The Intentional Teacher: The Mediator of Meaning Making

Abstract

Current educational discourse promotes the notion that our instructional efforts must focus on helping our learners make meaning. Practitioners have adopted myriad ways for realizing this goal. The arrival of significant numbers of English as a second language (ESL) learners in our classrooms signals the need to reconsider what we mean by "making meaning." Dropout, failure, and underachievement of academically competent ESL learners suggest that we are failing to educate them at the level where meaning resides. An integrated framework for thinking about meaning highlights the need to transcend our commonly held views of the journey and the destination. Along the way, perhaps we will gain insight into the needs of other youngsters in their struggle to make sense of the world of school and the classrooms where they spend so much of their time.