#2 - The Main Ideas of UbD: By Design

How do we design something? It starts with the deliberate and purposeful choice of an end product (or outcome) followed by detailed planning and inclusion of all necessary components, sequencing, and safeguards to produce the end product (or outcome).

In learning, good design is also contextualized in terms of the environment it will occur in. A text book may have a desirable learning outcome and a certain learning pathway, but it cannot claim to have considered the particular learning environment it will occur in.

Let's look at what we mean. Using a textbook as a resource, a teacher goes through the process of teaching a desired learning outcome to students in a classroom. At the end of the process, many students fall short of meeting the desired learning outcome.  To use an engineering analogy, if an end product does not match what was desired, designers would look for a design flaw. Likewise, in education, we will look for anything missed or not included in the learning design. We may examine some of the following: exposure to the learning material; student background knowledge and interest levels; classroom and behavior protocols; individual and/or group activities; motivation and feedback mechanisms; etc.

From the paragraph above, it is apparent that when teachers "design" a learning outcome, they have to concern themselves not only with the knowledge and skills implied by the outcome, but also with the needs of their students. While it may be impractical to meet the needs of each and every student, a teacher that designs learning outcomes within the broad needs of a particular student group can expect greater student achievement through the congruity of curriculum delivery and student reception.

#1 - The Main Ideas of UbD : Overview

Whenever we embrace a certain learning end, we are also embracing the necessary means to that end. Understanding by Design is about the proper alignment of ends and means. UbD is a way of thinking that allows us to correctly and properly identify and align our learning ends and means.  It is a departure from traditional planning in three important ways.

• It is about learning by design. A designer's job involves determining an appropriate end, examining that end in terms of the challenges involved, and then creating a solution that best brings that end to fruition. When an outcome is designed, it is not left to happenstance.
• The point of the end in UbD is understanding. Understanding is more than the presentation of content or the development of skills. It is the ability to do something purposeful with content and skills. In other words, it is about making meaning and  the transfer of learning.
• It follows a backward design model. Appropriate goals are identified first, followed by the determination of what constitutes evidence of goal attainment, before the design of an optimal learning pathway. In UbD, goals, evidence and learning are always aligned and connected.

The foundational material on UbD for this blog is taken from the writings and presentations of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe who co-authored Understanding by Design in 1998 under the auspices of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.