The mere imparting of information is not education. Above all things, the effort must result in helping a person think and do for himself/herself.

Carter G. Woodson

What is the primary goal in my course?

• Cover the basic material• Impart new discipline knowledge• Facilitate student learning• Ensure student success• Other

Traditional course design…• Content coverage

• Activity centered

• Not always clear connection to desired learning outcomes or larger understanding

Traditional course design

Choose text

Identify chapters to be covered

Develop lectures or labs

Create exams

Understanding by Design• Wiggins and McTighe• Represents BIG ideas with value beyond the classroom• Requires “uncoverage”• “Backward Design” - key• Engages students

Understanding by Design –Why Bother?

• Focus on what you want students to achieve

• Move away from “coverage”

• Improve student and faculty engagement

• Connect course outcomes, assessments, and activities• Facilitates mapping of course outcomes and student

assessment to program, department, and institution – level goals

Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins

Two Big Ideas of Understanding by Design Jay McTighe

Plan Learning Experiences

Determine Acceptable Evidence

Identify Desired Results

Backward Design

Stage 1: Identify the Desired Results

• Outcomes Program, course, unit

Learning OutcomesWhat will my students know?

What will my students be able to do?

What will my students be to understand/appreciate?

Identifying Key IdeasBig-picture knowledge, allowsOne to find and retrieve information

Prerequisites for success

Students will know long after the class ends

Something to think about….Course Outcomes

Concepts and issues- What must the student understand to demonstrate the intended outcome?

Process skills-What skills must the student master to demonstrated the intended outcomes?

Key Ideas….Choose a course.

Identify what is…worth being familiar withimportant to know and doenduring understandings

Stage 1: Identify the desired results(based on Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe)

Learning Outcomes• What relevant goals (eg. course outcomes) will this design address?

Understandings:Students will understand that ….• What are the big ideas?• What specific understandings about

them are desired?• What misunderstandings are

predictable?

Q Essential Questions:• What provocative question will foster

inquiry, understanding, and transfer of learning

Students will know…• What key knowledge and skills will the

student acquire as a result of the this unit?

• What should they eventually be able to do as a result of such knowledge and skills?

A Students will be able to…

Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence

How will you know if students have achieved the desired results and met the expectations?

What will you accept as evidence of student understanding and proficiency?

What is evidence of in-depth understanding as opposed to superficial or naïve understanding?

What kinds of assessment evidence will anchor units and guide instruction?

To what extent do the assessments provide fair, valid, reliable, and sufficient measured of the desired results?

Fair allow for students of both genders and all backgrounds to do equally well.

Valid an indication of how well an assessment actually measures what it is supposed to measure

Reliable an indication of the consistency of scores across evaluators or over time

Plan a range of assessment

formative

summative

balance useobservations

quizzes and tests

performance tasks

projects

must support students in developing understanding

give students opportunities to demonstrate that understanding

criterion-basedstudent self-assessment

essay or paper

webpage

portfolio

authentic learning tasks

Stage 2 – Assessment EvidencePerformance Tasks:• Through what authentic

performance tasks will students demonstrate the desired understandings?

• By what criteria will performance of understanding be judged

Other Evidence:• Through what other evidence (eg.

quizzes, tests, observations, reading response) will students demonstrate achievement of the desired results?

• How will students reflect upon and self-assess their learning?

Criteria

Rubrics 1Rubric 2

Co-Constructing Criteria

What makes a “good” oral presentation?

List one attribute per sticky note.When complete put sticky notes on designatedchart paper.

• With your partners, group attributes together.

• Title each category. • Share your categories and their content with the large group.

Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences

“ Beyond learning about a subject, students will need lessons that enable them to experience directly the inquiries, arguments, applications, and points of view underneath the facts and opinions they learn if they are to understand them.”

(Source: Understanding Design by Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe, p. 99)

The learning experience requires students to:

“Theorize, interpret, use, or see in perspective what they are asked to learn…(or) they will not likely understand it or grasp that their job is more than recall.”

Source: Understanding Design by Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe, p. 99

ACTIVE LEARNING

Video

Rich Learning Experiences• Role-play• Problem-based activities

• Case studies• Simulations• Dramatizations

• Project based• Practicums• Service learning• Situational observations

Authentic Learning

Authenthtic Learning Assessment

Plan Learning Experiences

Determine Acceptable Evidence

Identify Desired Results

Backward Design

What are the advantages of UnderstandingBy Design approach to program, course,and unit development?

What are the challenges of implementing anUnderstanding By Design approach?

Additional thoughts, comments….

Alignment

“Education is not filling a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

-William Butler Yeats