Teaching and Learning for Understanding

How can we ensure that our learners are engaged in learning that is meaningful to them (both now and in the future) and that lasts beyond the test? Learn about the Teaching for Understanding framework, developed through collaborative research with educators, and apply it to create a curriculum unit, lesson, or learning experience that you can use in your context to engage your students in meaningful, lasting, and life-worthy learning.

The future for which we are preparing our students is filled with challenges and complexity: What kind of learning experiences will prepare them to meet those challenges thoughtfully and effectively?

Teaching for Understanding is an approach to designing curriculum, instruction, and assessment that goes beyond the simple acquisition of information to help students develop transferable knowledge and skills that they can apply in situations and contexts they have never encountered before. This powerful framework, developed through collaborative research with practitioners, offers a guide for answering the key questions we all ask as we plan lessons and units of instruction:

• What is most important for my students to understand?
• What kinds of learning experiences will best help them develop and use that understanding flexibly and thoughtfully?
• will I (and my students) know how well and how much they have understood?

Used around the world and across grade levels and subject areas for nearly 30 years, the Teaching for Understanding framework offers a time-tested way to ensure learners consistently engage in active, thought-demanding (or “thinking rich”?) classroom experiences that generate deep, lasting, and useful learning.

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE

• Teachers, teacher leaders, and school administrators and leaders 
• Museum educators and educators working in informal learning environments 
• Facilitators of pre-K to adult learning 
   

SCHEDULE

Work at your own pace and on your time during each week’s session, which open on Mondays and close on Sundays.

TUITION, DISCOUNTS, AND FINANCIAL AID 

For in-depth courses (6 sessions, 13 weeks) tuition is:

• $655 for educators joining as part of a team (3-6 members from the same organization)
• $685 for educators joining as part of a team of 2 (from the same organization) who will be placed on a virtual team with other teams of 2 (as attendance allows)
• $699 for educators joining as individuals to be placed on a virtual team

Financial aid is limited and awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, and covers 50-70% of a course’s tuition for eligible educators. Applications must be submitted and accepted prior to registration. Review our financial aid criteria.