Content Appreciation

As teachers, we want our students to see the value of the content we are teaching. However, often times this may not be the case. We might find ourselves faced with students like Calvin, asking, "Why does this even matter?". Before students can appreciate the content we are teaching, they must first be at least somewhat interested in the content itself.

Content appreciation is defined as viewing learning as worthwhile and valuable through experiencing, seeing the enrichment of life that comes from applying the content in every day experience, feeling the satisfaction of achieving new insights and understanding, and having an aesthetic appreciation for the content. Of course, as teachers we want our studnets to feel and experience all of these aspects of content appreciation, however it may be much more difficult than we think.

Pugh & Phillips Outline 3 Steps that Teachers should take in Order to Develop Content Appreciation

(https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00405841.2011.607383)

Step 1: Teach Content Worth Teaching

Teachers are faced with the job of deciding what content is actually worthwhile to teach. Teachers must first rediscover the value of the content themselves before they teach it. If we as teachers cannot see the value in the content, how will our students ever see it? As teachers we must ask ourselves, "why is this valuable or worth teaching?". Teachers must also choose content that contains the most "pertinent affordances". Affordances are the opportunities that the content offers for such things as meaningful problems, seeing the world in a new way, etc. The curriculum being taught should also always have justifications as to why it is being learned, so that we avoid having students ask questions like Calvin in the cartoon seen previously. By asking themselves questions about the value of the content, carefully selecting the content that is being used, and being able to justify why the content is being taught is the first step in fostering content appreciation.

Step 2: Frame Lessons Appropriately

Once teachers decide on the content that is valuable and worth teaching, they then must frame the lesson appropriatley in order to allow students to actually see and appreciate the value of the content. Teachers should introduce lessons in a way that includes explaining the value of the content to students and justifying why the content is being taught. Teachers should relate the content to every day events and students' lives in order to increase their interest. It is also extremely important that as teachers we express our own enthusiasm about the content and that we model this along with application of the content. Teachers can use things such as metaphors to introduce content which will automatically make it more interesting to students.

Step 3: Scaffold Appreciation

When teachers prepare their lessons, the must scaffold student appreciation into the lessons. Content and student engagement needs to be scaffolded in a way that allows students to notice and understand the value that content possesses. Pugh and Phillips discuss that every student has a ZPD or zone of proximal development. The ZPD refers to information that is within reach for a student and that they can learn without any help, compared to the concepts or tasks that they will need help with. For every student, accrording to Pugh and Phillips, there is content below their ZPD which is content that they already appreciate, there is content above their ZPD that even with guidance they will not be able to appreciate at the current time, and then there is content within their ZPD in which the student can appreciate with proper scaffolding and instruction. It is very important that teachers always select content that is within their students' ZPD. If we select content that is below their ZPD, then they have already learned it and appreciated it and therefore do not have a reason to find further interest in it. If we select content that is above their ZPD then we are making it impossible for students to appreciate content because it is above the range that they can currently appreciate and understand.

Provide Authentic Activities

Going hand in hand with fostering content appreciate, teachers must provide authentic actvities for students. The activities that we plan in our lessons should allow students to see the affordances of the content. Activities provided by the teacher should transform the way students see the world, yield aesthetic appreciation, and empower students. Activities must also be provided that solve problems and are useful in students' every day lives. If teachers keep these ideas in mind when preparing activties for students, it will not only help foster their positive motivation and content appreciation, but will increase their interest in the activity being done and the content that goes along with it.

The following link provides more ideas of authentic activities that teachers can use in the classroom

https://www.envisionexperience.com/blog/authentic-learning-teaching-for-real-life

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