Instructional design/Backward Design/Description

Description of Backwards Design

Backwards design is a process of designing curriculum by determining the educational goals or student needs and using them as a basis for developing curriculum. Once the goals or needs are identified, a type of assessment or evidence desired is determined. The final step in the process involves selecting the actual learning activities necessary to achieve the stated goals. "A backward design option may be preferred in situations where a high degree of accountability needs to be built into the curriculum design and where resources can be committed to needs analysis, planning, and materials development" (Richards, 2013).

Stages of Backwards Design

Stage 1 - Identify the desired results

Ask, what should the learners know or be able to accomplish at the end of the instruction? It will be necessary to consider the content standards, instructional goals and curriculuar expectations (Grant and McTighe, 2011). Making these considerations will allow for eliminating any content that may be unnecessary and allow for more time to be spent focusing on the truly important content.

Stage 2 - Determine the acceptable evidence of learning

How should the students demonstrate what they have learned? Thinking about the assessment in the beginning allows the designer to avoid the curriculum becoming a collection of learning activities (Grant and McTighe, 2011). When thinking about the type of evidence it will be important to consider many different forms of evidence and resist the temptation of focusing soley on one type such as an end of unit test.

Stage 3 - Select the learning activities and plan the instruction

Once the desired outcomes have been determined and the necessary evidence for demonstrating student learning has been selected, the focus can shift to selecting the actual activities that will be used and planning for the actual instruction.

Knowledge Check

Which step should be the starting point in a Backwards Design process?

	Developing a summative assessment.
	Creating the course syllabus.
	Selecting the learning activities.
	Identifying the goals of the instruction.

Navigation

• Stages of Backward Design
• Selecting the Goals
• Selecting the Evidence
• Selecting the Activities
• Summary
• Return to the Instructional Design Home Page

References

Richards, J. C. (2013). Curriculum approaches in language teaching: Forward, central, and backward design. Relc Journal, 44(1), 5-33.
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2011). What is backward design?. Understanding by design, 7-19.