Connecting Learning

Skill acquisition is enhanced when students see learning connected to real-life situations and when they see the various subject areas as interconnected. The quest for efficiency of production of the industrial revolution led to a departmentalization of instruction into various subject areas. Math, science, language arts, and social studies were (and in many cases still are) viewed as separate, disconnected subjects. In reality, we are faced with situations daily that require us to apply skills across the subject areas. Students need to see that the subject areas are interconnected. They also need to see the connection of what they learn (for example, the Civil War) to today's society (for example, divisions among people living in the same geographic area).