Theresa Meikle, an adjunct professor in Niagara University in Ontario’s BPS in education program, recently published a book to help educators create a connected community of learners in their classrooms. “Assessment in Action: Just-in-time feedback to clarify goals, make progress visible, uncover misunderstandings, and move student learning forward,” provides manageable strategies to build equitable and inclusive classrooms and to use assessment information to empower, engage, and motivate students.
The book offers hands-on tools designed to inform reflection and encourage conversation to help students better explain, question, and refine their thinking. It also advances the importance of feedback in the midst of learning to help students become more focused on learning and less driven and demotivated by constant grading.
“I wrote the book in response to the well-being challenges that I have seen both students and teachers experience over the past few years,” said Meikle. “We hear of increasing anxiety, school avoidance, and lack of student engagement—social and cognitive—everyday. Of course, there are many reasons for these realities beyond what happens in schools; however, our instructional and assessment decisions can make a powerful difference in student mental health, well-being, and achievement.
“Our teacher presence and decisions impact students' sense of belonging, agency, and self-efficacy,” she continued. “Student achievement, equity, and flourishing are intertwined. Our work as educators is to create spaces of hope and possibility in our classrooms. This requires that we do the inner work of knowing who we are and what we value and how that influences the climate of the classroom and the experiences of the students who enter it.”
Meikle has held diverse roles in education for over 30 years in schools, the Ontario Ministry of Education, school boards, and in higher education. As an English and dramatic arts head teacher, she fostered communities of inclusion, caring, trust, and collaboration, using many mindfulness and team-building activities. As a facilitator of adult learning, she continues to support teacher and administrator learning in the areas of mindfulness, literacy, assessment, and inclusive classroom design. Over the last decade, she has been studying and practicing mindfulness and compassion with Oxford University Mindfulness Foundation and Stanford Centre for Compassion and Altruism.