Learning can be divided into three categories: gathering information, creating knowledge, and developing understanding.

Gathering information happens using questions like what, who, where, when, how many, and which. These questions provide all kinds of data, providing descriptions.

Knowledge is gained through questions starting with “how to” and serves the area of instruction.

Understanding is the most difficult to attain. It’s related to explanations and answering questions starting with why.

It may depend on circumstances, but in general, the most important type of education is related to creating understanding. Unfortunately, only 1% of the time is spent on building understanding, 9% on knowledge, and 90% on conveying information.

It would be too simple to assume that this is also a distribution of learning we do. They are all interconnected and cannot be imagined without the other. However, the impact of understanding is much broader than the one of having information or knowledge.