Curriculum- it is a plan for learning that requires management and organization of the interaction between teachers and students and the knowledge acquired by students. The choice of the plan is very essential because when wrong plan is put in place it causes major challenges and it causes the student not to acquire desired knowledge.
Curriculum contains many components: – content the content in the curriculum, assessment how the students will be assessed on the knowledge acquired, learning activities and teaching activities. To achieve what is entailed in the curriculum, a curriculum model is designed. Curriculum Model is a curriculum design format that is developed to meet the needs and the purposes or goals of the developers.
Many of the models used are associated with key challenges. Some of the challenges are:-
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Having a curriculum model that is used for authentic learning
Does the model used encourage students to address real life problems? This helps students to develop critical thinking and skills that is needed for students in collage and careers. Lack of the skills causes students to drop out of school.
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Supporting social-emotional skills development in students.
These are behaviors and skills which makes students successful in life and in collage.it includes self-discipline, focus and confidence and team work. A model that make students to have experience and manage emotions with others. A model that does not cater for social emotional is not student-driven model
- Deep learning this comprises of student mind set skills and understanding for students in collage and in their career. Model that does not encourage creativity among students and innovations to succeed in collage and in life. This allows collaboration and team work and student learning from each other.
- Student’s ability to solve real time problems. This helps students to understand and be able to solve problems in the society for example in politics, finances and social relations.
When designing a curriculum model, a good model is that which drives knowledge for personal and social transformation. Provides response to increasingly complex world, global interconnection, increase of complexity and rapid knowledge expansion and real world problems and issues. That which helps student to engage in creative projects, critical thinking and practical skills and also significance of personal and social aspects, focuses on teachers teaching rather than learning.
In order to solve these challenges different models have been designed.
Backward Design
To help solve these challenges backward design which is student can be used. Unlike classic beginning to end approach where the instructor decides what to teach before assessment, backward design begin with the goal that is what the learner will get after the class.
It has three stages:
- Identifying the desired goal of the lesson and outcomes.
Deals with what student is able to do and understand it focuses on principles and theories.
- Desired assessments this measure the progress
The evidence that the student have understood through assessment tasks like project, test and observation.
- Learning experience and designing activities that helps students to do well in the assessment.
Desired result to be achieved by student the skills and knowledge through teaching methods and resource materials.
Desired goal Desired assessment Learning experience.
| Stage 1 – Desired Results | ||
| ESTABLISHED GOALS
Understanding and learning goals |
||
| Students will be able to use their learning to…
Refers to how students will transfer the knowledge gained from the lesson, unit, or course and apply it outside of the context of the course. |
||
| Meaning | ||
| UNDERSTANDINGS
Students will understand that big ideas and specific understandings students will have when the complete the lesson, unit, or course |
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Refers to questions that foster inquiry, understanding, and transfer of learning. |
|
| Acquisition | ||
| Students will know key knowledge students will acquire from the lesson, unit, or course | Students will be skilled from the lesson, unit, or course | |
| Stage 2 – Evidence and Assessment | ||
| Evaluative Criteria | Assessment Evidence | |
| Types of criteria that students will be evaluated on. | PERFORMANCE TASK(S):
Refers to performance task(s) that students will complete to demonstrate the desired understandings or demonstrate they have attained the goals |
|
| Stage 3 – Learning Plan | ||
| This stage encompasses lectures, discussions, problem-solving sessions, | ||
Backward design solves the challenges by the fact that it support learning by theory and it improve desired outcomes of a student. It focuses on student understanding the concepts by increase capacity to interpret explain and apply knowledge. It focuses on ensuring learning of student rather than teaching by teachers. It deal with 3 process of results, evidence and planning from the assessments.
| Discipline | Course | Learning Goal | Learning Outcome | Assessment | Activities |
| Social Science | Psychology | Understand human thinking | Students to be able to articulate gaps and theories of human thinking | Presentation and essay writing on exams | Group work and class debate |
It start with what student should know and understand, followed by what is the desired result and understanding and finally what learning activities will promote skulls, knowledge and student understanding.
A big ratio of student achieve little success because of the emphasis by the forces on performance, majority end up leaving school for little know about.
In backward design, instruction focuses on understanding not just activities and assessment is design before lesson plan and student get to know that the exactly need to know. The outcome for the level is the main focus and the curriculum taught. It can be hard to conceptualize assessment before deciding on instructions and lessons. In backward design the assessment goes through the following stages:-
Based on what the student know, where they are headed and what is required of them
Exploring of ideas being equipped by the student, with understanding of outcomes that are taught.
Student are given time to revise and rehearse their work and the student is evaluated the knowledge he has learnt.
Example of the backward design on nutrition lesson:
Step 1: Identifying the desired goal of the lesson and outcomes
The expectation about nutrition is the about nutrition, balance diet and understanding eating habits. The teacher wants his students to understand the elements of a good nutrition and that they can plan a good balance diet for themselves.
Steps 2: Desired assessments this measure the progress
The teacher creates an evaluation task where the students are to design a week meal plan for a camp. The goal of the task is a good and tasty nutrition balance menu.
Step 3: Learning experience and designing activities that helps students to do well in the assessment. Here is where the teacher does plan on the lesson to his student.
The teacher determines the skills and knowledge the students need in order they can complete the task he has given. So, the student will need to know the food groups available, also they will need to know human nutritional need like proteins, sugar, vitamins, minerals, etc. and the food that can give back these needs. The students will also need to know how to read the different nutrition labels. The teacher specifies the resources need to get to know the requirements. The teacher also specifies the teaching methods, that is, it will include direct instructions, cooperative learning and group work.
Integrated course design
It was developed in 2013 by L. Dee it explains the methodology in details the backward design. It arranges backward design in a simultaneous planning.
Situation factors
This model guides the instructor in the college in a 12 steps for creating outcome, classroom activities, assessment and potential challenges
The first step is for the instructor to identify situation factors, second he identify the learning goals that are important, formulating assessment process and feedback of the student, then he chooses the learning activities and effective teaching. The instructor then creates a structure of the course, creating of a teaching strategy he then develop the grading system and solution to possible problems then a course syllabus is written and a plan is laid for evaluation of the course and teaching.
Integrated design includes considering environment and context factors that affect student learning. This design is chosen with the backward design and consideration of inclusive and faculty-student assessment
It deals with key information which is important for students to understand and remember the facts, formulae and concepts in the future. Also the key ideas that are important for student to understand the course offered. The student is able to relate the subjects and able to understand personal and social implications.
In integrated course the subjects are integrated and address issues of time and context. It’s a model that drives knowledge for personal and social transformation. It provides response to increasingly complex world, global interconnection, increase of complexity and rapid knowledge expansion and real world problems and issues. It helps student to engage in creative projects, critical thinking and practical skills and also helps student significance of personal and social aspects.
Use of backward design has a lot of importance:-
Backward design focuses on student learning and understanding.
It also offers instructor to focus on activities and instructions, it focuses on teachers teaching rather than learning.
To the instructor backward design encourages intentions during the design establish the purpose of doing something. It provides guidance for instruction and lesson design, units and courses. After the desired results are identified the instructors have easy time to develop assessment and learning outcomes.
When the desired goals or results are designed the instructor has a better idea of what the learners want to get from the learning activities. It eliminates the fact of doing things for the sake of doing because the instructor’s purpose to fit the desired goals.
In backward design teaching is not just content students engage in but it is ensuring students have the resources to understand.
It gives what students need to know and understand in order to progress. In addition it focuses on insights and learning activities to achieve certain goals and student progression is different from other tradition models where student focus on skills rather than simple facts.
Based on the strategy in backward design and integrated course design when the two models are used, the curriculum will be of high value to both the instructor and the student in that knowledge and skills are essential but are not sufficient. They also provide relationship between in class content and out of class realities, understanding of complex issues in depth and breadth
And also enhance experimental and action learning to student and moving from mare memorizing and reciting of facts to engage in concepts and ideas, self and society (integrated learning)
It focuses on results of learning, maintaining outcomes for learners to graduate and a standard assessment.
References
Sample, Mark. (2011). Teaching for Enduring Understanding. Retrieved from http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/teaching-for-enduring-understanding/35243.
Wiggins, Grant, and McTighe, Jay. (1998). Backward Design. In Understanding by Design (pp. 13-34). ASCD.
Jacobs, H. (1991). Planning for curriculum integration. Educational leadership, 49 (2), 27-28.
Kovalski, S., & Olsen, K. (1994). ITI: The model. Integrated thematic instruction. Kent, Washington: Books for Educators.
Lake, K. (n.d.). School Improvement Research Series (SIRS): Integrated curriculum. Northwest regional educational laboratory. Retrieved August 3, 2007 from http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/8/c016.html.
Lapp, D., & Flood, J. (1994). Integrating the curriculum: First steps. The reading teacher, 47 (5), 416-419.
Lonning, R., DeFranco, T. (1998) Development of theme-based, interdisciplinary, integrated curriculum: A theoretical model. School science and mathematics, 98 (6), 312-318.
Ambrose, S., Bridges, M., Lovett, M., DiPietro, M., & Norman, M (2010). How Learning Works: 7 Research – Based Principles for Smart Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Meyer, A., Rose, D., & Gordon, D. (2014). Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice. Wakefield, MA: CAST Professional Publishing.
Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design, Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2005.
Michigan State University workshop “Backward Design” by Cori Fata-Hartley
http://teachingessentials.msu.edu/materials-for-each-session/10-20—backward-course design
Daugherty, Kimberly K. Am J Pharm Educ. 2006 December 15; 70(6): 135.
Backward Course Design: Making the End the Beginning:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1803709/
https://tinyurl.com/mhkv588
