*** Welcome to piglix ***

3S Understanding


3S Understanding is a curriculum structure that was created by James G. Henderson. 3S Understanding is a mixture of three components that can be diagrammed as a triangle. The three Ss are Subject Matter, Self-learning, and Social Learning.

Henderson and Gornik’s Reflective Teaching: Professional Artistry Through Inquiry examines 3S understanding and teaching for democratic living. It goes in depth about subject learning, self-learning, and social learning. Henderson writes the book with the ideas and also presents several real life examples. It goes through teacher reflection and how teachers should be constantly refining their practice.

The manual on 3S Understanding and how to apply it to a curriculum is Transformative Curriculum Leadership by Henderson. It will be one of the most important documents in the study. Henderson outlines what 3S Understanding is, what it is based on, and how to implement it. The author discusses how to design and plan lessons, how to teach the lessons, evaluation of the lessons, and organization. Henderson even goes on to discuss how the community and school can get involved and help expand and support this form of curriculum.

Understanding by Design by Wiggins and McTighe takes on the heavy task of getting students to not merely gain factual knowledge but to understand what they are learning. The authors talk about using backward design to focus on the goals and then determine what the students need to do to show they have achieved the goals. Wiggins and McTighe describe the goal of backward design as, "lessons, unite, and courses should be logically inferred from the results sought, not derived from the methods, books, and activities with which we are most comfortable". They also delve into the idea of being able to use information and apply it to different situations. Helping the students to understand how they are learning and their metacognitive ability is integral in 3S understanding. The self aspect of 3S understanding desires for the student to see themselves as a lifelong learner. Wiggins and McTighe cover the subject matter and social aspects of 3S understanding.

The 21st Century Skills and 21st Century Themes are becoming more prevalent in education as time goes on. The connection 21st Century skills have with 3S understanding is that sense of being a self-learner. Students need to see themselves as constantly learning through life as they develop skills in a fast changing world. The authors report: Achieving education’s goals in our time is shaped by the increasingly powerful technologies we have for communicating, collaborating, and learning. And learning assumes a central role throughout life.


...
Wikipedia

...