Teaching for Understanding：What it is and how to do it

Why does understanding really matter?

Why do some learners fail to understand?

At a time when league tables can be everything, examination grades matter. Perhaps more than many would admit, the cost is a lack of understanding.

The new edition of Teaching for Understanding provides practical advice about how to support understanding in both children and adults. It is for all teachers and lecturers, experienced or otherwise, who want learners to do more than simply memorize and regurgitate information. It describes what understanding means in the different subjects and offers a framework for supporting understanding.

Revised and updated to reflect evolving ideas about education and the latest challenges facing teachers and learners, this new edition includes a section on the role of e-learning, as well as additional classroom contexts and extra strategies for supporting understanding.

Topics explored include:

• What is understanding and why is it so valuable?
• How understanding happens: the mental processes
• The relationship between understanding and creative thought
• Reasons for misunderstanding and how to combat them
• The impact of learners’ motivation and strategies for self-help
• How to evaluate understanding.

Teaching for Understanding: What it is and how to do it addresses a real problem at all levels of education, and is essential reading for all teachers and lecturers in schools, colleges and universities.

Douglas P. Newton is a Professor of Education currently working at Durham University, UK.