Understanding

When designing curricula that will be useful for our students, we have to consider the essence of understanding so they can really acquire the new knowledge and make good use of it, without forgetting “after the test”.

In chapter 6, Wiggins and McTighe define understanding as follows.

1. 1. An understanding is an important inference, drawn from the experience of experts, stated in a specific and useful generalization;
2. 2. An understanding refers to transferable, big ideas having enduring value beyond a specific topic;
3. 3. An understanding involves abstract, counter-intuitive, and easily misunderstood ideas;
4. 4. An understanding is best acquired by "uncovering" and "doing" the subject (i.e., using the ideas in realistic settings and with real-world problems;
5. 5. An understanding summarizes important strategic principles in skills area.

In accordance to this, understanding we have to take into account that understanding is a long time process, where the student gets involved in order to solve tasks.

For this to take place, we have to establish priorities according to what is more important for our learners. In order for contents to be meaningful, we have to filter the topics. In this process we have to consider the characteristics of our pupils and how they learn.