Conclusuion, judgment, concept: The quality of understanding

This essay is based on the proposition that the pupils’ level of understanding is a key indicator of the quality of teaching. Understanding, as a productive act on the part of the students, integrating subject and object, self and world, constantly extends the complexity of the context under consideration. In connection with R. Steiner’s comprehensive description of human nature, three fundamental forms of this act of understanding are considered: namely, conclusion, judgment, and concept. These provide the basis for understanding meaning, for understanding oneself and for understanding the world. In correspondence to this trio stand the teacher’s pedagogical skills - his or her ability to encourage self-motivated learning in the students. This happens not through piling up facts, but through teaching which is explorative in style, and which holds the cultivation of a questioning attitude in just as high regard as the collective discovery of answers.