Table Of Content
Click on each step for further details, key considerations, and guiding questions to walk you through backward designing your Course Plan. Okay, so we’ve looked very closely at one small unit for a middle school science class. Some chapters we did in class (I would read to them, then they would read silently), and others at home. Some students became as absorbed in the novel as I’d hoped they would; others, not so much.
Rigid Framework
Crafting realistic learning outcomes requires some understanding of students’ prior knowledge and skills in your subject. The idea behind backwards design is simply starting from the outcome or end result that you’d like your students to experience and build the modules/chapters/sections one by one with the outcomes guiding the process. This approach helps define the results that your learners can expect from each section and or chapter and helps you. By focusing on the results, you will deliver a better learning experience by showing the path to the transformation promised to them.
I. Identify the desired outcomes
The designer then identifies what types of evidence are sufficient proof of the desired end result. The designer works “backwards” from that end goal and intentionally plans and develops supporting instruction and learning experiences around the desired outcomes and evidence[1]. In contrast, the backward design approach has instructors consider the learning goals of the course first. These learning goals embody the knowledge and skills instructors want their students to have learned when they leave the course. Once the learning goals have been established, the second stage involves consideration of assessment. 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.
Potential for Overemphasis on Assessment
To evaluate the success of a course, you must be able to observe the internal changes you identified in Step 1 happening in your students. So in Step 2, you create learning outcomes that describe how those internal changes will manifest externally. Your learning outcomes clarify exactly what it looks like for students to meet your learning goals. Learning outcomes should be specific and stated in concrete, observable, and measurable terms. The traditional approach to education planning, sometimes called "Forward Design," usually starts with content and activities.
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Teaching Guides
Ohio State historyLong before Wiggins and McTighe popularized backward design, Ralph Tyler was working with fellow faculty at The Ohio State University to improve data gathered from assessments. As early as his 1934 article, “Some Findings from Studies in the Field of College Biology,” Tyler details how he helped faculty sketch out the ideas of needs analysis, backward design, and setting behavioral objectives. In Understanding by Design, Wiggins and McTighe reference Tyler as the originator of behavioral objectives (2005, p. 20). If we assume that a large portion of a student’s grade is based on the test, then students are not being measured on their achievement of that standard.
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The idea in backward design is to teach toward the "end point" or learning goals, which typically ensures that content taught remains focused and organized. This, in turn, aims at promoting better understanding of the content or processes to be learned for students. The educator is able to focus on addressing what the students need to learn, what data can be collected to show that the students have learned the desired outcomes (or learning standards) and how to ensure the students will learn. Although backward design is based on the same components of the ADDIE model, backward design is a condensed version of these components with far less flexibility. Be thoughtful about selecting tools that will best support students in meeting your learning goals and outcomes.Read more in Understanding Learning Technologies at Ohio State and Integrating Technology into Your Course.
The Three Stages of Backward Design
Backward Design allows for a more accurate and meaningful assessment of student learning. Experts like Dylan Wiliam have pointed out that because assessments are aligned with learning objectives from the get-go, they are more likely to be valid measures of student understanding and skill. This stands in contrast to traditional methods where assessment can sometimes feel disconnected from the teaching. In choosing the strategies for your course, then, it is important to consider the levels of thinking, understanding, and reasoning that will best serve your desired learning goals for the course.
How to Use Backwards Design To Create Your Lesson Plan (Template + Steps)
A unit or sequence of lessons framed around enduring understandings and essential questions. I was first introduced to this concept in my sixth year of teaching, and the genius of it completely blew me away. I used it when planning my next unit and experienced the biggest spike in student success I’d ever seen. On top of that, I was actually excited about teaching the lessons I had planned.
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Curriculum theorists like Jay McTighe have developed specific materials to assist educators in applying this method effectively. Renowned educator Grant Wiggins, one of the creators of Backward Design, emphasized the value of well-defined learning goals in providing direction to both teaching and learning. Students know right from the start what they're aiming for, which helps keep them motivated and on track. Now you might be wondering, "Isn't this how all teaching is done?" Not exactly. The old-school way of designing lessons—let's call it "Forward Design"—starts with the teaching materials and activities, sort of like making up the clues for your treasure hunt before you even know where the treasure is hidden. By way of example, consider a paralegal instructor who wants students, as a result of her instruction, to be able to prepare case briefs.
However, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe argue that this framework is flawed, because its emphasis on teaching methods is misplaced. With Backward Design’s focus on the desired result (for example, preparing a clear, well-written case brief), instruction can be tailored to support this desired product. An integration of “backwards planning” unit design with the “two-step” lesson planning framework – This article takes a look at the process of backwards planning in a detailed case study of a math class. Unfortunately, this results in tests or assessments that don’t always reflect what the students did or learned. We’ve all experienced an unfortunate class or two where the test didn’t seem to reflect anything we had learned in lessons or course materials up until that point.
Exercises designed to allow students to practice using new knowledge, or gain new skills, will give them a sense of mastery over the content that mere memorization cannot. Posing hypothetical questions or problems designed to allow students to apply new knowledge, or to practice newly acquired skills, will give them a sense of mastery that mere memorization cannot. In addition to these guidelines, it is also helpful to categorize the goals you have for the course in order of importance.
In Step 4, you will choose the course content that will support students to succeed on those assessments. Your completed Course Plan should lay out, in brief, the weekly assessments, course content, and teaching strategies and activities that align to the learning outcomes you create in Step 2 below. Again, there are numerous strategies for enhancing students’ learning experience, and again, the ones you choose should align well with the goals you’ve defined for the course. For instance, exercises that are active and collaborative allow students to explore new concepts and idea in a relaxed way that encourages them to “own” them.
The rigidity of the Backward Design framework has also been critiqued by educators like Sir Ken Robinson, who champion the benefits of creativity and freedom in educational settings. However, proponents argue that the time investment upfront often leads to more effective and efficient teaching down the line. This is particularly burdensome for educators who may already be grappling with other responsibilities like grading, classroom management, and ongoing professional development.
You study standards, learning objectives, or profit margins, then create your lessons and learning materials based on those goals. While there are many approaches to planning a course, backward design is a useful framework that puts at the forefront what matters most—student learning. Unlike content-oriented approaches, the backward design process begins by determining learning goals and outcomes for students. You then develop assignments that will help students practice and meet those outcomes. Decisions about course content and teaching strategies appear last, guided by reflection on what students will need to demonstrate their learning.
Understanding how it compares to other frameworks helps educators make more informed choices about which approach to use in different teaching and learning contexts. At the same time, the other disadvantage of traditional lesson planning is that the process ignores the learner’s needs and role throughout the curriculum design process. Given this context on the traditional design process, backwards design is a much more practical and effective framework to help course creators design an engaging learning experience that makes an impact for the learners and their business. Backward design in a lesson plan means starting with the end objective, such as student-focused learning goals, and designing your assessments and learning materials afterward to ensure your students achieve those objectives. In a standard content-oriented approach to course design, the design process begins by identifying course content. From there, the instructor plans lectures, activities, and assignments to help students engage with that content.
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