Blogs

Series 1: Essential Questions, Blog 3: Understand?

In the previous blog, a question was posed: How do we know if a learner truly “understands”? Ultimately, every learner wants to achieve an understanding of the material being learned. In this blog, we will briefly explore the six facets- or six aspects- of understanding presented by authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. In other words, we will look at “Understanding” with a multi-faceted view. First, a true understanding entails an ability to explain. Perhaps this is why we always

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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

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Series 1: Essential Questions, Blog 1: A Culture of Inquiry

Topic 1: Essential Questions  This series of blogs will explore some of the main concepts introduced by the authors of the books “Understanding by Design” and “Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding” The ideal dealing with the answers will lead to more answers and more questions. Therefore, the essential question by nature leads to more questions. In this respect, the question becomes the teacher. And as long as we have not reached the point in which the essential question

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