Virginia S. Lee & Associates
			Higher Education Consulting
				Teaching, Learning and Assessment
					Teaching for Understanding
						What does it mean for students to truly understand something? Most of us would probably say it has something to do with deeper conceptual understanding and being able to transfer learning to new and slightly unfamiliar contexts. Yet all too often instructors complain that their students are unable to do this. Why? And what kinds of learning experiences do promote true understanding? In this workshop, adaptable to both half- and full-day formats, we explore approaches to teaching and learning that promote enduring understanding. In the process we challenge two very fundamental assumptions still widely held in higher education: content coverage equals learning, and good teaching means covering as much material as possible. Using ideas from Wiggins & McTighe’s Understanding by Design as well as other sources, we describe and experiment with an alternative view of teaching and learning that promotes learning that lasts longer than a semester and beyond the specific context of instruction.