Contextual Learning to a student's experience, is the modern practical method of learning. Rather than just asking the children to learn from their textbooks, this method seeks to give their learning a purpose. The conventional educational system, in which pupils were merely instructed to absorb knowledge from books, ironically distanced the student from the quest of knowledge. While this is subjective, it applies to the vast majority of pupils. In this blog, we will see what exactly is contextual learning, how to implement contextual learning and more about contextual learning.
What is Contextual Learning?
Contextual learning is a method that provides a frame of reference to the learning process, making it simpler for students to apply the material to real-life events and everyday tasks. This sort of learning occurs when development and education experts and teachers deliver new material in ways that enable the learner to derive meaning from their personal experiences. Learning in context can enable the students to understand the significance of discipline information and skills, improving motivation and engagement. Meanwhile, learning that occurs outside of the context in which information and skills will be used may impede or impair a student's ability to transfer and apply such knowledge to the real world or in a new setting.
The core concept of contextual learning is to investigate how placing learning into context might render the experience more relevant for students. A contextualized learning opportunity educates students for life beyond the classroom by allowing them to explore knowledge in numerous situations and discover how it applies to them. Students begin to understand how well the knowledge learned throughout their studies relates to their planned career, the workplace, other elements of life, and the world as a whole.
Contextual professional learning also teaches students what it is like to be a practitioner in their chosen field. It can assist students in developing their professional identity and effectiveness as future members of a specific profession or business. Contextualization also teaches students to other peers' and fields' viewpoints, as well as how they connect with their own and in their own circumstances.
How to Implement Contextual Learning?
1. Engage your pupils in relevant industrial activities. Industry events and interactions should be advertised and promoted. This might include panel discussions, conferences, industry guest lectures, materials that examine potential career paths, and interviews with alumni.
2. In order to teach the material, include real-world and workplace situations into learning activities and assessments. What are the duties and problems that experts in your field face on a daily basis? How might these working scenarios be copied, reproduced, altered, or integrated into learning or evaluation activities? What approaches, tools, procedures, and analyses are employed in the field? How can they be used to teach content? Students will get a better understanding of how information is organized and utilized in their area by making connections to the business and the actual reality.
3. Maintain contact with key stakeholders, the broader community, and alumni. Consult with them to help you build genuine learning activities and assessments. Make use of their expertise to stay on track with market trends and expectations. Use these connections to give chances for students to interact with industry, such as job placements and industry networking.
4. Encourage students to consider possible and practical applications of their knowledge through learning activities. Investigate and use contextualized methodologies such as project-based learning, case-based learning, and work-integrated learning. Contextualized teaching and learning should result in more genuine evaluation. Maintain these distinct connections throughout your studies.
5. Promote and advertise work-integrated learning events to your students. What kind of work placement courses, practicums, volunteer initiatives, and research projects could they do as parts of their course or as extra curricular activities? Are there opportunities that are not affiliated with the university? Students completing work placements should be framed as growing professionals rather than students; this will result in a more realistic learning opportunity for the learner.
6. It's important to remember that not all learning is contextualized, and that decontextualization is not always bad. It is possible to combine contextualization with decontextualization.
Â
Characteristics of Contextual Learning:
Contextual Teaching and Learning incorporates strategies such as solving problems, self-directed learning, peer instruction, starting to learn in real situations, and authentic evaluations into learning activities; the major aspects of its assimilation are as follows and can be integrated into teaching activities, work - based learning, conceptual material, capstone projects, dissertations, online course material, and synchronous and asynchronous Chalkboard learning.
Strategies for Contextual Teaching and Learning
- Linking material to the learner's experience
- Inviting pupils to participate in active learning
- Giving pupils the opportunity to guide their own learning.
- Promoting the development of personal meaning through individual and group experience
- Evaluating achievement of results in an actual scenario and allowing for many interpretations of a same event
- Identifying information that is developmentally suitable for the learner
You might ask why to adopt this Contextual Learning Methodology. Here are the 3 steps to consider.
1.Faster time to value with better results
The tide of individualized learning is stronger than ever, particularly in light of the present epidemic, i.e. although remote employment has become the new standard, organizations assume that training programmes tailored to an individual's function will result in higher employee productivity.
Contextual learning produces the same outcomes. In essence, it is a programme that is tailored to the learner's position, daily life, and real-world events, resulting in stronger reinforcement of learning and, as a result, better achievements in a shorter time period.
2.Easy to remember and digest
According to a Forgetting Curve research, a student forgets 90% of the material they acquire in the first year. Contextual learning incorporates the knowledge to be transmitted into the natural flow of work, allowing for improved retention and application of what is learnt.
3.An overall better learning experience
When the proper technique is not followed, there are a variety of barriers to having a successful learning experience. They are as follows:
- The requirement to establish a threshold to notify the teacher that a skill has been achieved.
- A reduction in total production.
- Having to adapt generalized learning material to context-specific scenarios.
Contextual learning overcomes all of these obstacles to offer a learning experience that is pleasurable, output-driven, and self-sufficient over time. It also improves your workforce's flexibility and mobility during crisis situations.
We at Vikas Concept, understands the importance of contextual learning and encourages students and teachers to follow it. Vikas The Concept School is a center of excellence dedicated to developing children into future leaders. Through a systematic strategy, we provide concept and comprehensive-centered education. Order, independence, a joy of learning, a sense of being part of the larger world, and a sense of social duty are all fostered in our educational environment. "Every kid is creative and distinctive" - With this in mind, we give several possibilities for them to explore their abilities. Vikas The Concept School continues to motivate pupils, resulting in the highest possible participation in all events. For more information do contact us.
