The enduring understandings that teachers must grapple with

There are many challenges teachers must overcome when trying to teach students to truly “understand” not just “know”. Understanding is represented by a multifaceted view. True understanding is said to explain, interpret, apply, have perspective, empathize, and possess self knowledge. I wonder how often teachers actually think about and incorporate these facets when planning lessons. Implementing the essential questions including topical and overreaching questions and knowing when to use one over the other is also difficult. These essential questions that make connections and transfer to other areas take skill and time to develop. It would take some practice to get your mind thinking in this way when planning lessons and during the three stages of UBD. I would think topical questions are used more by most teachers. Although topical questions are helpful, they do not ensure transfer. On the other hand, implementing only overreaching or open questions may mislead discussion away from understandings and core content. The challenge is to use the appropriate questions during the appropriate time. This can be difficult. I don’t think I have kept these areas in mind when designing lessons, however I was surprised how much of these concepts I have been implementing all along without realizing it when reading about essential understandings and crafting understandings. Teachers must realize that enduring “understandings” use discrete facts to focus on the bigger picture and provide transfer to new situations. A more broad strategy enables application of ideas to other situations. According to Wiggins & McTighe (2005), understanding requires students to consider, propose, test, question, criticize, and verify. How often teachers actually require or expect students to understand at this level? I often wonder why I usually can’t apply a concept that I have learned previously when I understood it. Maybe I truly did not understand it. Maybe it’s not just because I seem to forget things easily. Maybe it’s because I didn’t truly learn it. In order to require students to learn and understand at this level would take a major reevaluation of ones teaching to redirect lessons and concentrate on essential questions and understandings. This will also allow students to make valuable connections and enable transfer to other areas. These ideas seem to be a lot to “grapple” with especially when writing a curriculum according to UBD, but imagine how much easier it would be for a teacher that has a curriculum to follow that was designed according to UBD.

What are the characteristics of a successful novice teacher?

A novice teacher must possess several characteristics to be successful during the first year. First, the teacher must be willing to learn. All teachers should be willing to learn and improve their strategies. A teacher who is new to the profession has a tremendous amount to learn. The only knowledge they have is background knowledge of information, but not much experience on what to do with it. During the first few years, there is so much to learn and take in. New educators must be willing to take advantage of resources given and the knowledgeable and experienced teachers they work with. By being a professional who is not only willing to learn new ideas no matter what stage of their career, they are also modeling for the students to be a life-long learner. A new teacher must be passionate about both teaching and working with children. They must value education and value each of their student’s education as well. Teachers also have to enjoy working with children and be willing to embrace the challenges that come with teaching them. Patience is an important characteristic for a new teacher. Patience not only with the children throughout their learning process but also the teachers learning process of first year issues, as well as, their professional development. A good teacher is dedicated to their profession. They are willing to do what it takes for what is of the best interest of the children and/or school. They are also enthusiastic about the content they are teaching in order to motivate students to take interest and further learn the information. Novice teachers are not expected to run a class like and experienced educator. Those skills eventually come with experience, but they must be knowledgeable in their subject areas and possess the talents and abilities to apply this knowledge affectively to successfully impact the learning of their students. Finally, the teacher must care about the students and their student’s success. The students know if their teacher cares about them. If students feel their teachers don’t care about them, they won’t care about the teacher or what they are teaching.

Understanding Understanding

I found the topic of “knowledge” and “understanding” very interesting and crucial to design and assessment. The ideas of knowledge and understanding made a lot of sense when I thought about it. I use to think understanding was the act of knowing but learned that it is not just knowing but knowing why and how this knowledge can be applied in a different situation to fully demonstrate transfer and that optimal learning has occurred. I think of the idea of transfer when planning lessons. Students are expected to learn a skill and apply it to the next progression demonstrating that they have learned the previous skill. For instance, if I’m teaching a child the steps to safely perform a forward roll, the steps are fresh in their mind at the time of the introductory practice. Once the unit progresses and they learn backward rolls and cartwheels, they then are asked to put them together as a sequence or routine. If the steps to the forward roll are forgotten or the idea of arm support previously learned in forward rolls did not transfer to backward rolls, transfer did not occur. This means that the child might know how to perform the skill, but did not truly learn or “understand” it enough to transfer that concept of arm support to a backward roll or forward roll in a sequence of skills naturally. I find that to help children reach transfer and “understanding”, they need to know why a skill should be performed that way. They need to see why that is the better way and know the reason why the other way is wrong. In addition, they seem to be very interested when concepts are applied to other things. It then becomes more relevant and meaningful. When an individual can attach a piece of information to a reason or learn it in a certain context, it can be more easily retained and the context and real life situation it is useful for can be recalled and applied. The “misunderstanding” concept was also an important concept. It is not just a mistake to be corrected. Misunderstanding is an unsuccessful transfer of information to be rewarded without reinforcing the same mistake or discouraging future participation. It reminds me of s student’s ability to ask questions. A student may be confused about something but if they can develop a logical and practical question relevant to the topic, they at least partially grasp the idea. It show’s if nothing else, at least their paying attention!

What is curriculum? Who should design it? Who should control it?

Curriculum is a list of information and essential ideas or concepts to be taught with a list of ideas for implementation to impact student learning. These ideas should enable successful understanding of content that will provide transfer and practical applications to one’s life. The curriculum should guide teachers to achieving the schools goal or mission. The mission statement must first be understood in order to write curriculum and lead the learning process towards meeting that goal. The mission statements should express long-term intellectual accomplishments of content knowledge and skills that students will need in their careers and daily lives. A curriculum should never be looked at as a model that is written in stone and can never be modified to meet the needs of a particular class or individual. Instruction must be differentiated and the curriculum should provide some of these strategies. A successful curriculum shows teachers how to use the content of facts, concepts, and skills. When the curriculum is focused on the desired accomplishments and competencies of each discipline, teachers can then understand how to transfer the standards into effective learning for their students.

Educational professional’s including principals, teachers, and content area supervisors should be responsible to both design and overlook the process. Those who design curriculum should not only have great understanding and experience in that particular subject area but should also be qualified to write curriculum that will meet the needs of the schools mission, guide teachers in highly effective teaching strategies, and impact student learning at the highest level. I notice that there is curriculum that has been written by people outside the content area and I wonder how someone with limited knowledge of a subject area can create or revise a curriculum that is as resourceful as one who is specialized in that area. I know that curriculum writing is sometimes optional and if teachers within the content area are not interested in being involved then they have to look outside the content area to find someone to revise it. I think it would be more practical to provide time during in-service days to distribute the work evenly to staff within that department to accomplish the curriculum writing process. After all, a curriculum is a very valuable resource to new and experienced teachers and should be designed by those who posses the most knowledge and expertise.

Content area administrators and grade level teams should be responsible for controlling the curriculum to make revisions as they see fit. Periodically, curriculum should be reviewed and revised implementing new and more engaging lessons to increase student learning. Assessment of student learning is vital to determining the need for curriculum revision. This can be discovered through test scores, student work and projects etc. During the teacher evaluation process, this can be discussed to determine any necessary options for improvement of teaching strategies. Curriculum, like a lesson, can always be improved. Therefore, those who are responsible to improve it should be in control of it.