The Purpose of Content

When I think back to my days as a learner, the content seemed to be at the forefront of every class.  Whether it was disseminated during a lecture in college, through direct instruction in K-12, or at times consumed from a textbook or encyclopedia, it was everywhere.  The more I think about it; content was predominately the focus in every class. Day in and day out a repetitive cycle ensued in most classes where my classmates and I were given information and then tasked with demonstrating what we learned, or in a few cases, constructing new knowledge.  The bottom line is that I, like many other students at the time, did school and never really questioned the means or process. In the end, it was about passing the test plain and simple. 

Now I am not saying that content is not valuable or not needed as a basis to move from low to high-level learning.  It goes without saying that a certain amount of content is required like learning letters and numbers to be able to move to different levels of knowledge construction in language arts and mathematics respectively.  But let’s face it, as learners progress through the system, content, and knowledge for that matter can be easily accessed using a variety of mobile devices.  This then begs the question – how relevant is content really in a knowledge-based economy that continues to evolve exponentially thanks to advances in technology?

When reflecting on the last question in the paragraph above, I think about the following quote from Steve Revington, “Content without purpose is only trivia.” Learners today are not as compliant or conforming as many of us were back in the day nor should they be.  Whether we are talking about authentic or relevant learning, kids inherently want to know what the higher purpose is and who can blame them.  

When content has a purpose and is applied in relevant ways to construct new knowledge, learners will be able to tell you:

• What they learned
• Why the learned it
• How they will use it both in and out of school

A lesson, project, or activity that is relevant and has purpose allows learners to use both the content and their knowledge to tackle real-world problems that have more than one solution. The shift here is key.  Engagement for learning empowers kids to put knowledge to use, not just acquire it for its own sake.  Many yearn for and deserve to use content and acquired knowledge to solve complex, real-world problems and create projects, designs, and other works for use in real-world situations. The value in content relies on how it is applied to develop thinking in a purposeful way further.  

Being a whiz at trivia might help as a contestant on Jeopardy but has little value in the game of life.   The stakes are now higher, which means we must take a critical lens to our work to grow and improve.  Helping our learners find greater purpose is something I think we can all agree on and will benefit them well into the future.