Sublime

students see and answer suchquestions as these: What’s the point? What’s the big idea here? What does thishelp us understand or be able to do? To what does this relate? Why should welearn this?

If transfer is the key to teaching for understanding,our designs must make clear that questions are not only the cause of greaterunderstanding in the student, but also the means by which all content accrues.

We call the two versions of the problem the “twin sins” of typical instructional design in schools: activity-focused teaching and coverage-focusedteaching. Neither case provides an adequate answer to the key questions atthe heart of effective learning: What is important here? What is the point? Howwill this experience enable me as a learner to meet

assessment. Different types of aimsrequire different instructional and assessment approaches. How people developand deepen their understanding of an abstract concept differs fundamentallyfrom how they become proficient in a skill.

Stage 1: What should students come away understanding? Stage 2: What will count as evidence of that understanding?

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?

this: How do we make itmore likely—by our design—that more students really understand what they areasked to learn?

Uncovering students’ potential misunderstandings (through focusedquestions, feedback, diagnostic assessment)• Uncovering the questions, issues, assumptions, and gray areas lurkingunderneath the black and white of surface accounts• Uncovering the core ideas at the heart of understanding a subject, ideasthat are not obvious—and perhaps are counterint