How you can make knowledge relevant for your students

Display mounted by teachers in training

I watched about five minutes of the recent Oscars presentation on television, not because it wasn't a good show but because I had things to do that I considered to be more important than watching the spectacle.

In the five minutes or so that I watched, I learnt much, not from what was going on on-stage, but from my viewing companions. From them, I learnt the names of some of the guests in the audience, I learnt about the actors who were nominated in the category of "Best Supporting Actor" and I learnt about my companions' opinions of the movies and actors nominated in this category, as well as their views on who should win and why they should win.

This was information that was new to me since I cursorily follow the goings-on of pop culture. In five minutes, I got a lesson on an element of pop culture. From this lesson, I came to a realisation about the process of learning in schools, colleges and universities and all other places in which learning takes place.

We have both young and adult learners who find educational institutions to be dull places, places that sap their joy when they would've preferred to be anywhere else but in the classroom.

Many young learners seem to lack a purpose for being in school, so parents and teachers can preach all they want, this preaching will have very little impact because these young learners can't see the point of absorbing all the knowledge that they are forced to learn.

Likewise, there are some adult learners who, although they know why they are back in the classroom, cannot see the point of absorbing all the knowledge that they are expected to learn.

What is missing here? From my five minutes of watching the Oscars, I've come up with some missing links in the teaching/learning process. These links do not represent novel ideas, since I'm sure eminent educators and scholars have already articulated these ideas, but I think that they're worth repeating here.

Before I do this though, I'll digress.

The onus has always been on educators to make the contents of education relevant to learners. I'm using the word, "relevant" according its usage by posters in the entertainment blogosphere, but unlike these bloggers who have dismissed some entertainers as not being relevant, I wouldn't dismiss any knowledge out of hand.

From my perusal of a few blogs on elements of pop culture, I've realised that the word "relevant" in those circles is being used to mean "current", "now", "happening". Thus, contributors to these blogs often refer to some singers and actors as not being relevant today. From this usage of the word, I get the sense that these bloggers are saying that these people have "passed their expiration dates" according to some standard set by them and no doubt, some others.

Is this how learners perceive the knowledge that educators dispense in the classroom, that "it has passed its expiration date", it's old, it's useless, it's irrelevant, it's dated? And, if this is how they perceive the knowledge that they are expected to glean from their schooling, how do educators change this perception?

Many of us would agree that for educators to make knowledge relevant, they must show students how it is useful to their lives, now. Many young learners can't yet begin to fathom a future; older learners may appreciate the future usefulness of the knowledge to which they're being exposed, but they want to know how it will benefit them, now. So, educators need to package the knowledge that they're helping their learners to come to grips with in a way that they'll appreciate its value, now.

Back to the Oscars

Now, let's get back to the Oscars. The Oscars is current, it's happening, it's now. It's exciting. People are drawn to it. It stimulates discussion.

The reaction of my viewing companions to the Oscars caused me to think about classroom learning. These are some of the lessons that I learnt.

To help learners to start discussions about what they are learning, educators need to teach their students how to learn. They can start by doing the following:

1. Educators need to help their learners to acquire the facts of the content that they're presenting to them.

Those who are interested in the Oscars know the time of the year that Oscars are presented, they know the movies and actors who've been nominated for awards, they know other movies and actors who could have been nominated for awards, they know the purpose of the awards... They know the facts pertaining to the Oscars. They know these facts because of their interest in this award show, an interest that has been cultivated by the use of the mass media by the invested parties in this award to incessantly, and creatively sell the virtues of these awards to the populace.

2. Educators need to continue to find creative ways to market knowledge to their students.

They need to continue to find creative ways to introduce the facts of their subjects to their students. If students do not respond to one strategy, they need to find others.


3. Educators need to help students understand the facts of their subjects after they find them.

One way to help them do this is to have them produce these facts in their own words and in their own actions. If students cannot do this, they have not yet grasped an understanding of these facts.

My Oscars watching companions were able to present the facts of the Oscars to me using their own words, and I understood.

4.  Educators need to show students how to apply their new knowledge.

After students have acquired the facts of the elements of their subjects and they have demonstrated an understanding of these, educators should teach them how to use their new knowledge - to solve problems, for example, whether it's a mathematical problem, a legal problem, a teaching problem, problems related to the subject matter in class, but also problems related to their real world experiences.

My Oscar viewing companions could apply their knowledge of the Oscars by speculating on the possible responses of the media to what they considered to be the questionable fashion choices of some of the attendees to the ceremony, by commenting on the misuse of time by some of the recipients of awards and so on.

5. Finally, educators should, by example, help their students to acquire the higher order skills such as analysing and evaluating to better make sense of their subjects.

They can do this by introducing and explaining these skills to their students and help them to apply their understanding of these terms to an issue of interest.  Educators should not assume that their students know what they are talking about or that their students are old enough to figure things out for themselves.


I didn't stick around to discover whether my viewing companions had mastered these higher level skills, but I suspect that they have. I'm sure that they spent much time after the ceremony tearing it apart, comparing this year's ceremony with previous years', critiquing elements of the ceremony and so on.

The big lesson for Education from the Oscars?

Educators spend much time trying to help students to develop their domains of learning as per Bloom's Taxonomy. However, many students have already mastered these, but only in talking about what's interesting to them.

Educators have their work cut out to get students to bring this level of enthusiasm and understanding to writing about and discussing the elements of the subjects to which they introduce them in the classroom.