The text “Understanding” by Design, written by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, tries to make us aware of the significance of Understanding and the big difference that this concept has in relation with knowledge. After we read the text there are three main ideas that help us to comprehend the importance of “Understanding.”
*Firstly, the text wants to show that teachers are not really conscious of what really understanding means. They tend to confuse understanding with knowledge making a big damage in students learning. Teachers need to know what understanding means in order to make it as their main objective. Usually in class, teachers have a tendency to make students learn their lessons by hard, making them repeat and repeat all the time. As a consequence students learn the different theories, rules and concepts but most of the time they are not able to apply them. Teachers must identify what the word “Understanding” means in turn to plan their lessons in an effectively way to obtain an authentic understanding.
*Secondly, the text tries to clarify the differences between Understanding and Knowledge, making us aware that both concepts are very different but also they are related. Knowledge is what we can explain us as the main concepts of a specific topic and understanding involves the relation among those concepts in order to apply them in another context and going beyond. The relation that connects Understanding and knowledge falls on the fact that we must know some concepts previously to have a further effective understanding.
*Thirdly, the text tries to explain us all the information above in order to be conscious that there are a lot of test that do not measure understanding, that they just assess knowledge and in same cases not even that. It is easy to identify this issue when we know that teachers teach in an inappropriate way, they just want to teach the main objectives and the compulsory lessons. They think that if her or his students are able to answer some specific concepts they already understood the lesson but they don’t take the time to assess a real understanding.
*Firstly, the text wants to show that teachers are not really conscious of what really understanding means. They tend to confuse understanding with knowledge making a big damage in students learning. Teachers need to know what understanding means in order to make it as their main objective. Usually in class, teachers have a tendency to make students learn their lessons by hard, making them repeat and repeat all the time. As a consequence students learn the different theories, rules and concepts but most of the time they are not able to apply them. Teachers must identify what the word “Understanding” means in turn to plan their lessons in an effectively way to obtain an authentic understanding.
*Secondly, the text tries to clarify the differences between Understanding and Knowledge, making us aware that both concepts are very different but also they are related. Knowledge is what we can explain us as the main concepts of a specific topic and understanding involves the relation among those concepts in order to apply them in another context and going beyond. The relation that connects Understanding and knowledge falls on the fact that we must know some concepts previously to have a further effective understanding.
*Thirdly, the text tries to explain us all the information above in order to be conscious that there are a lot of test that do not measure understanding, that they just assess knowledge and in same cases not even that. It is easy to identify this issue when we know that teachers teach in an inappropriate way, they just want to teach the main objectives and the compulsory lessons. They think that if her or his students are able to answer some specific concepts they already understood the lesson but they don’t take the time to assess a real understanding.
