Meaning orientation in student learning and in teacher learning: Two sides of the same coin, or different currency?

Fostering student learning often requires teacher learning. Many contemporary educational innovations are aimed at improving the quality of student learning, for example in the direction of more active, self-regulated, meaning-oriented, application-oriented and cooperative learning. While new models of teaching have been developed with that aim, it is most often taken for granted that teachers also have to develop their expertise in the new teacher roles required by these models. Only recently, processes and patterns of teacher learning are being studied in their own right. In this contribution, some recent research and developments on our model of student learning will be reviewed, with a special emphasis on meaning orientation. One important extension of the model pertains to include phenomena of teacher learning. Therefore, recent research on describing and improving teacher learning will be dealt with, mostly in the context of educational innovation. An important issue to be addressed is whether meaning orientation in student learning and in teacher learning can be conceptualised in the same terms, or that different models are needed for both phenomena.