Response - Relational and Instrumental Understanding

The article Relational Understanding and Instrumental Understanding by Richard R. Skemp looks at the two models of understanding with a bias towards rational thinking. After reading the article I found that I agree with the author’s position on the two methods of understanding. I think that teaching using a rational understanding method will benefit students over the long term. Although it is harder to teach using a rational understanding method, the overall end product of this type knowledge will allow for individuals to adapt to various situations.

Instrumental understanding is extremely limited to specific situations. Instrumental knowledge is very one way, and lacks the adaptability provided through rational understanding. Instrumental understanding is very direct and if implemented correctly should provide correct answers with minimal work. This technique provides formulas where one can simply plug in numbers; however, this limits the learner from understanding why those specific values are used. Instrumental understanding involves a lot of memorization of specific rules that can only be applied to one situation, thus a great amount of time and effort must be spent on specific topics.

In the end I feel that rational understanding, although more difficult to both teach and learn, provides the greater form knowledge due to the flexibility it provides. Instrumental understanding is simple and easy to teach and understand, however, the student does not learn as much as they actually memorize specific rules. In closing I feel that if we want our students to expand their knowledge base we need to implement more rational techniques of teaching.