues a day job in public policy as a Senior Research & Policy Coordinator.
Kuany
Kuany is a Project Officer, Education, UNESCO Iraq Office. A global nomad from South Sudan, he completed his high school education in Kenya while a refugee. He is self-educated in global geopolitics, philosophy and trained in the Paul-Elder Framework for Critical Thinking, and most importantly, ThinQ’s Inquiry-Orientated Education — which he describes as the most dispassionate and rigorous method for any seeker of the truth.
Before his posting in Iraq, Kuany was at UNESCO MGIEP in Delhi, where he was involved in a number of projects for the youth. His book, The Enlightened Darkness is an intimate meditation on the causes and consequences of the Sudanese Civil War. He is currently working on his second book, ACHOL, on the customs and traditions of South Sudanese tribes. He hopes to use the proceeds from the books to support orphans’ education in South Sudan.
Kuany derives his motivation from a high school teacher who once told him that he will ‘’never amount to anything in life.’’ He rejoices in the GOOD things of the mind — good books, good coffee, good music, soccer, and enriching conversations, and solitude.
B.Tech, TKM College of Engineering, University of Kerala
Yadu manages collaborations and contributes towards content development at Agastya International Foundation, a non-profit which aims to spark curiosity, nurture creativity and instil confidence among government school students. After completing his Engineering, Yadu worked as an IT professional for 8 years before breaking away to explore development sector and education. He believes that ThinQ's inquiry oriented learning is a liberating experience, allowing him to enjoy exploring different paths. Yadu hopes to contribute towards developing and disseminating ThinQ's views.
Rayn
Rayn is an undergraduate student at Reed College, with a BA expected in physics. He was 'unschooled' most of his life--he did not attend school, took no formal classes, and did no exams until he decided to pursue academics at the age of eighteen. With a keen interest in research and education, he has contributed to multiple projects at ThinQ as co-teacher for courses on Inquiry and Integration at the Kaveri Group of Schools and for a course on Global Citizenship developed for UNESCO-MGIEP.