ABSTRACT
In the ninth Carnegie Symposium on Cognition, we described the processes used by human subjects to understand the instructions in a problem-solving task (Hayes & Simon, 1974). The aim of this chapter is to build upon the theory of the understanding process (and the UNDERSTAND computer program) developed in that previous paper, and to draw out the implications of the theory for educational processes and practices. The discussion will be organized under three main topics: the UNDERSTAND theory and some directions in which it needs to be extended; the role of prior knowledge in understanding; and the pedagogical implications of a theory of understanding. It will focus upon a strategy for analyzing tasks with a view to discovering what is involved in understanding them.
