Reflection 1

Reflection 1: Enduring Understandings

I was not convinced of the effectiveness of the enduring understanding (EU) right from the beginning especially through the sessions where we slogged our brains to come up with accurate EUs. It was taking a little too long for even trainee teachers to catch and even when we had sufficient/average content knowledge of the respective subject areas. I felt that it was almost like fighting a losing battle because at the end of the day, students were just going to prompt us on the more important things that they should know and learn by heart for the exams. Granted the enduring understanding would give them a holistic picture of the entire unit, but I felt that in a results-oriented environment like ours, it would really take a lot of adjustment before anyone starts to believe in such a strategy.

I also felt that using the enduring understanding strategy was essentially working backwards and although it could possibly strike a chord with some students, it would not for the most of them. It would definitely work as a good summary for the unit and therein be good to use during a lesson to end off the unit but I was definitely skeptical about its effectiveness at the beginning of a lesson, especially with time constraints in covering syllabus and the works.

I do recognize, however, that the EU is useful for me as I am able to summarize the essential parts of the unit in 1 or 2 sentences and can then work towards teaching the students content based on achieving what I have come up with for the unit’s EU. In this way, I would not have to follow the rigour and structure of the textbook, but teach according to what I deem is fit for the students. It might also be due to the fact that the concept of using the EU is rather new and foreign to people who have been conditioned to the education system which up till recently has been rather rigid. It seems like using the EU would just choke up the normal education system which has unconditional emphasis on structure and the method of drilling students to absorb information.

In all, I feel that although EU is making its mark in teaching, I feel that it would take some time before people in the education line can see its potential and worth and try to incorporate it into education knowing that it can work for them, rather than just because they are forced to.