Neither teaching to, nor exploring with, but teaching with
Move beyond the tired debate of transmission versus discovery. Teaching Meaning offers a viable alternative: a dynamic, human-centred approach grounded in the science of how we make sense of the world.
From the acclaimed author of Biology Made Real and Difference Maker, this book stands upon a consequential truth: students don’t just learn content; they learn their teacher.
To harness this, Teaching Meaning reframes teaching as an evolving conversation built on five essential moves: Communicating, Conversing, Varying, Modelling, and Practising. Inside, you’ll learn how to use:
- Explanations to help students notice what actually matters.
- Questions as tools for revealing their underlying thinking.
- Variation as the key to moving beyond recall into real understanding.
- Modelling and Practice to turn new insights into habits of mind.
Discover a fresh way to think about meaning-making and find new ways to enjoy the human art of teaching.
A distinct perspective
In Teaching Meaning, Christian Moore-Anderson gets to the heart of how well-designed teaching can transform student learning. Writing with his distinctive perspective, he shows how many rules of thumb in teaching are half-truths. Greater clarity in our own thinking as teachers, along with a better understanding of what is needed in the minds of students if they are to learn, can make teaching much more effective.
A vital addition
The brain is a beautifully complex organ, and humans are inherently social beings. While education has recently embraced the science of memory, Christian’s book supports educators in taking the next crucial step: helping young people make meaning.
As an experienced, practising teacher, Christian guides the reader through the carefully curated moves of the ‘Meaning Making Game.’ This application of enactive cognitive science gives teachers a way of acting that generates deep understanding.
Every page is rich with insight. As I was reading, I felt compelled to talk to Christian about what I was learning – a perfect reflection of the coordinated meaning-making the book itself is about. As a vital addition to our educational dialogue, I wholeheartedly recommend this to readers in all areas and phases of education.
Bold and worthy
The insights from cognitive science can only take our teaching and the impact on our students’ thinking so far. This is because deeper meaning making requires something more. Likewise, the pedagogies of discovery and problem-based methods are often inefficient. What appears to be missing in both is a resolute focus on teaching meaning. There are downsides and upsides to teaching for meaning – on the downside, it can’t be achieved through slick tick boxes; on the upside, students’ responses are deeper, more connected, and longer lasting.
What Christian Moore-Anderson has set out to do in ‘Teaching Meaning’ is to open the discussion about creating the conditions for students to generate meaning. It’s a bold and worthy aim and is sure to prompt further discussions about what constitutes deep pedagogy.A book to be savoured
This book arrived two months ago. It has taken me that long to read it… Because this is a book not to be rushed!
Every page has something that leaves you imagining all the ways you could use it in your lessons.
Whether you are an ECT or a well seasoned teacher, whether you are a teacher of science, art, English, maths, etc this book presents the ways in which meaning is really made and gives evidenced insights on how you can help your students make meaning.
This book talks about how knowledge needs to acted upon by students to make meaning. They need to be able to take a new idea and explore it. Vary the ways it can be used, using the idea of “If X, then what?”, helping students see the limits in which their new knowledge can be used. We must not “confuse agreement with making meaning.”
This is a book to be savoured and I know it is one that I will be referring back to many, many times.