Why Are You Doing It?

All learning must have a strong sense of purpose - linking it to the why. The difficulty arises when projects, problems and situations that teachers present to students do not yield lasting and transferable learning because too little attention is given to meta-cognitive and idea-building work that turns a single experience into insight, and then later, application. Teaching becomes more focused and effective when we encourage students to be meta-cognitive and reflective about what they have achieved in relation to their intended goals. We should explicitly explain to students, "we're doing this because... and we're learning this because...", otherwise any intended sense of relevance is lost. We must always strive to make our teaching as focused and intentional as possible.

Anyone should be able to walk into a classroom, ask students the following questions and have them give meaningful and thoughtful answers. Answers that show a real sense of purposeful learning. If they can't, then we need to rethink our teaching.

What are you doing?
Why are you doing it?
What does this help you do that's important?