Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Who determines what is 'relevant?'

We hear so often that we need to make education relevant.

We hear kids saying they aren't engaged in learning because they don't see any relevance to what is being taught.

We hear educators saying that traditional PD isn't a good use of time because it's not relevant to them.

We would all agree that a little relevance can go a long way when it comes to interest and engagement.

Here's the tricky part...

Who determines and decides what is relevant?

Who is in charge of telling a student what is relevant to them?

Who is in charge of telling a professional educator what is relevant to them?

Marbles rolling around in my head...