Kegan’s theory of meaning-making development: Kegan is a cognitive constructivist. He viewed knowledge construction as a way of making sense of the world. He contended that meaning is created between an event and the individual’s reaction to it. The self is the zone of mediation where the event is made sense of, while the self is seen to evolve through orders of consciousness. As the individual’s development proceeds through these orders of consciousness, meaning-making undergoes changes and becomes more complex. So, how one understands knowledge or experience is related to how one understands the self and others. 

Social Constructivist Theory of Learning: Social constructivism is a theory that emphasizes that learners actively construct knowledge in interaction with others in a particular sociocultural context. Meaning making occurs during such interactions as participants engage in shared activity, use cultural tools, and make sense of what they are doing together.

Situated learning: Lave and Wenger’s (1991) notion of situated learning suggests that learning is contextually-bound; that is, the sociocultural context in which learning takes place influences the process and nature of learning. All individuals are part of multiple communities of practice or sets of relations among other people, experiences, and the world. Within these communities, members learn from one another (particularly from more skilled or experienced members), negotiate meanings, and form identities. A child, for example, is taught the skills and understandings valued by their family and community. However, the child also imprints their own competencies on that community as the members construct meaning through their mutual engagement in the activities of the community.