Teach the why

Growing up, I hated trigonometry because I couldn’t understand what it was for. I got a decent grade in class, but only because I memorized the formulas. It was only much later that I appreciated how trigonometry has practical uses in architecture, aviation, medicine, and many other fields. I couldn’t help but wonder why it wasn’t taught to me this way. Why didn’t my teacher start our year by showing us why trigonometry mattered so we could better appreciate what we’re learning?

This was my own experience of the education relevance gap—the disconnect that happens when a student cannot see the relevance of what is taught in the classroom and its practical application in their day-to-day lives. Multiple studies and reports highlight how the perceived mismatch between what students need and aspire toward and what education systems offer leads to student disengagement, poor attendance, and the eventual risk of dropping out.

A major driver of the education relevance gap is that young people today are exposed to a much larger world than what the classroom or home can offer. Their perspectives and questions are shaped by social media, economic anxiety, climate fears, political instability, new technologies, and an uncertain future of work. In order to remain relevant to students, education systems must become more intentional about connecting classroom learning to students’ interests and lived experiences.

First, our priority as educators is to help students make meaning, especially in a hyperconnected world, where schools are no longer the primary source of knowledge. What students need is guidance in navigating, understanding, and contextualizing all the information they have access to.

This requires schools to constantly make space for discussions of current events, ethical questions, and real-world context. A science lesson can connect to climate change, while a class in economics can help students understand inequality, work, and opportunity. Teachers must be able to explicitly show their students why they’re learning a topic, what the relevance of what they’re learning is in real life, and how they will use that knowledge to be able to contribute as capable and purposeful human beings.

Second, schools must develop student agency. This becomes especially important in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization has cautioned that overreliance on AI tools may weaken students’ autonomy and critical thinking. The challenge for educators, then, is not simply to make learning relevant but to ensure students continue to engage critically, make independent decisions, and take a self-directed role in their education.

I have long advocated for project-based learning because it allows students to identify a real problem in their community, collaborate with others in applying concepts to develop solutions, and see the results of their own thinking. And since feedback is integrated in every part of the process, the classroom also becomes a space where they are trained to ask questions, experience mini-setbacks, and readjust their strategies moving forward.

Nurturing student agency doesn’t necessarily require a full curriculum overhaul. Dedicating certain days to creative problem-solving can help students practice testing ideas and taking ownership of their work. Last Thursday, we partnered with 3M Philippines in holding a STEM Makerspace day camp for the Mano Amiga students. One of the challenges was to make their own water filter. After several failed attempts, the students started cheering when they saw their murky water turn clear. During the debriefing, many of the kids shared how accomplished they felt.

Lastly, schools must guide students to use AI to deepen learning rather than replace it. We need to help them see how outsourcing all the heavy lifting shortchanges their future selves, and guide them on using these AI tools ethically and responsibly.

In classroom activities, teachers can allow AI to assist students with brainstorming and feedback and then require students to cross-check information, choose the best argument, and defend their own thinking. Another useful practice shared by a teacher I know is that every time the class submits a research paper, the following session is dedicated to a pen-and-paper assessment where the teacher asks the students to discuss the three main points of their paper, to summarize the most relevant literature they found, and to reflect on what changed in their understanding of their topic. Rather than merely testing whether the student used AI, the focus is on testing the depth of learning that actually took place.

The education relevance gap is addressed by making it more empathetic, more responsive, and more human. It was never enough to ask students to learn something without explaining the why. But in an age when machines can generate answers, they need to see more than ever that what they are learning in the classroom has a place in their lives, their communities, and the future they are trying to build.

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