- can explain - via generalizations or principles, providing justified and systematic accounts of phenomena, facts, and data; make insightful connections and provide illuminating examples or illustrations.
- can interpret - tell meaningful stories; offer apt translations; provide a revealing historical or personal dimension to ideas and events; make the object of understanding personal or accessible through images, anecdotes, analogies, and models.
- can apply - effectively use and adapt what we know in diverse and real contexts - we can "do" the subject.
- have perspective - see and hear points of view through critical eyes and ears; see the big picture.
- can empathize - find value in what others might find odd, alien, or implausible; perceive sensitively on the basis of prior direct experience.
- have self-knowledge - show metacognitive awareness; perceive the personal style, prejudices, projections, and habits of mind that both shape and impede our understanding; are aware of what we do not understand; reflect on the meaning of learning and experience.
A student may know a lot about content and facts without understanding, i.e. without being able to use that content wisely and in context. Such a student will only be able to do things like recall and retell, or simply regurgitate what he has read or seen.
