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March 14, 2007
Are We Teaching for Understanding?
Teaching for understanding is an approach to planning and teaching that helps teachers answer the difficult question of how best to nurture student understanding. For students to reach proficiency, learning must be understood. If a student knows, it means that he or she can bring forth knowledge on demand, by recalling facts, reciting a poem or using a formula to work a math problem. However, when students understand, they can explain, cite evidence and examples, generalize, apply, analyze or represent a topic in a new way. Student understanding is essential for 21st-century learning.
Understanding Newtonian physics, for example, goes beyond being able to apply certain equations to routine textbook problems. Getting the right answer doesn’t really assess whether students understand Newton’s theories or whether they can carry out a variety of actions on the topic. However, if you were to ask students to find examples of Newtonian physics at work in everyday experiences, such as why football lineman need to be so big or to make predictions as to what would happen if astronauts had a snowball fight in space, you could then say that the student has developed an understanding of Newton’s theories. Teaching and learning with objectives for what “students will know and be able to do” are a matter of learning about things, learning the facts and learning the routines, but does not ensure understanding and does not go deep enough for “students to think with it, to reason with it, to invent with it, to understand and appreciate it” by using that knowledge in new ways.
To get more information about Teaching for Understanding visit Teaching for Understanding.
Changing the PD Mindset
We have all read the research and best practice on high-quality professional development. PD must be ongoing and embedded to be most effective. Some in Kentucky feel that our system of professional development runs counter to the research. In truth, our law allows schools to have “flexible professional development plans.” Do the schools in your district have innovative ways to take advantage of the “flexible professional development schedule” option available in KRS 158.070? If so, we want to know about them.
We are interested in any creative ways your schools use professional development time:
· Do your schools do PD adjacent to the regular school day?
· Have your schools modified schedules to allow for more collaborative planning and professional development to occur during regular instructional days?
· Do your schools schedule part of the PD on specified PD days in the calendar and the balance as needed by the teachers?
· What role does teacher collaboration play in the way you use PD time?
If you have innovative ways to use PD time, we would like to hear from you. Please e-mail a description and details about your innovative methods to David Cook or call him at (502) 564-4201 if you have questions. In addition to using your submissions as features in the ISN News, we will use them to help us better provide support to districts seeking to make professional development more effective.
Quotable Quotes
“The most obvious impediment to a results orientation is the failure at the beginning of the year, or as early in the year as possible, to put the data in front of the teachers, have them look at it, and the generate a manageable number of measurable goals based on the previous year’s scores. That should be job one for administrators.”
Mike Schmoker |