[ncasenmare]

Having access to digital distractions is just half of why students get bored. The other problem is that the material taught in K-12 schools feels irrelevant, because it is.

As an example, OP brings up art analysis. Done properly, it is a rewarding endeavour. But the kind of art analysis you find being taught by dispassionate high school teachers are of the "The Curtains Were Fucking Blue" variety. And so, students come away thinking that's what all art analysis is: irrelevant.

Students need real-world, meaningful context for what they're learning.

Not contrived word problems or symbolism-searching.

[SiVal]

Students need real-world, meaningful context for what they're learning. Not contrived word problems....

This unfortunate meme is spreading like foot fungus in our schools, because there is some truth to it: you DO need SOME experience applying your skills in real-world contexts for your brain to decide they are worth keeping.

Unfortunately, this is misunderstood to mean that you don't learn things that aren't learned in realistic contexts. This is false and reflects a misunderstanding of the nature and value of math.

Math is the study of abstractions. When you learn that adding two apples to three apples gives you five apples and adding two bunnies to three bunnies gives you five bunnies, you soon discover that you can think of all such problems abstractly: adding a number to a number. When you then study how to add pure numbers, you are gaining experience with an infinite number of concrete, real-world problems simultaneously.

The point is not to give you experience with specific, realistic problems that you might encounter later, but to give you enough experience with different, concrete instances of an abstract concept that you begin to see the underlying similarity of all such problems. You don't need the instances to be "realistic", you need them to be recognizable enough that they lead you to an understanding of the abstraction. If problems are too realistic, people are tempted to solve them on the basis of domain experience and possibly miss the abstraction they represent.

You also need enough practice working directly with the abstraction (e.g., adding numbers that don't represent anything specific: pure numbers) that the result is fluency in recognizing a problem at an abstract level and easily solving it with your skills in manipulating the abstractions.

I think applying these abstract skills to some realistic problems is a great thing to do. But the fashionable notion among "progressive educators" that the study of "contrived problems" and "meaningless symbol manipulation" is to be avoided is a sad example of the blind leading the blind, robbing students of the true power of math: the ability to think in mathematical abstractions instead of being limited to the real-world contexts they've directly experienced.

[rickhanlonii]

Willingham would be proud, as this is a recurring theme and a whole chapter in his book "Why Don't Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom." He also made this case on this on his blog when responding to Andrew Hacker's ridiculous suggestion to change math so that you don't actually learn math:

"The problem is that if you try to meet this challenge by teaching the specific skills that people need, you had better be confident that you're going to cover all those skills. Because if you teach students the significance of the Consumer Price Index they are not going to know how to teach themselves the significance of projected inflation rates on their investment in CDs. Their practical knowledge will be specific to what you teach them, and won't transfer.

The best bet for knowledge that can apply to new situations is an abstract understanding--seeing that apparently different problems have a similar underlying structure. And the best bet for students to gain this abstract understanding is to teach it explicitly. (For a discussion of this point as it applies to math education in particular, see Anderson, Reder, & Simon, 1996).

But the explicit teaching of abstractions is not enough. You also need practice in putting the abstractions into concrete situations."

Neither of us, though, can make the point as well as he does. In the book he explains what transfer is, as well as surface knowledge, deep knowledge, etc, and how an understanding of these concepts ca inform a philosophy of education and shape education practices.

Everyone, read his book! If the title worries you that it's too focused on educators, then ignore the title. The content is applicable to anyone interested in learning at all, especially if you want to improve the way you learn. Obviously, I strongly recommend that book, but alternatively, he covers a lot of what's in the book in his articles[2].

</willingham_fan_boy>

[1] http://www.danielwillingham.com/1/post/2012/07/yes-algebra-i...

[2] http://www.danielwillingham.com/articles.html

[tokenadult]

Students need real-world, meaningful context for what they're learning.

What are some examples of real-world, meaningful context, in a field of study that interests you?

[ncasenmare]

Off the top of my head, I can think of 3 ways to provide real-world context for your studies.

The first would be a project-based curriculum. Students get to apply what they learn as soon as they learn it. I remember fondly the Twitter clone I made in Computer Science!

Another way is guest lecturers. In my high school, they would bring in a university professor to lecture once in a while. Students have more confidence when they know the teacher is immersed in the field.

Finally, internships. My internship at Electronic Arts taught me more than just technical skills - it also taught me communication, management, and design. Soft skills not taught in a curriculum.

[fixxer]

I tend to agree. It is easy for professors to complain about bored students and claim it to be a symptom of some broader problem, but I can just as easily claim that it is a symptom of too many professors regurgitating the text and calling it "teaching".