Meaningful Learning

One of the times that I felt a lesson was meaningful was when a teacher asked us to
reflect on the goals at the beginning of a lesson, and state how those goals aligned or failed to
align with our personal goals. I felt that for the first time, I was given a chance to voice my
opinion concerning the goals I was to achieve during the lesson. I wrote down the lesson goals as
well as those that aligned to my personal goals and those that failed to do so. The lesson was on
verbs, and I enjoyed that lesson. I could connect and relate with some of the content that I
learned during the lesson. I think that the lesson was meaningful because the goals to be
achieved were clear to me, and because I could relate my intentions regarding the lesson with the
content being taught. I think that the lesson was meaningful because it met the characteristics of
a quality curriculum. First, the lesson was organized around important content goals which were
clearly spelled out at the beginning of the lesson (Sousa & Tomlinson, 2011). Also, the content
of the lesson was clearly aligned with learning experiences and the assessments that followed at
the end of the lesson. The goals were focused on fostering my understanding and the content
covered was authentic.
On different occasions, I was assessed on my knowledge, and while I enjoyed some of
the assessments, there are some that stressed me. specifically, summative assessments stressed
me the most. this is because they were graded and would be used to categorize us as either well-
performing or poorly-performing. I dreaded falling in the category of students that were
performing poorly and thus was stressed most of the time while taking summative assessments.
On the other hand, diagnostic assessments and formative assessments were less threatening

because they were rarely graded. They were rarely timed and lenient, hence the reason I found
them less-threatening.
I think that teachers should consider multiple approaches to assessments as different
students feel comfortable with different approaches. Thus, to ensure that the interests and needs
of all students are put into consideration, then it would be best to have different assessment
approaches. For instance, as opposed to just having students do timed tests, it would be good to
incorporate other approaches such as having students engage in projects and presentations that
are also graded. In this case, assessments will appear less-threatening especially for students that
dread sit-in exams that are timed.
Overall, I think that I was given options my learning would improve. I would have
assessments that are less threatening and since this was usually the most threatening part of
learning is assessments. Also, if curriculum content would have been reduced to ensure that
teachers did not have to race, and consequently make us race through the curriculum, at each
grade, then learning would have been more interesting. Further, options would make learning
meaningful as I would have a wide variety to select from. Since curriculum races are not friendly
to the brain, having options would foster learning as students would have to choose what is
friendly to them.

References

Sousa, D. A. & Tomlinson, C. A. (2011). Differentiation and the brain: How neuroscience
supports the learner-friendly classroom. Retrieved from https://www.vitalsource.com/