Do I focus on effective instructional practice or the results?
Backward Design
Backward Design
In education both teacher and learners are equally important, so learning and teaching strategies must be well-managed by every teacher. But when designing a curriculum it is necessary to organize the process correctly in order to be coherent. Method, approaches, activities and goals must be well-connected, otherwise, the goals or objectives will never be achieved.
An essential element the "Backward Design" considers for planning is the objective. Goals or objectives must be clear from the beginning to achieve them more easily and effectively. The Backward Design is a 3 stage approach that enhances results improvement and ensures that decisions are made after collecting relevant data. The three stages are:
1.- Identify desired results: to establish the objectives or goals to be achieved.
2.- Determine acceptable evidence: To collect relevant information to know exactly the starting point.
3.- Plan learning experiences and instruction: The planning process
The framework outlined in "Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998) can be applied in both curriculum design and school and district improvement effort. Under this conception of planning, it is possible to identify priorities based on relevant and truthful data.
The effective instructional practices are equally important, but in order to make the correct decisions they need to be thought secondarily.
An essential element the "Backward Design" considers for planning is the objective. Goals or objectives must be clear from the beginning to achieve them more easily and effectively. The Backward Design is a 3 stage approach that enhances results improvement and ensures that decisions are made after collecting relevant data. The three stages are:
1.- Identify desired results: to establish the objectives or goals to be achieved.
2.- Determine acceptable evidence: To collect relevant information to know exactly the starting point.
3.- Plan learning experiences and instruction: The planning process
The framework outlined in "Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998) can be applied in both curriculum design and school and district improvement effort. Under this conception of planning, it is possible to identify priorities based on relevant and truthful data.
The effective instructional practices are equally important, but in order to make the correct decisions they need to be thought secondarily.
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ResponderEliminarIt sounds easy, but it is so difficult, though. Planning backwards is really time consuming and requests our full commitment. We should try harder... the question is... are we willing to?
ResponderEliminarI agree with Danit that Planning Backawards is hard and time consuming. We cannot forget either the kinf of students we are dealing with and how to meet all students' needs according to their different learning styles.
ResponderEliminarMmmm....now that I read your comments it is quite hard to use a model based on goals and objectives when a typical Chilean classroom has at least 30 students with different educational needs,motivation to learn (if they exist)and interest. Testing out this model would be useful so as to see in what ways it can really help Chilean classroom reality
ResponderEliminarIt seems to be quiet difficult to put this design, exactly as it is, in practice... also if you consider as well other factors, such as the teachers' beliefs and their pedagogic principles that are put into action in every classroom... UbD may sound very useful, but it is still an ideal.
ResponderEliminarI agree on the point that instructional practices have been effective ,but we can not say that guarantee a durable learning, so let's try to pay attention on this kind of curriculum design despite its difficulty.
ResponderEliminarBackward desing will be a reality once teachers are treated as what really they are: the core of the educational process and not as "teaching machines". It's not just a topic of education or learningf methods, but a strong policy...
ResponderEliminarThe problem is even harder than we discuss here!
I cannot agree more. Society expects big changes in terms of education results... but is there any change regarding the conditions in which we teachers work?
ResponderEliminarI strongly agree with you.Putting Backward Design in practice seems to be inapplicable in our Chilean classrooms while our governments do not realize of the importance of improving our teaching conditions or while our society does not realize of the importance of learning English, because you know that no matter how great design we use or great conditions we have if our students are not motivated or interested in our subject.
ResponderEliminarYes, yes... but motivation is part of the process and we have to be motivated too. I always say : I never give up. The backward design is a little help, between others we have.
ResponderEliminarConditions for us have to change... we are part of that.
I agree with you when you say that backward design is inapplicable in our schools. In our country teachers are not paid for planning and we are demanded to do it. We finally plan to satisfy our bosses and, as they don't even read our plannings, they are easily satisfied. I think we should have more time to plan or schools should have people in charge of that in order to do it as it should be. Backward design would be an excellent option then.
ResponderEliminarI totally agree! we really need to be coherent when planning our classes, otherwise our results won´t be the expected.
ResponderEliminarThe problem is not backward design...the problem is the lack of good conditions for working. I mean by that "time". The time we have is not enough...even, sometimes we have to carry some work to our houses...and that is part of our time!. How many hours a week work an engineer? I think that we are part of a few professionals who work before, during and after doing your job...and even so, we are always critized by people who don't even know something about teaching in classrooms
ResponderEliminarmmm... it seems difficult...it seems not possible... it seems that nobody can do anything and nobody will do it... but, what about us? what about our professional potencial? the things we can and cannot do? and even more important, the things we do not want to do, not only because we don't have time but because we do not want to... it is the moment to find how to solve our day to day problems...
ResponderEliminar