Educators with a prescribed curriculum (such as the Virginia SOLs - standards of learning) face a challenging mandate. Students do not learn well when facts are presented in isolation, yet the concepts that students will be tested on in the SOLs are listed individually like a bulleted series of unrelated facts. Inexperienced teachers try to present these facts this way in their lessons and then they’re faced with yawning students who don’t “get it.”
Students automatically and unconsciously filter out useless information. In time, if too much information is meaningless (such as historical details without the “big picture”), the learner turns his or her attention to more useful knowledge, which might include how to win at Nintendo, picking popular fashions, or how to kick a soccer ball.
Educators face a challenge. How do we redirect students to learn academic content that we (i.e., society) need to teach them, rather than only what they choose to learn on their own — choices which may fail to prepare them for their future? We must, overall, present lessons in creative ways that link the information to the student’s own survival in the real world.
Learning becomes automatic when students can apply what they are learning immediately to their personal experience and surroundings. I call this the “When am I ever going to use this?” aspect of education. For example, memorizing the definition of “democracy” means little to a middle school student, but during the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, current events that were gripping the nation and piquing curiosity served as a dramatic, teachable moment to explore the difference between democracy and other political world views such as anarchy or dictatorship. Suddenly, the concept of “democracy” became personally relevant and comprehensible, and important to understand.
Rather than subscribe to the lineup of chapters and units in textbooks, teachers need to harvest the world of current events and real-time trends with a keen understanding of their students so they can find relevant, meaningful connections between cold facts and the students’ personal world.
Likewise, students deserve to know how they will use the facts and skills taught in school when they enter the real world of working or being an adult. This includes character development in addition to facts and academic concepts. Effective teachers go beyond the facts to include teaching work habits such as completing work, staying organized, and responding appropriately to peers and authority figures.
Teachers can build bridges between their classroom lessons and the professional world of the workplace. Bringing in adult experts from various careers, for example, affords students the opportunity to hear firsthand how facts they’re learning are used in the real world, and also how important it is to develop a responsible work ethic.
