My wife enjoys watching TV quiz game shows and so I often find myself watching, despite not really getting into them (perhaps due to the host’s lines like “come and have a go if you think you are smart enough” as if to say that intelligence and fact recall are synonymous, but that is of course a discussion for another day). What I find interesting with ‘meaningless’ facts (sorry, I shouldn’t call them that as you may well be asked to go on a quiz show) is the perception prescribed to their usefulness. When a question comes up relating to a topic that neither my wife nor I have had any real exposure to (which is quite often, let’s be honest) the natural response is along the lines of ‘why would anyone need to know that?’ It is, I consider, a defence mechanism to justify that we are OK in not knowing the answer. Yet when the roles are reversed, and we are able to provide the response to someone’s seemingly abstract question with a relevant (and indeed correct) response, then the effect is reversed. We do not, by my observation, feel embarrassed or like we have wasted pa
rt of our life by knowing the information, but rather we are proud that we are able to contribute meaningful information to the situation. The reason lies not in the information itself but in the audience which, which when transferred to a classroom context, makes me question the extent to which I emphasise the concepts and content at the expense of the establishment of an authentic audience. Not only do we know that the provision of such a meaningful outcome promotes student engagement, but that it can be applied to almost any context in many different ways. I have in the past considered this to be more of a ‘strategy’, by building it hypothetically into the context of an assessment, or enabling and encouraging the sharing of student work. But I have come to believe it to be more of a mindset than a strategy, regarding it more as the wheel of the ship rather than a nice extra deck tacked onto the vessel as an enhancement. I do not believe that school is being viewed by many students as becoming increasingly relevant and connected, but indeed going the other way; therefore carrying on with the old tried and tested script, is only going to end up losing followers. Of course this is only made more colourful when we appreciate that for each student, ‘meaningful’ takes on a slightly different hue; but if we provide the means whereby they can communicate that to us, then we can but do our best to be accomodating.