Understanding by Design

Understanding by Design Chong Wei Fang FideliaLiew Leow Yan Ping Sharon Mark

Content page • Understanding by design • Traditional approach • Backward design • Framing by curriculum • Design standards

Understanding by Design • it is important to know what we want to achieve from our curriculum/teaching before we actually conduct the class. • design should be logically inferred from the results sought, not derived from the methods, books, and activities which we are most comfortable

Traditional approach • Not effective • We should question the purpose of why we ask students to do certain things • Unless we begin our design with clear insights into larger purposes, it is unlikely that all students will understand the materials that we provide them with/ ask them to read

Traditional approach Twin sins of Traditional Design: • Purposelessness (activity based) • Aimlessness / coverage

Traditional approach Purposelessness (Activity based) • visible throughout the education world • Lacks: > explicit focus on important ideas > appropriate evidence of learning, especially in the minds of learners.

Traditional approach • Teachers… > think that their job is merely to engage. > think the learning is the activity instead of seeing that the learning comes from being asked to consider the meaning of the activity

ACTIVITY

Traditional approach Aimlessness/Coverage • an approach in which students march through a textbook, page by page in a valiant attempt to traverse all the factual material within a prescribed time > no clear purpose / goals = students unable to give satisfactory response.

Backward design • Stage 1: Identify desired results • Stage 2: Determine acceptable evidences • Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction

1. Identify desired results • Consider goals • Review curriculum expectations • For a clarity of priorities

2. Determine acceptable evidence • Collect evidence needed to document and validate learning has been achieved. • 'Think like an accessor' when planning curriculum.

3. Plan learning experiences and instruction • With goals and results in mind, appropriate activities are to be planned. • Example: Lesson plans.

Framing the Curriculum • ‘Specifically, we advocate that programs and courses be conceived and framed in terms of essential questions, enduring understanding, key performance tasksandrubrics.’ • Understanding by design: Expanded second edition

1. Essential questions • Focuses on big ideas and not unit specific • Aiming to stimulate thoughts, makes connection, provoke inquiry and to spark more questions • Points and highlights the big idea, allowing children to explore key concept, themes and theories, issues and problems.

1. Essential questions Topical essential questions: • Simple and direct • Enhance student's knowledge about topic • Underscore important points that we want students to note

1. Essential questions Overarching essential questions: • Provides broader perspective • Answer cannot be defined with merely with statements. • Requires further thinking and exploration

1. Essential questions Topical vs Overarching: • Topical: more specific towards topic • Overarching: more generalized over whole concept • Examples?

1. Essential questions Overview: • Relevant to topic • Inquiry based • Mixture of both open and close ending questions

2. Enduring understanding • Declarative statement that present major curriculum generalization and recurrent ideas • Includes what students should understand, not just know or do • Articulate what students should revisit in the future to the content area

2. Enduring understanding • ‘Unpack' areas of curriculum where students might struggle to gain understanding • Frames the big idea and give meaning to curriculum elements like skills and facts

2. Enduring understanding • Example: reading/literature • Essential question: how is reading a process of constructing meaning from text? • Enduring understanding: reading is a process by which we construct meaning about the information being communicated by the author within a print or non-print medium

3. Key Performance Tasks • How do we know that a student achieved enduring understanding? • More than one snapshot • E.g. Mid-term/Final tests • Evidence of the ability to transfer through performing complex tasks. • Algorithmic task vs Heuristic task • E.g. Following instructions to make a pinwheel that can catch the wind vs Understanding shapes and wind to create different windmills • High Quality, application-focused performance tasks constructed around the 6 facets of understanding.

3. Key Performance Tasks The 6 Facets of Understanding • Explain: Provide thorough and justifiable facts and data. • Interpret: Provide personal dimension to ideas and events. • Apply: Use and adapt knowledge to different scenarios. • Have perspective: Critically perceive information, see the big picture. • Empathize: Find value in the strange or implausible, be sensitive. • Have self-knowledge: Aware of personal style, prejudices, and habits that shape and affect own understanding/learning.

4. Rubrics • The development of key performance tasksleads to the selection or design of companion scoring rubrics as a means of assessment. • Why...? • Students receive consistent message about the nature of quality work • Helpful for charting progress over time • How...? • Takes into consideration different levels of understandings • Can be amended, as needed, with bullets or other indicators for particular tasks, while the more general framework remains intact

4. Rubrics • Assessment via Performance Tasks: Keep in mind… • What a student has to master: • Focus on competencies so that they would not be missed in the typical subject-focused curriculum • E.g. Language: Grammar, vocabvs Solely content • Conceptual/Philosophical-based: Provide essential questions... • Gives the general "specs" for assessment • E.g. "What does a fit person look like?" -> By the end of this course, students will be able to identify what a fit person looks like, and how to be fit.

4. Rubrics • Skills-based: Provide challenges… • Provide questions/problems that require the intelligent use of skills to solve • E.g. "What is the best package to use for shipping M&M's in bulk?" -> Students would have to solve this problem by applying several math concepts • However, there are other things to consider where rubrics are concerned, and these are covered under ‘Design standards’.

Design standards • Design standards serve as a rubric for curriculum designers. • Contributes to the curriculum in 3 ways: 1. Reference point during design 2. For use in self-assessment and peer reviews 3. For quality control and complete designs

Design standards 1. Reference point during design • Questions serve as reminders of important design elements to include. • Allows the curriculum to be edited and perfected.

Design standards 2. For use in Self-assessment and peer reviews • Teachers and peers can use the criteria to examine their drafted units to identify any things to change. • Helps to check if it benefits and meets the diverse needs of all learners.

Design standards 3. For quality control and complete designs • Design standards can be used by curriculum reviewers to validate the curriculum before it is handed out to other teachers. • Final check before implementing the curriculum.

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Learning Points

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Understanding by Design