Thinking Habit 06

Determine
Relevance

Identify how or why something is important or useful in a specific context.

Driving question

How does this matter for what I am trying to understand or do?

Teacher prompts

  • What question or purpose are you working toward?
  • How does this detail help you answer that question?
  • Is it useful here, or simply interesting?
  • Would its relevance change if the purpose changed?

What students do

  • Clarify the question, purpose, or decision that gives information its context.
  • Connect a detail to a specific need in the task.
  • Select useful information and set aside details that do not serve the current purpose.
  • Explain why something matters here and reconsider when the context changes.

See the habit in the work

A student chooses details for a recommendation. Determining relevance means explaining how each detail bears on the decision.

Illustrative classroom example · Design · Choosing a reading space

Draft

The courtyard is the best reading space because its mural was painted last year and uses twelve colors.

The information available

In this fictional task, the class is choosing a place for quiet reading. Its criteria are low noise, shade, and enough seating. The courtyard has 24 seats, shade at reading time, and delivery noise during that period.

The mural details may be accurate and interesting, but the student has not connected them to the stated criteria.

Draft

The courtyard is the best reading space because its mural was painted last year and uses twelve colors.

Teacher feedback

Which facts help us judge quiet, shade, and seating? What does the mural information tell us about those needs?

The teacher asks the student to evaluate details against the purpose of the decision, rather than treating every available fact as equally useful.

Draft

The courtyard is the best reading space because its mural was painted last year and uses twelve colors.

Revised

The courtyard has shade and 24 seats, which address two of our criteria. However, delivery noise during reading time may make it unsuitable for quiet reading. The mural’s colors do not help us judge those criteria.

What changed: The student linked details to the decision criteria and recognized evidence that weakens the initial recommendation.

Try it in class

Sort by purpose

  1. Give students a question or decision and a small set of details. Have them state the purpose or criteria.
  2. Ask them to select relevant details and explain how each helps with the task. Set aside details whose relevance they cannot establish.
  3. Change the purpose and ask whether any previously unused detail now matters.

Make the connection visible

Have students record the task, a selected detail, and a sentence explaining how that detail helps them understand or decide.

Look for an explicit connection to context. A detail can be relevant without being sufficient, trustworthy, or decisive; those judgments may require other habits.