Philippine Normal University

Taft Ave., Manila

HARK HERALD C. SARMIENTO DR. RITA RUSCOE

Pedagogical Theory and Practice [E-Ped1] Summer 2018

Topic 5: Teaching for Understanding: the Role of ICT and e-learning

[by Martha Stone Wiske]

1. What does "teaching for understanding" actually mean?

 Not only is understanding a performance, but it is developed through
performance. So acting with your knowledge helps you develop and
demonstrate your understanding.
 Understanding is performance capability.
 Thus, teaching for understanding actually mean teaching learners to
perform what they understand.

2. What are the characteristics of teachers who teach for understanding?

 Teachers who were effective at cultivating their students’ understanding
(1) built their curriculum around important and accessible topics
(generative topics) that interest learners and teachers;
(2) defined explicit goals for learners’ understanding and make goals
public early and often;
(3) provided multiple, varied opportunities for learners to perform in ways
that develop and demonstrate their understanding; and
(4) assessed learners’ work frequently using public criteria that align with
learning goals in suggest ways to improve.

3. How is teaching for understanding different from the traditional instruction?

 In traditional instruction, knowledge is a product, teaching is transmission,
learning is reception, students absorb and repeat, exams test knowledge
acquisition, and schools are organized to support instruction, not learning
for understanding.
 While in teaching for understanding, understanding is a process, teaching
is cultivation, learning is constructing, students think, apply, create, and
critique, exams assess/promote expertise, learning communities share
authority and responsibility among members, and schools are
communities of inquiry.

4. How can teachers give everyone the KEY for understanding?

 “Telling everyone in your class what your understanding goals are, making
the criteria for high quality work explicit upfront, giving them multiple
opportunities to define and achieve those criteria is like giving everyone
 the key to understanding instead of keeping all that information to
yourself.”
 Teaching for understanding is a reflective, collaborative communities of
learners who are educational authority and responsibility.

5. How can ICT help in teaching for understanding?

 ICTs and E-learning can help in teaching for understanding by:
(1) connecting learning to life,
(2) promoting interactive learning,
(3) supporting multiple intelligences,
(4) enabling students to pursue multiple pathways,
(5) making learners’ thinking visible,
(6) sustaining practical inquiry cycles…overtime and across distance,
(7) fostering ongoing assessment and revision,
(8) connecting communities of learners, and
(9) facilitating balance between teacher guidance and learners’
intrinsically motivated inquiry.

6. How can you apply teaching for understanding in your own teaching context?
 I can apply teaching for understanding in my own teaching context by
integrating ICT, taking advantage of the potential of this new technology to
support teaching and learning for understanding.
 I have already started doing so, by using the Google Classroom where I
am able to return feedback to students out of the bound of the school
edifice.