Backward Design
A strategy for moving forward with SLOs
September 28, 2012
How would you feel?
O You meet a student who participated in your
program one year ago. You ask her, “What
did you learn from my program?” Of all of
the things she could say she learned, what
three things would you be the most
disappointed to hear that she did not learn
from your program?
What were your answers?
O Your answers to that question are the keys
to writing quality student learning outcomes.
O They are also an integral part of an
instructional design technique, backward
design, developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay
McTighe.
What is backward design?
O We call it backward design. Instead of jumping to the
activities -- '"Oh, I could have kids do this, oh, that'd
be cool" -- you say, "Well, wait a minute." Before you
decide exactly what you're going to do with them, if
you achieve your objective, what does it look like?
What's the evidence that they got it? What's the
evidence that they can now do it, whatever the "it" is?
So you have to think about how it's going to end up,
what it's going to look like. And then that ripples back
into your design, what activities will get you there.
What teaching moves will get you there?"
O - Grant Wiggins
An Overview
O University of
Wisconsin professor,
Erica Halverson,
explains how
backward design
works.
A three step process:
O 1. Identify desired
results.
O 2. Determine
acceptable evidence.
O 3. Plan learning
experiences and
instruction.
Step One: Identify Desired
Results
O What should students know, understand,
and be able to do?
O What big ideas are worthy of
understanding?
O What “enduring” understandings are
desired?
O What specific knowledge and skills are
needed for effective performance?
Prioritize desired
results/learning
O Step one may be easier if you prioritize
student learning into three areas of
increasing importance:
O Information that is worth being familiar with
O Information and skills that are important to
know and to do
O Information and skills that represent
"enduring" knowledge, or knowledge that
students will remember years after
participating in your program.
Priorities for learning
Worth being
familiar with
Important to
know & do
Enduring
knowledge
Step Two: Determine
acceptable evidence
O Thinking about design in terms of
assessment, ask the following questions:
O How will we know if students have achieved
the desired results ?
O What is acceptable as evidence of
proficiency?
O How will we know that students really
understand the identified big ideas?
Step Three: Plan learning
experiences & instruction
O Once you've identified the desired results
and determined appropriate evidence, ask
yourself:
O What experiences and activities will best
support your desired result?
O What aspects of your program contribute to
its desired results, and how are those best
measured?
An Overview of the process
Goals
Activities
Assessment
But how does this help me
with SLOs?
O Although you will not be redesigning your
programs, the principles of backward design
can help you to focus on your program’s
goals and to map your SLOs to the relevant
CAS dimensions.
Example: Cooking Class
O Step One: Identify desired results:
O Students will be able be to identify and make
healthy choices when shopping for groceries.
O Students will understand how to economize
when shopping for groceries.
O Students will be able to demonstrate basic
cooking techniques such as boiling, baking,
and stir-frying.
Example: Cooking Class
How would you classify
each of the desired
results on the right?
O Worth knowing
O Important to know &
do
O Enduring knowledge
O Students will be able to
identify and make
healthy choices when
shopping for groceries.
O Students will understand
how to economize when
shopping for groceries.
O Students will be able to
demonstrate basic
cooking techniques such
as boiling, baking, and
stir-frying.
Example: Cooking Class
Economize
Healthy
Choices
Basic
Techniques
Example: Cooking Class
O Step Two: Determine acceptable evidence.
O What is acceptable evidence that students
can demonstrate basic cooking techniques
such as boiling, baking, and stir-frying?
O Final performance assessment based on
rubric
O Pre and post student self-evaluation survey
Example: Cooking Class
O Step Three: Plan learning experiences &
instruction
O Basic chopping & peeling demonstration &
hands on activity
O Demonstration & hands on activities for basic
techniques covered
O Small group performance based mini-quizzes
O Watch cooking videos
Translate the process into a
SLO:
O As a result of completing this course,
students will demonstrate basic cooking
techniques such as boiling, baking, and stirfrying as evidenced by a score of 90% or
higher on the final performance-based
assessment and by 90% of students
reporting an increase in cooking skills based
on a comparison of the pre and post student
self-evaluation surveys.
Mapping to CAS Dimensions
O Dimension 1: Understanding knowledge
from a range of disciplines.
O Dimension 4: Relating knowledge to daily
life.
5 Steps for writing SLOs:
O 1. Identify a program's take away goals.
O 2. Identify possible and/or existing methods to
assess one of those goals.
O 3. Identify the activities/experiences that most
support one of those goals.
O 4. When you write a SLO, include the information
from steps one through three in the SLO.
O 5. Map your SLO to those CAS Dimensions that
relate directly to the goals you identified in step
one.