Understanding by Design

Curriculum, by traditional measures, has always been approached from the point of view that the teacher should decide what information needs to be taught, and then delineates how said material will be conveyed. Many times it is in our nature to continue to use the methods most comfortable and familiar to us in order to achieve a given task. However, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe have proposed an alternative way of approaching curriculum and curriculum design.
Wiggins and McTighe have introduced the concept of backward design to the development of curriculum. What they are referring to is starting at the end point, what the student should learn, and working backwards from there in order to design the most effective curriculum to teach it best. Wiggins and McTighe liken this mode of curriculum design to traveling. When one travels, it is best to first decide what you would like to see, then to write up an itinerary on how best to navigate through the country in order to see everything that you had set out to. The traditional curriculum design, however, is analogous to just getting into the country and meandering about without any direct goals and hoping that you get to see a lot.
Wiggins and McTighe lay out three stages of backward design. The first stage is to identify desired results. What they are referring to in this stage is the necessity to first identify what information the students should have learned by the end of the lesson. Wiggins and McTighe call these the “learnings”, and seek to ensure that these learnings endure after the lesson is completed and into the future. During this stage, it is also important to be aware of state and national curriculum content standards and to attend to the realization that the curriculum needs to be prioritized, as covering one hundred percent of the material is not usually an attainable goal. The second stage is determining acceptable evidence. Wiggins and McTighe suggest that when developing a curriculum, one should be in the mindset of an assessor in order to determine how the students will be measured in terms of their knowledge of the material. The third stage of backward design is to plan learning experiences and instruction. In this stage, it is important to determine the best concepts and procedures to use in order to facilitate learning most effectively. This also includes the means of conveying the information, like using powerpoints for example.
Wiggins and McTighe also mention the “twin sins” of traditional curriculum development. The first of these sins is the focus on activities as a main way of teaching. Wiggins and McTighe call this being “hands-on without being minds-on”. Although these activities can be fun and engaging, they seldom lead to intellectual growth. The second of these sins is the idea of “coverage”. This refers to the drudging through a textbook or series of lectures in order to ensure that all of the material is covered. The rigidity of this method impedes on the intellectual growth of the student. The student finds themselves asking, “what is the point of this?” and unable to come up with an answer.
Wiggins and McTighe have posed some interesting alternatives to the traditional curriculum development methods. Furthermore, I believe that they are valid in their critiques of the system, and their modifications to it. Learning is not intended to be lead with an iron fist and by dictating what students need to learn. Learning needs to be a journey between the student, their teacher, and their classmates. When everyone travels together on the road to enlightenment, it makes learning much more enjoyable, as well as influential.