The Importance of Deep Understanding

How to Fill a Reading Gap in Today’s Education System

One key to lifelong learning is deep understanding: the ability to connect to prior knowledge, put knowledge in context, and see the big picture—to understand it deeply. It is one of the fun parts of learning, as developing a deep understanding requires engagement and curiosity. It also requires strong reading comprehension skills.

The reward of deep understanding is fulfillment and satisfaction.

According to academic John Hattie, deep understanding flows out of “surface knowledge” and is required before meaningful critical thinking can be practiced. It’s an important step on the road to self-directed, higher-order thinking and learning.

Unfortunately, in today’s busy schools, children have few opportunities to develop deep understanding. The inch-deep, mile-wide curriculum and the endless barrage of tests create a rushed environment—if students finish something early, busy work is instantly placed under their noses to ensure every second of the day is crammed full of ‘learning opportunities.’

But what about downtime? What about when the teacher says: “Class, let’s go outside and explore,” and students are free to actually experience the world rather than just describe it in the context of a set learning task?

Or instead of skimming two subjects in a month, what about covering only one, with more chance to exercise curiosity in building a more complete understanding and then to exercise creativity in using this better understanding to think outside the box?

Today’s classroom offers very little opportunity to spend time and really get interested in a topic that might lead to a deep understanding. Research and discovery that uncover new information to build deep understanding are time-consuming. Time for children to ponder life’s mysteries or formulate their own questions to explore and experiences to participate in is rare.

Is Deep Understanding of Value in a Multi-Choice World?

Learning is a very individual process. Although most often taught in groups, everyone learns differently, and many theories outline the ‘best’ way to develop the capacity for deep understanding.

At the very least, deep understanding requires heightened curiosity in order to ask the right questions. It also develops thinking skills, such as learning to connect information to other information and put it in context. Finally, deep understanding requires the ability to see the big picture and to recognize the main themes in a topic area.

Some learning happens by rote for a test, for example. But deep-level learning occurs when a student can interact with, explore, and experience information in a variety of ways.

Unfortunately, in modern-day schooling, the overuse of a prescriptive curriculum leaves very few self-directed learning opportunities for students. Instead, the outcomes of deep understanding — the recognition of various themes or conclusions — are spoon-fed by the teacher. This means that not only are they soon forgotten, but also an opportunity to develop exploration and creativity skills is missed.

However, creating a child who loves to learn and feels the thrill deep inside them every time they understand something new is an achievable goal.

Nurturing Understanding – Teach Less

Many countries around the world now employ a “teach less, learn more” philosophy (led by Singapore), uncluttering their curricula to allow for deeper understanding. They use an inquiry-led approach to learning, in which students research topics rather than having the highlights preselected and spoon-fed by the teacher.

This fosters deep understanding, described as “just in time as opposed to just in case.”

However, with the current hyperactivity around testing and accountability in America, it seems unlikely to come here any time soon, meaning that deep understanding skills are best developed at home.

Another influence on your work with your child at home might be the lessons neuroscience teaches us.

Helping Your Child With Reading Comprehension with Deep Understanding

Here are three ways to promote deep understanding in your child:

Avoid explicit instruction; exploration is much more powerful

The first way to engage your child in deep learning is by actually not ‘teaching’ him at all. Don’t spoon-feed him at homework time – he gets enough of that in class. Instead, let him research and pursue his own ideas, and make his own mistakes. You can model good learning behavior by verbalizing what you are doing when you are researching or thinking, but don’t deprive him of the opportunity to do his own learning.

Ask lots of questions, and let your child answer. Always allow for follow-up questions, because that is when the good stuff happens!

Explore the world together

Spend time reading together, or outside playing, interacting, and just having space to explore. Deep understanding requires heightened curiosity, and there is no better way to stimulate curiosity than with parents in daily life. It’s about having the thinking skills to critically question why things happen, and the ability to research and find possible solutions.

Allow downtime

Giving your child much-needed downtime will provide brain space to process the day’s information and generate those deep-level thinking questions. Be mindful of allowing your child the opportunity to reflect on their different experiences. Encourage this by asking open questions (not an interrogation!) in a natural way that elicits discussion.

Skills Required for Deep Understanding

There are three fundamental skill sets to develop deep understanding:

• Efficient reading with comprehension
• Executive function
• Learning and reading stamina

Deep understanding requires “read to learn” skills, as self-directed inquiry is a big part of building knowledge on a topic.

If your child has difficulty with reading comprehension, consider our reading comprehension programs. Improving reading efficiency lets children extract more from the text and spend more time in the deep-level thinking zone, developing a deeper understanding of the topic.

Parents are in a privileged position to encourage children to become lifelong learners. It requires innovation, patience, and critical thinking, and it gives children meaningful learning opportunities, with deep understanding at the heart and, at the same time, as one of the rewards of the learning process.

Remember the old Chinese proverb:  “Tell me, and I’ll forget. Show me, and I’ll remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand.”

If your child isn’t making reading progress or isn’t curious in ways that lead to a better understanding of the world, a learning gap could be holding them back. 

Check out our online reading programs here and our executive function programs for kids here.