The text called “Understanding by Design” by Wiggins and McTighe tries to explain the importance of the concept “Understanding” in teaching-learning process. Apart from that concept, there is another one:
knowledge, which can be also important for that process, provided that teachers do not confuse it with the previous one.
First of all, the authors starts to explain the concept of understanding by contrasting it with the word knowledge. Before explaining the difference by their own words, there is a quote at the very beginning of the chapter, which introduce the definition of both concepts: “The most characteristic thing about mental life, over and beyond the fact that one apprehends the events of the world around one, is that one constantly goes beyond the information given”. From this statement, the text defines understanding by the ability to analize and apply what we have learned.
Moreover, the text explained that acquiring knowledge is not enough if we can not understand the essential of what we learn and apply it in context. It is important for teachers to distinguish between understanding and knowledge when we are teaching a lesson in a class, because our main objective is to make students learn not only concepts by heart, but also learn how to apply them.
Finally, along with recognizing the difference between understanding and knowledge, teachers must know how to give lessons. Teachers must not make students learn by memory, they must adapt their knowledge and make it easier for learners to comprehend and apply. The text refers understanding as transferability: “Transferability is not mere plugging in of previously learned knowledge and skills”(Wiggins,40). This statement means that we (teachers/instructors) transfer all our knowledge not just by repeating what we have learned, but by transpass our knowledge in as creative and fluent as possible for a new task or new challenge. For example, teachers can transfer new skills by adding examples to a specific topic and give learners activities to perform, in order to assess their performance in class.
The distinctions between the concepts knowledge and understanding is not that subtle as I thought it waS. I'm going to stop in the second one which is related to another concept which is transferability. I think that undestanding is how students learned the information and how would they be able to explain it by themselves, and the other is how the information was taught in order be transfered to the students.
ReplyDeleteI think that understanding v/s knowledge is what many teachers need to really understand in order to identify what they expect form their students.
ReplyDeleteI agree in the fact that understanding is more complex than knowledge. To apply something learned implies more skills. unfortunately, teachers do not put emphasis in develop these skills, thus, they focus just in knowledge that probably implies less that understanding and it is also less meaningful for students and for standard’s purpose.
ReplyDeleteYou're right when you say that students not only need to learn by heart because students need to know how to put in practice what they've learned. Here, the teacher is the one who should give the tools to develop those skills that help them to apply the contents.
ReplyDeleteThe most important point here is the difference between knowledge and understanding. As you mention there is a big confusion when teachers argue that something has been learnt. It is so complex to state that, moreover when our points of analysis are students minds.
ReplyDeleteI think is true that we learn much more than the given info we get as knowledge. What we understand is what then we can transfer and say that we are learning. That's why it is important that teachers should know the difference between these because they are connected in the teaching but they are different in the students' minds.
ReplyDeletewhen Wiggins contrasts understanding with knowledge, we clearly notice that understanding is a way different than knowledge, and this is because understanding is a more complex process that leads our students to a deeper comprehension of what they are learning.
ReplyDeleteTengo que admitir que al comienzo de este capítulo, estaba confundida en cuanto a la diferencia real entre los dos conceptos de entendimiento y conocimiento. Capturas la distinción importante entre ellos cuando dices que nuestro objetivo principal no es simplemente aprender los conceptos por memoría (el conocimiento) pero que también necesitamos ayudarles a los estudiantes aplicar y transferir esta información (la muestra de entendimiento).
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