The importance of ‘context’ for effective learning

When I enrolled in Ag Science at Sydney University at the age of 17, I did so with an expectation that I would readily cope academically and achieve my goal of pursuing a career in agriculture, probably as a consultant or in agricultural extension. I had grown up on a farm and loved all things associated with farming and agriculture. Academically I had achieved very well at school and had no reason to think I wouldn’t do the same at University as I would be studying subjects associated with my passion.

It only took attendance at a few lectures in the first year at university to realise how naïve I had been. I found myself sitting in lecture theatres with 200-300 other students, a majority undertaking a degree other than Ag Science. The lecturer would expound fountains of theory for 55 minutes while I and the other students wrote down as much as we could before rushing off to the next lecture.

I found I learnt very little from the lectures themselves and, as I had difficulty seeing the relevance to agriculture with much of what was presented to us, I found it difficult to retain the knowledge even after studying my notes and reference material.

Despite failing subjects in each of my first three years and needing to repeat them, I persisted and eventually graduated. However I wasn’t satisfied that I had optimised my learning.

It wasn’t until I commenced a career in teaching that I realized what had been missing for me as a learner through the early years in the degree program had been a context for learning. I had no ‘life experience’ outside of childhood and school when I first went to university and, for various reasons, the lecturers - at least in the early years - provided me with very little context for learning.

When I started teaching students who were pursuing a career in horticulture, I discovered quickly that if I understood and could communicate how the theory I was required to teach had relevance to what the students needed and wanted to know, the students would readily engage and be motivated to learn. They would often seek to obtain greater depth of understanding once they could see the relevance.

After several years of teaching I undertook further study at university in subject areas such as sociology and philosophy to enhance my effectiveness as an educator. And because I had a context for the learning, I didn’t battle to pass the subjects as I had in my first university course; I mostly achieved distinction level results.

With the understanding of the importance of having a context for effective learning, when I look back at my life, one thing I would do differently is obtain some real life experience for at least 12 months before commencing university studies. I would also be much more proactive at university in regard to attending tutorials and/or seeking out the lecturers to tap into their extensive knowledge for the context that would assist my learning – something I appreciate is not easy to provide to everyone in a lecture theatre filled with students.