the challenge of teaching forunderstanding is largely the challenge of making the big ideas in the fieldbecome big in the mind of the learner. This

Generate big ideas as an outgrowth of related and suggestive pairs. Thishelpful approach has two virtues: (1) it indicates the kinds of inquiries thatmust be made (e.g., compare and contrast), and (2) it suggests the kind ofrethinking that learners will need in order to understand the ideas and findthem useful. Here is a list of pairs to consider:a

A third important connotation for the term essential refers to what isneeded for learning core content. In this sense, we can consider a questionessential if it helps students effectively inquire and make sense of important but complicated ideas, knowledge, and know-how—a bridge to findings thatexperts may believe are settled but learners do not ye

Grasping the structure of a subject is understanding it in a way that permitsmany other things to be related to it meaningfully. To learn structure, in short,is to learn how things are related.

to sidleup to a student in the middle of any classand ask the following questions:What are you doing?Why are you being asked to do it?What will it help you do?How does it fit with what you have previously done?How will you show that you have learnedit?

a big idea, is not “big” merely by virtue of its intellectualscope. It has to have pedagogical power: It must enable the learner to makesense of what has come before; and, most notably, be helpful in making new,unfamiliar ideas seem more familiar.

Because big ideas are inherently transferable, they help connect discrete topics and skills.

in Understanding by Design we are tackling two recurring problems in design, the twin sins: aimless coverage of content, and isolated activities that are merely engaging (at best) while disconnected from intellectualgoals in the learners’ minds.

Misunderstanding is not ignorance, therefore. It is the mapping of a working idea in a plausible but incorrect way in a new situation.