Explanation

Interpretation

Application

Perspective

Empathy

Self-knowledge

Sophisticated: an unusually thorough, elegant, and inventive account (model, theory, or explanation); fully supported, verified, and justified; deep and broad: goes well beyond the information given.

Profound: a powerful and illuminating interpretation and analysis of the importance /meaning/ significance; tells a rich and insightful story: provides a rich history or context; sees deeply and incisively any ironies in the different interpretations.

Masterful: fluent, flexible, and efficient; able to use knowledge and skill and adjust understandings well in novel, diverse, and difficult contexts.

Insightful: a penetrating and novel viewpoint; effectively critiques and encompasses other plausible perspectives; takes a long and dispassionate view of the issues involved.

Mature: disposed and able to see  and feel what others see and feel; unusually open to and willing to seek out the odd, alien, or different.

Wise: deeply aware of the boundaries of one's own and others' understanding; able to recognize his prejudice and projections; has integrity=able and willing to act on what one understands.

Mastery

In-depth: an atypical and revealing account, going beyond what is obvious or what was explicitly taught; makes subtle connections; well supported by argument and evidence; novel thinking displayed.

Revealing: a nuanced interpretation and analysis of the importance/ meaning/ significance: tells an insightful story; provides a telling history or con text; sees subtle differences, levels, and ironies in diverse interpretations.

Skilled: competent in using knowledge and skill and adapting understandings in a variety of appropriate and demanding contexts.

Thorough: a revealing and coordinated critical view; makes own view more plausible by considering the plausibility of other perspectives; makes apt criticisms, discriminations, and qualifications.

Sensitive: disposed to see and feel what others see and feel; open to the unfamiliar or different.

Circumspect: aware of one's ignorance and that of others; aware of one's prejudices; knows the strengths and limits of one's understanding.

Approaching Mastery

Developed: an account that reflects some in-depth and personalized ideas; the student is making the work her own, going beyond the given—there is supported theory here, but insufficient or inadequate evidence and argument.

Perceptive: a helpful interpretation or analysis of the importance/ meaning/ significance; tells a clear and instructive story; provides a useful history or con- text; sees different levels of interpretation.

Able: able to perform well with knowledge and skill in a few key contexts, with a limited repertoire, flexibility, or adaptability to diverse contexts.

Considered: a reasonably critical and comprehensive look at all points of in the context of one's own; makes clear that there is plausibility to other points of view.

Aware: knows and feels that others see and feel differently; somewhat able to empathize with others; has difficulty making sense of odd or alien views.

Thoughtful: generally aware of what is and is not understood; aware of how prejudice and projection can occur without awareness and shape one's views.

Intuitive: an incomplete account but with apt and insightful ideas; extends and deepens some of what was learned; some "reading between the lines"; account has limited support/ argument/data or sweeping generalizations. There is a theory, but one with limited testing and evidence.

Interpreted: a plausible interpretation or analysis of the importance/ meaning/ significance; makes sense of a story; provides a history or context.

Apprentice: relies on a limited repertoire of routines; able to perform well in familiar or simple contexts, with perhaps some needed coaching; limited use of personal judgment and responsiveness to specifics of feedback/situation.

Aware: knows of different points of view  and somewhat able to place own view in perspective, but weakness in considering worth of each perspective or critiquing each perspective, especially one's own; uncritical about tacit assumptions.

Developing: has some capacity and self-discipline to "walk in another's shoes, but is still primarily limited to one's own reactions and attitudes: puzzled or put off by different feeling.

Unreflective: generally unaware of one's specific ignorance; generally unaware of how subjective prejudgments color understandings.

Naive: a superficial account; more descriptive than analytical or creative; a fragmentary or sketchy account of facts/ideas or glib generalizations; a black-and-white account less a theory than an unexamined hunch or borrowed idea.

Literal: a simplistic or superficial reading; mechanical translation; a decoding with little or no interpretation; no sense of wider importance or significance; a restatement of what was taught or read.

Novice: can perform only with coaching or relies on highly scripted, singular "plug-in" (algorithmic and mechanical) skills, procedures. or approaches.

Uncritical: unaware of differing points view; prone to overlook or ignore other perspectives; has difficulty imagining other ways of seeing things; prone to egocentric argument and personal criticisms.

Egocentric: has little or no empathy beyond intellectual awareness of others; sees things through own ideas and feelings; ignores or is threatened or puzzled by different feelings, attitudes, or views.

Innocent: completely unaware of the bounds of one's understanding and of the role of projection and prejudice in opinions and attempts to understand