UBD-Understanding by Design

Understanding by Design

Traditional learning design begin with a selection of learning content. Then instructional strategies and instructional activities are planned. Following this, assessment activities are carried out to measure if learning goals are met. Understanding by Design (UBD), on the contrary, begins with an 'end goal' in mind. To this end, 'Understandings' and 'Essential Questions' help articulate, communicate and prioritize these learning goals. Once learning goals are identified, deliberate assessments methods that measure acceptable evidence of learning are planned. These assessments require a combination of traits [explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, self-knowledge] in order to measure 'significant learning' which is deep and high learning characterized by a learner's ability to transfer knowledge to the outside world. The third step is then to plan individualized learning experiences that align with the identified learning assessment as well ass support transfer, meaning making and skill acquisition.

Backward design is beneficial to learning designers because it innately encourages intentionality and purposeful thinking during the design process. Backward design also lends itself to deliberate, transparent and explicit instruction in pursuit of its primary goal of student understanding: the ability to make meaning of “big ideas” and transfer their learning

Wiggins and McTighe (1998) state“Deliberate and focused instructional design requires us as teachers and curriculum writers to make an important shift in our thinking about the nature of our job. The shift involves thinking a great deal, first, about the specific learnings sought, and the evidence of such learnings, before thinking about what we, as the teacher, will do or provide in teaching and learning activities.”

I have applied the UbD model to a scenario below.

References

Wiggins, Grant, and McTighe, Jay. (1998). Backward Design. In Understanding by Design (pp. 13-34). ASCD.

Bowen, Ryan S., (2017). Understanding by Design. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [08/082020] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/understanding-by-design/.