Which of the five aspects of meaningful learning is most relevant to my role as a teacher?
Howland, Jonassen and Marra (2012) identify five aspects of meaningful learning as active,
Howland, Jonassen and Marra (2012) identify five aspects of meaningful learning as active,
constructive, cooperative, authentic and intentional. The aspect that is most relevant to my
teaching of Year 7/8 students is the cooperative - collaborative, conversational aspects.
The Cooperative aspect of meaningful learning is implemented into my classroom
programme as much as possible. The collaboration of the students within a group setting, to solve problems, requires the conventions of conversing respectfully, negotiating a common
teaching of Year 7/8 students is the cooperative - collaborative, conversational aspects.
The Cooperative aspect of meaningful learning is implemented into my classroom
programme as much as possible. The collaboration of the students within a group setting, to solve problems, requires the conventions of conversing respectfully, negotiating a common
understanding of the task and scaffolding their thinking, in order to reach possible solutions
or complete tasks. This is also reflective of the developmental perspective where the focus is to provide
learning that cultivate ways of thinking in the students. Although the development of knowledge and skills within communities of
learning that cultivate ways of thinking in the students. Although the development of knowledge and skills within communities of
play and work are shared, as outlined in the Active characteristic of meaningful learning, it is
the natural inclinations of learners to seek the opinions and ideas of others, within a
collaborative setting. Assessing the performance of the group, particularly in maths,
requires me to have content knowledge (Koehler, Mishra, and Cain, 2013, p.14) of
the problem, by recording the solutions and misconceptions students may encounter.
When recording student’s names against the solutions or misconceptions as they occur,
through the rich conversations observed, this has provided me a deeper pedagogical
knowledge in understanding how students construct knowledge and develop habits of
mind ( p.15).
Technology is used within these collaborative settings to offer support around creating and
sharing what the students have learnt. For example when writing reports about the
creatures of Pandora, the students watch a video, which allows them to extract information
at their own pace. After the learning, students then create a report and include a static image,
to share to an audience. Technology is used at an entry level by myself as the teacher, by
delivering the curriculum content to the students and then moving onto the adoption
level, that is, creating a report using a procedure.