The Power of Durable Learning: Why Knowledge That Sticks Matters More Than Ever
"When will we ever need to know this?!"
Every teacher has heard this question at some point, and every student has felt the frustration of learning something that seems irrelevant to their future. Aside from looking up trivia on Google, there is a lot of information that I was tested on that I’ve never really used. I bet this is true for you too. In a world awash with information, how do we justify the time spent on learning things that might never be directly useful? How do we justify it to our students?
At a recent event, I asked a group of teachers this question – When will we ever need to know this? One math teacher honestly replied, “Well, they’ll probably never need to know most of this.” Immediately, I though of this cartoon.
He went on to explain that he uses mathematical content to teach students how to think. I appreciated his honest answer, but it still left me a bit unsatisfied. I have a different answer – the information that we learn in school is for a future that we can’t see but we know that information helps us to develop insight, to innovative, and to invent. The information is an investment in your future self to do great things – things that we can’t even conceive yet.
If this is true, then we need to make sure that the information our students learn today is stuff that they will be able to recall in the future to solve problems. We need to teach in ways that promote durable learning – the kind of learning that sticks, enabling students to retrieve and apply knowledge in unexpected ways. Durable learning is about building a foundation of information that we can retrieve for critical thinking, problem-solving, and innovation, rather than just memorizing information for a test.
Beyond Memorization: What Lasting Learning Really Means
Education today often emphasizes short-term recall over durable learning. Students are expected to memorize dates, facts, and equations, but many of these details fade quickly after the exam. But what does it look like to be able to keep remembering that information and leverage it in the future?
Durable learning goes beyond surface-level recall. It involves:
✅ Connecting new ideas to existing knowledge
✅ Applying concepts across different disciplines
✅ Strengthening memory through active retrieval practices
✅ Building new associations between existing knowledge
When learning is durable, it isn't about what students remember – it's about the connections they can make across information and how they use what they remember.
The Role of Information in Durable Learning
Many argue that if students won’t remember everything they learn, why teach so much content? The reality is that information is the raw material of innovation. Without knowledge, there is no foundation for creativity, problem-solving, or insight. The ability to connect pieces of information from different domains is what drives progress.
Unfortunately, schools often segment learning into isolated subjects—math, science, history—limiting the connections students can make between ideas in one domain with another. When knowledge is disconnected, it’s easier to forget. When knowledge is disconnected, it is also harder to draw insights. Instead of seeing education as a checklist of facts, we should emphasize integrated learning that makes knowledge durable.
Three Key Messages for Creating Durable Learning
To foster durable learning, students need to hear (and believe) these three messages:
1. Forgetting is okay.
No one remembers everything. The key is to build strong networks of information in the brain, so even when details fade, the connections remain.
2. Effort is required to make learning stick.
With so much information available at our fingertips, it's tempting to rely on Google for answers instead of developing deep knowledge. But research in cognitive science shows that retrieval practice (actively recalling information) is the best way to strengthen memory. The best part is that this can be taught – making information stick isn’t something that only “smart kids” can do.
3. Making connections is the goal.
Durable learning happens when students can relate new knowledge to existing knowledge. The more connections they make, the more flexible and innovative their thinking becomes.
The Future Demands Durable Learning
We live in a time of rapid change. Those rapid changes require all of us (and especially our students) to be able to use our knowledge to solve some seriously complex problems. Schools should focus on durable learning rather than temporary memorization because the future belongs to those who can (1) remember information from across multiple domains and (2) can connect ideas in ways that no one else has to solve problems no one else can.
Let’s shift our focus from just “getting through the test” to building knowledge that lasts a lifetime. C3 Educational Services partners with schools to provide tools that support durable learning. Interested in learning more? Reach out by going to c3es.org and filling out the short contact form at the bottom of the homepage!
