Understanding by Design - Backward Design That Works

Understanding by Design is a curriculum design plan based on the principle that a unit should be designed backwards. This concept of “backward design” means that a desired outcome must be present before any curricular creation can take place. I kind of chuckle inside whenever I hear this explained because it immediately makes me think of a successful trip to Home Depot verse an unsuccessful trip. In order for me to get the items I need to remodel my bathroom I must have a vision of what the completed bathroom will look like. In many ways designing a bathroom and designing a unit are the same. I need to have a desired goal before I can plan the activities leading up to the goal. This is common sense right?

Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe designed Understanding by Design, which has become an award-winning program, currently used in hundreds of districts around the United States and the globe. Their program asks that teachers become aware of the enduring understandings students need to excel in the world around them. By recognizing a need for performance-based assessments, Wiggins and McTighe have created a program that encourages today’s student to do more than memorize rote factual information. In March of 2010, Grant Wiggins wrote an article titled, Bashing State Tests. The title is surprisingly deceiving because Wiggins is actually recognizing the, “valuable and counterintuitive insights” that test results can give teachers and districts about what their students are not learning. By analyzing the standardized test results, Wiggins is able defend his theory that, “Teaching for greater understanding would improve results, not threaten them.” Wiggins and McTighe have been working in the field of education for many decades, so they successfully created a program that enables curriculum users the ability to become curriculum designers.

The best part about Unit by Design is that it recognizes the teacher’s constant need for reflection and change during the course of creating a curricular unit. Although designed in three-stages it cannot be completed in a rigid chronological order because good designers will reflect on lessons and hear feedback from others. This will trigger them to go back and make revisions throughout the process. McTighe and Wiggins acknowledge that one size does not fit all personalities and styles. Throughout the three-stage program they give different tools to accommodate various personal needs. No one curriculum designer is encouraged to use all of the tools to design a unit, instead UbD users are encouraged to use what works for them. The main goal of UbD is to never lose focus during curriculum creation - all roads should lead to the desired outcome of a unit. This leads users back to the most important concept of UbD, “backward design.”

I have had the good fortune of attending Unit by Design training presented by the Authentic Education Organization. During my UbD training with Hilde McGeehan, an associate of Grant Wiggins, I felt like I was regularly reminded to evaluate what my final teaching goal or desired outcome for a unit was. This goal has to be revisited at each stage of design. When students complete a unit will they be able to complete a performance-based assessment? Can students be encouraged to think at a higher level rather than regurgitating facts? If this makes you think about Bloom’s Taxonomy; you are not alone. In many ways this concept of assessing students at a higher level is present in both frameworks. McTighe and Wiggins refer to six Facets of Understanding: explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge. These facets are similar to Bloom’s ideas, but can be used in conjunction with each other not in chronological order. Bloom’s Taxonomy is based on a hierarchy of higher level thinking where each assessment uses a skill that becomes more difficult.

Understanding by Design is a logical way to teach students necessary information and to see the results of that teaching through performance-based assessment that will hopefully become part of our students’ long-term enduring knowledge base. I believe that as future educational leaders our ultimate goal everyday is to teach our students lessons that they can later apply to their own life and experiences. This is why UbD's principles work.