Active Learning Resources

Contextual Learning takes place when teachers present information so that students construct meaning from their own frame of experience.

Simply put, Contextualized Learning is an learning approach that strives to answer the age old question students have been asking since the dawn of time: “But when am I going to use any of this in real life?”. Therefore, Contextualized Learning is rooted in the context of real-life situations and problems.

Current perspectives on what it means for learning to be contextualized include the following:

   -       Situated Cognition (all learning is applied knowledge)

   -       Social Cognition (intrapersonal constructs)

   -       Distributed Cognition (constructs shaped outside the individual)

Contextual learning has the following characteristics:

   -       emphasizes problem solving;

   -       recognizes teaching and learning need to occur in multiple contexts;

   -       assists students in learning how to become self-regulated learners;

   -       anchors teaching in the diverse life context of students;

   -       encourages students to learn from each other;

   -       employs authentic assessment. 

• A Contextualized Reading-Writing Intervention for Community Colleges, CCRC, June 2010 
  Community colleges are becoming increasingly creative in their approaches to teaching, but it’s important to understand what impact these new instructional approaches have on student learning. This brief describes the findings of a controlled trial of Content Comprehension Strategy Intervention, a self-paced and self-directed format for building in critical reading and writing skills in upper-level developmental courses.

• Breaking Through: Contextualized Toolkit, Spring 2010
• Contextualized Learning in Adult Education
• Contextualized Teaching and Learning: A Faculty Primer, Spring 2009

  This report reviews existing research on Contextualized Teaching and Learning and its connections to learning theories. The authors also present interviews with faculty/program directors, and profiles of 11 contextualized practices in order to discuss ways of improving students’ acquisition of common skills and to explore common themes used in CTL.
• Contextualized Teaching and Learning: A Promising Approach for Basic Skills Instruction

  Contextualized teaching and learning (CTL) helps students gain a deeper understanding of subject matter by relating material to meaningful situations that students encounter in real life. This brief offers a quick overview of CTL approaches implemented by 11 different community colleges. Strategies discussed include asking composition students to research community issues, introducing math concepts in a practical, mechanical context, and creating opportunities for minority students to learn in relation to their cultures. These approaches and others are also discussed in further detail in Contextualized Learning and Teaching: A Faculty Primer.
• Effective Basic Skills Instruction: The Case for Contextualized Developmental Math

  Through recent changes in regulation, California community colleges have been eliminating contextualized math courses since they often do not have an elementary algebra prerequisite. This study documents both the scarcity and the effectiveness of contextualized developmental math in California community colleges. Report findings suggest that students in the contextual group passed their developmental math course at much higher rates than students in a control group.
• Facilitating Student Learning Through Contextualization, CCRC

  Part of the Community College Research Center’s Assessment of Evidence Series, this literature review examines research on the effectiveness of contextualized and integrated instruction in assisting low-skill students. While rigorous research is in short supply, the review shows evidence that providing students a contextual framework for reading, writing, and math skills can lead to improved basic-skill and content-area achievement.
• Facilitating Student Learning Through Contextualization, The League for Innovation in the Community College, Phoenix, AZ, June 14, 2011
• Integrating Contextualized Learning and Basic Skills: Instructional Strategies that Increase Student Success
• What Is Contextualized Learning? - CORD

  "What is the best way to convey the many concepts that are taught in a particular course so that all students can use and retain that information? How can the individual lessons be understood as interconnected pieces that build upon each other? How can a teacher communicate effectively with students who wonder about the reason for, the meaning of, and the relevance of what they study? How can we open the minds of a diverse student population so they can learn concepts and techniques that will open doors of opportunity for them throughout their lives? These are the challenges teachers face every day, the challenges that a curriculum and an instructional approach based on contextual learning can help them face successfully."