Series 1: Essential Questions, Blog 2: Understanding: “Wise Knowledge”

Based on what was presented in the previous post, we understand that a culture of inquiry is necessary for the academic progression of the learner; in this context we utilize the “essential question”. Before discussing the characteristics of this type of question, we must first determine the goal of utilizing such a type of question: reaching “understanding”.

We must first distinguish between two terms: “understanding” and “knowledge”. For, every learner aspires to understand, but the question is about the nature of understanding. The example we use to differentiate between these two terms is that it is possible for a learner to know the meaning of a set of words in a sentence, but not understand the sentence itself.

Quoting the philosopher and psychologist John Dewey, the authors of the book Understanding by Design, explain that understanding “is the result of facts acquiring meaning for the learner”. (pg.37) Facts acquiring meaning would be to recognize one thing in its relations to other things: how it functions, the consequences that follow from it, its causes, its uses …

A good example to visualize this concept: tiling a floor with black and white tiles. Each tile- with its definite traits- represents a piece of factual knowledge. To understand, however, would be to recognize the patterns visible across a set of these tiles. We notice that there are many patterns, some encompassing more tiles than others. We then notice that some smaller patterns can be grouped into sets of larger patterns; this was not apparent to us at first. In addition to that, one person may describe what we see differently than what you or I describe. In some regards, the pattern is not really there; rather, we infer it. Not only that, but the person laying the tiles might not have seen the patterns or even had the patterns in mind when the tiles were laid! We may have been the first to see them.

A more tangible example: the words on a page are the facts of a story. We can look up the words in a dictionary, which will provide us with “knowledge” of their meaning. But the meaning of the story itself is open to discussion. Understanding the story is what we mean by “reading between the lines”. The author may not have meant what we inferred. 

Based on what we have just mentioned, we now ask: what does understanding really provide us with? Knowing when to use any given fact or piece of information requires more than just another fact; it requires understanding. Let us label it: “wise knowledge”. In other words, understanding entails transferability: the learner’s ability to transfer the knowledge and skills acquired creatively, flexibly, and fluently to different settings and contexts.

The question then posed is: How do we know if a learner truly possesses the ability to transfer, proving that a true understanding has been achieved? Are there any specific and tangible criteria in that regard?   

In the next post …