The ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of Understanding By Design

The ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of Understanding By

Design

Merle C. Tan, PhDNational Institute for Science and Mathematics Education DevelopmentUniversity of the Philippines, Diliman

UP NISMED was established in 1964 as a Science Teaching Center; became a national institute in 1997; named the National Center for Research & Innovations in SME 2005; & recipient of 1st Gawad Leader in SME 2008.

Major functions: research, curriculum development, and professional development of teachers and school administrators

This session will hopefully ….

broaden and deepen your concept of UbD, and

help you understand why UbD is a powerful tool for (chemistry) teachers and educators.

A conceptual framework, a design process, and a set of design standards used in the development of units

Offers a template used as an aid in the design of curriculum, instruction, and assessment

Relies on “backward design process” for educational planning

Focused on "teaching for understanding” Designed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe

(1999), and published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

UbD: What is it?

A way of thinking ...pulling together many ideas and processes that have been tested both through research and classroom use

These ideas and process give rise to ‘powerful learning experiences’ that can result to deeper understanding of facts, concepts, generalizations , principles, and other ideas.

The learning experiences engage and result in learners gaining sophisticated insights and abilities that will be reflected in a variety of performance both in school and in the real world.

UbD: A Conceptual framework

UbD is different from conventional thinking about teaching and learning

Emphasizes the use of backward design process

Prioritizes what students are to know, understand, and be able to do

Gives serious consideration to the meaning of

understanding

UbD: A Conceptual Framework

Backward design process…

Focuses thinking on the desired results of instruction, rather than beginning their planning process with activities, materials, or textbook content.

The focal point for the planning of curriculum, instruction , and assessment is what the learner should know, understand, and be able to do as a result of instruction

The results of instruction, are determined with reference to national standards

Backward design process…

The results of instruction, are determined with reference to national standards

After the desired results of instruction have been specified , the backward design process turns the attention of the teachers or curriculum design team toward identifying the evidence that will be accepted to determining whether the learner has achieved the desired results.

Finally, the attention is turned to planning learning experiences and activities.

If design begins with the end in mind, the result is likely to be instruction that will focus more clearly and effectively on desired results.

Stage 1: Identifying desired results (learning outcomes)

Stage 2: Determining acceptable evidence

Stage 3: Planning learning experiences & instruction

To begin with the end in mind means…

to start with a clear understanding of your destination.

to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.

Stephen R. Covey (n.d. ) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Need to priorities what students are to know , understand, and be able to do

Rather than viewing knowledge as equal, this way of thinking suggests that some knowledge are essential and enduring, some knowledge are important to know, and some knowledge are worth being familiar with. A review of curriculum standards reveals that there is more content deemed important than can reasonably be covered in the classroom. Superficial coverage of all content is not the answer if the desire is to help learners understand important ideas.

Worth being familiar with

Important to know and do

Enduring understanding

Worth being familiar with

Four criteria or filters to assist designers in determining which knowledge is essential and enduring, which is important, and which is worth being familiar with

• To what extent are the content standards and topics enduring and transferable big ideas having value beyond the classroom?

• To what extent are the content standards and topics big ideas and core processes at the heart of the discipline?

• To what extent are the content standards and topics abstract, counterintuitive, often misunderstood, or easily misunderstood ideas requiring uncoverage?

• To what extent are the content standards or topics big ideas embedded in facts, skills, and activities?

Gives serious consideration to the meaning of understanding-

To some, understanding might mean simply answering the question correctly, or defining a term in your own words, or carrying out a simple skill, or explaining why something occurred.

Understanding is more than just knowing or doing.

Wiggins and McTighe describe understanding as the ability to use knowledge and skill in sophisticated, flexible ways.

K & S are necessary elements of understanding, but they are not synonymous with understanding. Matters of understanding require more.

Students need to make conscious sense and apt use of the knowledge they are learning and the principles underlying it.

Wiggins and McTighe, suggest that when we truly understand an idea we:

• Can explain: provide thorough, supported, and justifiable accounts of phenomena, facts, and data.

• Can interpret: tell meaningful stories; offer apt translations; provide a revealing historical or personal dimension to ideas and events; make it personal or accessible through images, anecdotes, analogies, and models.• Can apply: effectively use and adapt what we know in diverse contexts.• Have perspective: see and hear points of view through critical eyes and ears; see the big picture.• Can empathize: find value in what others might find odd, alien, or implausible; perceive sensitively on the basis of prior direct experience.• Have self knowledge: perceive the personal style, prejudices, and habits of mind that both shape and impede our own understanding; we are aware of what we do not understand and why understanding is so hard..

Have perspective

Interpret

Explain Apply

Empathize

Have self-Knowledge

Understanding means

being able to..

Six facets of understanding

Understanding by Design: A Design Process

Understanding by Design is both a road map and a checklist.

As a road map it guides us to our destination of well designed curriculum, instruction, and assessment, avoiding wrong turns and delays.

As a checklist it reminds us of what we need to do during the beginning, middle, and end of our journey.

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Understanding by Design: A Design Process

The Understanding by Design process includes three stages. These stages are as follows

Stage 1: identify desired results of instruction,Stage 2: determine acceptable evidence to judge whether the results

were achieved and how well they were achieved, andStage 3: plan learning experiences and instruction.

Stage 1: Tasks

Identifying most essential and enduring understanding Identifying essential questions Identifying important knowledge and skills that

will result for the unit

i

Essential and enduring ideas - those big ideas that are as useful and valid in the real world outside of the school as they are in the classroom.

(refer to filters)

Essential questions (EQs) are the basis for framing the unit. Engaging questions -can serve as doorways to understanding. set directions for inquiry providing students with a purpose -provide learners with a focus on enduring understandings -invite the learners to think about interesting problems that they might not perceived as a question before-as they engage in learning activities.

Curriculum developers will be guided by the EQs in developing learning experiences

- that are focused on important understanding

- rather than coming up with a set of disconnected activities that are simply designed to be hands on.

EQs share common characteristics:

- Are framed to provide and sustain student interest- Recur naturally throughout one’s learning and in the

history of the field- Address the philosophical or conceptual foundations of

the discipline- Raise other important questions, often across subject

area disciplines, and - Have no obvious right answer but serves as doorways

into focused yet lively discussion , inquiry, and research

Identifying important knowledge and skills

As essential understandings are identified, the design team will discover that there are pieces of important or worth being familiar with .

K/S of this nature are included because they are related to or give rise to the essential understanding that is the focus of the unit.

Stage 2: Tasks

Choosing appropriate assessments methods (there are multiple methods of assessments- performance tasks and projects as well as traditional assessments such as quizzes and tests.

Designing authentic performance assessmentsUsing GRASPS

Using the facets of understanding in designing authentic performance assessments

Designing scoring rubrics

GRASPSGoal: the goal of the performance taskRole: the role of the students as they carry out the performance taskAudience: the target audience to which the finished product/performance will be presentedSituation: the contextProduct or performance: the result of the activity or task Standards success: the criteria by which the product/performance will be judged

Stage 3: Tasks

Where is the unit headed and what is the purpose of day to day work?

Hook the students through engaging work that makes them more eager to explore key ideas.Explore the subject in depth, equip students with required K/S to perform successfully on final tasks and help students experience key ideasRethink with students the big ideas . They rehearse and revise their workEvaluate results and develop action plans through self assessment of resulst.

Indicators for Teaching with Understanding

The Unit of Course Design The big ideas and essential questions clearly guide the design of, and are aligned with assessments and T/L activitiesMakes clear distinctions between big ideas and essential questions and the knowledge and skills necessary for learning big ideas and answering the questions


The Unit of Course DesignUses multiple forms of assessment that let students demonstrate their understanding in various ways.Incorporates instruction and assessment that reflects the six facets of understandingAnchors assessment of understanding with authentic performance tasks


The Unit of Course DesignUses clear criteria and performance standards for teacher, peer, and self evaluation of students products and performancesEnables students to revisit and rethink important ideas to deepen their understanding Incorporates a variety of resources (the textbook serving as one resource rather than as ‘the syllabus’)


The Teacher Informs students of the big ideas and essential questions, performance requirements, and evaluative criteria at the beginning of the unit or course

Hooks and holds students’ interest while they examine and explore big ideas and essential questions

Uses a variety of strategies to promote better understanding of subject matter


The Teacher Facilitates students’ active construction of meaning (rather than simply telling.

Promotes opportunities to students to unpack their thinking to explain, interpret, shift perspectives, empathize, or self assess

Uses questioning, probing, and feedback to stimulate student reflection and rethinking


The Teacher Teaches basic knowledge and skills in the context of big ideas and explore essential questions

Uses information from ongoing assessments as feedback to adjust instruction

Uses information from ongoing assessments to check for student understanding and misconception along the way

Uses a variety of resources to promote understanding


The Learners Can describe the goals and performance requirements of the unit or course

Can explain what they are doing and why.

Are hooked at the beginning and remain engaged throughout the unit or course.

Can describe the criteria by which will be evaluated

Are engaged in activities that help them to learn the big ideas and essential questions


The Learners Are engaged in activities that promote the six facets of understanding.

Demonstrate that they are learning the background knowledge and skills that support the big ideas and EQs.

Have opportunities to generate relevant questions.

Are able to explain and justify their work and answers


The Learners Are involved in self or peer performance assessment based on established performance standards.

Use criteria or rubrics to guide and revise their work.

Set relevant goals based on feedback.

Indicators for Teaching with Understanding In the Classroom Environment The big ideas and the EQs are central to the work of students, the classroom activity, and the norms and culture of the classroom.

There are high expectations and incentives for all students to come to understand the big ideas and EQs.

Big ideas, EQs, and rubrics are posted. Sample models of student work are made visible.

Exploration of big ideas and EQs is differentiated.

UbD.. in brief

UbD is a way of thinking more carefully about design; it is NOT a program.

Helps us design instruction that promotes students’ understanding and engagement

Looks at instructional design from a results orientation

UbD … cont’d

Targets achievement through a backward planning process that focuses on assessment first and relevant instructional activities later

Expects us to establish spirals of learning where students use and reconsider ideas and skills vs linear scope and sequence

UbD…cont’d

Provides a ‘lens for prioritizing’ Serves as an organizer for facts, skills

and actions … focusing on big ideas, helps students see purpose and relevance of pieces

Creates coherence Manifests itself in many ways and in

many content areas Requires ‘uncovering’ - its meaning is

abstract, so it must be discovered, constructed or inferred by learners.

Backward design takes time.

Grant Wiggins suggests to plan on one well-designed “gourmet” unit per year when you start

and seek the support of colleagues.

UbD (cont’d)

Puts together many ideas and processes that have been tested both through research and classroom use; UbD represents a way of thinking about the design of curriculum, instruction, and assessment

While it takes some time and effort to learn this way of thinking, the investment is worthwhile as it will result in learning experiences

It will engage learners and result in learners gaining more sophisticated insights and abilities that will be reflected in a variety of performances both in school and in the real world.

“Everything that is worthwhile in life requires work.”

The Understanding by Design process may seem cumbersome upon first reading and even more difficult upon the first attempt to use it.

The UbD process :begins with the end in mind, identify evidence of quality products/ performances, and focus engaging learning experiences on the desired results.

In reality, the work that is required in developing units of instruction using the UbD process is no more difficult or time consuming than conventional ways of developing units.

The end result is considerably different, however:

In UBD- instructional units that are efficient and effective in producing deep understanding In conventional teaching ,units are fun but result in little learning. .

References

Petner C. et al. (2009) UbD as a tool for effective unit design. Slideshare. Retrieved 12.07.09

McTighe,J. & Seif, E. Indicators of Teaching for Understanding. TLL Academics. Retrieved 12.07.09

Wiggins ,G. & McTighe, J (nd) Understanding by Design: A brief instroduction . Center for technology and school change at teachers college.Retrieved12.07.09.

Understanding by design http:en. Wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_ by_ Design, Retrieved 10.21.09

The ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of Understanding By Design

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