Why is ubd a backward design

Students reveal their understanding most effectively when they are provided with complex, authentic opportunities to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, and self-assess. When applied to complex tasks, these "six facets" provide a conceptual lens through which teachers can better assess student understanding. Effective curriculum development reflects a three-stage design process called "backward design" that delays the planning of classroom activities until goals have been clarified and assessments designed.

Generally speaking, strategies such as backward design are attempts to bring greater coherence to the education of students—i. For a related discussion, see curriculum mapping. Backward design arose in tandem with the concept of learning standards, and it is widely viewed as a practical process for using standards to guide the development of a course, unit, or other learning experience. Like backward designs, learning standards are a way to promote greater consistency and commonality in what gets taught to students from state to state, school to school, grade to grade, and teacher to teacher.

Before the advent of learning standards and other efforts to standardize public education, individual schools and teachers typically determined learning expectations in a given course, subject area, or grade level—a situation that can, in some cases, give rise to significant educational disparities.

For related discussions, see achievement gap , equity , and high expectations. While approaches may vary widely from school to school or teacher to teacher, a basic backward-design process might take the following form: A teacher begins by reviewing the learning standards that students are expected to meet by the end of a course or grade level.

The instructor should consider the learners' prior knowledge and skills when creating instructional objectives in order to challenge learners while providing scaffolding opportunities. Figure 1 shows that Stage 3 is the last step because it should take into consideration the desired results and the assessments that will be collected from the learners.

Some questions to consider include:. What knowledge and skills will learners need to effectively perform and achieve the desired results? How can my learning activities that I have selected help my learners gain the knowledge and skills? The Six Facets of Understanding offers a comprehensive approach in determining acceptable evidence of key ideas, concepts, and knowledge. The term "understand" is simply too broad of a term to use when measuring student learning.

Explanation is the ability to describe illustrations, theories, events, ideas, or actions. In this facet of understanding, the learner must make an account of how things work, why they work, why certain events occurred, and what they imply. This facet of understanding was first coined by Dewey , who described this facet through explanation of things by noting how things work or operate, how certain things relate to one another, what are the results of those things occurring, and why certain things happen the way they do.

An example of this in an Animal Science class may include having learners explain the ruminant digestive system through multiple short-answer responses. The instructor may ask what the functions of certain digestive system organs are, how the organs work together, have learners explain the nutritional components that may be associated with various digestive problems, or have learners explain what causes certain digestive issues to occur.

Interpretation is the ability to make meaning of information through narratives, data, experiences, and translations. Interpretation can be demonstrated through a variety of assessment strategies, such as interpreting significance through events, data, experiences, storytelling, or perception of particular facts. An example of this in a horticulture class may be through a photosynthesis lab. In lab, the instructor might ask learners to read a section of the lab report to interpret the background information on light reactions associated with photosynthesis.

At the conclusion on the lab, the instructor might ask learners to interpret a series of data collected by the class. In the lab report, the instructor might ask learners what they observed and have learners reflect on how their observations may have led to their results.

Application involves using knowledge in diverse or new situations in a real context. Learners often show proficiency in application through using knowledge and adapting it in situations that require them to synthesize about the task. Application is a skills-based approach.

Kolb was one of the first to describe this facet of understanding through the experiential learning cycle, which is described as four part cycles: a concrete experience, b reflective observation, c abstract conceptualization, and d active experimentation. Concrete Experience: the learner encounters a new experience, or something similar to what they have experienced before.

Reflective Observation: the learner reflects on the experience and understanding of important concepts. An example of this in a Food Science course may be though a class field trip to a local dairy packaging facility.

Many of the learners have never been to a dairy packaging facility in the past. The backward design framework suggests that instructors should consider these overarching learning goals and how students will be assessed prior to consideration of how to teach the content.

For this reason, backward design is considered a much more intentional approach to course design than traditional methods of design. This teaching guide will explain the benefits of incorporating backward design. Then it will elaborate on the three stages that backward design encompasses.

Finally, an overview of a backward design template is provided with links to blank template pages for convenience. Curriculum should lay out the most effective ways of achieving specific results… in short, the best designs derive backward from the learnings sought. In Understanding by Design , Wiggins and McTighe argue that backward design is focused primarily on student learning and understanding. When teachers are designing lessons, units, or courses, they often focus on the activities and instruction rather than the outputs of the instruction.

Therefore, it can be stated that teachers often focus more on teaching rather than learning. This perspective can lead to the misconception that learning is the activity when, in fact, learning is derived from a careful consideration of the meaning of the activity.

As previously stated, backward design is beneficial to instructors because it innately encourages intentionality during the design process. It continually encourages the instructor to establish the purpose of doing something before implementing it into the curriculum. Therefore, backward design is an effective way of providing guidance for instruction and designing lessons, units, and courses. Once the learning goals, or desired results, have been identified, instructors will have an easier time developing assessments and instruction around grounded learning outcomes.

The incorporation of backward design also lends itself to transparent and explicit instruction. If the teacher has explicitly defined the learning goals of the course, then they have a better idea of what they want the students to get out of learning activities.

Furthermore, if done thoroughly, it eliminates the possibility of doing certain activities and tasks for the sake of doing them. Every task and piece of instruction has a purpose that fits in with the overarching goals and goals of the course.

As the quote below highlights, teaching is not just about engaging students in content. It is also about ensuring students have the resources necessary to understand. Student learning and understanding can be gauged more accurately through a backward design approach since it leverages what students will need to know and understand during the design process in order to progress.