We want students to understand what they are learning—not just memorize, regurgitate, and forget. The following article describes a successful approach in physics education.

Simon, Beth and Cutts, Quintin (February 2012). Peer Instruction: A Teaching Method to Foster Deep Understanding. Communications of the ACM. Retrieved 1/30 2012 from http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2012/2/145404-peer-instruction/fulltext.

Quoting from the article:

Approximately 20 years ago, a physicist at Harvard read studies of students who had passed physics courses, yet showed little gain in their conceptual understanding of Newtonian physics. This “conceptual understanding” was measured by a newly developed test called the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). What this showed was that students could “plug and chug” using appropriate equations to solve standard problems on physics tests. But, when asked about a situation where a large truck runs into a small car, students could not correctly identify that the force exerted by the car on the truck was the same as that exerted by the truck on the car (applying Newton’s Third Law).

The physicist was Eric Mazur, who has since gained worldwide fame for his teaching at Harvard. Mazer found that his students were learning to solve the assigned problems but were not learning to think like a physicist.

I believe a similar type of problem exists throughout our educational system. Students take courses in a variety of disciplines, but relatively few make good progress in learning to think like an expert in the disciplines they study. A friend of mine used the analogy of learning to play the notes in a musical composition versus learning to play with emotion, feeling, and understanding of what the music is designed to communicate or achieve.

The article cited above discusses assessment designed to get at a deeper level of understanding and the use of peer instruction to help students gain deep understanding. Peer instruction involves students attempting to explain to each other the core concepts involved in trying to understand, and  the discussions are facilitated by simple-looking but carefully chosen challenging problems. The article cites research indicating a substantial increase in learning via this approach.

In Peer Instruction, students gain preparatory knowledge before class (for example, through textbook reading) and complete a pre-lecture quiz to both incentivize their preparation and to give them feedback on whether they are ready to learn in a lecture format. During class, lecture is interspersed with or largely replaced by multiple choice questions (MCQs) and discussion.

 …

This is instantiated via a four-part process:

1. Students individually consider a question and select an answer (typically reporting it via use of a clicker; see http://cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/ clickers.htm).
2. Students discuss in preassigned groups.
3. Students vote again on the same question.
4. Classwide discussion follows led by student explanations and the instructor modeling their way of understanding the problem.