Teaching tools for learning for understanding

One of the very important ideas that form a part of the teaching for understanding (TFU) framework is the idea of creating opportunities to demonstrate learning in the classroom. David Perkins and the TFU group out of Harvard call these "understanding performances" or "performances of understanding". It occurs to me that perhaps I can create learning tools to use in my classrooms that help "make learning visible" (another idea from the TFU framework and working group), especially when I am working with young learners who aren´t so able to articulate what they have learned.

Welcome!

This blog is written by me Theresa Zanatta, an English teacher who has been introduced to the "teaching for understanding" framework.

Two summers ago, the summer of 2005, I took part in an on-line course on the "teaching for understanding" framework offered through the Department of Education at Harvard University. I took this course because I have always been motivated in my teaching by a desire to help my students "understand" and not just memorize what I was teaching.

My teaching objectives have always been to help students understand how they learn, what they are learning and why they are learning what they are learning. This to me is the "essence" of learning. Howard Gardner´s work has always interested me and a desire to better understand a pedagogy of understanding led me to this course in the summer of 2005.

Since that summer, I have continued to read about, explore, try out, and just plain experiment with this concept and how I can operationalize it in my various English classes with learners of all ages, here in Barcelona. This blog is about my learning experience and my exploration of a pedagogy of understanding.