Ignelzi, M. (2000). Meaning-making in the learning and teaching process. New directions for teaching and learning, 82, 5-14.
Children, who tend to be very honest about what they are thinking and feeling as well as what they do and don't understand, often provide clear insights into truisms about how human beings function.
1. Humans actively construct their own reality. William Perry (1970) states that what an organism does is organize and what a human organism organizes is meaning. Kegan (1982, 1994) calls this process meaning-making. Clearly, Johnny and his mother are making meaning in qualitatively different ways. In a sense, their understanding of reality resides on different "farms." We seem intuitively to understand that children and adults construct reality somewhat differently; however, we may not fully appreciate the extent to which adults can also make meaning in qualitatively different ways from each other.
2. Meaning-making develops over time and experience. Much of the reason Johnny and his mother construct their understanding of reality in different ways is due to their being at different points in their individual meaning-making development. Kegan views meaning-making as a process that continues to develop throughout one's life span.
3. The process of learning and teaching is strongly influenced by the ways participants make meaning. New experience and learning are interpreted through our current constructions of reality. When we are presented with information that doesn't fit our meaning-making, as Johnny did, we may discount or ignore it. Continuing to live on our "own farm" where we are comfortable and reasonably secure may at a given time look more desirable than moving to or even visiting that "new farm" down the road. Education isn't simply presenting more adequate information in an effective manner; it is a process that must incorporate the developmental readiness of the student (Johnson and Hooper, 1982) and must construct a developmental "bridge" between the student's current way of understanding and the new way, thus providing a path on which to cross over (Kegan, 1994).
This chapter provides an overview of Robert Kegan's theory of meaning-making development. It describes how individuals' understanding of their experience, of themselves, of themselves, and of their interpersonal relationships evolves. The focus is on the portion of Kegan's model of self-evolution that describes the developmental transitions individuals face from adolescence through adulthood.
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Robert Kegan's Theory of Meaning-Making
Robert Kegan's theory of meaning-making development is a conceptualization of how human beings make meaning of themselves, of others, and of their experiences throughout the life span. Kegan (1982, 1994), along with other constructive developmental theorists, contends that individuals actively construct their own sense of reality.
To be continued
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