Making learning visible!

Part of the teaching for understanding framework that has been developed by educators including Howard Gardner and David Perkins at the Project Zero Group at Harvard, involves the notion of "making learning visible".

The essential idea here is 'if I can "see" what my students are learning, then it should be easier for me to determine what they do and don't understood'.

A key characteristic then of 'teaching for understanding activities' is that they contain a "make- learning- visible component", that they provide us with an opportunity to observe what students are understanding.

This makes good pedagogic sense to me. As an effective teacher, I want to know, as best I can, and at every possible moment throughout my classes what my students are understanding and not understanding. This knowledge provides me with important, information so that I can make better, on-the-spot teaching and learning decisions to help make my students' learning more effective. My choices about my instructional practices become better "informed" with this instant feedback!

I know that if I wait until the quiz at the end of the unit to see what my students have understood, it is often too late to help my weaker students. A poor grade, the frustration of failure, the humility of "not getting it", all this negative baggage just makes it more difficult to turn the situation around in the next unit. Intuitively, I can see how the 'damage' has already been done and that now my job is double! Not only do I have to provide new content and input now, but I also have to somehow remediate what has not been learned! Uggghhh!!!

Over the next few weeks, I would like to share with you my experiences and the activities I use, as a teacher and teacher trainer developing and experimenting with "teaching for understanding strategies, techniques and activities that make learning visible."

Theresa