According to EdNews Daily, numerous studies show an alarming percentage of middle school and high school students report feeling “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” in school. Feelings of disengagement and boredom in students have increased since the mid-2000s, exacerbated in recent years by disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic. Educators refer to this trend as the “engagement crisis” — an issue high on the list of challenges curriculum and instruction leaders are working to overcome through developing meaningful learning experiences.
Creating meaningful learning for students is a process involving many factors. The professional educator needs multiple tools to increase student engagement and motivation while facilitating deeper learning. Aspiring curriculum and instruction leaders can develop their knowledge and skills with these educational tools through advanced coursework in the online Master of Science in Education (MSEd.) in Curriculum & Instruction – General program from Northwest Missouri State University. This forward-looking program has an emphasis in Engagement, Learning and Achievement, an ideal programmatic focus for educators looking to improve student engagement through meaningful learning.
What Is Meaningful Learning?
According to the Van Andel Institute, meaningful learning happens when educators “make content relevant to students’ lives, create experiences that are valuable and rich, and provide learning opportunities that have an impact.” This focus on relevance, experience and impact is central to meaningful learning and interrelated concepts like deeper learning, quality learning and the constructivist approach.
Deeper learning involves the coming together of identity, mastery and creativity. But learning deeply involves more than mastering a subject. In deeper learning experiences, students understand why they learn something and how to apply gained knowledge and skills. This correlates closely with the relevance and impact pillars of meaningful learning, experience being the medium for that learning.
Meaningful learning and quality education also prioritize autonomy and engagement. Meaningful learning emphasizes contextualizing new ideas — connecting prior knowledge with new knowledge in the context of real-world problem-solving. This helps students learn to think critically, make connections and raise questions.
Tools to Support Meaningful Learning
Meaningful learning relies on many methodologies that are gaining (or regaining) traction in modern education, such as differentiated learning, experiential learning and student-led learning. In turn, effective integration of these methodologies relies on a set of essential tools. Some of the tools educators need to implement meaningful curriculum and instruction include:
- Data use and goal setting. Identifying relevant data about your student population is a basic step in developing a curriculum. Knowing students’ abilities is key to effective goal setting. Finding pertinent data sources that can improve student learning involves research. Evaluating, analyzing, prioritizing and integrating these data sources helps to set goals and create a meaningful curriculum.
- Feedback and analysis. Learning how to provide quality feedback to students is important in improving student achievement and performance. Providing scores or grades is not enough feedback for students to understand what they are achieving (or not achieving). In addition to understanding how the things they learn are relevant to their daily lives, students also need to participate in setting goals and evaluating goal achievement. This kind of self-reflection is essential for contextualizing learning, feedback and engagement.
- Student engagement and teaching efficacy. Engaged students generally do not cause discipline problems for teachers. Fewer discipline issues and disruptions make classroom management easier, which results in more time spent learning. Because of this and the extensive benefits of meaningful engagement for learning, keeping students engaged — on the behavioral, emotional and intellectual levels — may be the most important aspect of teaching today.
Become a Curriculum and Instruction Expert
As noted before, aspiring curriculum and instruction leaders can gain mastery of tools used to create meaningful learning experiences by advancing their education and focusing on targeted, specialized subjects. Northwest’s fully online MSEd. in Curriculum and Instruction – General program focuses on subjects surrounding student engagement, learning and achievement, all of which are central to fostering meaningful learning.
This online MSEd. program provides the best instructional strategies for student success. Courses emphasize technology and change management. Specific courses target topics including data literacy and assessment for schools, feedback and goal setting, and culture and student engagement.
Northwest’s flexible MSEd. program comprises 30 credit hours, with multiple start dates and accelerated coursework. Plus, with the affordable program’s 100% online design, students can complete coursework in as few as 12 months while continuing to work. This convenience, flexibility and affordability can make advancing one’s education a reality, helping curriculum and instruction leaders gain the tools to promote meaningful learning in their schools.
Learn more about Northwest’s online MSEd. in Curriculum & Instruction – General program.
