UNDERSTANDING

UNDERSTANDING
AND
TRANSFERABILITY
Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins
and Jay McTighe

INTRODUCTION

The most characteristic thing about mental

life, over and beyond the fact that one
apprehends the events of the world around
one, is that one constantly goes beyond the
information given.
Jerome Bruner, Beyond the Information
Given, 1957, p. 218
Education. That which discloses to the wise
and disguises from the foolish their lack of
understanding.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devils Dictionary,
18811906

What is understanding?

UNDERSTANDING AS
MEANINGFUL INFERENCES

Knowledge versus
Understanding

UNDERSTANDING AS
TRANSFERABILITY

It would be impossible to over-estimate the

educational importance of arriving at conceptions:
that is, meanings that are general because applicable
in a great variety of different instances in spite of
their difference. . . . They are known points of
reference by which we get our bearings when we are
plunged into the strange and unknown. . . . Without
this conceptualizing, nothing is gained that can be
carried over to the better understanding of new
experiences.
John Dewey, How We Think, 1933, p. 153

Baking without an understanding of the ingredients

and how they work is like baking blindfold[ed] . . .
sometimes everything works. But when it doesnt you
have to guess at how to change it. . . . It is this
understanding which enables me to both creative and
successful.
Rose Levy Berenbaum, The Cake Bible, 1988, p.
469

What is transfer? Is it
important?

UNDERSTANDING AS A
NOUN

Another kind of transfer.

AN EXPERT BLIND SPOT

Effective and efficient

education.

THE EVIDENCE OF
UNDERSTANDING

How do teachers know

whether students are
understanding or not?

STUDENT
MISUNDERSTANDING AND
WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM
IT

CONCLUSION