Teaching for Understanding: Challenges for Policy and Practice

A lot of enthusiasm exists for the idea of teaching for understanding - a concept that portrays teachers as guides, coaches and facilitators of student learning. But what does it really look like in a classroom? How do we get there? In this book, leading experts on teaching and policy research provide concrete illustrations of what teaching for understanding entails. They show how, for example, to foster, sustain and support the knowledge, capacity and professional beliefs essential for teachers moving beyond a teach and test approach to analytic reflection on classroom life and their relationship with students’ learning. They describe the collegial relations and institutional arrangements that support or inhibit the process of teachers and students working together to develop knowledge. By highlighting the central issues for practice, policy and research, the authors explain how diverse institutions can work together to promote and support teaching for understanding.