What is learning? Week 10/21

Learning is when a student is gaining new information. I believe that learning can best take place when the student believes the new information is important to what they want to do in life or at least can use it. Being a math teacher I get the question that " Where am I ever going to use this?" I agree that there are lots of "hoops to jump through" but I don't believe some students understand that some of the material that I teach is a pre cursor to something that they might use.