"This book is equal parts theory and practice. It is a superbexample of what educators in universities and schools canaccomplish when they engage in sincere efforts to benefitstudents." --Association for Supervision and CurriculumDevelopment "A remarkable work, conceptually bold and practical. It makes thebest of contemporary practices seem eminently reasonable, whilealso offering a framework for making teaching for understandingaccessible to our teachers." --Deborah Meier, author of The Powerof Their Ideas and founder, Central Park East Public Schools, EastHarlem, New York "At last, a new volume from a team of scholars at Harvard'sGraduate School of Education and Project Zero that takes teaching, learning, and understanding, as both theory and practice. Mycongratulations to Howard Gardner, David Perkins, and Vito Perronefor a project well-conceived and well-conducted, and to Stone Wiskefor a useful, educator-friendly book." --Lee S. Shulman, president, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching "As the authors acknowledge, teaching for understanding is an oldidea and a simple one. But their lucid and thorough exploration ofit is fresh and richly generative--and compelling too, in a wayreserved for ideas that seem as practical as they are provocative.A whole range of people who care about teaching will be drawn tothis book, and they will be well served." --Joe McDonald, directorof research, Annenberg Institute for School Reform at BrownUniversity

This book presents an innovative approach to teaching that helps students acquire and use knowledge in ways that go beyond rote memorization of facts and figures-to develop a level of understanding that will serve them well throughout their lives. Based on a six-year collaborative research project of school teachers and researchers from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the book describes what teaching for understanding looks like in the classroom, and examines how teachers have learned to use it. Part One: Foundations of Teaching for Understanding1. Why Do We Need a Pedagogy of Understanding? Vito Perrone2. What is Understanding? David Perkins Part Two: Teaching for Understanding in the Classroom3. What is Teaching for Understanding? Martha Stone Wiske4. How Do Teachers Learn to Teach for Understanding? Martha Stone Wiske, Karen Hammerness, Daniel Gray Wilson5. How Does Teaching for Understanding Look in Practice? Ron Ritchart, Martha Stone Wiske, Eric Buchovecky, Lois Hetland Part Three: Students' Understanding in the Classroom6. What Are the Qualities of Understanding? Veronica Boix Mansilla, Howard Gardner7. How Do Students Demonstrate Understanding? Lois Hetland, Karen Hammerness, Chris Unger, Daniel Gray Wilson8. What Do Students in Teaching for Understanding Classrooms Understand? Karen Hammerness, Rosario Jaramillo, Chris Unger, Daniel Gray Wilson9. What Do Students Think About Understanding? Chris Unger and Daniel Gray Wilson with Rosario Jaramillo and Roger Dempsey Part Four: Promoting Teaching for Understanding10. How Can We Prepare New Teachers? Vito Perrone11. How Can Teaching for Understanding Be Extended in Schools? Martha Stone Wiske, Lois Hetland, Eric Buchovecky Conclusion: Melding Progressive and Traditional Perspectives Howard Gardner Martha Stone Wiske is a lecturer and researcher at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she co-directs the Educational Techono