the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association (2010).The more I think about it, I begin to wonder if knowledge is really power. Is simply knowing something really powerful? When compared to understanding, I'm not sure that simple knowledge is where the power lies. Merriam-Webster defines understanding as
the power to make experience intelligible by applying concepts and categories (2010).Our readings in the Wiggins and McTighe text discuss understanding as the ability to transfer something we know or have learned to new settings (p. 40). When I think of knowing something, it's like knowing that E=mc2 and that a man name Albert Einstein came up with this equation. This is something my science teacher told me. However, do I understand E=mc2? Can I actually describe the concept or apply it in the "real world"? It's knowledge I have, but I haven't been taught how to use it, so I don't really understand it. Therefore it might be useful as an answer on Jeopardy or a quiz question that asks "What is Einstein known for?", but in answering I would just be reciting a fact I learned without having any real understanding of it's importance.
I feel that learning is a two-phased process. The first phase comes when the student is told a fact which is committed to memory through note-taking or reading (knowledge). The second phase comes when the student takes this fact and applies it, or uses it, in other situations or tasks (understanding). In one of the articles I read on Situated Learning theory, there is discussion about learning mathematics in the classroom and how it can also be learned or used in the "real world". One example discusses how students used problem solving methods they invented or brought into the classroom in order to complete daily practice assignments versus the methods taught by the instructor. Students got the right answers, but they didn't arrive at them using the knowledge as exactly taught by the instructor. Many of them got to the correct answers by applying different techniques from their own experiences. The fact that they could do this, to me, shows understanding of the concepts they've been taught.
By truly understanding something we've learned and then begin about to turn around and use that understanding to apply what we've learned to another aspect of our lives, we then have a sense of empowerment. Simply repeating a fact may show that we are knowledgeable, but being able to use what we know to show someone else how to do something or make something happen because of what we know is real power.
References
Greiffenhagen, C., Sharrock, W. (2008). School mathematics and its everyday other? Revisiting Lave's 'Cognition in Practice'. Educational Studies in Math, 69, 1-21.
"Knowledge." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2010. Merriam-Webster Online. 12 February 2011 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/knowledge
"Understanding." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2010. Merriam-Webster Online. 12 February 2011 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/understanding
Wiggins, G., McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
