5 Ways to Create Relevant Cultures of Learning

Education can seem like a balancing act between what we as adults feel is essential and what interests our learners.  The struggle is real as the former is sometimes emphasized as a result of a school or district’s focus.  Make no mistake about it – capturing the attention of students has become harder and harder because of the access that many of them have to knowledge, games, and each other through technology.  As difficult as it might be, schools must rise to the occasion. To authentically engage kids today, a central purpose has to be instilled through a combination of a relevant context and application. Without it, learning many concepts as well as the bigger picture doesn’t make sense to students.  The benefits speak for themselves, which compels all of us to ensure that this becomes a mainstay in pedagogy as well as learning environments. 

Success lies in a shared ownership approach to design relevant cultures of learning.  It is important to note that this task does not just fall squarely on the shoulders of teachers. However, their role in the process is critical. Below are three questions that kids should be able to answer if learning is relevant:

• What they learned
• Why they learned it
• How they will use what they learned outside of school

Image credit: Erik Francis

To dig a little deeper Robin Roberson discusses two fundamental ways to provide relevance to students aligned to research. These include utility value and relatedness. 

Utility value answers the question “Yeah, but what am I gonna use this for?” Utility value is purely academic and emphasizes the importance that content has for the students’ future goals — both short-term and long-term goals (Ormrod, 2006). 

Relatedness, on the other hand, answers the question “What’s this have to do with me?” Relatedness is an inherent need students have to feel close to the significant people in their lives, including teachers (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Relatedness is seen by many as having nonacademic and academic sides. The nonacademic side of relatedness emphasizes the relationship the instructor has with students. Integral to this side of relatedness is the understanding that students need to feel close to their teachers and are more likely to listen to, learn from, and perhaps identify with the ones they like (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

What happens in the classroom through the relationship-building expertise of teachers needs to be supported and enhanced across the entire school or district.  Herein lies the vital role leaders play in designing relevant cultures of learning.  A systemwide focus on meaning and purpose across all grade levels and content areas goes a long way to supporting a consistent interest in learning.  There is no right way to accomplish this as you will see from the examples below.  

Theme-Based Schools

Schools that have embraced this ideal have a central purpose that is embedded across grade levels and throughout the entire curriculum.  The theme serves as a conduit to connect various content areas and concepts to impart a greater sense of relevance whether it be in the classroom, hallways, or cafeteria.  Recently I observed a great example of this during a coaching visit with Kay’s Creek Elementary School in Farmington, UT.  Their theme focused on global goals for sustainable development.  As you will see below, not only were the goals clearly visible, but each wing of the building highlighted the main components of the environment. Video displays and interactive activities were also found in each of the main entrances to further engage learners in the theme.

Academies

Academy programs represent a bold new direction for education, one that considers student interests, national need, and global demand for highly qualified graduates capable of competing at the most challenging levels. They provide a defined framework for studies in well-defined, career-focused areas directly connected to university majors and workforce need. These programs cultivate emerging professionals who exhibit the knowledge, skill, character, and work ethic necessary for success in the global marketplace. To provide more learning opportunities for our students, the Academies @ New Milford High School were launched during my tenure as principal. Think of it as a school within a school. 

The entire program was designed using existing high school courses as well as adding new ones to complement the three Academies—STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), Arts & Letters, and Global Leadership—without costing the district precious financial resources. Any learner, regardless of GPA or learning disability, could be a part of these. Students graduated with a mini-major specific to their interests.  To help build the program, junior academies were created at the middle school to spark interest and function as a feeder pipeline. To learn more about our specific academies click HERE. 

A Unifying Focus 

I was torn as to whether or not I should include this in the theme-based or a standalone category. Obviously, I chose the latter.  A unifying focus bridges curriculum, instruction, and assessment to a school’s vision and mission. While every school has a mascot and logo, it is rare to see how these are connected to the elements outlined in the previous sentence.  Wells Elementary School in Texas is a great example of how a unifying focus becomes a reality.  When the school opened the kids and staff selected the “Explorers” as their mascot and from there on out the goal has been to create an innovative culture where kids actively explore learning through blended pedagogical pathways, outdoors, and in flexible spaces.  The focus is strengthened by the school’s commitment to social media to consistently share and reinforce how everything they are doing centers on the whole child and high levels of student agency. To see what I am talking about check out #ExploreWells.

Specialized Programs

Many districts and schools are providing supplements or enhancements to the curriculum to impart more relevance amongst learners.  These can range from traditional electives or more innovative options that align to student interests and current trends in the workforce. Some schools are taking it a step further to upgrade to learning environments while providing even more opportunities to engage students authentically. Be sure to check out what Mt. OIive High School in New Jersey has done in this area. 

Makerspaces

There isn’t much I have to say here as I have written on the topic extensively over the years. Makerspaces function as an oasis for learners who will never do well on a standardized test or succeed in a traditional classroom environment as that is not how they learn.  These spaces foster open-ended exploration, tinkering, making, and creating to learn. Many at-risk kids thrive here as they can learn with their hands while coming up with innovative solutions to problems that align with the real world.  Below are some pictures of makerspaces at New Milford High School and Mt. Olive Middle School in New Jersey.

I am sure there are many other great ideas out there that have positively impacted kids across the world. Creating relevant cultures of learning is the responsibility of all who serve kids, not just teachers in the classroom. This includes administrators, boards of education, parents, legislators, and other pertinent stakeholders. If the goal is to improve an array of outcomes and genuinely prepare kids for the workforce now and in the future, a relevant culture is a necessity. 

Ormrod, J.E. (2006). Educational psychology: Developing learners (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, Inc.


Ryan, R.M., & Deci, E.L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68-78.

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Relevance is the Fuel of Learning

In a previous blog post, I wrote about the importance of focusing on the why as it relates to learning.  Here is a piece of my thinking that I shared:

The why matters more than ever in the context of schools and education.  What all one must do is step into the shoes of a student.  If he or she does not truly understand why they are learning what is being taught, the chances of improving outcomes and success diminish significantly.  Each lesson should squarely address the why.  What and how we assess carries little to no weight in the eyes of our students if they don’t understand and appreciate the value of the learning experience.

The paragraph above represents the importance of making the educational experience relevant.  In a nutshell, relevance is the purpose of learning. If it is absent from any activity or lesson, many, if not all, students are less motivated to learn and ultimately achieve.  Research on the underlying elements that drive student motivation validates how essential it is to establish relevant contexts. Kember et al. (2008) conducted a study where 36 students were interviewed about aspects of the teaching and learning environment that motivated or demotivated their learning. They found the following:

"One of the most important means of motivating student learning was to establish relevance. It was a critical factor in providing a learning context in which students construct their understanding of the course material. The interviewees found that teaching abstract theory alone was demotivating. Relevance could be established through showing how theory can be applied in practice, creating relevance to local cases, relating the material to everyday applications, or finding applications in current newsworthy issues."

Getting kids to think is excellent, but if they don’t truly understand how this thinking will help them, do they value learning?  The obvious answer is no. However, not much legwork is needed to add meaning to any lesson, project, or assignment.  Relevance begins with students acquiring knowledge and applying it to multiple disciplines to see how it connects to the bigger picture.  It becomes even more embedded in the learning process when students apply what has been learned to real-world predictable and ultimately unpredictable situations, resulting in the construction of new knowledge.  Thus, a relevant lesson or task empowers learners to use their knowledge to tackle real-world problems that have more than one solution.  

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Diverse Learners respond well to relevant and contextual learning. This improves memory, both short-term, and long-term, which is all backed by science. Sara Briggs sums it up nicely:

"Research shows that relevant learning means effective learning and that alone should be enough to get us rethinking our lesson plans (and school culture for that matter). The old drill-and-kill method is neurologically useless, as it turns out. Relevant, meaningful activities that both engage students emotionally and connect with what they already know are what help build neural connections and long-term memory storage."

In the words of Will Durant based on Aristotle’s work,” “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”  The point here is that consistent efforts must be made to integrate interdisciplinary connections and authentic contexts to impart value to our learners. Relevance must be student based: the student’s life, the student’s family, and friends, the student’s community, the world today, current events, etc. 

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When it is all said and done, if a lesson or project is relevant students will be able to tell you:

1. What they learned
2. Why they learned it
3. How they will use it

Without relevance, learning many concepts don’t make sense to students.  The many benefits speak for themselves, which compels all of us to ensure that this becomes a mainstay in daily pedagogy. 

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Is Technology Being Integrated Effectively?

In many cases, there seems to be a tendency to water down expectations when it comes to integrating technology.  During a recent presentation on digital pedagogy for deeper learning I asked attendees to discuss then share out on TodaysMeet how they were effectively integrating technology in their classroom, school, or district.  There was an emphasis on describing in detail what effective use of technology meant to them.  As the results poured in there were a few consistent responses that stood out. Most attendees flat out stated that they or their schools/districts were not effectively integrating technology. Others confessed that they weren’t sure what effective use constituted.  Many of the remaining responses centered on just a listing of tools that were being used as a measure of effectiveness. 

The question about effective use provides a great opportunity for all of us to critically reflect upon the current role technology plays in education.  There is a great deal of potential in the numerous tools now available to support or enhance learning, but we must be mindful of how they are being used. Take Kahoot for example. This tool is used in so many classrooms across the world to get students more engaged and add a level of fun and excitement to the learning process. However, most of the time the questions that students are asked to answer in a Kahoot are focused on the lowest cognitive domains and mostly multiple choice.  I have nothing against Kahoot and think it is a great tool that has a great deal of promise. My issue is how this tool, and many others, are utilized in the classroom. 

The burden of responsibility here lies with both teachers and administrators. In many cases the engagement factor is emphasized over learning outcomes and actual evidence of improvement aligned to standards. I get that this is not the end all be all, but nevertheless it is important. It goes without saying that effective technology integration should inform instruction and provide feedback as to the level of conceptual mastery students demonstrate. Then there is the unfortunate practice of putting the cart before the horse where acquiring technology and getting it into classrooms takes precedence over improving instructional design.  In either case, for technology to ever live up to the lofty, and at times baseless, expectations that have been established we must take a more critical look at pedagogy. 

For many educators SAMR is the preferred model often associated with technology integration. It’s a catchy model and does have some value mostly in the form of what we shouldn’t be doing (substitution). Take a close look at the tech-centric language used in each category and ask yourself what does the SAMR model really tell you about the level of student learning? This is why I love the Rigor Relevance Framework as a means to ensure that technology is integrated effectively.  It provides a common language, constitutes the lens through which to examine all aspects of a learning culture (curriculum, instruction, assessment), and helps to create a culture around a common vision. 

Technology should be integrated in a way that increases engagement through relevance. As students are utilizing technology are they just applying it in one discipline? I am not saying this is a bad thing, but we must eventually move beyond this typical comfort zone when it comes to tool use. When integrating technology does the task allow students:

• to make connections across various disciplines and content areas?
• to solve real-world predictable problems?
• to solve real-world unpredictable problems?

The other aspect of this framework is the most important.  Are students working, thinking, or both? Successful technology integration is totally dependent on the level of questioning that is asked of our students.  This is why I always say that pedagogy trumps technology.  Think about the formative and summative assessments you either use or see in your respective role. Are students demonstrating high levels of cognitive thought? How do you know whether students have learned or not when integrating technology? What does the feedback loop look like? These are extremely important questions to ask as a teacher or administrator to determine the level of effectiveness. Check out this example to see how all the pieces (rigor, relevance, tech, assessment) come together to create a powerful learning experience).

The overall goal when integrating technology should be to provide opportunities for students to work and think. Another key strategy for successful integration is to use technology when appropriate. Technology will not improve every lesson or project, thus a focus on pedagogy first, technology second if appropriate with help ensure success. Many aspects of the Rigor Relevance Framework can be used to guide you in developing better questions as part of good pedagogy including:

• anticipatory set/do-now
• review of prior learning
• checking for understanding (formative and summative)
• closure

The most important aspects of pedagogy are assessment and feedback.  If technology (and innovation in general) is going to have a positive impact on learning, let’s ensure these areas are improved first. Then going forward always lend a critical eye to how technology is being used to address standards and inform instruction.

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