Backward Design Identify desired results/learning goals What do you want the student to get out of the class. What will they remember in 5 Years? Determine evidence for learning How do you determine they have acquired the understanding of the subject? Plan learning experience and instruction Create your lesson plans and activities in a way that will allow the students to achieve understanding
Backward Design a scientific approach Goals Assessment Instruction Hypothesis Data Experiment What should students know, be able to do? What evidence will we accept? How can we best prepare students? Adapted from Wiggins and McTighe (1998)
Backward Design (Planning): Goals Assessment Instruction Implementation: Goals Instruction Assessment
Backward Design (Planning): Goals Assessment Instruction Implementation: Goals Instruction Assessment Your assessments communicate to students your priorities for their learning.
Standard course planning vs Backward course design Choose textbook Create syllabus Write/revise lectures, notes Prepare PowerPoint presentations Write exams Formulate broad learning goals Set specific learning objectives Design assessments (formative and summative) Develop learning activities (lectures, homework, other) Instructor-centered Student-centered
What's the advantage of specific learning objectives over a syllabus? A simple syllabus primarily tells students only what you, the instructor are going to talk about during the course. Learning objectives tell students what level of understanding they should expect to gain what they should be able to do after finishing the course; (and incidentally, what s going to be on the exam!) i.e. objectives are designed with Bloom s levels in mind.
Ways of characterizing the levels of goals and assessments: Bloom s Taxonomy Bloom s Taxonomy Bloom s Taxonomy Bloom s Taxonomy Anderson, L. W. and David R. Krathwohl, D. R., et al (Eds..) (2001)
Aim High! 1. Remember: arrange, define, duplicate, label, list, memorize, name, order, recognize, relate, recall, repeat, reproduce state. 2. Comprehend: classify, describe, discuss, explain, express, identify, indicate, locate, recognize, report, restate, review, select, translate, 3. Apply : apply, choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write. 4. Analyze: analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test. 5. Evaluate: arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up, write. 6. Create: appraise, argue, assess, defend, estimate, judge, predict, rate, select, support, value, evaluate.
You can use Bloom s taxonomy to: Write more meaningful learning goals Write more challenging exam questions Diagnosis your student s learning issues To align your testing and teaching While you do this, also keep in mind that your goals are Smart Measurable Attainable Relevant and Result-Oriented Targeted to level of Learner (or Time-Bound)
Step 1 Identify course and topic goals (objectives) What do you want your students to know and do? Step 2 Identify/design tools for aligning goals and assessment What do you want your students to know and do? (learning outcomes) Step 3 Design assessments What evidence will you accept to show that learning has occurred? Step 4 Design learning activities that help students achieve the learning goals How will students explore the concepts and what data will you collect to show learning?
Designing explicit learning goals Basic definition: What should students be able to do after completing course? (How general attitudes or thinking are changed by course?) Requirement of a learning goal: Must be measurable assessment and goals tightly linked Wide range of possible goals: From memorizing terminology to complex problem solving skills transferring ideas to new contexts thinking like a scientist (Reflection of what you want students to learn and at what level)
Value of explicit learning goals: 1) Better define and guide what you want to teach. 2) Define for students what they should be learning (and why). 3) Measure what students are learning to guide improvement of instruction
Verbs that don t work for learning goals: Understand Realize Be aware of Why not?
Genetics example - the syllabus Part of the syllabus for an introductory level genetics course DNA replication and the Central Dogma (Review) DNA replication Transcription Translation Principles of heredity: how traits are transmitted Alleles Dominant and recessive traits The chromosome theory of inheritance Meiosis Linkage and recombination Etc.
Syllabus Learning Goals - be able to: Transcription
Syllabus Learning Goals - be able to: Transcription Define transcription. Name the enzyme that catalyzes it. Distinguish between transcription and translation. Compare transcription in bacteria and eukaryotes. Diagram a DNA duplex in the process of transcription showing base-pairing and strand polarity for all polynucleotides.
Learning Goal Examples Human Genetics for non-majors Course-level learning goal Specific learning goal Content: Demonstrate how meiosis leads to diversity in the next generation Skills: Become better problem solvers Original wording: Understand the rules for inheritance of chromosomes in the process of meiosis. Reworded: Predict the probability of generating sperm and egg cells with specific chromosomal makeup. (Blooms level 3), and explain how these cells are produced (Blooms level 2).
Introduction to Molecular and Cell Biology Original L.G. Describe how the process of extracting information from genetic material is regulated at each step of conversion of DNA to RNA to protein. New L.G. Propose two different ways that an abnormal protein could be made in a cell, resulting in disease symptoms. Problems Low level goal explicitly encourages students to memorize the steps from DNA to protein Advantages Higher level goal encourages student to think about how proteins work, how they are produced, and how they can be altered by mutations in DNA.