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Declaring Civil War on Essentialist Teaching

Abstract How do we know when students have learned? is an important question. By way of a narrative example of a classroom lesson, the Essentialist philosophy is described. This philosophy is teacher-directed and lacks any inherent requirement for student understanding. Rather, a teacher delivers the required information, and students absorb then give back what was delivered. Five missing characteristics of learning—understanding, thinking, problems, questions, and feedback—from the narrative classroom are briefly discussed, and a student-centered philosophy is presented, which has the ability to support and sustain learning that is rich, substantial, and meaningful.