Chapter 4 Designs for Knowledge

One of the key takeaways I got from this chapter involved the point that there is a great need for today's learners to understand the structures and processes of a discipline rather than a mass of facts or a sequence of events.

"Facts, concepts, and theories are the grist of the disciplinary thinker, but it is the 'lens' of the discipline that empowers students to interpret their world. Supporting students as they extract a discipline’s characteristic observations and inferences and habits of mind from the grist of facts and concepts and adapt them as their own is the central goal of designs for knowledge" (Pg.73).

I think of this in religious terms, specifically in Christianity. Growing up in a religious family, I was taught very early on that it was of the utmost importance to memorize certain versus of the Bible and all of the Ten Commandments as a way to become a "better" Christian. I think missing in all of this was someone explaining to me how being able to look at my surrounding world through the "lens" of Jesus' life on earth would have been a far better way for me to understand Christianity and the importance of it in the context I was in. Rather than just attempting to memorize and retain facts and concepts in my mind, I think the central goal should have been to try and think and act as Jesus would have.