Applied Learning

Adapted From Engaging the World: The Powerful Strategies of Applied Learning, developed by the Washington Alliance for Better Schools Applied Learning Task Force

by Dan Keller

Why Applied Learning?
These are stressful times in education. Even our most senior colleagues can't remember a time when the public eye was so acutely focussed on the performance of students, teachers, schools, and districts. Washington State is no exception. Our state-level Accountability Commission has our classroom teachers and school principals wondering about the consequences for stagnant test scores. If we, as educators, feel our security is threatened, Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs tells us that we are less likely or able to strive toward success. This, in turn, can limit our ability to grow professionally and meet the current challenges of public education. This phenomenon has lead to many in our profession struggling with how to best increase student achievement and bring about true education reform. The strategy of Applied Learning holds promise for resolving some of these struggles.
A Tension of Opposites
Standards-based education is upon us. Many of us, in our commitment to professionalism, have embraced the movement with vigor. We have examined the Washington State Essential Academic Learning requirements (EALRs) and made significant efforts to align our curriculum. We have analyzed the tasks of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) to see how we might make our classroom assignments more \"WASL-like.\" We have listened to the research that suggests, \"When students are expected to learn clearly articulated academic content in an environment conducive to learning, they will make far greater progress than students in a learning environment without standards\". We have worked to increase the rigor in our classrooms in hopes that our students will someday be able to \"meet standard\" on the Certificate of Mastery examination that will be required to earn a high school diploma beginning in 2008.
In our efforts to help students meet standards, however, we have noticed something has been neglected. What were once \"Best Practices\" confidently shared with our colleagues have almost become \"secret practices\" of the closed-door classroom. Do we only pay attention to those Multiple Intelligences that are identified in the EALRs? Do we no longer subscribe to Piaget's Theory of Developmental Psychology because of the WASL? Have we lost the balance between analytic, creative, and practical components that Sternberg's Theory of Triarchic Intelligence states is necessary for learning? In our efforts to increase rigor, we have lost sight of making education relevant for our students.
There is a perception of a dichotomy between increasing academic rigor in the classroom and making education relevant to students. If we are to maximize student success in school, however, we must develop a unifying theory of teaching and learning that addresses both rigor and relevance. Reaching this is not unlike science's hope to unify seemingly incompatible theories of Relativity and Quantum Physics. Physicist Steven Hawking said, \"It may be that this hope is just a mirage; there may be no ultimate theory, and even if there is, we may not find it. But it is surely better to strive for a complete understanding that to despair of the human mind.\"
Relevance is directly related to a student's understanding of how learning can be applied to life beyond school. Strategies for increasing relevance can range from simply telling students how a concept could be applied to challenging students to actually apply the learning to an authentic problem. That is, multidisciplinary, open-ended projects that fulfill a genuine need. It is the latter strategy that begins to describe the robust framework of Applied Learning.

The Real World Relevance of Applied Learning:

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