Meaningful Learning in Teacher Education, Characteristics of

Introduction

Teacher education is where all students of teaching should learn to challenge their deeply held views of teaching and learning; so often implicit in practice but so rarely articulated, confronted and examined. (Loughran 2006, p. 42)

From the cognitive perspective, meaningful learning is often understood in terms of the cognitive development and the changes in a learner’s cognitive structure that occurs when the knowledge being learned is relevant to the learner’s existing knowledge and shares significant concepts and aspects with that knowledge. The perspective of the interpreter thus affects the meaning-making process, and the construction of meaning involves the interpretation of new information and experiences by connecting them with prior knowledge. In addition, experiences that challenge former knowledge allow new questions to arise and are thereby potentially meaningful.

From the perspective of social theories of learning, meaningful learning is defined in broader...