<p>From Daniel Willingham’s book, Why Students Don’t Like School:</p>
<p>"Here’s one way to think about it. Suppose you plan to introduce the idea of government to a first-grade class. The main point you want students to understand is that people living or working together set up rules to make things easier for everyone. You will use familiar examples - home and school - and then introduce the idea that there are rules that larger groups of people agree to live by. Your plan is to ask your students to some of the rules in the classroom and consider why each rule exists. Then, you’ll ask them to list family rules and consider why those exist. Finally, you’ll ask them to name rules that exist outside the family and classroom. You hope your students will see that the rules for each group of people serve similar functions.</p>
<p>A student with rote knowledge might later report, “Government is like a classroom because both have rules.” The student has no understanding of what properties the two groups have in common. The student with shallow knowledge understands that a government is like a classroom because both groups are a community of people who need to agree on and set rules in order for things to run smoothly and to be safe. The student understands the parallel, but can’t go beyond it. So, for example, if asked, “How is government different from schools?” the student would be stumped. A student with deep understanding would be able to answer that question, and might successfully extend the analogy to consider other groups of people who might need to form rules, for example, his group of friends playing kickball."</p>
<p>In college, your professor is asking you to grasp the material to the level where you have a deep understanding.</p>