Torch - Spring 2013

FACULTY

Teaching and Learning at Havergal By Young Um

H avergal’s classrooms are places where students have the opportunity to become better thinkers and learners. To enable this, Havergal uses a framework—Teaching for Understanding—that focuses on important ideas, authentic assessment and appropriate instructional strategies to support student success. “Teaching for Understanding facilitates our students’ acquisition of knowledge and skills, increases their understanding of major ideas, concepts and inter-relationships and gives meaning and context to facts and knowledge,” says Seonaid Davis, Director of Curriculum and Faculty Development, who brought this learning model to Havergal in 2000. “It’s important for students to come to their own understanding and to make meaning for themselves so that they can transfer knowledge to different problems and apply understanding in new situations.”

Within this framework, teachers ask themselves: what are the big ideas or underlying concepts that are important in understanding this topic? What types of assessment will provide evidence for what students know, understand and can do? What kinds of thinking are necessary in order for students to deepen their understanding? Are there opportunities for my students to develop and explain their theories with one another? What kind of creative solutions do my students construct? How do I invite students to debate the complexities of a plan or issue? “When teachers focus their planning on answering these questions and creating a rich learning environment, students are more likely to show commitment to learning, find more meaningful connections between school and outside life and display attitudes we want to see develop in our learners—open-mindedness, curiosity, appropriate skepticism and a thirst for understanding,” Mrs. Davis says. “Things you remember best are always the things you understand.”

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8 HAVERGAL COLLEGE

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