Research On Teaching For Understanding Oriented By Big Ideas

With the rapid development of the times,core literacies have become the basic abilities and qualities that must be possessed by talents in the new era.In terms of classroom teaching,the cultivation of core literacies must in turn depend on the cultivation of disciplinary core literacies in order to be realized;in terms of student learning,understanding is undoubtedly the most crucial part of cultivating disciplinary core literacies.In contrast,in contemporary teaching practice,there are still phenomena of insufficient understanding such as only solving problems but not solving real problems,only learning knowledge but not transforming it into ability,and separation of learning and use,which make it difficult for students to generate disciplinary core literacies.Therefore,we had to look for a new tool that could effectively address the lack of understanding in classroom teaching.This study found an inherent consistency between the properties of the big ideas itself and teaching for understanding,and we found a new tool in the form of the big ideas.Then,how to effectively address the practical problem of insufficient understanding through big ideas? To solve this problem,it is necessary to further address the theoretical question of how students construct big ideas.In April 2022,the new curriculum for compulsory education promulgated by the Ministry of Education proposed the teaching of big ideas and big units to provide a new direction of thinking for this study.Theoretically,to combine big ideas with teaching for understanding,it is necessary to conduct an in-depth study on the essential connotation of big ideas,the problems in teaching for understanding,and the inner connection between big ideas and teaching for understanding.Based on this,this study focuses on the following six components: The first part is the introduction,including the reasons for selecting the topic,the definition of core concepts,a review of relevant literature,the significance of the study,the theoretical basis,and the research design.The second part of the study is to analyze the current situation through classroom observation and to analyze the causes of students’ lack of understanding in classroom learning.The third part is to confirm that big ideas can effectively solve most of the problems of insufficient understanding,and conclude that big ideas have four orientation values in comprehension teaching,such as integration value,persistence value,sublimation value,and transfer value,and deconstruct the orientation value of big ideas in comprehension teaching from three perspectives of knowledge theory,learning theory,and development theory respectively.The fourth part explores the mechanisms of constructing big ideas in comprehension teaching,namely the "problem situation" at the action level,the "learning set" at the mental level,and the "meaning construction" at the meaning level,and establishes the learning model of big ideas accordingly.The fifth part provides the basic framework,templates,and examples of big ideas-oriented comprehension instructional design in four parts: instructional objectives,instructional content,instructional process,and instructional evaluation.The sixth part discusses the steps of confirming big ideas in teaching for understanding and analyzes classroom cases in primary and secondary schools and then proposes big ideasoriented comprehension teaching strategies.This study has certain innovations and breakthroughs at the theoretical and practical levels.First,the interview method and classroom observation method were used to find out from practice that students had insufficient understanding in classroom learning such as dull understanding,superficial understanding,peripheral understanding,and low understanding.Second,based on an in-depth analysis of the value of big ideas in teaching for understanding,we find those big ideas can be used to effectively solve this practical problem,and then propose a constructive mechanism and learning model of big ideas in teaching for understanding.Finally,an in-depth study with classroom cases is conducted to propose a new tool for optimizing comprehension instructional design with a big idea orientation,and accordingly,a big idea-oriented comprehension instructional strategy is proposed.Overall,this study enriches the research results related to big ideas on the one hand and provides some help and inspiration for front-line teachers’ classroom teaching on the other hand.