Two Key Understandings

• You must design “backward” from understanding if you want to achieve understanding “by design”

• Without transparent and important priorities - stated as performance, not content - neither teacher nor student can be effective.

Twin Sins of Unit Design:“Coverage-focused”

teaching“Activity-focused” teaching Teacher 1 is focused on “getting through” thematerial; Teacher 2 is focused on keepingstudents active and engaged.

Neither method reveals any clear intellectualgoals. Any understanding that happens isessentially a piece of good luck.

Understanding is not a part of the design.

The BIG ideas of UbDUbD Big Idea Why important? If not…

`Backward Plans need to be Aimless activity or`Design well aligned to be coverage

effective

Understanding The essence of Students fail to

Transfer understanding & the applypoint of schooling Poor test results

Understanding How transfer happens Learning is more

via Big Ideas Makes learning more difficult, lessconnected engaging, and

fragmented

The course is not the content

Don’t confuse inputs with outputs:• Thousands of car parts with the ability to

drive• Drills & skills with playing the game well• List of ingredients and kitchen skills with

the ability to prepare and cook meals• The 700 page computer book with the

ability to use the software to write letters and reports

Teaching vs. LearningTeaching does not cause learning.

Successful attempts by the learner tolearn and use what they have learnedto achieve causes learning

I taught spot to whistle.

I can’t hear him whistling.

I said I taught him. I didn’t say he learned it!

Textbooks & Transfer

The textbook almost never focuses on transfer; rather it provides mostly logically organized content and drills only.

Teachers, do you get frustrated by students

who:• fail to recall last week’s or even yesterday’s

lessons?• cannot transfer their learning?• don’t have any idea what they are to do?• don’t “get it” and ask “dumb questions’?• are bored yet otherwise seem bright?

Then UbD may be able to help you!

Backward Design from“Content Coverage”

I want students to understand -The ConstitutionThe three branches of government

This is not a learning goal - this juststates what the content is.

Backward Design from the Understanding Sought

I want students to leave my course havingunderstood that: the Constitution was a solution based on

compromise to real and pressing problems and disagreements in governance; not an idea out of thin air

the Constitution was a brilliant balance and limit of powers but was grounded in a long and sometimes bitter history, with many fights that are and always will be with us

Backward Design from the

Understanding Sought (continued)

I then want students to transfer thatunderstanding to a modern relevantsituation:The problem of designing a

government for IraqA system of governance for our

school

Backward Design fromUnderstanding

Implications to the teacher:You have to design your courses backward from the kinds of problems, tasks, situations, and conditions you want students to be able to eventually handle on their own (student autonomy).

The BIG ideas of UbDUbD big idea Why important? If

not…Backward Plans need to be Aimless activity orDesign well aligned to be coverage

effective

Understanding The essence of Students fail to

Transfer understanding & the applypoint of schooling Poor test

results

Understanding How transfer happens Learning is more

via Big Ideas Makes learning more difficult, lessconnected engaging, and

fragmented

Transfer:Defined & Justified

What is transfer of learning?Transfer of learning is the use of knowledgeand skills, acquired in an earlier context, in anew context. It occurs when a person’slearning in one situation influences thatperson’s learning and performance in othersituations.

The Transfer QuestionWhat should the student be able to

do effectively with a repertoire of knowledge and skills, increasingly on their own, in future tasks?

How will transfer ability be developed over the course of the course?

Transfer - the real “game” of using

content on your own

Applying prior learning to* a novel and increasingly new and

unfamiliar looking task * an increasingly challenging context

and situation in terms of purpose,audience, dilemmas, etc.

Examples in Geography - Draft

• Make decisions in their lives to use resources more efficiently to live sustainably.

• Critically appraise conditions of well-being that affect people on this planet.

• Appreciate what you have and how well-being can be improved for people in our community, our state, and our world.

• Make choices to act ethically and to influence others to ensure we can live sustainably into the future.

Examples in History - Draft

• Understand the relevance of historical events to the world in which we live.

• Critically appraise historical and contemporary claims/decisions.

• Evaluate and use sources of information to address a question, form an opinion, or to solve a problem

• Communicate to inform and explain a topic, concept, or process to a variety of audiences.

• Evaluate an argument and develop and/or defend a point of view.

Examples in P.E.

• Live a healthy life by making healthful choices and decisions regarding diet, exer cise, stress management, alcohol/drug use.

• Participate in activities that promote wellness throughout life.

Transfer goalsOn link from Tom

March

Transfer based on BIG Ideas permits

future learning

The BIG ideas of UbDUbD big idea Why important? If not…Backward Plans need to be Aimless activity orDesign well aligned to be coverage

effective

Understanding The essence of Students fail to

Transfer understanding & the applypoint of schooling Poor test

results

Understanding How transfer happens Learning is more

via Big Ideas Makes learning more difficult, lessconnected engaging, and

fragmented

Big Ideas are Linchpins

•Hold together related concepts•Help facts and skills stick together and stick in our minds•At the heart of expert understanding of the subject

Example: Effective writers hook and hold their readers.

Big Ideas have to be Uncovered

* Not obvious and often counterintuitive.* Like “guiding conjectures” – subject to refinement and adjustment as learning goes on.* Require consideration and reconsideration -

Inquiry.* Have great transfer value.

You’ve got to go below the surface...

to uncover the really ‘big ideas.’

Transfer is VitalTransfer is Vital

In each subject field there are some basic ideas which summarize much of what scholars have learned…These ideas give meaning to much that has been learned, and they provide the basic ideas for dealing with many new problems… We believe that this is a primary obligation of the scholars (and) teachers to search constantly for these abstractions, to find ways of helping students learn them, and especially to help students learn how to use them in a great variety of problem situations…

Bloom, 1981, p.235