Real World Application
One instrumental tool to aid learning is the inclusion of real world application. Real world application involves creating lifelike or experiential learning scenarios, allowing students to see how the knowledge they are acquiring affects the world or their every day lives. By connecting information and knowledge to an activity or scenario, students will be more likely to retain the information in a meaningful way. The phrase “in a meaningful way” is meant to suggest that the learned content will not be solely recalled for an exam, but it will remain useable information in the student’s mind, and it may impact the way they think or learn in the future. Integration of different ideas and the ability to make connections are imperative to long-term memory, and real world application is one way to foster these relationships.
Furthermore, real world applications are engaging for students, and these examples make the content seem more purposeful and beneficial for the learner. A professor at Bowling Green State University in the education department stated, “Finding really current topics and showing really important minds in the field lets students really be able to think critically about the information and apply it to the field and their lives.” Therefore, engagement through application can inspire critical thought, which is a goal of our Honors College curriculum.
A biology professor at Bowling Green State University explains, “[w]hen a student, high achieving or normal, gets a 100% on a midterm, final, or a comprehension quiz, I give the students extra research articles about the topic”. This was the professor's way of engaging students and maximizing their learning by giving them extra readings on more real world applications of what they were tested on. In the students’ perspective, maximizing learning beyond the classroom can be accomplished by using other sources.
High-achieving students often straddle a fine line between acting like “students” or “learners”. Students are the people who come to class, memorize the material, get their good grade, and move on. Learners are the people who come to class, engage with the content, create connections between this content and other information they have learned, and remember the content in a meaningful way so they can apply it in the future, outside the scope of that specific course. By creating meaningful real world applications in the content, high-achieving students will be more driven to act like “learners”, and work harder to become familiarized with the course content in a more meaningful, lasting way.
References
Brackenbury, Tim. "A Qualitative Examination Of Connections Between Learner-Centered Teaching And Past Significant Learning Experiences." Journal Of The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning 12.4 (2012): 12-28. ERIC. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.