Design-Do-Reflect. Any Questions?

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My NoSmalltalk session with Ratnesh Mathur

by Albert Schiller

Conventional education operates largely as a content delivery system optimized for standardized assessment. It dictates what is learned and when. Aarohi Life Education, as elucidated by co-founder Ratnesh, fundamentally inverts this. Instead of a curriculum, its operational core appears to be a self-propelled, iterative cycle: Design -> Do -> Reflect.

This isn't merely project-based learning; analyzed closely, it functions as a systemic engine for cultivating autonomous learning, metacognitive skill, and intrinsic motivation, deliberately replacing external benchmarks with internal ones.

Design: Seizing Agency in Learning

The initiation point of the cycle is the learner architecting their own engagement. Ratnesh underscores that "the child is the leader," tasked with planning their activities on various timescales – daily, weekly, monthly. This "Design" phase immediately transfers agency. Instead of consuming a pre-set timetable, the learner must engage in executive functions: prioritizing, sequencing, allocating resources (time, attention). This isn't just scheduling; it's the foundational act of constructing one's own learning path, forcing a level of intentionality absent in passive reception. The challenge isn't if they will learn, but how they will structure their own process to do so.

Do: Contextual Skill Acquisition Through Action

The "Do" phase leverages self-directed action as the primary learning modality. Aarohi's rejection of a subject hierarchy is critical here; chosen activities, whether football or business analysis, are treated as equally valid academic pursuits.

This implies that essential skills – communication, computation, social-emotional intelligence – are not taught in isolation but are expected to be acquired contextually, much like one learns a mother tongue through immersion. Ratnesh posits that engaging with self-chosen tasks inevitably triggers the need for diverse skills: confronting a missing ingredient while cooking demands immediate problem-solving, creativity, or resource management. Action becomes the crucible where theoretical skills are forged through practical necessity.

Reflect: Activating Metacognition for Growth

The crucial differentiator in this model is the explicit, structured "Reflect" phase. Ratnesh described this not as passive navel-gazing, but as active analysis. Learners systematically examine their experiences, asking why things happened, dissecting frustrations ("Where was I getting stuck?"), and evaluating successes. This isn't left to chance; it's facilitated through peer discussions, mentor interactions, and parent involvement. Comparing the day's 'game' to analyzing a football match afterward captures the essence – turning lived experience into analyzable data. This process actively cultivates metacognition, the learner becomes aware of how they learn, what triggers frustration, and what strategies overcome obstacles.

Documentation further solidifies this phase. Recording reflections (written, video, audio) transforms fleeting thoughts into persistent data points. Periodic portfolio presentations then compel learners to synthesize these reflections, articulate their journey, and provide evidence of their growth – becoming, as Ratnesh termed it, "work certified" by the demonstrable outcomes of their self-directed process, rather than by external grades.

The Design-Do-Reflect cycle, therefore, functions as a closed-loop system for autonomous learning. It substitutes external structure with internal agency ('Design'), replaces siloed instruction with integrated experience ('Do'), and makes metacognitive analysis ('Reflect') the core mechanism for skill development and self-understanding. It’s an operational model predicated on the belief that learners, given the structure to plan, act, and analyze, possess the innate capacity to direct and validate their own education effectively.

4 lessons with practical value

What's next?

Ratnesh isn’t building a school—he’s redesigning how learning happens. In our May feature of Alba’s NoSmalltalk, we unpack how Aarohi’s learner-led model is challenging traditional education by embedding agency, reflection, and real-world application at its core. And in the next blog, “Beyond Drop-Off”, Ratnesh dives into why parent involvement isn’t optional, it’s a structural pillar of the Aarohi ecosystem, and a crucial variable in sustaining deep, self-driven learning.