Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions
Enduring Understandings (EUs)
EUs are the goals of the course, or big ideas you want the students to be able to know and do long after the course is over. These are often transferable skills and ideas, some also label them as threshold concepts, things that, once understood, cannot be unlearned. Enduring understandings are explored through an "uncovering" rather than coverage of content. This is through inquiry and discovery by engaging with issues, questions, ideas from experts and real-world issues.Essential Questions (EQs)
EQs are those that align with enduring understandings by sparking genuine and relevant inquiry into the big ideas. They provoke critical thought and discussions from students, often resulting in more questions than answers. Essential questions are not easily answerable. When discussing essential questions, students should be making meaningful connections to ideas, including prior knowledge, resulting in an enduring understanding.Reflect on your course and consider the following questions
1. In what ways does your educational purpose, which you explored in the WHY section, align with your course goals? How can you better align your WHY and your course goals?2. What is the larger ecosystem in which your course lives? (Within WashU, within St. Louis, within the United States, within the world)
3. What influences the course? How will your course influence the ecosystem and communities you’ve identified?
4. What enduring understandings do you want students to walk away with related to social change and your course/discipline?
a. What do you want students to remember 2-3 years after this course is complete?
5. What would distinguish students who have taken this course from students who have not?
Further Reading and Examples
- Understanding by Design by Wiggins and McTighe (WashU catalog)
- Equity-Centered Design Framework by David Clifford, Stanford d.school & design school X
- Resources for Liberatory Design from Stanford d.school