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=Designing Your Course=

According to Wiggins “An understanding is a mental construct, an abstraction made by the human mind to make sense of many distinct pieces of knowledge. The standard further suggests that if students understand, then they can provide evidence of that understanding by showing that they know and can do certain specific things.” (Wiggins, 2005) Understanding a concept goes beyond knowledge. It means that the person is familiar with, or has skill in dealing with or handling something. It means that they have a firm grasp of the concept and can translate their knowledge into practical application. It is not always necessary that students internalize or “really understand” every bit of knowledge presented to them. Sometimes all they need is to grasp the core or essence of a concept in order for them to be able to make inferences when presented with new ideas or knowledge.

“As Bloom (1956) put it, understanding is the ability to marshal skills and facts wisely and appropriately, through effective application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.” (Wiggins, 2005) When a student understands a concept he/she will be able to demonstrate it in some way. Understanding can be assessed by first determining what concepts the student needs to be able to demonstrate, designing an appropriate practical application, and a standard of measuring the student’s degree of success in achieving the goal.

In our program, the overall goal or outcome we want to achieve is retention of students through graduation. There are many ways to accomplish this task. We provide resource information, offer tutorials, study skill workshops, cultural activities, study aids, counseling and referrals and more. We measure the students success through progress reports from their instructors, their semester GPA’s, and ultimately by their graduation. Although, I think that many times along the way students fail to grasp the concepts needed to achieve the desired outcome. We offer the information and assistance but the students have make application of the resources that we provide in order to be successful in obtaining their degree.

Wiggins, Grant. //Understanding by Design (Expanded Second Edition).// Alexandria, VA, USA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2005. p 37. []

Wiggins, Grant. //Understanding by Design (Expanded Second Edition).// Alexandria, VA, USA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2005. p 39. []

I tried to post this comment and then lost it. Just a word of warning, I think the first draft was better but here goes …. Michael, in reading the chapter Understanding Understanding this week, I learned that to better define “understanding” we need to be able to define what is “misunderstanding”. Wiggins states that “many teachers not only fail to see the value in the feedback of student misunderstanding, they are somewhat threatened or irritated by it.” (Wiggins, 2005). I think it is easier for teachers to look at best practices than it is to focus on the areas where our students are struggling and to determine what needs to change in order to achieve the level of “understanding” that is needed. This process requires more effort and forces us to adapt and change.

Although, we all know the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. In the last course we took, Leadership for Accountability, we spent a great deal of time looking at student data in order to determine the best course of action in order to increase school success ratings. For me, the process was exhausting, but in the end, it proved to be a valuable tool in determining needs and setting goals for future improvement and success.

Wiggins, Grant. //Understanding by Design (Expanded Second Edition).// Alexandria, VA, USA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2005. p 51. __http://site.ebrary.com/lib/lamar/Doc?id=10081770&ppg=49__

I simply had to share something that I discovered last night. I ran across a copy of an old textbook from my undergrad studies entitled "Educational Psychology The Teaching-Learning Process" by Daniel Lenox Barlow. The textbook was published in 1985 which I realize really dates me. Now, keep in mind this book was written prior to the time of the Internet as we know it today. I turned to the last chapter entitled "Future Changes in the Teaching-Learning Process" just to see what it had to say about the future. It predicted three most pertinent trends: 1) the rapid development of technology; 2) the information age; and 3) the recent demographic shifts. This last point outlines the significant impact that the retirement of the baby boomers would have on education. It predicted that when the 1957 babies begin to retire in 2010, there will be only two active workers paying for the benefits of each retired person. In 1950, that ratio was sixteen to one.

What I found significant related to our study this week was that the author quoted Arthur Lewis (1983) who says that "There are two things of paramount importance we can do as we engage in the teaching-learning process in relation to the future: (1) **We can help the students develop skills of reading, writing, and computing.** **But those skills have to represent more than mere information. Included must be the development of the ability to comprehend information – to analyze it, to synthesize it, and apply it in a value-oriented way.** (2) We can encourage students to assume responsibility for their own learning. Says Lewis, ‘The ultimate goal of education is to shift to the individual the burden of pursuing his or her own education. To cope with emerging global problems, people will need to continue learning throughout their lives. Their survival will depend on it.’ " It appears that in 25 years, the message has not changed, there is still a need for students to be able to apply the knowledge they are gaining. The question is, in 25 years, have we moved closer to or farther from that goal? Barlow, Daniel L. (1985) Educational Psychology The Teaching-Learning Process, The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, Chicago, p. 490-493

Lewis, Arthur J. (September 1983) Education for the Twenty-first Century, //Educational Leadership// 41 p. 9-10.



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