It is known that the Learning Process does not only take place in the classroom, but anywhere in any time. Within this process, there are concepts which are related to the success in this, two of these are: understanding and knowledge. The text “Understanding by Design” written by Grant Wiggins and Jay Mc Tighe makes us, as future teachers, be aware of the meaning of the concept understanding, which is one of the most revealing which, certainly, does not leave the Teaching Process aside, and how it differs from knowledge in all terms.
The main important difference between understanding and knowledge is that a person knows, or aquires knowledge as if their brains were a “black box” that needs to be filled in with informarion. This information stays there once it apperared, without being modifyied by thinking skills.
On the contrary, understanding is the answer for many questions about this information as soon as it is possessed, which is called in the book, “to grasper the meaning of a thing”. For example: “I can fix a car” means: “I know HOW TO fix a car” because I know what happened to it, the causes, the use the car is given, how it works, what could be done instead, the consequences, etc. As J. Dewey (1993) says: “to understand is all what makes meaning to the learner”. This means that it is possible to explain the information, and that it is not possible to analyse something that is supposed to know. Understanding is to have the know how of something and its objectives are: to think further the original piece of information, think, find out the hidden meaning and figure out pros and cons.
Since understanding is about making connections and relating events, there is another concept that the authors make reference to, which is transfer. This is about how those connections are made, thus, the student is leaded to give examples, ideas, etc. If understanding and therefore transfer occur, the person is able to analyse an issue or a thought throughly. Since the main objective for teachers is to make students learn, they should make them memorize concepts but also teach them how to work with them.
Finally, the text highlights on the importance that teachers should know how to teach, and develop strategies in order to help them to know how to think on their own, how to make the knowledge they have an issue or maybe a problem that they have to solve being helped by the concepts they should know by heart and the cognitive skills as well.
The main important difference between understanding and knowledge is that a person knows, or aquires knowledge as if their brains were a “black box” that needs to be filled in with informarion. This information stays there once it apperared, without being modifyied by thinking skills.
On the contrary, understanding is the answer for many questions about this information as soon as it is possessed, which is called in the book, “to grasper the meaning of a thing”. For example: “I can fix a car” means: “I know HOW TO fix a car” because I know what happened to it, the causes, the use the car is given, how it works, what could be done instead, the consequences, etc. As J. Dewey (1993) says: “to understand is all what makes meaning to the learner”. This means that it is possible to explain the information, and that it is not possible to analyse something that is supposed to know. Understanding is to have the know how of something and its objectives are: to think further the original piece of information, think, find out the hidden meaning and figure out pros and cons.
Since understanding is about making connections and relating events, there is another concept that the authors make reference to, which is transfer. This is about how those connections are made, thus, the student is leaded to give examples, ideas, etc. If understanding and therefore transfer occur, the person is able to analyse an issue or a thought throughly. Since the main objective for teachers is to make students learn, they should make them memorize concepts but also teach them how to work with them.
Finally, the text highlights on the importance that teachers should know how to teach, and develop strategies in order to help them to know how to think on their own, how to make the knowledge they have an issue or maybe a problem that they have to solve being helped by the concepts they should know by heart and the cognitive skills as well.
