Sunday, April 25, 2010

Understanding by Design

Understanding by Design
April 22, 2010

Understanding by Design (UbD) is a concept for curriculum designers initiated by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe that incorporates the idea of “teaching for understanding”. The entire focus of UbD is to get the students to better understand the material, which in turn, will allow them to not only retain the information better, but also apply the information to other situations.

Understanding by Design emphasizes six facets of understanding. These include students being able to explain, interpret, apply, have perspective, empathize, and have self-knowledge about a given topic. It also describes a three-stage process of curriculum development, referred to as “backward design”. It is concerned with concentrating on the end result. The three stages are as follows:

Stage 1. Identify the results
Stage 2. Determine acceptable evidence
Stage 3. Plan learning experiences and instruction

Stage 1 involves considering aims and goals, and checks content standards. It also involves selecting the content and content sequencing. Stage 2 determines how the curriculum will be assessed and the 3rd stage involves planning the learning activities.

This three-stage process helps to avoid the twin problems of “textbook coverage” and “activity-oriented” teaching. As a teacher, you should concentrate on what the big ideas are that you want your students to retain. A key component of Wiggins and McTighe’s framework is the concept of “enduring understanding”. Educators will determine what will “anchor” the unit. According to our textbook, “the term enduring refers to the big ideas, the important understandings, that we want our students to ‘get inside of’ and retain after they have forgotten many of the details.”

I feel that this part of the planning is one that may get overlooked by many teachers. Some teachers become so overwhelmed by the amount of information that they must cover throughout the year that they do not concentrate on the retention of this information. By concentrating on key components of the unit, we can ensure the students are retaining important information. It is impossible to assume that every student is going to retain all of the information that is given to him or her. However, we can try our best to ensure that each student can retain key components of each unit.

One can judge whether or not a student has retained the information, by the students applying the knowledge and skills they learned. Understanding cannot be transmitted by “telling”, but must be actively constructed in the mind of the learner.

Upon examining the rationale behind this style of curriculum planning, I was quite impressed with that it is intended to accomplish. Stressing the “big ideas” and using these as a means of planning lessons, does seem quite logical. Often, we overlook the point of teaching: for students to retain as much information as they can, while being able to apply the information in future situations. Often teachers start with the beginning of the textbook and work their way through all of the pages. We often overload our students with information, but quickly realize that the students retain little information. Big ideas and essential questions are extremely valuable in increasing retention levels of our students.

Sources:

Ornstein, A. & Hunkins, F. (2009). Curriculum: Foundations, principles, and issues (5th Ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

http://www.grantwiggins.org/ubd/ubd.lasso

http://pixel/thda.edu/hybrid/six_facets.html

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