The Backward Design
Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe authored a book called "Understanding by Design" which presents a methodology known as "Backward Design" for creating courses and content units.
Backward design is an instructional design methodology that involves primarily identifying the desired learning goals and subsequently designing the instructional activities and evaluations in a reverse sequence to facilitate students in attaining those results. In simple terms, it begins by visualizing the desired outcomes and subsequently devises the necessary strategies to achieve them.
Three Stages of Backward Design
- Identifying Learning Outcomes- In this step, we lay out exactly what it is that we want our students to take away from the lesson: a set of core competencies. It is common to express these results in terms of particular skills, attitudes, and levels of knowledge.
- Determining Assessments- Once the learning outcomes have been created, assessments are designed to determine whether students have met them. These assessments could involve tests, projects, presentations, or other forms of evaluation.
- Developing Instructional Activities- After the learning outcomes and assessments have been established, instructional activities are designed to assist students gain the knowledge and skills required to succeed on the exams and, eventually, achieve the targeted learning outcomes. These activities could include lectures, debates, group projects, hands-on exercises, or any other teaching style that is judged appropriate.
Traditional vs Backward Design
Traditional Design
Teachers have been organizing lessons and instructional modules in this manner for a long time:
- Choose a subject or section of material that has to be covered.
- Create a lesson plan that teaches the material.
- Develop an evaluation to gauge the amount of learning that ought to have occurred throughout those classes.
Backward Design
I will, however, limit myself to sharing the most basic implementation of backward design at this time.
- Determine the knowledge and skills that students should possess at the conclusion of the learning cycle.
- Design an evaluation to gauge that knowledge.
- Arrange lessons in a way that will help students finish the test successfully.
Why use Backward Design?
Benefits for Educators and Learners:
- Clarity of goals.
- Alignment of assessments and instruction.
- Student-centered approach.
- Promotion of critical thinking.
- Efficient use of time and resources.
Watch the video to know more:
Optional resources
InstructionalDesign.orgVanderbilt University