Contextually Based Learning: Fad or Proven Practice

A Forum — July 9, 1999

Contextually based learning is a hot buzzword in many education circles today, but it is not a new concept. It was a subject of great interest to education philosopher, John Dewey around the turn of the century. Contextual learning advocates that learning is most effective when new knowledge is presented in the context of a person’s past experience. In this forum, Dr. John Souders, Senior Vice President at the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD) and a master teacher for CORD, Pam Fails revealed proven strategies that have successfully reached students who do not learn under traditional teaching techniques.

Dr. Souders explained the concept of contextual learning as learning that occurs when knowledge is placed in a frame of reference, a point a person already knows or understands. "Every person is different," said Souders. "Start with something a student understands and build on it." He cited two key statements that help define contextual learning:

• The mind seeks meaning in the environment in which a person is located.
• The mind seeks meaning through searching for relationships that make sense and appear useful.

CORD also offers a guide for educators, described as the REACT strategy, that highlights the concepts behind contextual learning:

• Relating: Learning in the context of life experiences.
• Experiencing: Learning in the context of exploration, discovery and invention.
• Applying: Learning when knowledge is presented within the context of its use.
• Cooperating: Learning through the context of interpersonal communication, sharing, etc.
• Transferring: Learning by using knowledge in a new context or situation.

Everyone may be a contextual learner but we all learn by using different styles of learning. These styles of learning were displayed on a chart titled, D.A. Kolb’s Learning Styles. Based on the ideas in the chart, Souders suggested that there are different ways of learning and you can not teach to one style and hope to reach all students. Some students learn by watching and others by doing. Further, some gain more from feeling and others by thinking. Kolb divided these four learning styles into quadrants of learning and labeled them: accommodators, divergers, convergers and assimilators. More specifically, accommodators are people like those in business who use concrete, active thinking; divergers are individuals who may work in areas of history, English, political science or psychology, thinking in concrete yet reflective ways; convergers include those in the nursing and engineer professions who learn best in an abstract and active environment; and assimilators include those who enjoy physics, chemistry, mathematics, sociology, economics and foreign language, and thrive best in a learning environment that is reflective and abstract. By seeking to understand and respect these learning diversities, educators can develop ways to reach more students. Adjusting lesson plans to touch upon these four learning styles is an important move, but the journey, as we heard from master teacher Pam Fails, is not an easy one.

Pam Fails taught high school honors mathematics successfully for many years and one day was approached by her principal to try out a new form of teaching-- contextual learning. Instead of the well behaved, traditional students who learn from lecture and textbooks, Pam was introduced to the type of student who does not react well to that type of teaching. At first, Pam stated, she resented having to teach to the kinds of students who did not attend her traditionally styled classroom. "These were the students who roamed the halls!" This change was too much for her to take and to avoid it she went as far as seeking employment elsewhere. When that plan failed, she undertook the challenge to rethink years of teacher training and experience in the traditional ways of teaching. Almost immediately, a rift grew between the students and the teacher. The ‘us against them’ fight began to break down when Fails’ learning curve from traditional teaching to contextually-based teaching began to catch up with the student’s natural learning style. "Things changed and students began to have success. The success began to snowball." By becoming a learner herself, she was able to understand a little of her students’ experiences. "Learning occurs only when the process makes sense to you," said Fails and Souders. "What we construct ourselves is what we own and understand."

It is hard for teachers to change. Fails listed a number of reasons that point toward teacher professional development. To move from traditional to contextual learning, teachers need new equipment, new strategies, new expectations, new skills and new roles. Teachers have to learn how to ask different questions. With contextual learning a teacher’s role is to guide, discuss, create an environment, question, listen and clarify. A student’s role is to explore, investigate, validate, discuss, represent and conduct. And both teachers and students have to learn together.

There is wide acceptance of contextual learning but there are many obstacles to overcome before it is widely accepted in classrooms across the country. It is integrated into the latest secondary textbooks, supported by leading educational writers, endorsed and included in the standards from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the American Association of Community Colleges. But is the motivation there within teachers to learn how to teach contextually? Fails’ story revealed that it takes a lot of work to move from a traditional teaching style to a contextual learning style. Educators and textbook distributors must make progress toward including context when they are creating lesson plans for students. Integrating curriculum, as Fails reports, is only half the battle.

CORD has developed booklets of lesson plans that introduce a contextual approach to subjects like quadratic relationships. CORD’s slogan states: "bringing relevance to the classroom." CORD is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to furthering excellence in education and their work focuses on projects and programs that prepare students for the technological workplace of the future.

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