Enduring Understandings

• What do you want the kids to know to be able to understand about the world around them when they’re 42 and remember back to the whole point of what they learned in this unit?
• Deliberately framed as a full sentence (that is a statement, not a question)– “Students will understand THAT…”
• Implicitly answer the question, “Why do we have to learn this?”
• Transferable beyond the classroom
• At the heart of the discipline
• They summarize the key meanings, inferences, and importance of the ‘content’
• Stated in student-friendly terms
• They are not completely obvious
• They are concise
• Require “uncoverage” because they are not “facts” to the novice, but unobvious inferences drawn from facts - counter-intuitive & easily misunderstood
• Through the knowledge and skills, they come to understand the understandings.
• Some questions for reflection (all will likely not be simultaneously true)
o Do they have many layers and nuances, not obvious to the naïve or inexperienced person?
o Can they yield great depth and breadth of insight into the subject?
o Do you have to dig deep to really understand its subtle meanings and implications even if anyone can have a surface grasp of it?
o Are they prone to misunderstanding as well as disagreement?
o Do they reflect the core ideas as judged by experts?