Contextual Teaching and Learning

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Contextual Teaching and Learning

• Susan Jones Sears
• The Ohio State University

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Improving Teaching

• Goals Describe and Discuss
• What Contextual Teaching and Learning Is and Is
  Not,
• Examples of Contextual Teaching and Learning,
• Supports for Implementing Contextual Teaching and
  Learning

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Improving Teaching

• Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) is a
  conception of teaching and learning that helps
  teachers relate subject matter content to real
  world situations and motivates students to make
  connections between knowledge and its
  applications to their lives as family members,
  citizens, and workers.

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Improving Teaching

• CTL is supportive of rigorous content.
• Students need the equivalent of college prep
  courses as well as a career emphasis.

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Improving Teaching

• CTL
• Engages students in defining and researching
  problems.
• They experience the messiness of ill-structured
  situations that are typical of the real world.
• They assume the role of stakeholders who are
  affected by the resolution of the problem.
• They engage in higher-level thinking and
  disciplined inquiry as they participate in
  authentic activities.

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Improving Teaching

• CTL
• Provides opportunities for students to learn
  knowledge and skills in meaningful contexts such
  as the home, the community, and the workplace.

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Improving Teaching

• CTL
• Builds on the knowledge learners possess and uses
  their life experiences and contexts as
  instructional platforms to help them move from
  what they know to what they do not know.

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Improving Teaching

• CTL
• Encourages students to direct their own learning
  and monitor their own progress.

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Improving Teaching

• CTL
• Supports instruction that encourages students to
  learn together and from each other.

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Improving Teaching

• CTL
• Uses assessments that sample the actual
  knowledge, skills, and dispositions desired of
  students.

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CTL is not

• a lecture-only method of teaching,
• busy-work or activity for activitys sake,
• doing the questions at the end of the chapter,
• rote memorization,
• teacher dominated goal-setting,
• paper and pencil tests

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Examples of Contextual Teaching

• An agriculture teacher and a math teacher put
  their students together to design a mist system
  for the high school greenhouse. The project
  involved calculating the volume of liquid and the
  amount of PVC pipe required for the project.

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Contextual Teaching

• A textiles teacher and an English teacher invited
  speakers from business and industry to make
  presentations to students on workplace standards
  and quality control. Students practiced
  note-taking and interviewing skills as they
  listened and then wrote a 1- 3 page report that
  both teachers graded.

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Contextual Teaching

• Students in food nutrition, chemistry, and
  journalism classes investigated the metal content
  of foods before and after cooking using various
  types of pans. They prepared omelettes using
  stainless steel, cooper, cast iron, glass, and
  coated cookware. Chemistry students used food
  samples to make chloride ions and

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Contextual Teaching

• The students tested the samples at a local
  university. They calculated the ratios of
  standard metal concentrations in eggs and
  mushrooms before and after cooking.
• They made graphs showing the results which were
  dramatic, e.g. egg samples cooked in cast iron
  experienced a 176 gain in iron.

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Contextual Teaching

• Students writing scores were poor and the
  English teacher and cosmetology teacher were
  searching for a way to improve them. They
  decided to have their students publish a trade
  journal.
• The students focused on vocational content and
  technical writing skills.

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Contextual Teaching

• Project Guidelines First students write five
  occupation-related articles in English class.
  After receiving feedback on the articles, the
  students choose three to include in the magazine.
  They write these articles 1) an interview with
  an expert in their field, 2) a how-to article, 3)
  a review of a book in a career or technical
  field, 4) an article comparing and contrasting
  new products, 5) a persuasive article on
  opportunities for career advancement.

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Contextual Teaching

• Students are assigned to groups of four per
  journal. Each student accepts responsibility for
  ensuring quality in one phase of production, e.g.
  designing the cover, and each student is required
  to include one of two exercises games, puzzles
  or a full-page advertisement related to a career
  or technical area.

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Contextual Teaching

• Other Ideas
• Generate solutions to critical problems facing
  the community,
• Critically examine major world events as they
  unfold,
• Deliver a community service and then reflect on
  the experience

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Benefits for Students

• Promotes higher order thinking and problem
  solving,
• Promotes student engagement and involvement,
• Relates what student is learning to real world
  problems and their lives, and
• Promotes authentic methods of assessment.

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Supporting Teachers Who Want to Change

• Provide externships and service learning
  opportunities
• Give teachers time to collaborate and plan
  teaching units and align curriculum with
  standards,

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Supporting Teachers Who Desire to Change

• Consider providing larger blocs of instructional
  time
• Provide professional development for teachers

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Web Addressesfor Contextual Teaching

• www.cew.wisc.edu
• www.bgsu.edu

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Contextual Teaching and Learning

• Teaching for Understanding Through Integration of
  Academic and Technical Education
• By Gene Bottoms Deede Sharpe