Understanding by Design (UbD)

Understanding by Design

Johnathan White

EDUC 675

Dr. Reba Yarborough

Purpose

Overview/Origins

UbD's purpose is to develop and deepen student understanding. Students reveal their understanding when their knowledge, skills and attitude align with the demands of an educational experience. When applied to complex tasks, teachers can better assess student understanding. It allows teachers to create an effective curriculum through a process called "backwards by design" that delays the planning of classroom activities until goals have been clarified and assessments designed. This helps prevent "textbook" and "activity-oriented" teaching with no clear purpose to student growth and understanding.

Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, creators of the UbD model, possessed a profound expertise in the field of curriculum, assessment, and teaching. Wiggins and McTighe designed a purposeful and planned process that offers structure in curriculum, instructions and assessments. UbD offers a 3-stage design process, a set of design tools and design standards. The primary goal of UbD is to teach and assess the "big ideas" and transfer learning. Essentially, it tauts that the best planning is done "backwards" from the desired results and is the most "continuous improvement" approach of any curriculum design.

Key Step #1 (Identifying Desired Results)

In the first step, teachers must clarify their learning priorities by making bold choices on what to pinpoint in their content areas. Once learning priorities are set, explicit student performance goals ensue. The four key components to desired results depends upons a transfer goal, an essential question, a "meaning" and knowledge and skills. The ultimate goal of education is to "transfer" learning--being able to do what you've learned.

Key Step #2 (Determine Assessment Evidence)

This step of assessment evidence reflects the identified desired results. This portion requires teachers and curriculum planners to become assessors--assessing performance tasks and other evidence. Assessing for understanding requires the student to show evidence of their work (through explanation or interpretation) and to support their performance and/or product through oral discussion.

Key Step #3 (Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction)

How to Use Model in

Class/School/District?

Steps of UbD

Model of UbD

This last step has teachers design appropriate lessons and activities that

corresponds to the desired results. It is important for teachers to understand that what you teach and how you teach aligns with the two aforementioned steps of "backward" learning. The key goal in this last process is to ensure each student has had ample opportunity to draw inferences, make generalizations and draw conclusions.

The UbD model can be implemented on various educational levels; therefore, its universal appeal can be seen as a tool to boost test scores. In today's classrooms, the premises for transferring is first set by providing essential questions and setting clear goals for a unit. Many school districts use common assessments throughout the course of an academic school year where many of the questions are designed by content teachers and curriculum specialists. This level of collaboration should foster an array of performance tasks that will best demonstrate the student's level of understanding of the content. In addition, this would require teachers and curriculum specialists alike to devise a plan to pinpoint essential content in standards and share best practices that would create effective lesson plans. These lessons must answer the important questions, which would allow students the opportunity to perform well on the previously made assessment. To ensure that transferring is happening, districts and schools can require teachers to compare data and to modify content, questioning techniques and best practices to ensure positive student transfer. Because the UbD model can be challenging and nurturing towards higher learners, lessons should be differentiated and accommodating to all learning modalities.

References

Impact UbD in Teaching?

Strengths

Weaknesses

Authentic Education. (2015). What is understanding by design?

Retrieved from http://www.authenticeducation.org/ubd/ubd.lasso.

Brown, J. (2016). Implementing understanding by design: A summary

of lessons learned. Making the Most of Understanding by Design.

Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/103110/

chapters/Implementing-Understanding-by-Design@-A-Summary-

of-Lessons-Learned.aspx.

McTigh, J. (2013, July 4). What is understanding by design? [Video file].

Retrieved from https://youtu.be/d8F1SnWaIfE.

Wiggins, G. & McTigh, J. (2011). Introduction: What is UbD

framework? Understanding by Design: Guide to Creating High

Quality Units, 1-14. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/

siteASCD/ publications/UbD_WhitePaper0312.pdf.

UbD provides tremendous feedback in teaching. Student and school performance gains are achieved through regular reviews of results followed by targeted adjustments to curriculum and instruction. Teachers become most effective when they seek feedback from students and their peers and use that feedback to adjust approaches to their design and teaching.

Ultimately, teachers, schools, and districts can benefit from UbD by "working smarter, not harder" through its collaborative design. Sharing best practices and collecting peer review of units of study will assist with innovation and making content meaningful for transfer.

• Enables student-centered learning.

• Makes learning interesting and multi-dimensional.

• Develops teacher's creativity.

• Provides better curriculum plan.

• Opens door to different learning modalities.

• Holds teachers responsible for learning environment.

• Requires a lot of teacher prep time.

• Works for students who can think and conceptualize on higher levels.

• Renders confusion and complexity when issues arise in the initial framework.

• Misconceptions arises between teacher-perceived essential content verses priorities of state-based high stakes testing.

• Challenges existing classroom curriculum structures set by teacher's teaching aesthetics.

Video of UbD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8F1SnWaIfE#action=share