By: Megan Prats
3/15/2014
Students live in the real-world thus they need real-world information to make their time in the lessons worthwhile. A student who doesn’t learn practical things in the lessons won’t apply what she’s learned to better her life, thus she will find that her time in the lessons was a waste.
Practical information can enter into the lessons in two forms: 1) critical thinking; and 2) substantive. Both are important as both practical approaches will be used to solve problems in the real-world. How you can merge practical information with critical thinking and substantive information is detailed below:
Now critical thinking development is practical in itself because the adaptability component of critical thinking is real-world problem solving. However, you can add an additional element of practical information to critical thinking development by having the student solve problems that she will likely face in the real-world. For instance, if the student needs to calculate the BPMs of a song, the student should be presented the task in the same way as she would be presented in the real-world – with little or no guidance in how to do it. Thus, the student will be solving the problem and applying her critical thinking skills just as if she was solving it on behalf of her bandmates.
When customizing the student’s curriculum to focus on substantive learning, the substance should mainly focus on practical information. For instance, in a language lesson, teach the student vocabulary that she will use on a day to day basis (even if the vocabulary is slang). Or, for a music lesson, practical information would be such things as equipment, forming a band, the economics of being a musician, etc.
Just because practical information and problem-solving is the focus of the lessons, it’s not to say that theoretical thinking cannot be incorporated into the lessons. Sometimes abstract thinking is important for the student to experience because it opens the student’s mind to a different aspect of the infinite realm of knowledge. However, the problem with abstract thinking is focusing on it if it’s not practical for the student. Now, some students might have their learning goals set on theoretical ways of thinking, but the majority of the students want to learn so that they can use what they’ve learned in the real-world. Because a real-world focus is what the student is looking for, practical information is the way to go.
© Megan Prats 2014
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