Why Do I Need This Class?

A common challenge that educators face from students is the question “Why do I need this class?” Though we want to believe that students intuitively understand the importance of our subjects, often they do not. Many struggle to relate our disciplines to their lives. Without a sense of relevance, students experience a disconnection between our enthusiasm for our subjects and their experiences with it in and outside of class. This disconnection can hamper self-motivation, engagement and meaningful learning. Because of this dynamic, many of us now work to teach the relevance of our content disciplines. After attending an On Course workshop last year, I now employ a number of new tools in my history classes.

With them, I have been enhancing what I call a “subject-value pedagogy” that encourages students to make meaningful connections between discipline-based skills/knowledge and other aspects of their lives. In every way possible, I encourage my students to find personal value in the content of my courses. My students know this approach as “Why History?” skills. This article discusses how subject-value pedagogy can be used in any content area to increase students’ intrinsic motivation to learn it.

BEGINNING THE PERSONAL CONNECTION

Beyond usual active-learning methods, I now ask students to own and be the creators of their “Why History?” experiences. Starting in week one, I employ activities that reveal history as a practical tool for self-empowerment in the present. To be discipline specific, I adapted the wording of the On Course principles to read: “People from the past can role model for us how to take personal responsibility for our lives, have self-motivation, use self-management skills to get things done, be interdependent by working with others to achieve results, be self-aware about the ways we impact ourselves and others, look at life as a learning process, be realistic about managing our emotions, and believe in ourselves and abilities!” Then via written assignments, surveys, and discussions students reflect upon the manner in which they already value and employ “Why History?” skills. Though initially some do not see cross-pollination with other aspects of their lives, this approach sets a tone that shifts students’ perceptions of history from the impersonal and disconnected to the personal and connected.

SUSTAINING THE PERSONAL CONNECTION

Here is a quartet of “Why History?” activities that I employ:

1. Quotations: As a means of further prompting student thinking, a “Why History?” bulletin board displays quotations from and images of historical figures. For example, Philosopher Herbert Spencer reminds them that “The great aim of education is not knowledge but action”; while President Abraham Lincoln offers, “People are about as happy as they make up their mind to be.” At mid-term, my students then add their own group-created “advice to the future” along with their pictures. For example, one group metaphorically advised: “Today is homework for tomorrow’s exam.” Another group offered: “People who dwell too much on the past may come to realize that they are preventing their future.” During discussions, my students said this activity helped connect them to their role in shaping history.

2. Mission Statements: To encourage semester-long engagement, another classroom bulletin board, displays inspirational “Why History?” quotes. After reading and reflecting on words like Paul McElroy’s “We are the living link through which will be transmitted to the timeless future all that will be preserved of value from the ageless past,” students create personal “Why History?” mission statements. For example, one young man wrote: “I will use the information from the past, so I can apply what I learn to help better myself as well as other people who may need help in their own lives.” Another female student wrote: “I will strive to learn about the important events of history so I can relate past events with my choices, decisions, and ideas today.” Such statements are placed on the bulletin board, and at various times in the semester students share their “Why History?” thinking with the class. For fun, each person who shares places a star on his/her mission statement. From this activity, I have witnessed improved individual ownership of the class as well as an increased interdependence amongst students. This outcome has been anecdotally evidenced by their willingness to spontaneously offer “Why History?” thoughts and to ask others to share ideas. For example, one student shared that as a result of studying World War II, she was able to make a personal connection with a veteran at the nursing home where she worked. By asking questions and talking about what she knew, she felt she made a difference in the quality of his life.

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Source: --June Klees, Faculty, History, Bay College , MI
On Course Newsletter 2/2010