(Contextual Learning Lost - part 2)
Barb Lemmer recently told me a story about her favorite student field trip. Each year she takes students to the swine farm at the local community college, as students enter the farrowing-facility the veterinarian hands each student a baby-pig. The each hold the pig as they tour the facility and listen to his presentation. Before they leave, they are asked to place the pigs back with their MOTHERS...put them with the wrong mother and they may be killed. Because students do not remember which crates their pigs came from, they begin to FREAK out because they don't want their new porcine buddies to die. The stress and emotion caused students to perform their own critical problem-solving to determine where to put each piglet. (Thanks goodness for ear ID. We were not wanting to make kids think they were pets, but these are very teachable-moments.)
Sort of like the real-world, the final answer to the pig-placement problem has real-world and potentially deadly results. Contextual learning does help students to implement and utilize problem-solving skills.
Contextual Learning is NOT about requiring students to memorize and regurgitate lots of information. Contextual Learning is about teaching students in a real-world situation that has significant, real-world improtance. Because nearly 100% of high school students eat food, agricultural education is a perfect format to provide contextual learning.
Soft Skills are ultimately more improtant than Technical Skills.
Landscaping: My students used to love getting outside each spring to conduct landscaping projects. Most importantly, it instilled pride in their accomplishments when adults praised them and thanked them for their work. Students learned that QUALITY of work is very important.
Tractor Restoration: Out of the blue, we would sometimes have old-timers that wanted a few ag students to restore his old tractor. The few times this happened, I would have the old-timer come in and talk to the designated students so they could develop a personal relationship. Once students got to know the person they were restoring the tractor for, they would police the project so no other students touched it.
Golf Course Retaining Wall = $2100.00; Restored B John Deere = $800.00; Contextual Learning provides real-world development of technical skills and soft-skills = PRICELESS.
CTE educators need to fight to ensure that contextual learning does not disappear. English, science and math skills ONLY matter if used on-the-job.
Barb Lemmer recently told me a story about her favorite student field trip. Each year she takes students to the swine farm at the local community college, as students enter the farrowing-facility the veterinarian hands each student a baby-pig. The each hold the pig as they tour the facility and listen to his presentation. Before they leave, they are asked to place the pigs back with their MOTHERS...put them with the wrong mother and they may be killed. Because students do not remember which crates their pigs came from, they begin to FREAK out because they don't want their new porcine buddies to die. The stress and emotion caused students to perform their own critical problem-solving to determine where to put each piglet. (Thanks goodness for ear ID. We were not wanting to make kids think they were pets, but these are very teachable-moments.)
Sort of like the real-world, the final answer to the pig-placement problem has real-world and potentially deadly results. Contextual learning does help students to implement and utilize problem-solving skills.
Contextual Learning is NOT about requiring students to memorize and regurgitate lots of information. Contextual Learning is about teaching students in a real-world situation that has significant, real-world improtance. Because nearly 100% of high school students eat food, agricultural education is a perfect format to provide contextual learning.
Soft Skills are ultimately more improtant than Technical Skills.
Landscaping: My students used to love getting outside each spring to conduct landscaping projects. Most importantly, it instilled pride in their accomplishments when adults praised them and thanked them for their work. Students learned that QUALITY of work is very important.
Tractor Restoration: Out of the blue, we would sometimes have old-timers that wanted a few ag students to restore his old tractor. The few times this happened, I would have the old-timer come in and talk to the designated students so they could develop a personal relationship. Once students got to know the person they were restoring the tractor for, they would police the project so no other students touched it.
Golf Course Retaining Wall = $2100.00; Restored B John Deere = $800.00; Contextual Learning provides real-world development of technical skills and soft-skills = PRICELESS.
CTE educators need to fight to ensure that contextual learning does not disappear. English, science and math skills ONLY matter if used on-the-job.
2 comments:
Really interesting post. All great concepts on how student could learn better.
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Your post have the information that is helpful and very informative. I would like you to keep up the good work.thanks
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