LME 535-Blog 1: Real-World Learning

Real-world learning involves a variety of factors. It involves dedication, drive, passion, and the willingness to fail at a task, learn from that failure, and improve upon it. It involves hard work, team work, motivation, and collaboration. Students can learn a variety of skills and standards from realworld learning. Students get to learn from and interact with people and places that can make an impact in their lives and in the real world. Many people have studied and developed programs that can make education more meaningful and relevant to young people today. Learning can be engaging and interesting. It can also help students learn how to create a plan of action for change in our society.

In the book, Real-World Learning Framework (2015), the authors discuss how students can and will learn skills and curriculum in multiple subjects to expand the real-world application of those skills. The five-levels of learning give students an opportunity to fully understand and develop ways to communicate with experts in specific fields. By meeting with people and working with them, students will understand how the information learned is relevant to their own lives. It gives students the power to investigate certain problems or questions and find solutions to those problems or questions in a meaningful way. It also helps students retain the knowledge gained for a longer period of time. The teacher’s role in this type of learning should be to collaborate with the student and guide them in the right direction. The teacher should give appropriate feedback that encourages students to further their investigations. Real-world learning is an important part of the Create Excellence Framework. When teachers and students focus on real-world learning, education becomes more authentic. As a result, student knowledge increases and students learn steps to help make the world a better and more productive place in the present and for the future.

According to the video, In My Middle School, created by Taylor Mali, American slam poet, humorist, teacher, and voiceover artist, learning should be hands on and meaningful. Learning should involve students working, examining, and testing things that will be used in their future work place. Learning should include students making an effort to better their current and future world. Mali explains that field trips should involve students going to visit places like the county jails, courtrooms, or police departments in order for them to see how things are managed on a daily basis. Math should include learning how to bill clients along with writing and calculating timesheets. Science should teach students about hostage negotiations and how to lead a criminal forensic investigation. Learning a different language in English class would help students comprehend the importance of being bilingual so that law enforcement could translate testimonies from witnesses to crimes or events that occur. Mali believes that education would be more meaningful if students could be taught through experience.

The video titled Individualized Real-World Learning shows that students actively engaged in the learning process will benefit in a multitude of academics. They are better able to construct their own thoughts, questions, and beliefs about a subject, topic, or job. They are able to relate to how the job is going to make a difference in the real-world. Students are actively learning from experts in the fields, but also learning how to collaborate and communicate with others in the field assigned. Regular assignments are still completed and presented to the class. Students gain a considerable amount of knowledge that can be mainstreamed into the present and future.

Authors David Hung and Myint Swe Khine explain how engaged learning allows students to become responsible for their own learning in their book Engaged Learning: Making Learning an Authentic Experience. Students are sometimes more productive when they have the ability to formulate new ideas through conversations or interviews with other people. According to the authors, one indicator for engaged learning is that the learner is not dependent on rewards from others. The learner has a passion for the material that is being studied and will work to set goals and tasks that involve multiple disciplines to help solve problems and address the issues.

In an article written by Marilyn M. Lombardi, Authentic Learning for the 21st Century: An Overview (2007), learning-by-doing is generally considered the most effective way to learn. There are many technological supports to help students become more engaged in learning. Students are not able to change the past, but they can definitely research the past and ways to improve the future. Access to experts through the internet or online interviews can be a huge asset to a student trying to develop his/her ideas. One interesting piece of information in this article is that it is believed that students immersed in authentic learning activities promote “portable skills” that most new people have a hard time gaining on their own. For example, the judgment to distinguish reliable from unreliable information, the patience to follow longer arguments, the synthetic ability to recognize relevant patterns in unfamiliar contexts, and the flexibility to work across disciplinary and cultural boundaries to generate innovative solutions. Students are more willing to work through their failures or disappointments when the activity or product is constructed on their own or with a group. With students being involved in authentic learning, they become more competitive in the job market globally.

All authors, speakers, and articles mentioned above connect to the Common Core Standards, C3 Framework for Social Studies Standards, and Next Generation Science Standards in that we use these basic skills or standards in everyday life. Learning these concepts in the real-world make it more meaningful to students. The learning will be embedded into memory better and more efficiently if students can experience it first-hand. According to the author of the C3 Framework for Social Studies Standards, young people need to be able to have clear and disciplined thinking to be successful in life. It is important for teachers to engage their students in this type of learning. If students can learn history through all disciplines in school, such as math, reading, language, etc., then they will be better prepared to be outstanding citizens because they will have that knowledge to better discuss events and actions with others. The C3 Framework also discusses the importance of using compelling and supporting questions that are generated by both the teacher and the student in the learning process. When students generate their own questions, they are more propelled to have a greater understanding of the material to be learned. Students also need to have the knowledge of adding to other ideas or thoughts in addition to clearly expressing their own opinions about a topic or subject. Learning how to speak knowledgably about a topic can help persuade others to agree with that student. The C3 Framework combines all areas of learning: ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards, particularly those in the Reading, Writing, and Speaking. In order for students to be successful in the work place, basic skills in reading, writing, and speaking are necessary. To be competitive in the job market, students need to develop the skills learned through the Common Core Standards. Students need the ability to collaborate and discuss issues that may arise in the community or globally and work with others to find solutions to the problems in order to continue to improve everyday living. Real-world learning meshes with the Next Generation Science Standards because students need to make sense of the world and approach new problems or information with that knowledge in order to help them solve or apply that information to help prevent societal problems in the future.

As a result, it is important to make sure all revenues are taught in a meaningful way. Students will become more involved, learn more information, and retain that information if it is something productive that can make a difference in their lives or the world. Students should be allowed to build that path of knowledge and grow from each with each lesson discussed. This is how real-world learning can make a difference.

REFERENCES

College, career, and civic life (C3) framework for social studies standards. Retrieved June 15, 2016, from http://www.socialstudies.org/c3

Hung, D., & Khine, M.S. (2006). Engaged learning with emerging technologies. United States: Springer-Verlag New York. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/1-

4020-3669-8_2#page-1

Lombardi, Marilyn M. “Authentic Learning for the 21st Century: An Overview.” ResearchGate. Duke University, Jan. 2007. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marilyn_Lombardi/publication/220040581_Authentic_

Learning_for_the_21st_Century_An_Overview/links/0f317531744eedf4d1000000.pdf

Maxwell, M., Stobaugh, R., & Tassell, J. H. (2015). Chapter 1: Real-world learning. Real-

world learning for secondary schools: Digital tools and practical strategies for successful

implementation. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree. ISBN: 9781935249443.

Mali, T. (n.d.). Taylor Mali: In My Middle School. [Video file]. Retrieved from

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/the-perfect-middle-school

Teaching channel. (n.d.). Individualized Real-World Learning. [Video file]. Retrieved from

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/high-school-internships-bpl