Understanding by Design

Understanding by Design, Page 3

What will students know and be able to do, in general, independent of the activities and texts used?

  • Understanding key concepts and searching for answers to provocative questions should be the primary goal of teaching and learning
  • Curricular priorities — such as state standards — must be taken into consideration when determining learning outcomes

What significant learning should be achieved by learning?

  • Learning that should be achieved by all learners, as well as by individuals, should help define learning outcomes
  • Learning should help move all learners toward deeper levels of understanding

What means of measuring achievement will be used to determine student progress?

  • Authentic evidence that reflects student progress
  • Involve both informal and formal assessment
  • Use multiple methods to assess student understanding, consider instructional improvement, and design assessment tools that are aligned with the "big ideas"

How should I teach in order to achieve intended outcomes?

  • Decisions about teaching strategies should be made only after addressing the first three questions
  • Consider strategies in relation to learning activities; how to create, design, and sequence learning activities
  • Integrate learning activities into lession sequences that move students toward deeper understanding

Adapted from Childre, Sands, & Pope, 2009; Cho & Trent, 2005; Davidovitch, 2013; McTighe & Thomas, 2003; Richards, 2013

The UBD process for designing curriculum works well with inquiry-based instruction and authentic assessment. These approaches offer options to accommodate students’ interests and learning trajectories. For example, what storybook an early-childhood teacher uses to generate discussion or what role-playing scenario a high school teacher uses to scaffold learning of a difficult concept constitute small determiners of the curriculum in the classroom. As instruction progresses, the curriculum continues to be shaped through on-going interactions among students and the teacher.

UBD makes the importance of teachers’ role in curriculum development clear: while students at the same grade level in schools within a state system share a similar curriculum to a considerable extent, the “really existing” curriculum each student experiences also varies to a considerable extent. In Ohio, the work involved in using UBD effectively is often accomplished by teams of teachers and other educators (e.g., in TBTs or BLTs).