(Some reflection inspired by Grant Wiggins)
What is the goal of school? Of the education system? In a recent video I watched, I saw Grant Wiggins presenting to a group of people and he answered that question with a statement that would take some people aback. He said that the goal of school is not for what we think; school is not for students to learn what teachers teach.
“…not to learn what teachers teach?” That leaves us asking, what is the purpose of school? What Wiggins does is look deeper; he looks past the superficial role each teacher plays in teaching a subject. He argues that if each teacher does his/her job well, then the students will be able to use the knowledge and skills that teachers teach when the instructors are not around. Therefore, the goal of education is to teach students the ability to transfer the knowledge and skills situations when teachers are not around.
The key word of Wiggins is Transfer. Students have to be able to transfer the knowledge and skills from the scenarios in which they were taught to new scenarios. In order to do this they have to have understanding, deep understanding. Understanding of course material is much deeper than remembering material for a course ending exam. Wiggins focuses on the ability to transfer because, as he says, teachers should be preparing students for the time after graduation. What Wiggins is saying is that the job of school is to teach understanding; understanding being the deep awareness of the knowledge and skills, so that students can transfer their learnings to new situations and scenarios that exist when the teacher is gone.
This leads to the key components of course design and assessment. Teachers need to plan instruction to develop deep understanding and assess and collect data to measure this type of student learning.