Backward design

Why backward design?…It was the first question I asked myself when I started to read this chapter, then my first objective was to discover why the chapter had this name. The answer appeared on page 19, so here it is:

This [backward design] is all quite logical when you come to understand it, but “backward” from the perspective of much habit and tradition in our field. A major change from common practice occurs as designers must begin to think about assessment before deciding what and how they will teach. Rather than creating assessments near the conclusion of a unit of study…

Wow... it is not simple then, to start on the other way around and consider assessment before thinking about the ‘what’ to teach. Because we normally start the process by choosing the units we are going to teach and how we are going to teach them; therefore, assessment is normally the last stage in this process. Probably this is the easiest way, especially if we work with textbooks where everything is already set, and we simply follow a path traced by someone else. But as we have been through this book, it makes sense that we have to do it on the other way around, because then we are forced to clearly set the goals before deciding on the units or topics to work with. So, this chapter proposes us three stages to follow this backward design: 1) identify desired results; 2) determine acceptable evidence; and 3) plan learning experiences and instruction.

Finally, after all the readings we have had this semester, I think I cannot disagree with the idea that we teachers are designers, and therefore an essential act of our profession is the crafting of our curriculum, learning experiences and assessments to meet specified purposes (goals) previously set by ourselves, considering the weaknesses, strengths and needs of our students.

Criteria and Validity

According to Wiggins and Mc Tighe, evaluation of students work is based on the teacher’s judgment guided by criteria. Therefore, it is essential to have a clear idea about what should we look at, because appropriate criteria highlights the most important aspects of the work done by the students. But where shall we look for the appropriate criteria? According to Wiggins criteria derives from the goals set, which should be clearly defined at the beginning of a course. But then everything is extremely intertwined, because if I’m not mistaking criteria is based on specific goals, and evaluation is based on criteria; therefore if goals aren’t well designed, according to the students’ needs and their characteristics, or if the teacher doesn’t give these concepts the importance they have we might assume that things simply won’t work.

Another important aspect discussed in this chapter was validity. According to Wiggins validity has to do with inferences; the way we interpret and understand test results. Therefore, with this information teachers will be able to make decisions in order to improve the learning process. From that point of view, validity is of extreme importance in the teaching learning process, since it gives teachers the tools to analyze his students’ and his own performance.

To sum up, what can I say my dear friends, the more I read this book the more I understand why the educative system doesn’t work in our country. Can you imagine those tired, old fashioned, and disinterested teachers who work in most of our schools trying to make things match in the way it’s proposed in this book? It’s hard to take so many things into account; it takes time and teachers need to have the appropriate knowledge to do it right. So, it seems to me that we are the chosen ones, let’s be brave enough to start making real changes right now.