Beyond Knowledge, Facts, and Skills Teaching for Understanding through Curriculum Mapping

If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.

Learners understand when they can… Find examples and evidence Generalize Apply and use knowledge in new situations Interpret and provide meaning Make analogies Look at an issue from different points of view Represent the topic in new ways Show empathy Reveal self-understanding

“Education is that which remains after we’ve forgotten everything we learned.” B.F. Skinner

Working toward… A curriculum of ideas and concepts and thoughts, Not a curriculum of topics, skills, facts, and knowledge

Enduring Understandings It’s a paradox in our educational system that a student can make all A’s and still not understand a principle, concept, or idea.

“A person who understands something is capable of going beyond the information given.” Jerome Bruner, 1973

In Teaching for Understanding, facts… Provide a critical foundation for content knowledge Are tools for gaining insight into conceptual ideas and for developing understanding Support big idea focus Are vehicles for students to apply new knowledge to past knowledge as they integrate thinking around bigger ideas that transfer across time and culture.

“The frameworks of meaning almost work like Velcro—facts can go back and re-attach. And the facts become more memorable because they have a purpose and a context.” Carol Ann Tomlinson

Concepts/Understandings Broad-based ideas around which curriculum is organized Provide conceptual lens through which to study or frame topics Mental constructs Timeless and universal Broad and abstract One or two words Categorize a variety of examples Go way beyond topics Transcend disciplines--macro concepts

Examples of Concepts/Understandings Conflict/Cooperation Perception Order Innovation Cycles Time Change Patterns Power Equilibrium Systems Revolution Culture Interdependence

Concept-based Learning Focus on DOING Active application of knowledge Generalization from facts Expected to remember big picture ideas Fewer, more significant topics Active involvement Teach to transfer knowledge across time and discipline Knowledge-Based Focus on KNOWING Recall of information Information in isolation Expected to remember knowledge, facts, skills Focus on covering many topics Passive reception of info Memorization of facts

Concept-based Learning Knowledge-Based Insignificant facts Textbook is course syllabus Separation of disciplines Concept-Based Significant key principles Textbook is resource and reference Integration of disciplines

Why is teaching for understanding essential? Knowledge is expanding exponentially. Students must learn the skills of assessing multiple data sources and applying skills of creative, critical, and integrated thinking to assimilate, sort, and pattern information. In a world of rapid change and global interaction, citizens need conceptual thinking abilities to understand increasingly complex social, political, and economic relationships.

Why don’t students understand? “The findings of the research over the past 20-30 years are quite compelling: students do not understand in the most basic sense of that term. They lack the capacity to take knowledge learned in one setting and apply it appropriately in a different setting.” Gardner “We’ve got to do fewer things in school. The greatest enemy of understanding is coverage.” Gardner

How do we assess understanding? Performances of understanding which assess student’s ability to use factual content to support conceptual understanding Paper and pencil tests--generally inadequate Tasks which require application of knowledge, facts, and skills in new, unfamiliar situations Authentic, real-world tasks Tasks modeled after how professionals perform their work

Enduring Understandings Major concepts and ideas that anchor a unit or course Universal generalizations, big ideas that students will remember long after they’ve forgotten details Focus on concepts, principles, and processes that apply to new situations within and beyond a subject

Enduring Understandings… Are linchpin ideas Have lasting value Are “big picture” ideas Have great potential for engaging students Lie at the heart of a discipline Are essential for authentic learning experiences

Examples… Traditions reflect beliefs, values, and heritage of a culture. Sometimes the best mathematical answer is not the best solution to real-world problems.

Man often exploits the environment for material gains. There are parallels to life in the US today to life in various periods in US history. A society is shaped by people from different cultures who make up that society. Historical events often mold specific character and personality traits among those individuals who experience them; different types of events mold different characters and personalities.

Essential Questions Are critical global, abstract, overarching questions that drive teaching and learning within a unit of study. Press students to think beyond what they already know. Are the focus of learning and central questions of inquiry.

Function of Essential Questions To point to key inquiries and core ideas of a discipline To create a focus for a unit To force students beyond learning of facts to a level of conceptual understanding To help build schema for transfer To point clearly and explicitly toward big ideas To reveal richness and complexity of subject To challenge thinking beyond facts To engage students in examining what’s really important

Function of Essential Questions To enhance, encourage, and enable cross-discipline connections To allow for inductive teaching To aid and encourage thinking at high levels To tell what students should learn from what they’re doing. To take thinking to the level of conceptual understanding To build knowledge for transfer

What do essential questions look like? They cannot be answered satisfactorily in one sentence. They are concept-based, not fact-based. They are open-ended. They are multi-layered. They may serve to organize an entire year’s curriculum. They are universal, global, and abstract. There are usually 2 to 5 per unit. They may be difficult, complex, and challenging.

How should we use essential questions in our classrooms? Post in classroom, on parent information about unit, on handouts, and in student notebooks. Organize notes and unit information around them. Let them guide discussions, instruction, and investigations.

Refer to them repeatedly. Ask them over and over. Connect essential questions with curriculum maps. Share your essential questions with other faculty members.

Essential Question Examples How do events and experiences influence the development of character? (biographies) Is behavior more strongly influenced by nature or nurture? (genetics) Who are heroes in American Literature, and what insights do we gain into American culture through these characters? What do the best problem solvers do? What does it mean to reason mathematically? How do humans communicate? What can patterns reveal? How can data lie or mislead? What is the ideal role of our government? Who is an American? Must a story have a moral, heroes, and villains? Who is a friend? Is U.S. history a history of progress?

What character traits were most highly prized by Americans in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries? How are they alike or different in different time periods? How did these traits shape historical events? How did historical events shape these traits? How do the art, literature, and music of each century reflect these traits? What is the American dream and how has it changed in different periods of American history? What individuals have personified the American dream?

As you talk to your peers: Use the COS and Curriculum Maps created by your peers to guide your planning. Create a broad vertical map that reflects the content you want your students to know, understand, and be able to do. Identify for yourself the enduring understanding your students will grasp. Create essential questions (2-5) for each concept.

Resources Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction: Teaching Beyond the Facts Understanding by Design Mapping the Big Picture