edna.edu.au

Understanding by Design

A very useful conference with Jay McTighe over two days organised by DECS. Jay's presentation of the Understanding by Design model (aka Backward Design) was very clear and usefull. The emphasis on the first day was on planning curriculum, and on the second day it was on evaluating curricula and teachers using the model.

The essence of UbD is that a teacher/course designer starts with the 'big questions' and 'big ideas'. These are the things which need to constantly before the students during a course of study, which frame their enquiry and point them beyond the classroom to further research and application of their knowledge. After deciding on the big questions and big ideas, the teacher decides which key concepts and capabilities are required by the students. These are framed as "Students will know ..." and "Students will understand...". This is the end of the first stage of the curriculum design.

The second stage is about assessment. What evidence will demonstrate that the students have acquired the understandings and knowledge required in stage 1, and how will this evidence be collected.

 Finally, stage 3 is where the teacher designs a learning plan with learning experiences and instruction which will enable the students to achieve the desired results.

I have prepared a powerpoint presentation from my notes at the conference and other material downloaded from the internet to introduce UbD to colleagues. A temnplate for unit design using this model is also available.

A number of relevant web resources on UbD are bookmarked at http://delicious.com/nbm1/ubd 

Tags: professional development teaching ubd curriculum design
Posted at 10:36PM May 24, 2010 by Nigel Mitchell  |