UNDERSTANDING

John Passmore said, "There are many different ways of understanding, overlapping but not reducible to one another and, correspondingly, many different ways of teaching to understand." (The philosophy of Teaching. 1982, p. 210)

 You only understand a topic if you can teach it, use it, prove it, connect it, explain it defend it and read between the lines!

Piaget wryly noted years ago that egocentric persons have only one point of view, theirs! 

Unfortunately, most often we can hear this sentence which says, "You just don't understand." 

When we truly understand, 

• we can explain
• we can interpret
• we can apply
• we have perspective (can see and hear points of view through critical eyes and ears!)
• we can see the big picture
• we can empathize
• have self-knowledge

We must be able to perceive prejudices, projections, and habits of mind that both shape and impede our own understanding!