TEACHING FOR UNDERSTANDING 1
Running head: TEACHING FOR UNDERSTANDING 1
Teaching for Understanding Framework in Practice
Su-Tuan Lulee
Professor: Dr. Susan Moisey
Prepared for Assignment 1
EDDE 803: Teaching and Learning in Distance Education
Ed. D., Athabasca University
October, 2010

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Abstract
This paper describes the Teaching for Understanding framework, a pedagogical theory developed by the
Teaching for Understanding team at Project Zero in the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and ways
of using it in actual instruction. The essential elements of the framework are described first. The paper
then delineates how the framework can be applied in unit design and learning processes with the
supporting tools and techniques. The conclusion points to a need for exploring the integration of
emerging social learning technologies with the Teaching for Understanding framework so that the
framework can better support teaching and learning from distance.
Keywords: Teaching for Understanding framework, instructional design

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Teaching for Understanding Framework in Practice
Most educators would agree that learners in schools need to develop understanding about
important academic subject matter, not merely memorize facts and figures. Leaders in all fields would
welcome employees who know how to think and learn in the constant changing Information Age. How
can educators foster understanding outcomes? Educators strive to explain clearly, look for opportunities
to re-clarify, and plan activities that call for and build understanding. However, it is not rare to find that
some students still don’t understand. How can factual knowledge be accumulated into understanding
that equips learners to demonstrate their knowledge in real problems? What strategy would best
support daily teaching for understanding in terms of designing units or curriculum, conducting
educational activities with learners, and assessing learners’ progress? This paper tries to answer the
questions through examining the Teaching for Understanding framework.
Literature Review
In this paper, “Teaching for Understanding” is used as a specific term for describing the
pedagogical theory developed by the Teaching for Understanding team at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate
School of Education. The principal investigators are Howard Gardner, David Perkins, and Vito Perrone
and the project managers are Rebecca Simmons and Martha Stone Wiske
What is Understanding?
“Understanding is a matter of being able to do a variety of thought-demanding things with a
topic - like explaining, finding evidence and examples, generalizing, applying, analogizing, and
representing the topic in a new way” (Perkins, & Blythe, 1994, p. 5). For example, understanding in
mathematics is not just being able to apply equations to routine textbook problems. Students must be
able to carry out a variety of “performances” that apply equations to or make predictions about
authentic situations. Based on this definition, we can say that being able to achieve a high score in a

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paper-and-pencil test alone is not “understanding”; being able to describe facts or methods only is not
necessarily “understanding.” Understanding is not just having knowledge (i.e., information) or
demonstrating skills (i.e., routine performances). “Understanding is the ability to think and act flexibly
with what one knows” (Perkins, 1998, p.40).
It is not to say that factual knowledge is not important. Factual knowledge is the foundation of
competence. However, students must understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual
framework and organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application (Bransford, Brown, &
Cocking, 2000).
Teaching for Understanding Framework
Teaching for Understanding was a research project (1988 - 1995) in Project Zero at Harvard
Graduate School of Education. In the developing years, researchers and participants collaborated to
develop, refine, and test a pedagogy called the Teaching for Understanding framework. The framework
was tested in collaboration with 60 middle and high school teachers. It has grown to become a widely
adopted framework in the US and some non-English speaking countries like Mexico and China through
online teacher development certificate programs. The main contribution of the Teaching for
Understanding framework to the field of teacher education is that it provides a set of language and
structure for planning curriculum and for discussing pedagogy with other colleagues and students.
The core of the framework is a performance view of understanding – When students
“understand” a topic, they not only can rephrase knowledge but also can put their understanding into
action and applies it to a novel situation. For example, a student in a literature class might be able to
describe the outline of a story in her own words,role-play a character in an episode as she reacts to
different part of the story, or write out an imagined debate to the authors to challenge them about some
ideas. These “performances of understanding” provide opportunities for students to demonstrate what

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they understand and in the meantime allow the educators to assess students’ levels of understanding
and to adjust their teaching accordingly.
Figure 1: The interplay between the elements of TfU framework
The original Teaching for Understanding framework contains four elements: Generative Topics,
Understanding Goals, Performances of Understanding, and Ongoing Assessments (Figure 1). All these
four elements serve the purpose of focusing the energy and time of the educators on helping students to
learn about the most important topic for understanding in a particular domain or discipline. The fifth
element was added to the framework few years after the model was first proposed, when technology
integration began to be taken into consideration by the researchers (Wiske & Franz, 2005).
Constructivism Assumption
The Teaching for Understanding framework is based on the assumptions of constructivism
(Perkins, 2006b). In general, constructivism is a philosophical and psychological view of learning that
argues that knowledge and understanding cannot be learned through rote learning. Rather, learners
have to construct their knowledge and understanding by experiences given by the world and especially
by the educators. Constructivism emphasizes active participation by the learners and that knowledge

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and understanding are socially constructed (Philips, 1995).
Core Elements
Generative Topics
Since limited time is available for teaching at schools, considering “What topics are worth
understanding?” is the first priority for the instructors when planning a curriculum. The instructors need
a topic that is generative enough to allow the essential concepts, principles, and procedures to evolve in
the teaching-learning process. What topic is not only central to the domain, but also interesting to both
students and the instructor? Certainly, to investigate the topic, there must be sufficient appropriate
resources available. Also, the topic should be able to generate multiple connections to more than one
domain. For example, global warming is a generative topic that can connect to weather, glaciers, or rain
forests in a biology course; because it’s an important issue, everyone will be concerned about it; plenty
of resources are accessible; and it has potential for multiple connections.
Generative Topics are not just themes because themes lack centrality to the discipline. For
example, a mathematics teacher may decide to use the theme of gorillas. The unit might involve
measuring the number of gorillas in certain regions, collecting facts about the height and weight of
gorillas, locating gorillas on maps with coordinate tools, and so on. The unit might involve lots of
mathematics, but not a central mathematical idea. As such, “gorillas” is a theme, but not a generative
topic. Generative Topics should be concerned first with the core idea of the domain or discipline.
Due to limited teaching hours, it is difficult to create one generative topic per lesson. The
generative topics are usually designed by unit. A unit is a group of lessons intended to deliver related
concepts, principles, processes, or facts, e.g., Circle, Triangle, and Square could be the three lessons in a
unit on Shapes. The creation of the generative topic should be targeted on the broad concept of shapes
instead of each lesson - circle, triangle, or square.

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Understanding Goals
Understanding Goals define what needs to be understood in terms of the ideas, processes,
relationships, or questions involved. Since Generative Topics often have potential to develop more than
one understanding, in order to keep students’ focus on central concepts of the discipline, educators need
to identify several specific understanding goals for a topic. For example, suppose that the topic is
“Globalization.” One understanding goal might be: “Students will understand that globalization is not
only a global issue but will have great impacts on their career.” Another topic might be: “Students will
understand the impacts of globalization on our society in terms of the transnational circulation of ideas,
languages, or popular culture.” There is no right or wrong list of understanding goals so long as they
ensure the focus of the instruction (Perkins & Blythe, 1994). However, Understanding Goals should align
with the central idea or Generative Topic as well as the key disciplinary concepts, processes, and uses.
Most important, Understanding Goals should address the “big ideas” and should not be behavioral such
as “Students will be able to state the three causes of Civil War” (Blythe, 1997; Hetland, 2006; Wiske,
1998a).
The Teaching for Understanding framework suggests two types of understanding goals (Blythe,
1997; Hetland, 2006; Wiske, 1998a). One is the Throughlines that describe the overarching goals of an
entire semester or year long course. Another is the unit-level Understanding Goals that define the focus
of a particular unit. In addition, the theory behind the Teaching for Understanding theory also suggests
that the instructors list their understanding goals in phrases of the form: “Students will understand
that …” or “Students will appreciate that …” Understanding Goals should also be stated as interesting,
student-friendly questions so that students will be interested and focus on what they are expected to
understand (Blythe, 1997; Hetland, 2006; Wiske, 1998a). Wiske (1998a) argued that Understanding
Goals are most useful when they are explicitly defined and publicly posted, have nested structure, and
are focused on the key concepts and modes of inquiry in the relevant subject matter.

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Performances of Understanding
Performances of understanding are the core of developing understanding (Perkins & Blythe,
1994; Wiske, 1998a). The fundamental conception and assumption of the Teaching for Understanding
framework is that it treats understanding as a performance rather than a mental state. That means
understanding is developed by performing one’s understanding. When students learn a sport, a craft,
various arts, and most learning outside of the school, they learn by engaging in complex performances.
The Teaching for Understanding framework argues that engaging in complex performances should have
the same value in formal learning in terms of fostering understanding.
Performances that show one’s understanding of a topic and advance it called “performances of
understanding.” The focus is on what a student rather than the teacher does. Not every learning activity
is a “performance of understanding”. We can distinguish Performance of understanding from activities
by asking “Can students do this and not understand?” Some activities such as true-and-false quizzes are
too routine to be considered performances of understanding. The student answer the quizzes correctly
doesn’t mean that they can apply the knowledge to solve a novel problem. A person may first learn how
to ride a bicycle by reading instructions or watching other bike-riders in action. That might help, but the
person will not be able to ride unless he/she really gets on a bicycle and ride it.
Perkins and Blythe (1994) claimed that in order to foster an outcome of understanding, students
must be engaged in performances that show understanding. There are three progressive categories of
Performances of Understanding: the initial introductory performances, the guided inquiry, and the
culminating performances. The introductory performances include varied entry points, analogies, and
multiple presentations of core ideas. As students demonstrate understanding of preliminary goals
through performances, teachers should move to guided inquiry and provide guidance during the later
phases of students’ learning. A useful strategy is to foster a thinking culture that makes thinking a habit

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in the classroom; for example, asking students with questions such as: “What do you think about this?”
or “What have you seen make you say that?” and providing them with timely feedback. By the end of
the unit, students should be required to work more independently than they did in the initial
performances and guided inquiries, and to synthesize the understandings that they have developed
throughout the unit. The culminating performance could be an exhibition of the final products, report
presentations, extended essays, and so forth.
Performances of Understanding should be challenging yet accessible to students. Good
Performances of Understanding would provide evidence for assessments. Therefore, it is important to
make students’ thinking visible (Ritchhart & Perkins, 2008).
Ongoing Assessments
How can we tell what students understand? Rather than coming at the end of a topic and
focusing on grading and accountability, the Teaching for Understanding framework suggests that
assessments should be continuously executed throughout the course so that students’ progression can
be monitored and evaluated. The information obtained from Ongoing Assessments should be used to
modify the next step in an instructor’s approach to teaching.
Perkins (2006a) emphasized the importance of involving students in the process of defining
criteria and constructing rubrics for the understanding performances they have to demonstrate.
Students will likely be more motivated to meet assessment criteria that have been shared among and
shaped by the class. The processes of co-constructing the rubrics also allow the teacher to play the
student role, and to see things and recognize values that he/she might not be able to conceive in the role
of a teacher. Moreover, the co-construction of the criteria is stronger because of wider participation. It is
not to say that all settings of learning should be totally democractic. Educators can always add things to
the rubric that students might not think of, while having some forms of a democratic process for the

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construction of rubrics.
Involving learners in their own assessment and that of their classmates’ work is essential. The
instructor should not be the only person who controls the evaluation of performances. Ongoing
Assessment should include peer- and self-assessment. Peer- and self-assessment are important to help
students self-regulate their learning. Another key concept of Ongoing Assessments is that the
assessment could be formal with grading or informal without grading as long as the instructors can gain
the insight and trace the cognitive processes of how learners learn.
Reflective Collaborative Communities
A few years after the development of the Teaching for Understanding framework, Wiske and her
colleagues added a new element, Reflective Collaborative Communities, to the original framework
(Wiske & Franz, 2005). They argued that learning in a reflective learning community can support
dialogue and reflection based on shared goals and a common language. To immerse students in
collaborative communities would expose them to diverse perspectives thus promoting respect,
reciprocity, and collaboration among members.
Qualities of Understanding
In considering the quality of understanding, Mansilla and Gardner (1998) suggested four
dimensions and four levels of understanding. They argued that the quality of students’ understanding
was based on their ability to master and use bodies of knowledge that are valued by their culture. The
four dimensions of understanding were knowledge dimension, method dimension, purpose dimension,
and form dimension. The four levels of understanding were naïve level, novice level, apprentice level,
and master level.
Dimensions of understanding aim to provide a balanced view of topics and goals (Mansilla &
Gardner, 1998). The knowledge dimension is concerned with “What is this topic about?” while the

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purpose dimension is about “What do experts care about the topic?” or in other words, “Why is it
necessary to learn about the topic?” The method dimension, on the other hand, is concerned with “How
do experts find out?” or “How the experts use what approaches to find out about the topics?” Lastly, the
form dimension is concerned with “Where do experts share what they know?” or “What symbol systems
and genres do the experts use to communicate about the topics?” Mansilla and Gardner argued that
educators should consider covering more dimensions when defining a set of understanding goals for a
unit.
Technology Integration
The Teaching for Understanding framework becomes more feasible with the use of new
technologies (Reigeluth & Carr-Chellman, 2009). Using technologies as tools in the educational process
could help learners and instructors better fulfill the criteria in each element of the Teaching for
Understanding framework especially when dealing with those difficult spots for teaching or learning
(Wiske & Franz, 2005). For example, students learning to solve a 3D geometry problem often find it
difficult to imagine the third invisible dimension. The use of 3D dynamic geometry software can show all
sides of the 3D graph to students and make learning 3D geometry much easier.
Moreover, technology integration allows the Teaching for Understanding framework to be
applied to distance education. For example, online resources, such as libraries of lesson plans, can
provide ideas for designing Generative Topics; online educational projects such as WebQuests can
engage students and their instructors in collaborative inquiry and social action initiatives; web-based
multimedia presentation tools can enrich Performances of Understanding by enabling teamwork
between students and allowing the combination of multiple forms of expression in conveying ideas; and
the statistical feature of a learning management system (LMS) can help make the progressive results of
Ongoing Assessments more accessible to the instructors. Overall, technology can help to strengthen

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connections among The Teaching for Understanding elements. Finally, the Teaching for Understanding
framework has also been developed into asynchronous web-based courses since 1999 (Perkins & Wiske,
2005).
Teaching for Understanding in Practice
The Teaching for Understanding framework is like a map that shows you big things (Perkins,
2006b). Teachers can organize the nuances of their own practices around those big things while focusing
on more important ideas. Since most teachers are surrounded by students, textbooks, tests, and
administrative works, it is difficult for teachers to make time for reflection and innovation. Therefore,
teachers learning to use the Teaching for Understanding framework can benefit from collegial exchange
and supportive coaching. “Talking with other teachers who are thinking with the same framework helps
teachers build bridges between the abstract principles and their own experience.” (Wiske & Franz, 2005,
p. 11)
This section will discuss about how to apply the framework to actual teaching situations
including some useful techniques and tips. While reading this section as reference, it is important to
remember that there is no fixed starting point or sequence for planning a curriculum using the Teaching
for Understanding framework. Teachers should work dynamically or even cyclically among the elements.
For example, articulating Understanding Goals helps to verify the essence of a Generative Topic.
Analyzing Performances of Understanding may reveal the flaws of Understanding Goals. Defining
Ongoing Assessment criteria may lead to a refinement of Understanding Goals. The Teaching for
Understanding framework lacks details that may be needed in applying the framework to real tasks.
Teachers must bridge the gap between the general principles and the particular situations as well as add
personal ingredients to fit their own teaching styles and contexts.
In this section, the author will first propose methods for conducting each of the four elements

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then continue providing check points for reflection or tips for increasing efficiency. The following
description is presented as a linear process; however, in practice, the process should be dynamic and
iterative.
Getting started – planning the unit
Designing a unit or a curriculum using the Teaching for Understanding framework involves a
significant effort including analyzing the context of students’ characteristics and the resources available
in that particular time and place; checking content standards set by the organization or government;
specifying details for all four elements of the Teaching for Understanding framework, and so forth. The
following paragraphs suggest some techniques and tools for unit planning using the Teaching for
Understanding framework. Some of the tasks could be very trivial. It can help you work more effectively
if all analysis results and design thoughts are put on paper. Appendix A provides a sample organizer for
unit planning using the Teaching for Understanding framework.
Creating a Generative topic
A practical way of designing a Generative Topic can start from brain storming in which the
teachers or curriculum designers participate in a face-to-face meeting or online discussion forum. To
begin, participants can suggest or post important concepts, skills, processes, standards, or uses that they
think are relevant to the discipline or content area The second step involves using lines to connect
related standards, concepts, skills, processes, and uses in order to create a knowledge web. Finally, the
participants should look into the knowledge web to find the spot that has most connections and nodes.
That spot is the one containing the thickest knowledge and is the place from which the Generative Topics
should be generated (Blythe, 1997).
Some instructors might insist that anything can be a generative topic if good teaching is involved.
However, Perkins and Blythe (1994) argue that some topics are more central to the discipline, more

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accessible, and more connectable than others. Often there are particular topics that have to be taught in
a curriculum and those topics are not always interesting. In such cases, Perkins and Blythe suggest
adding a theme or a perspective to make the topics more interesting, for example, teaching Romeo and
Juliet as an exploration of the generation gap or teaching about the food chain to illustrate that all living
things are connected.
Defining Understanding Goals
Articulating clear Understanding Goals is difficult for many instructors (Wiske, 1998a). The
instructors are usually more familiar with behavioral-type objectives such as “Student will be able to
describe three causes of the Civil War without any help in three minutes.” It takes practice for the
instructors to refer to the “big ideas” and devise appropriate understanding goals such as “Students will
understand how to distinguish truth from bias about things that happened long ago.”
Concept maps that draw the connections between important concepts in the content areas can
help instructors reveal tacit goals. The nodes that are linked to many other nodes are often the most
valuable goals for understanding. When outlining Understanding Goals, it is also important to address
students’ common difficulties and misconceptions as well as to check the balance between the four
Dimensions of Understanding.
Other than the statement form, Understanding Goals may be stated in question form. The
question format can help students understand the goals easily and be able to participate in the co-
construction of Understanding Goals. In addition to sharing with students, instructors are encouraged to
share Understanding Goals with parents and colleagues.
Blythe (1997) provided the following checklist for articulating Unit-level Understanding Goals:
• Are the Understanding Goals clear?

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• Is the number of Understanding Goals manageable to assess?
• Are they closely related to Throughlines (the overarching goals of the course)?
• Do they focus on central aspects of generative topics?
• Do they capture what you think is most important for students to understand about the
generative topics?
• Do they take the form of a question and a statement?
Developing Performances of Understanding
Many instructors have concerns regarding their teaching practices. They spend a lot of time
improving their teaching techniques or following teaching tips in order to be good performers in the
classroom. Performances of Understanding refer to what students do, rather than what the instructors
do. An assumption of the Framework is that deep learning will not occur simply by listening to a lecture
or reading the course materials. Rather, engaging activities are required to ensure that students will use
their higher level thinking skills to relate, synthesize, evaluate, and apply what they have learned. This is
not to say that lectures are not useful. After students have gained an initial understanding of the topics,
lectures might be able to speed up the learning cycle (Perkins, 1998).
Teaching with good activities is not something new. Many instructors teach using engaging
activities; however, these activities do not always involve performances of understanding. Perkins and
Blythe (1994) argue that a Jeopardy-style history quiz, an art activity of drawing the Boston Tea Party, or
a follow-the-recipe-style science experiment are all engaging activities, but they are not Performances of
Understanding because the activities do not push learners to think beyond what they already know.
Another type of mistaken examples related to the activities that engage students in Performances of
Understanding but they might lack the focus provided by Understanding Goals. Appendix B lists the

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verbs used by the statements of regular activities and the statements of Performances of Understanding.
The next two paragraphs suggest two approaches for designing Performances of Understanding.
Varied entry points
Multiple intelligences theory (Gardner, 2006) suggests that every learner has a different
intelligence profile and, as such, individuals do not all learn in the same way. Gardner suggested that any
rich, nourishing topic can be introduced in at least seven ways (see Figure 2), which roughly map onto
the multiple intelligences: (1) narrational entry point, (2) logical entry point, (3) quantitative entry point,
(4) foundational entry point, (5) aesthetic approach, (6) experiential approach, and (7) collaborative
approach. He claimed that “using multiple entry points can be a powerful means of dealing with student
misconceptions, biases, and stereotypes.” (Gardner, 2006, p. 141)
Developing habit of thinking and making thinking visual
Performances of Understanding help students construct their understanding. Good
Performances of Understanding aim directly at developing understanding of one or more Understanding
Goals and are sequenced to guide learners through different entry points. In addition, good
Performances of Understanding provide a range of evidences for Ongoing Assessments.
A very important skill related to Performances of Understanding is the development of a
“thinking habit.” When the thinking becomes routine, it creates a culture that pulls participants in and
learners might become the educators, too. The Visible Thinking project at Project Zero and other
research projects have developed many strategies for fostering thinking routines that are widely adopted,
e.g., see-think-wonder that asking students: “What do you see?”; ”What do you think about that?”;
and ”What does it make you wonder?” Other examples include think-pair-share, claim-support-question,
and connect-extend-challenge (Ritchhart, Palmer, Church, & Tishman, 2006). Thinking routines stimulate
not only individual thinking but also social interaction through which the new knowledge can be

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internalized (Vygotsky, 1978).
Figure 2: Developing disciplinary understanding requires delicate considerations on what dimensions to
cover and which entry points to utilize. Based on Boix-Mansilla, Hetland, & Ritchhart (1997) Developing
Disciplinary Understanding.
Designing Ongoing Assessments
Fair and valid assessments cannot be obtained through paper-and-pencil assessments that
require higher levels of linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences. To learn for understanding,
assessments need to occur frequently within and combined with the instruction (Andrade, 2000). During
the ongoing assessments, students need public criteria, regular feedback, and opportunities for
reflection (Perkins & Blythe, 1994).
There are two useful tools for designing Ongoing Assessments. The first tool is the assessment
funnel, developed by Hetland (2005), in that it synthesizes all key concerns regarding Ongoing
Assessment in one single diagram (See Appendix C). The second tool is the following six-step process,
developed by Andrade (2000), for co-constructing useful rubrics with students and instructors: (1) Look
at models; (2) List criteria; (3) Pack and Unpack criteria; (4) Articulate levels of quality; (5) Create a draft

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rubric; and (6) Revise the draft.
Ladder of Feedback
When students are engaged in learning activities, they need appropriate feedback to help them
to perform better. “When teachers successfully developed effective feedback strategies with their
students, self- and peer-assessment are further enhanced.” (Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, & Wiliam,
2003, p. 67) Feedback is an integral part of Performances of Understanding, Ongoing Assessments, and
any group discussion. To keep learning organized and efficient, researchers in the Teaching for
Understanding project developed the Ladder of Feedback to guide a constructive process for improving
understanding through dialogues between students, peers, and instructors (Hetland & President and
Fellows of Harvard College, 2005).
The Ladder of Feedback involves the use of the following sequence when providing feedback:
1. Clarify. Ask questions about unclear points or missing details.
2. Value. Highlight the strengths of the work. Tell students what they have done well and
what makes it good.
3. Offer concerns. Express disagreement with some part of the work or identify potential
problems or challenges.
4. Suggest. Provide suggestions on the concerns mentioned above.
Integrating Emerging Technology to TfU and Future Study
Although technology integration with the Teaching for Understanding framework is a recent
addition to the literature (Wiske & Franz, 2005), it has been limited to the use of electronic technology
and stand-alone or intranet computer technology. The emerging technologies such as Web 2.0 and social
learning applications have largely been ignored. To ensure that learners acquire requisite skills and

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knowledge as they progress through the course and hopefully to sustain the learning over the long term
as Moisey (2001) advocated educators need to utilize more, if not all, of the five types of media
described by Laurillard (2002): narrative media, interactive media, adaptive media, communicative
media, and productive media. The table below presents an initial proposition for integrating emerging
technology into the Teaching for Understanding framework for use in an online setting.
Table 1 Sample list of media and tools for applying TfU in online learning
Element Key Actions Media Type Tools / Resources
GTs Identifying the topic through Communicative Electronic whiteboard, computer
brainstorming & synchronous media mediated conference, discussion forum,
/ asynchronous discussion instant message, and live chat.
UGs Drafting UGs; Negotiating Productive, Discussion forum, Wiki or co-editor,
goals with learners, interactive, & presenting tools embedded in LMS.
publicizing goals communicative
media
PofU Present content; nurturing Interactive, Books, tutorial, online resources,
habit of thinking; visualizing adaptive, lectures, Learning Objects, tutor-led
thinking; implementing productive, & seminar, workshop, virtual fieldwork,
actively-engaged activities; communicative threaded discussion, WebQuest, web-
practicing and demonstrating media supported presentation tools e.g.,
SlideShare & ZOHO.
OA Negotiating criteria with Interactive, Online rubric creating tools, e.g.,
learners; publicizing criteria; adaptive, RubiStar; feedback, quiz, essay writing,
allowing instructor-, self-, & productive, & self-study practice, educational game,

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peer-assessment; providing communicative concept mapping, grading features in
feedback & revising ID based media LMS.
on formative assessment;
delivering assessments;
commenting & grading
RCC Team building; team working; Interactive, Grouping features in LMS, web-supported
socializing productive, & presenting tools & concept mapping
communicative tools, social leaning software, e.g.,
media bookmark manager, blog, wiki.
Note: GTs – Generative Topics; UGs – Understanding Goals; PofU – Performances of Understanding; OA –
Ongoing Assessment; RCC – Reflective Collaborative Community.
How to take advantage of new technology, along with the corresponding implications, to
advance the efficiency and effectiveness in applying the Teaching for Understanding framework to web-
based learning is a topic that worth further exploration.
Conclusion
The world of education is full of advice (Perkins, 2006). Educators learned all kinds of frameworks,
strategies, approaches, techniques, and tools from books, articles, and lectures. Such advice need to be
taken into practice in order to know their applicability and usefulness. Through years of practice, the
Teaching for Understanding framework has showed its validity in supporting daily teaching for
understanding in terms of curriculums, activities, and assessments. Factual knowledge will only
accumulate into understanding that equips learners to perform their knowledge in real problems
through instructional strategies that foster understanding outcomes.

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TEACHING FOR UNDERSTANDING 22
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