Just-in-Case vs. Just-in-Time

http://http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/03/motivated_to_le.html

This article really clarified for me what a previous article had discussed in terms of "Just-in-Case" learning vs. "Just-in-Time". It goes over the idea that Just-in-Case learning is the kind of learning we did in highschool - we learn so much over time that is not necessarily relevant to any real life experience. On the other hand, Just-in-Time learning is that which we know we'll need "to survive" in the near future, so we learn it and learn it well in order to apply ourselves to the task. This is the first time I've ever heard these terms, but it really does make sense. The article goes on to talk about how we as teachers need to make Just-in-Case learning sound and feel more like Just-in-Time learning by finding different ways to motivate our students. We should explain to them before we teach a lesson, that this will come in useful one day. Or we could even bring it back to a real life experience in our personal lives, so that they can relate to that. The article also discusses the danger of Just-in-Time learning, as some of us may learn it just well enough to "survive the current problem, and you might not even understand why the thing you're doing works" (see attached URL), and that is definitely a problem.

I think it's important as teachers, and really anyone is trying to get someone to learn something, to make all material seem as relevant to the learner's real and present life, in order to have the most success. I'll have to work on this when I'm teaching my Medieval Times unit in Social Studies...