If the student hasn't learned, the teacher hasn't taught.

Write a caption which summarizes what the cartoon above tells us about teaching. 

One of ways we begin teacher training workshops is with the cartoon and caption-writing exercise above. Over the years we've heard many answers, but most come down to some variation of, "if the student hasn't learned, the teacher hasn't taught". It's clear that the 'teacher' (the policeman) is sharing a lot of information, but the 'student''s understanding is jumbled. Will the pedestrian actually make it to his destination? Will the student retain the learning? 

What's needed is for the teacher to break down the learning into steps, and to include formative assessments to be sure that the student understands and can recall what's being taught. Maybe some map work would be in order? 

As teachers we need to always remember that it's not what we said in class that matters, but what students learned.