When Will I Use This in Real Life?
A question as old as time in a classroom and probably the most frequently asked, “When will I use this in real life?” And then its counterpart “Why do I need to know this?”. It can be hard for students to equate what they learn in the classroom to real life situations. It’s hard to understand why we learn geometry in mathematics when we aren’t presented with an application of when we will use it later in life.
However, it’s not just basic facts and figures we learn in school, it’s the skills we learn that are transferable to all aspects of life; working in a team, discussion, interpretation, inference and problem solving. These skills are not taught in one off lessons, they are taught from the very start of school and refined the whole way through; particularly problem solving. This skill does not come inherent with children but with the right building blocks and lessons, by the time they are reaching high school and further education they can independently tackle problems rather than constantly looking for assistance.
For high school students, once they move into their specialist classes, this is often the first time they are flexing these newly realised skills across the subjects they are taught; mathematics principles are suddenly found in science, paragraph writing skills are needed in more than just English lessons.
For those students in the COBIS DT enrichment activity during Term 1, this has been an opportunity to test a lot of these new skills. The project tasked them with using recycled materials to solve one of the large problems humanity faces, such as ocean plastics. Now here’s the chance to use lines, shading and mathematics in the design based drawing of their own products. All of those English skills are required to develop their scripts and now we need the discourse, discussion and debate that arises in classes to help with the presentation skills of being able to stand and sell products to the ‘Dragons’ awaiting their ideas.
Building such skills in the classroom takes many forms, but one key in all subjects is resilience. Part of learning new concepts in maths is being resilient enough to make mistakes and learn from them, as well as understanding links with other areas that have been covered. This is important in so many ways, as it prepares students for later life, giving them skills to persevere with difficult tasks or enables them to tackle challenges with confidence. They also start to understand that their knowledge and experiences, life in general, is interdisciplinary, nothing exists in a vacuum. Making mistakes as we learn is part of that, no one is perfect. The important part is learning how to move past what has happened so the same error doesn’t occur again.
Independence is another example. When students join us in Nursery they need lots of support and reassurance as the start of their schooling journey can be a big new scary experience, but as time passes they are able to zip their own coats, tie their own laces and read their own books. Eventually, as they leave school they’re writing and editing their own essays. This happens because in each lesson students are stretched, challenged and presented new information in new ways. A huge part of our High School program has been our independent project, which has produced some fantastic essays. Again, just as with the COBIS DT project, students had to draw from their knowledge and skills from all areas of the curriculum.
Lessons don’t just contain knowledge for later life, they also contain all the skills that students will need to navigate higher education and the world beyond. Planning, problem solving and independence are the skills that will help turn our students into the leaders of the future.
Mrs Blount-Hogg, Year 8/9
