Studio habits of mind activities12/9/2023 TfU and other PZ frameworks are grounded in the Performance Theory of Understanding (Perkins, 1988)-the notion that learning experiences should be ways learners build understanding and also demonstrate understanding at the same time. The learning activities in a lesson, “performances of understanding” may seem like an arcane term for activities, but there is a reason for this. Being questions and not answers, these questions initiate the inquiry, and since they are generative, they are open-ended, thought-provoking and have no easy yes or no answers. They are, therefore, questions about significant concepts and ideas. Generative questions are directly linked to the understanding goals of the lesson. Those goals are “procedural” in nature and can be listed as procedural goals under a separate category.Ī TfU lesson begins with a generative question or two. In art, understanding goals, therefore, are about grasping concepts and making meaning, and not about formal concerns or craftsmanship. Also, they pertain to significant issues and concepts, not to technical skills or discipline-specific “principles”. Specific ideas, concepts and the thinking your students will come to understand through participating in a particular lesson, series of lessons or a project, understanding goals fit within the throughline. They provide the conceptual thread that connects all the learning experiences in the curriculum, and, therefore, bring continuity to a curriculum. Throughlines are complex themes that can be explored in many ways. They are accessible and interesting to students, interesting to the teacher, linked to students’ experiences and important across the disciplines. The following are the basic tenets of the Teaching for Understanding Framework.īroad topics (also referred to as Big Ideas) or generative themes are central to the domain or discipline. It also makes explicit the goals of the curriculum and their relationship to overarching themes and other significant ideas. While TfU helps teachers, it also benefits learners because TfU provides learners with a vocabulary to articulate and communicate their thinking and learning. TfU also contributes a common vocabulary for educators to use in their teaching and, when used schoolwide, a language for collaborating with their peers. It also leads teachers to develop curriculum that explores themes of consequence to both learners and teachers, and to think through and organize their lessons according to their goals in investigating those themes. ![]() In this way, it helps teachers be more intentional in their curriculum and pedagogy. ![]() ![]() It requires that all learning activities connect to significant overarching generative themes and related goals. Furthermore, TfU focuses learners’ and teachers’ attention on what matters. TfU aligns with creative art-based inquiry because it asks those questions and provides a strong, flexible structure on which to explore them. How can teachers know what students understand? What about these topics must learners understand? Teaching for Understanding rests on four key questions:
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