Meaningfully Involved?

"Meaningful.....Involvement....."

What does it mean to be involved? I mean like really involved in something. Can you ever be involved in everything as a student? As a teacher, can you really involve all of your students? All 30-40 students in each of your 2-3 classes which you are required to see at least 3 times a week for 3 months at a time!!!

To be frank, not once had it never dawned on me that there would be different types of involvement. I mean to me either you were involved because you chose to be, or you weren’t involved, again because you chose to be. This narrow minded way of thinking is something I am very happy to be growing out of more and more every day.

What is meaningful inclusivity though, I think to me it’s more of how the person whom it concerns feels rather than a set list of rules or guidelines. The emphasis for something like this is placed more on the word “meaningful”. Who is it meaningful to, what is the definition of meaningful and so forth. This essentially boils down to the learner and this learner’s experience. While as a teacher it is near impossible to try and make a classroom environment which will cater for every student in it, it is still possible to allow for MEANINGFUL involvement. Meaning that though a student may only be employed to answer a single question, said question should be of such a nature that the learner would feel involved and not isolated, no matter their answer or interpretation of it. Educators should include many different methods of promoting meaningful involvement, such as making use of the learner’s opinions and views on a subject. Being a facilitator rather than a teacher of knowledge is what it is all about. The long and short of it all is that a student needs to feel as though they matter, whether it be in a class or in an extramural activity, it is the educators responsibility to make that learner feel like their voice matters. This applies to all students, from the loud mouth child who has to be told to keep quiet, to the shy student who has to be begged for an answer.

Inclusivity, although difficult to achieve on many levels is most probably the best education tool one could ever make use of as it draws on the learners own personal wealth of knowledge and resources and allows for that to be shared with everyone and not just a select few. Because all students have something to contribute, no matter how small the contribution may be, this exercise allows for everyone involved to benefit one way or another.