Chapter 4

            Ellin Oliver Keene’s chapter on “The Essence of Understanding” explained a topic I had never really understood in depth, the process of understanding. As a teacher, your goal is for students to understand material. However, if the instructor does not know how to complete this task, the student will not know how to understand the content they are presented with. Therefore, I loved Keene’s idea that teachers must know how they understand in order to teach their students to understand. Teachers should be models for their students.  This shows the student that the instructor cares enough to complete an assignment and that assignment is important.

            However, I could see this being an abstract concept for students to comprehend. For example, if a student cannot understand basic concepts, how can they understand understanding? The concept seems odd and cumbersome. However, I think Keene makes a valid point that it is worth a try. Her methods could be easily integrated into reading assignments.  Students could use the text they are studying to practice different reading techniques or study a variety of different background materials about an author.

            Furthermore, Keene’s observation that students need to focus for a prolonged period of time to understand concepts is troublesome. With so much material to cover, teachers do not have large expanses of time to allow students to complete this process. Also, the lack of time affects the level of understanding the student can obtain. For example, it is faster to be able to define a concept than to analyze a concept. If teachers had less content to teach and more time in the classroom, students would be able to achieve a higher understanding of the material presented to them.