Making Meaning in All Learning Settings

Katherine Plog Martinez, Consultant, Forum for Youth Investment

I left Parkour class with my kids, and as I’m apt to do, I jumped into questioning. What new things did you try today? How did you do in working toward your goal?

My 6-year-old happily chirped back her replies, but my 11-year-old replied, “I hate your reflection questions.” My oldest prides himself on being “smart”; we keep working on growth mindset. I saw an opportunity — I brain scienced him.

“Last week I attended a workshop where they talked all about how reflection is actually part of what makes your brain grow bigger. It’s how you connect new things to what you already know. So even for Parkour reflection can help your brain grow.” I had him hooked.

The webinar that won my 11-year-old over, was the recent “Who Gets to Thrive? The Science of Learning and Development as a Tool for Antiracism” webinar hosted by the Science of Learning & Development (SoLD) Alliance. Part 4 of the series dug in on “Accelerating Equity for all Learners in All Settings” and the SoLD Alliance key finding of Making Meaning¹.

As a youth development professional, the reflection I engage in regularly with my kids comes, in no small part, from my engagement with the Forum’s David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality and recognition of the value of the Plan-Do-Review process (more on that to come). It is only recently that I am fully coming to understand the importance of that reflection not just for making meaning, but for true brain growth.

Putting complex research from Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang much more simply, our brains are organized and grow based on the ways we engage with the world. By taking time to connect learning with our own lives, all of the portions of the brain that are involved in decision making, thinking, and emotional well-being actively grow.

Yet while the process of meaning making is so critical for brain growth, for learning itself, and for development of identity, Dr. Immordino-Yang highlighted that “our schools, especially for adolescents, are not designed to promote this kind of deep reflection and personal meaning making about the stories, and information, and skills, and questions, and problems in the world that we encounter.”

Part of my son’s resistance to my attempts at meaning making are that it isn’t a practice he experiences in multiple places. Instead, it’s that weird thing mom does. But why?

Meaning making doesn’t happen automatically. We must carefully craft and shape experiences for young people to first, feel safe so their brains are in a condition for growth and second, to intentionally allow time for and facilitate opportunities to make meaning. This requires a shift for the adults working with young people in all settings. Dr. Robert Jagers reminded us in the webinar that for this shift to occur adults have to move beyond a deficit view of young people. Rather, we have to believe in the power of young people to take ownership of their own learning and we have to be comfortable with giving kids agency and power sharing.

That is where Plan-Do-Review comes in. Through this sequence, young people become actively involved in taking ownership of their learning through time management and decision making, while ensuring opportunity to connect experiences to learning.

For those working with young people this process takes intentional planning and sequencing, throughout individual classes and sessions and over a full arc of learning.

• Plan: How can young people be given multiple opportunities to design their learning experience to meet their needs and connect to their experiences? How can young people shape their experience to a pace, process and structure that pushes them, yet doesn’t trigger anxiety or doubt?
• Do: What does it look like to come alongside young people as they engage in activities and learning? How can we encourage risk taking and perseverance while maintaining a sense of safety and belonging?
• Review: What connections can we support young people to make between their activities and learning and their lives? How can we support young people in thinking not about what we wanted them to achieve but how they did with their own objectives and actions?

The beauty of Plan-Do-Review is that it is applicable across the learning ecosystem — to my kiddos parkour class, to internships, to traditional classroom learning, to community service opportunities, and so much more. With intentional planning, and a foundational relationship, any experience can become an opportunity for meaning making and brain growth.

We have seen more clearly over the last year that each day young people connect with adults in a variety of settings, even during the most challenging times. What would it look if young people had intentional support to make meaning tied to each of those settings? How can you create meaning making opportunities for the young people in your community?

¹The SoLD alliance has identified Meaning Making as one of its 8 interconnected, key findings — “People make meaning by reflecting on the connections between new information and existing knowledge.”