Skemp: Difference Between Instrumental And Relational Understanding

Skemp Article Journal Question
In Skemps article he describes the difference between instrumental and relational understanding. Skemp goes into depth in describing the different ways people use the word “understanding” to mean different types of understanding. Skemp describes Instrumental by earning by a certain number of fixed plans, where the plans tell them what to do at each points and they follow it. If leading off track they have no awareness of what they have just done or what to do next without any further guidance, much like following a GPS machine, you know where you’re going when the GPS is assisting you, but once you don’t have it you don’t really know where you are unless you’ve repeated that action multiple times, but it isn’t
In relational understanding you develop a sense of awareness of the things around you and have a connection with the things you’re learning. In example before school starts you begin to walk around the different routes to your school, maybe with your mom showing you different directions, but you wonder aimlessly around the streets and roads that connect from your house to the school. Eventually, you develop an overall picture of the ways to your school. You may or may not find the fastest way to school, but overall you will have a full understanding of the structure of your neighborhood and its connection to the school. If your mom showed you the fastest way you may understand why it’s the fastest, but you wouldn’t be worried to step off your most used path, since if you did get lost, you would be able to use your understanding of the connections between your neighborhood and your school. Instrumental understanding is useful when trying to learn specific tasks quickly, and you’re not concerned on how the task connects with any future tasks. As for relational understanding, it is better used when wanting to explore further ideas, and you have more concern with the