3 replies to this topic

[yitsin77]

Hi guys,

I'm an educator in high school and I found that it is critical to find out if a students really understood what the teacher has taught!

What is meant by understanding? Mere regurgitation? that stops at 1...

Read on..

• Can explain – justify phenomena, facts, data
  
• Can interpret – offer translation through different modes of representation
  
• Can apply – use/adapt in new situations
  
• Have perspective – see/hear points of view critically; see the big picture
  
• Can empathize – sensitive perception from the basis of prior personal experience
  
• Have self -knowledge – awareness of what might shape/impeded our own understanding

For example, I'm teaching physics in school , the questions that I want to ask is

To understand physics is to be able to

• Make connections between ideas/facts to explain a phenomenon
  
• Make interpretations in respect of a phenomenon
  
• Apply the knowledge to new situation
  
• Understand the value/limitation of the knowledge in focus
  
• Ability to understand different perspectives/worldview of the knowledge
  
• Have self-knowledge of one’s limitation in understanding the knowledge

Edited by yitsin77, 23 September 2008 - 03:03 PM.

[moutonoir]

I agree that true understanding of material is very important. Unfortunately, most students simply memorize facts from a textbook but are not able to apply the concepts or grasp how they really work. I have found that, in my education, it is much easier and more valuable to create a mental "system" of the material I am trying to learn, that is, to get an idea of the inner workings of the concepts. This way, if I am taking a test and read a problem that is tricky or unfamiliar, I can use the system to come up with some way of properly manipulating the information. Of course, this works more with math/science topics than with softer ones, but I'm sure a similar process could be used there too as well.

[joeblogg]

i think that the only way for students to understand what you teach is to make what you teach interesting. if the students are interested then they will naturally listen. but if some students don't understand then its not really the students fault but maybe the teacher should try to make it less boring and easier to understand. you should also make the students understand that it is their own benifit to learn what you teach them because they will be able to do well later on in life.

[bishoujo]

When I was in school, teachers gave us exam questions which required us to write down a definition of a term word-for-word. You get penalized if you miss out a point. I think this is really dumb and useless. While it is important to know what something means, it is even more important to know how it works. Sometimes when you explain the definition of something, you may miss out something because it didn't occur to you then and you simply forgot. In fact, when you're told to answer something that requires the application of the principal of the term, you could answer it just as well even if you can't remember the definition, because applying it makes you think.

so remember not to ask questions requiring students to regurgitate!