## Key Ideas > [!abstract] Core Concepts > > - **Direct application often irrelevant**: Specific knowledge like factorising quadratics may rarely be needed outside school > - **Learning for satisfaction of knowing**: Value knowledge for intellectual enrichment rather than mundane applications > - **Avoid superficial real-world contexts**: Contrived connections can distract from mathematical thinking ## Definition **When Will I Ever Need This**: Student question challenging the relevance of academic content, often prompting teachers to create artificial real-world connections instead of emphasising intrinsic learning value. ## Overview "When will I ever need this?" is one of teaching's persistent challenges, often prompting teachers to devise elaborate justifications connecting quadratic factorisation to career prospects or Shakespeare to social media success. This response accepts a flawed premise: that learning requires immediate, obvious practical application to justify the effort. The reality is more complex. Mathematical procedures like factorising quadratics may never appear in most students' adult lives (Lave, 1988). Arithmetic becomes redundant when calculators exist. YouTube success stories seem to contradict formal education's value. This framing misses education's deeper purpose. Learning for the satisfaction of knowing (Dewey, 1916; Hirsch, 1996) and for the intellectual enrichment that comes from understanding how ideas connect (Ryan & Deci, 2000) matters more than mundane application to shopping or DIY projects. Contrived real-world contexts through [[Non-Explicit Teaching|project-based learning]] or [[Activity-Based Curriculum|superficial scenarios]] often distract from mathematical thinking (Sweller et al., 2019; Willingham, 2009) whilst failing to convince sceptical students (Boaler, 2002). Transfer of learning from school contexts to real-world situations is complex and often does not occur as teachers expect (Perkins & Salomon, 1989). The question deserves honesty rather than justification: we study ideas because understanding them has intrinsic value, not because they enable routine tasks. ## Connected To [[Motivation]] | [[Activity-Based Curriculum]] | [[Non-Explicit Teaching]] | [[Surface and Deep Structure]] --- Some teachers try to relate everything students are learning to "the real world," such as through STEM and [[Non-Explicit Teaching|Project-Based Learning]], or by devising [[Activity-Based Curriculum|superficial contexts]]. In reality, the direct application of specific knowledge, such as factorising quadratics or even basic algebra, may rarely be needed outside of school. The necessity of learning arithmetic is questioned when calculators are readily available. Additionally, convincing students to study subjects like Shakespeare can be challenging when they see examples of success that seem unrelated to formal education, such as YouTubers, sports stars, or even tradespeople who did not complete high school. What happened to learning for the satisfaction of knowing? Why do we need to be able to do mundane things with the great ideas that we have learnt? ![[WhenWillIEverNeedThis2.png|500]] ## References Dewey, J. (1916). *Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education*. Macmillan. Hirsch, E. D. (1996). *The schools we need: And why we don't have them*. Doubleday. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. *Contemporary Educational Psychology*, 25(1), 54-67. https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.1999.1020 Sweller, J., van Merriënboer, J. J. G., & Paas, F. (2019). Cognitive architecture and instructional design: 20 years later. *Educational Psychology Review*, 31(2), 261-292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09465-5 Willingham, D. T. (2009). *Why don't students like school? A cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for the classroom*. Jossey-Bass. Boaler, J. (2002). Experiencing school mathematics: Traditional and reform approaches to teaching and their impact on student learning (Revised and expanded edition). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Perkins, D. N., & Salomon, G. (1989). Are cognitive skills context-bound? *Educational Researcher*, 18(1), 16-25. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X018001016 Lave, J. (1988). *Cognition in practice: Mind, mathematics and culture in everyday life*. Cambridge University Press.