Towards an Understanding of Understanding!

"Nurturing understanding is one of the loftiest aspirations of education and also one of the most elusive."

Tina Blythe and Associates, The Teaching for Understanding Guide, c. 1998 by John Wiley and Sons Inc.

There is no doubt in my mind, after more than twenty years of teaching, that I am most effective when I am teaching for understanding. But what exactly does it mean to be able to understand something? How can I know when my students are developing understanding? How do they develop understanding and what criteria can I use to choose and create activities that help my students develop understanding?

These are a few of the questions that I am continually seeking to answer as both a teacher and a parent. Tina Blythe´s book which I have quoted from above, has been and continues to be a wonderful guide to bring me closer to an understanding of understanding and how I can be more effective in teaching for understanding.

These questions and several more related to the nature of understanding, formed the backbone of study more than twenty years ago for Howard Gardner, David Perkins and Vito Perrone, three professors at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. It was 1988 when these three men brought together a group of colleagues who would work for the next five years to develop a research-based, classroom-tested approach to teaching for understanding.

It was an ambitious project. Blythe´s book explains that more than 60 school-based and 30 university-based educators researched and contributed to the work of the Teaching for Understanding Project. The culmination of this five year project was the presentation of the Teaching for Understanding Framework, a "tool for designing, conducting and reflecting on classroom practices that nourish student understanding." (Blythe, 1998).

Over the next few months, I will share with you what I have understood about understanding from Blythe´s book and how I have tried to create instructional practices that bring me closer to achieving understanding in my classes.

In the meantime, I encourage you to get a copy of Blythe´s guide. It is well worth the investment!

Yours in understanding,

theresa