“Why Are We Even Learning This?” – Making Learning Relevant to Students

If you’ve ever had a student ask, “Why are we even learning this?”—you’re not alone. And the truth is, it’s a fair question. Students want to know how school connects to their lives, their interests, and their futures. If we can’t answer that clearly, we risk losing their motivation before we even start. That’s why creating and communicating relevance is so powerful—and so necessary.

First, why bother?

When students feel like learning is pointless, they switch off. But when they can see the purpose—when it links to something they care about, a real-world problem, or even just something they’ll actually use one day—they lean in.

Think of relevance as the “hook” that keeps them connected. It helps them answer, “What’s the point of this?” in a meaningful way.

So how do we create relevance?

Relevance doesn’t just magically happen. We need to build it into our planning.

Idea 1: Connect to the NOW for YOUR students.

We emphasise YOUR students because what is relevant NOW for your students is not necessarily what is relevant for you.  What are the issues, trends and experiences of your students that are the why for their learning?

We recently had the privilege of working with Ann-Louise Breeding, a Year 10 General Science teacher at Urrbrae Agricultural High Schoo, SA, who was embarking on a series of lessons about ions.  To support the relevance, we used AI with the prompt, ‘Create a list of real-world applications of ions that do not involve chemical reactions tailored for 15 year-olds’ and up popped: electrolytes in sports drinks, lithium-ion batteries (which had recently remade their way into the news for causing a fire), fertilizers, fluoride in toothpaste, nerve signals and muscle function, salt in the diet and vaping. Any hooks that you think might work best for your Year 10 Science class?

What might be a compelling question to hook YOUR students?  What  about ‘How could understanding ions help you make more informed decisions about what you put in your body?’ OR maybe a Visible Thinking Routines, like Tug-of-War with the prompt ‘Sports drinks are essential for staying healthy and performing well because they replace lost ions.’

Idea 2: Connect with the community and culture in your local area.

For many students, learning only feels relevant when it reflects their lives, identities, and communities — the things they know, care about, or live through every day.

Planning a unit of work with a lower primary teacher recently was an opportunity to make strong connections to both community and culture through exploring changes in weather and seasons and how these affect everyday life. In addition to students' daily experiences, the teachers invited guest speakers to talk about how they use their knowledge of weather and seasons to make decisions in their daily lives.   Guests included farmers, aquaculture workers, a coxswain, construction and tourism. The students also connected with local Elders who shared their seasonal knowledge and how this influences cultural events, sustainability and food.

Idea 3: Authentic Purpose

Authentic purpose means students create work that matters beyond the classroom. Instead of assignments done “for the teacher,” students have real reasons to care because their work is shared, used, or contributes to a genuine community or cause. In Ron Berger’s book An Ethic of Excellence and Leaders of Their Own Learning (2003), Berger advocates for excellence through meaningful, public work. Key ideas include:

• Public audience: Students share their work beyond the teacher—peers, families, community members.

• Revision and critique: Students receive feedback and improve work, understanding the importance of quality for real audiences.

• Connection to real-world contexts: Learning tasks connect to authentic problems or challenges.

• Student agency: Students take ownership and pride because their work has value and impact.

In an integrated unit, a school we work with have been looking at local artworks and how the school can contribute to the community.  This has included doing an audit of the current public artworks, their purpose, their significance and looking for ‘gaps in the story of the community’.  Learning has required liaising with the community, looking at policies and regulations, pitching a case, considering longevity of the artwork to be created and democratic decision making.  Ultimately, the resulting artwork will be on public view for an authentic audience. 

Idea 4: Ongoing Reflection on Relevance

It’s not just about telling students why something matters once — it’s about helping them regularly think, “How is this learning important to me now? What can I do with it?”. 

What might be some ways to make this happen? Look at some of the ideas in Table 1.

How else might you get students to build the connections themselves?

Table 1

For  a Year 5 HASS class, their reflection prompts included:

• “Why is it important to hear different stories about colonisation?”

• “Can you think of places near you that have changed over time? How might history explain this?”

• “How does understanding colonisation help us be better Australians now?”

• “Who will you share your learning with? Why is it important they learn about this history?”

Another idea: Reflect on Your Practice

Take a look through the words highlighted in red. These are all aspects of learning design that can be planned for to increase student understanding of the relevance of their learning.

When learning connects to students’ lives, interests, and futures, it sticks. Relevance helps students see that what they’re learning isn’t just for school—it’s for their world. It makes them curious, motivated, and ready to apply new ideas beyond the classroom walls.