Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the term "collateral learning" and elaborate on it as a concept for improving our teaching of college students. Meaningful learning involves connecting new ideas and knowledge to existing knowledge structures. When a student (or any person) has meaningful interests and goals, he or she will, by definition, readily and enthusiastically strive towards the attainment of those goals. A meaningful goal indicates that the goal is of importance to the person, is personally relevant, and accepted by the person. The goal plays an influential role in the individual's allocation of attentional and related resources. The person really wants to "work" towards a meaningful goal. Because of that interest and desire, a person is willing to work hard to find out all sorts of related ideas and knowledge that are peripheral, but that pertain to the attainment of the original meaningful goal. The peripheral but pertinent learning that a person enthusiastically embarks on and realizes because of the desire to attain a meaningful goal is the essence of collateral learning. In the pursuit of a meaningful, important to the person, goal, such as a goal of becoming exceptional at something, the person will readily embark on learning many related topics. And, precisely because the extra learning is both connected to ideas and knowledge of interest to the person and connected to purposeful striving, collateral learning is an effective and a particularly meaningful way of learning.