UNIT ONE - INTRODUCTION

ETAP623 : UNIT ONE - INTRODUCTION This page last changed on Jan 23, 2008 by wikiadm1. What is Understanding? This course is about understanding, recognizing what it is, when it is happening, when it is not happening, and how to make it occur. But, what exactly is understanding? Understanding material in education is seen as the ability to do many things with that material that make use of various cognitive abilities. Perkins and Blythe (1994) give examples of these thought demanding things. They are "explaining, finding evidence and examples, generalizing, applying, analogizing, and representing a topic in a new way." (p. 5-6) How is Understanding Different from Knowing? One of the main problems that teachers have with teaching for understanding is that they do not know the correct definition of understanding and confuse understanding with knowing. Because of this, teachers who think they are teaching for understanding may be teaching for knowing instead. Many teachers believe that if a student is able to recite information about a subject, or perform a certain task, then they understand that subject. This is not the case. Knowing is what is taking place when a student can tell us about a subject or do something that we have showed them how to do. Understanding goes beyond simply knowing a subject. Understanding requires that one know a subject as well as be able to use that subject. Review. Understanding - The ability to do many things with given material that makes use of various cognitive abilities. Knowing - The ability to recite information about a topic or perform a certain skill. Reflection. 1. Please write for 15 minutes about your reactions to the concepts of understanding and knowing. Please include in your writing how you define the two concepts and their relationships to one another. (These do not need to be exact definitions, rather how you represent them in your own mind.) Have you learned anything surprising to you? Please also include your opinion on the act of knowing in education. 2. Please reflect upon your own teaching. Do you feel that you are teaching your students for the purpose of knowledge gain or for understanding? How can you tell? Please support your ideas with examples. You should reflect upon these questions and write about them for about 30 minutes. Preparation for the Coming Units. Before moving onto Unit Two, please reflect for at least 5 minutes about why you think understanding is important in education. Jot down your thoughts - you'll use these later. Please follow the link to the next unit in the course: UNIT TWO - ATTITUDES

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