Teaching for Understanding

MARTHA STONE WISKE is a lecturer and researcher at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she co-directs the Educational Techonology Center. She is the coeditor of Software Goes to School: Teaching for Understanding with New Technologies (1995).

"This book is equal parts theory and practice. It is a superb example of what educators in universities and schools can accomplish when they engage in sincere efforts to benefit students." --Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development "A remarkable work, conceptually bold and practical. It makes the best of contemporary practices seem eminently reasonable, while also offering a framework for making teaching for understanding accessible to our teachers." --Deborah Meier, author of The Power of Their Ideas and founder, Central Park East Public Schools, East Harlem, New York "At last, a new volume from a team of scholars at Harvard's Graduate School of Education and Project Zero that takes teaching, learning, and understanding, as both theory and practice. My congratulations to Howard Gardner, David Perkins, and Vito Perrone for a project well-conceived and well-conducted, and to Stone Wiske for a useful, educator-friendly book." --Lee S. Shulman, president, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching "As the authors acknowledge, teaching for understanding is an old idea and a simple one. But their lucid and thorough exploration of it is fresh and richly generative--and compelling too, in a way reserved for ideas that seem as practical as they are provocative. A whole range of people who care about teaching will be drawn to this book, and they will be well served." --Joe McDonald, director of research, Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University

• Part One: Foundations of Teaching for Understanding. 1. Why Do We Need a Pedagogy of Understanding?(Vito Perrone). 2. What is Understanding?(David Perkins). Part Two: Teaching for Understanding in the Classroom. 3. What is Teaching for Understanding?(Martha Stone Wiske). 4. How Do Teachers Learn to Teach for Understanding?(Martha Stone Wiske, Karen Hammerness, Daniel Gray Wilson). 5. How Does Teaching for Understanding Look in Practice?(Ron Ritchart, Martha Stone Wiske, Eric Buchovecky, Lois Hetland). Part Three: Students' Understanding in the Classroom. 6. What Are the Qualities of Understanding?(Veronica Boix Mansilla, Howard Gardner). 7. How Do Students Demonstrate Understanding?(Lois Hetland, Karen Hammerness, Chris Unger, Daniel Gray Wilson). 8. What Do Students in Teaching for Understanding Classrooms Understand?(Karen Hammerness, Rosario Jaramillo, Chris Unger, Daniel Gray Wilson). 9. What Do Students Think About Understanding?(Chris Unger and Daniel Gray Wilson with Rosario Jaramillo and Roger Dempsey). Part Four: Promoting Teaching for Understanding. 10. How Can We Prepare New Teachers?(Vito Perrone). 11. How Can Teaching for Understanding Be Extended in Schools?(Martha Stone Wiske, Lois Hetland, Eric Buchovecky). Conclusion: Melding Progressive and Traditional Perspectives(Howard Gardner).