Douglas Newton has put together a book that both student and practicing teachers alike will find readable and useful. The book will also appeal to trainers in a wide variety of settings.

Newton takes us through a variety of definitions of understanding that generally relate things or knowledge of structures to other things, thoughts and ideas. Newton interestingly applies the idea or concept of understanding to several academic disciplines: the first two examples he uses are

• Understanding a historical event in the world of human affairs can amount to constructing a plausible account of it
• Understanding a scientific event amounts to constructing an account of an occurrence in the physical or natural world

Interesting, but I don't think plausibility is a sufficient condition for understanding anything, let alone history: Con men of the world unite! In response to the recent popular revelation that some scientists have "found" the edge of the universe, my son said, if it were the edge of the universe, surely the image they should have found would be black! … I won't dismiss the 13 year old's construction until I hear different!

Still, we have something to work on and I think Newton has given me many insights that I either didn't have or simply hadn't thought about. He also gave a relatively large number of useful examples that demonstrate what we are to make of understanding: what it is and how to do it. The book is well referenced and reasonably up to date: the average reference is around 7½ years old.

I have some gripes, though: All of the examples given in the book relate to science and the teaching of science. Most of the diagrams in the book weren't very attractive: I assume Newton has a PC or laptop that has Power Point or similar presentation software installed on it (if not he, then surely his secretary). No excuse for poor graphics these days. I like mind maps and was interested to see Newton called them story maps or just maps: I thought more could have been made of these. I also thought Benjamin Bloom and his taxonomy of learning objectives could have made more of an appearance.

I am glad I read this book: readable, many examples to ponder over and not overly long. Creative readers could take Newton's material and build themselves a useful tips for teachers pack.

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25 August 2001