Enduring Understanding

According to Herman (2010), only 25% of students in an introductory Psychology course retained basic core content. So what does this mean for our courses?
1. We cannot always assume pre-requisite knowledge.
2. You need to focus your instruction on “Enduring Understanding”. 

What is Enduring Understanding?
According to our colleagues at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (based on the works of Wiggins & McTighe, 2005) “Enduring Understandings are the insights that a learner gains by doing the work of understanding, i.e. making connections in our learning that help us make sense of and integrate new knowledge into existing understandings.” Visit this post to learn more!

Sources:
Herman, W. E. (2010, March). How much do students remember from an introductory psychology course? Paper presented at the Farmingdale State College Annual Conference on the Teaching of Psychology: Ideas & Innovations, Tarrytown, NY

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005).  Understanding by Design  (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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