Teaching for Understanding

"Knowledge and skill have been the mainstays of American education" (David Perkins, "Teaching & Learning for Understanding" NIEA Reviw (October 1993), p.11). This quote says alot of about American education. In the United States, the goals of the American education are for students to be knowledgeable about history, science, geography, and so on. Second, to be skillfl in the routines of arithemetic, the craft of writing, and the use of foreign languages. At a time, in the 19th and throughout the 20th Century, I would argue such methods would have been fine for educating American students. However, because time has changed dramatically over the last half century, the mainstays of American education are outdated and needed to be replaced to accomadate present day learning that can help students survive in today's society.

In the article, Teaching & Learning for Understanding, David Perkins tells us that the old ways of teaching students--knowledge and skill--must go because they do not guarantee understanding; they do students little good; and we can acquire them without understanding their basis or when to use them (10-11). I agree with David Perkins' arguement and I support his proposal of teaching and learning for understanding. His proposal sounds great on paper: "Working in groups, students can learn to connect what they have learned to their own lives" (10). Learning for understandind sounds like a great method that can help students integrate into today's technological savy society.