Knowledge and Understanding

[coberst]

Knowing & Understanding

It appears to me that knowing and understanding are entirely different kinds of mental happenings. Knowledge is what is measured when we take an exam or a test. We take such exams constantly throughout our schooling. How well we do on these exams determines, many feel, our potential for job success in life.

Our schools generally do not give essay exams. I think writing is the only metric for determining a person’s understanding. Personally I find that essay writing is a very important component of understanding. Our schools and colleges place little emphasis on understanding, probably because it is too time consuming and too difficult to teach and to quantify for grading purposes.

I think that ‘paint-by-number’ and canvas painting might be a useful analogy for comparing knowing and understanding.

One can buy a paint-by-number kit that will contain bottles of different colored paints, some brushes, and a board upon which an image is displayed in outline. Each section of the image is numbered just as the bottles of paint so that the painter dabs on the numbered section of the image the appropriate color of paint.

Comparing paint-by-number work with a canvas painting I think will give an idea of the difference between knowing and understanding. The paint-by-number product is somewhat mechanical while the canvas painting is much more of a work of art in that it is a creative act.

I think that learning how to learn and how to understand is something that comes with the experience of trying to learn. I think that our standard schooling does a marvelous job preparing us to become good producers and voracious consumers. It teaches us what to know and what questions to expect on the next exam. To learn how to learn and how to understand is up to each of us to accomplish after our schooling is finished.

My learning circle goes like this: Reading skills are dependent upon thinking skills, thinking skills are dependent upon writing skills, and writing skills are dependent upon reading skills. We are introduced to all of these skills by our schooling system but the mature development and application of these skills wait our adult years.

I read that Van Gogh commented that a painter must first learn his craft before he can paint well. I think we must learn the craft of learning before we can understand well.

[chonsigirl]

Originally Posted by coberst

Our schools generally do not give essay exams. I think writing is the only metric for determining a person’s understanding. Personally I find that essay writing is a very important component of understanding. Our schools and colleges place little emphasis on understanding, probably because it is too time consuming and too difficult to teach and to quantify for grading purposes.

Coberst, schools do give essays exams, and essays on more then a weekly basis. I think you should examine your local school systems, from the public school, to private schools, to the neighboring university systems about this thought. Essay writing at the appropriate level is an essential component of teaching, for the student to convey their thoughts more accurately then through multiple choice and true/false questions. From my 7th graders to my college class, essays are required by me, and from every other teacher that I know. I took great delight on my day off of teaching Monday while imprisioned in the high school library to compose the writing prompt my 7th graders will receive next week. It will allow them the flexibility to exercise their knowledge through the writing medium to express their thoughts on the topic assigned.

Chonsi, I really hate mushy posts, but you're sort of my hero. I couldn't do your job.

[SOJOURNER]

Originally Posted by coberst

. I think we must learn the craft of learning before we can understand well.

and a heavy dose of common sense makes it all work well. . . . . .

[coberst]

Girl

My close experience with K-12 ended twenty years ago and perhaps things have changed dramatically. Would you guess that essay exams make up more than 10 % of exams given? As a teacher who must quantify understanding do you think essays are the only ways available to make that judgement? Does the recent demands associated with NCLB help or harm the number of essay exams given? Do you disagree that teaching for understanding is a dramatically different technique?

I am respectful of teachers and the difficult task they are assigned to accomplish. I think that our society demands effeciencies and results that make the teaching to facilitate understanding very difficult.