Value creation pedagogy gives a strong boost to student motivation. This makes them work harder in their education. The resulting increase in academic performance ultimately leads to improved grades and deeper learning of curriculum content. The strong increase in motivation comes from the deep sense of meaning associated to doing something that could become valuable for someone else. When something is done “for real”, it becomes more important to the student.
Strengthening the core purpose of education
Through the strong effects on student performance and learning, value creation pedagogy represents a practice that can strengthen the core of what education is all about. It might come across as a detour to let students create value for others. This could be the reason why value creation pedagogy is so rare in education. But the counter-evidence is clear. Adding a small amount of value creation pedagogy to any kind of teaching strengthens the core purpose of education significantly. Students learn better, deeper and with a higher level of enjoyment than if they are not allowed to apply their knowledge in value-creating practice.
Capturing the attention of students
In today’s digital society, competition for attention has stiffened considerably. People’s perspectives on what is considered interesting are changing fast. A new generation of learners has grown up in a society saturated with digital technologies. Many teachers find it more difficult than before to keep these students motivated through traditional teaching methods. Here, value creation pedagogy can help teachers in making their teaching come across as more interesting and relevant. The good news is that a rather minor addition of value creation assignments can make a major difference to the students. Students can draw from a broad spectrum of curriculum content in recurring but minor value creation assignments.
