{"id":1297,"date":"2023-04-28T12:21:40","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T12:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.processeducation.org\/blog\/?p=1297"},"modified":"2023-04-30T10:08:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T10:08:16","slug":"so-what-getting-at-relevance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.processeducation.org\/blog\/2023\/04\/28\/so-what-getting-at-relevance\/","title":{"rendered":"So What? Getting at Relevance"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As Process Educators, we\u2019re big believers in relevance, especially the relevance of knowledge and learning to its application in the world beyond the classroom. We know that simply giving students a learning activity or course content is generally not enough to motivate them to do anything other than go through the motions or memorize information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 1 of the Learning Process Methodology (which is the heart and soul of activity and curricula design) is, \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/strong> This is because the motivation to learn depends upon the relevance of learning to personal, educational, career, and life goals. The \u201cWhy\u201d statement in a learning situation makes clear why learning about a given topic is important and how it is relevant to the needs, interests, or concerns of the students. For a strong \u201cWhy\u201d statement, it is critical to think beyond immediate needs and the perspective of the instructor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instructors should be aware of the relevance required by a \u201cWhy\u201d statement, as not only have they designed the curricula, activity, and\/or learning experience, they also have life and professional experience beyond that of their students. Students have the benefit of neither of these perspectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to write strong \u201cWhy\u201d statements, it is necessary to dig deep into the issue of relevance<\/strong>. One excellent way of doing this is to assume a sceptical perspective and ask, \u201cSo what?\u201d While \u201cWhy?\u201d can be answered with \u201cBecause I said so\u201d or \u201cBecause it\u2019s required,\u201d asking \u201cSo what?\u201d begs for relevance and makes a glib response much more difficult. Asking \u201cSo what?\u201d again and again allows for an increasing clarification of relevance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mindtools.com<\/em><\/a> recommends this same technique, called \u201cAppreciation\u201d which is frequently used by military planners, as a way to extract the maximum amount of information from a simple fact. Here\u2019s their example:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fact: It rained heavily last night<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So What?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ground will be wet<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So What?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will turn into mud quickly<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So What?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If many troops and vehicles pass over the same ground, movement will be progressively slower and more difficult as the ground gets muddier and more difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So What?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where possible, stick to paved roads.<\/strong>
Otherwise expect movement to be much slower than normal.<\/strong><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here\u2019s an example with a focus on unit rates (the mathematical concept) for a theoretical learning activity.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Statement: Today we\u2019ll be learning about unit rates<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So What?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unit rates are commonplace in everyday life and you\u2019re likely to encounter them when comparing things like gas mileage where the rate is \u2018x miles per 1 gallon.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So What?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are able to understand how the unit rate for gas mileage works and how to work with this kind of rate, you will be able to compare the gas mileage for two different vehicles or even two trips in the same vehicle.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So What?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re able to work those kinds of rate comparisons, you\u2019re likely to end up making wiser driving and vehicle purchasing decisions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So What?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing how to work with unit rates can help you save money.<\/mark><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course this isn\u2019t the only relevance of unit rates but the \u201cSo what?\u201d analysis allows us to uncover at least one point of the content focus that is likely to be relevant to students. And when students find content relevant, they’re motivated to learn!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Process Educators, we\u2019re big believers in relevance, especially the relevance of knowledge and learning to its application in the world beyond the classroom. We know that simply giving students a learning activity or course content is generally not enough … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_eb_attr":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academy-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.processeducation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.processeducation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.processeducation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.processeducation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.processeducation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1297"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.processeducation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1321,"href":"http:\/\/www.processeducation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297\/revisions\/1321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.processeducation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.processeducation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.processeducation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}