Understanding and Assessment

For me, the ultimate goal of education is understanding; to gain knowledge, to analyze and create, to transfer knowledge to new situations, to come to accept and realize one's self.

In our professional learning community we are discovering the difference between understanding and comprehension.

What does it mean to understand? 

Then, how do I assess understanding? padlet

6 facets of understanding – explain (generalize, make connections, put in their own words, have a sound theory), interpret (student offers a plausible and supported account of data, text, experience), apply (the student can transfer, adapt, adjust, address novel issues and problems), perspective (student can see from different points of view), empathy (student can walk in the shoes of people/characters,  self-understanding (student can self-assess, see the limits of their understanding, reflect metacognitively)

This was the visual that we created in PLC as we made sense of "Understanding".  Ultimately, we all agreed that it is never-ending life long process.